The body count reached a new high in the Under The Dome season 2 finale, as Big Jim lost his mind with grief, and the citizens of Chester’s Mill might finally have found their way out of the dome.
Outlook not good
Everyone is discussing where the hole Melanie just fell into might lead, when Jim brings over his grievously injured wife. Pauline tells Julia she had a vision that the dome chose Julia and a guy, but she couldn’t see who the guy was. They take her to the school for medical attention.
There are cries for help as lightning starts crashing around them, and Julia and Barbie run to find Farmer Tom and his son in their barn. Some farm equipment has fallen on Tom, and he is trapped with a mutilated leg. Tom wants them to get his son out of there, but Aiden won’t leave without his dad. Barbie tries to free him, but before he can, lightning strikes the barn and Tom is horrifically electrocuted. Barbie and Julia are completely unaffected by this horrible sight, and the little boy who has just been scarred for life.
Norrie throws a fit and loses all hope, but Joe pulls out a rope he conveniently had in his bag, ties in to a tree, and starts climbing down into the hole in the ground.
Pauline needs surgery, but Sam has no way of performing it. Jim doesn’t accept that she won’t make it, believing this is just another one of the dome’s tests. Sam says she needs fluids, so Jim runs off to find some saline.
What the dome wants
Junior sits with Pauline and asks her if she’s okay (Read the room, Junior.) She sends him off to get her canvas and paintbrushes so she can paint the way out, but it’s really just a way to get rid of him. She doesn’t want him there when she dies, and she wants Rebecca to put her out of her misery, because Jim will never let her go.
A monarch butterfly appears before Joe and Norrie in the tunnel, and flutters down one fork in the path, towards a lighted passageway. They see this as the way out, so they climb back out of the tunnel to tell Barbie to lead everyone out. They tell Barbie what they saw, and he radios Julia back at the school to round everyone up.
Rebecca tells Pauline they’ve found a way out, but Pauline says she’s not going to make it, and the people she loves will only be slowed down trying to help her. She again begs Rebecca to put her out of her misery, saying it’s what the dome wants.
Jim comes back with the saline, and Pauline tells him all her pain is gone. Jim and Sam quickly realize something is wrong. Her pulse is dropping, and Rebecca is standing in the background looking guilty. Pauline fades away, and Jim sees that Rebecca is STILL HOLDING THE MORPHINE NEEDLE, like an idiot. Jim is furious, and Sam steps in, telling him to walk away and go find Junior. Jim knocks him out, then bashes Rebecca in the head with a hammer, saying, “I’ll miss my wife forever, no one’s gonna miss you.”
Payback
Junior returns to find Pauline’s body gone, Rebecca in a pool of blood on the floor, and Sam just waking up. Sam explains what happened, saying they need to try to talk Jim down, but Junior says there’s no talking with him, only dealing with him.
Speaking of Jim’s descent into madness: he’s brought Pauline’s body to her art studio, and tries to bargain with the dome to bring her back to life, or else he’ll kill everyone. When the dome doesn’t do anything, he douses the studio with gasoline, and torches it.
The people of Chester’s Mill are beginning their trek underground, organized by Barbie. He leads the first group underground, and Joe and Norrie help them cross a pesky gap in the tunnel, just before another earthquake makes the gap even wider.
Andrea calls Julia on the radio, asking for help. Julia goes to the hoarder house to check on her, finds the door ajar, and grabs a conveniently-placed bat and knife on the way in. Jim’s got a gun to Andrea’s head, and tells Julia to put the bat down. Sam radios to say Jim killed Rebecca and he’s on the loose now (too little too late, Sam), and Julia lies, telling him she’s on her way back.
Jim says this is all payback, and shoots Andrea in the head. He explains that he’s going to kill Julia and mess up the dome’s plans. He comes at her with his murderin’ hammer, but she knocks it out of his hand with a frying pan and fleas into the next room. Jim catches her and throws her against a dresser, apparently jostling her recently-impaled leg, which had not been bothering her at all in the last day or so. She stabs Jim in the foot with the knife and escapes.
Enjoy what’s left of it
Sam and Junior meet Julia in the woods, and she tells them Jim killed Andrea and is coming after her. Junior takes out his gun, and tells them to go on without him. He meets his father in a clearing, and it’s a battle of Rennie vs. Rennie. Junior tells his father that he’s not leaving this town. Jim says Junior doesn’t tell him what to do, no one tells him what to do, because this is his town. Junior shoots him in the shoulder, and tells him to enjoy what’s left of it.
Sam helps Julia down into the hole, and Barbie and Julia send Sam and Hunter up front to tell Joe and Norrie to get going. Barbie leads Julia, but they run into trouble once they reach that pesky gap. Because even though she just managed to climb down a ladder into this tunnel, her recently-impaled-leg wound will make it difficult to hop over. Barbie jumps to the other side to help her across, but just as he does, another earthquake widens to gap, so that Julia can no longer get across.
Julia tells him to go on ahead, because he needs to lead everyone to safety. She says Pauline’s vision was about him, the dome chose him to get everyone out, and she has faith that if he follows the dome’s wishes, the dome will protect her. Barbie promises to come back for her, and runs off.
Going home
Junior’s running towards the crater, to follow everyone down in the hole. The storm is going wild, and trees are falling down around him. He moves some fallen trees covering the hole and jumps into it, just as The Un-Killable Big Jim Rennie staggers into sight, holding his gun and shouting for Junior. Junior watches the entrance to the tunnel become covered with fallen trees, and figures he’s safe. He meets Julia where she’s stopped at the gap, and she tells him that Barbie’s going to come back for them. Wah wah.
The whole gang follows the path the butterfly showed Joe and Norrie, and they find another cave filled will hundreds of glowing monarch butterflies. But the butterflies fly away to reveal a dead end. Norrie freaks out, but then a single butterfly lands on a spot on the wall, before flying away. Barbie places his hand there, and the spot he touches glows purple, before cracking and splintering along the entire wall.
The wall crumbles and falls away, revealing a bright white expanse. But Melanie’s there! She is soaking wet, and says, “Follow me, we’re going home.” Uh…what?