This week’s episode of Under the Dome, Let the Games Begin reveals who the “fourth hand” is for Angie, Norrie and Joe. Barbie figures out how to deal with Max, who has set up an underground fighting ring. Jim deals with a past demon, and Linda and Julia uncover some secrets in some safety deposit boxes. We also provide our thoughts on the episode and what is next for Chester’s Mill!
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To see Violet’s thoughts on Under the Dome‘s episode Let the Games Begin, click here to get directly there!
Under the Dome Episode 10 Let the Games Begin Overview
Here is a brief overview of the events of this week’s episode Let the Games Begin for season 1 of Under the Dome. To get a detailed description of a section, simply click the link to go to a more detailed outline!
- Angie, Joe and Norrie discover the fourth hand: It is Junior
- Big Jim and Barbie try to figure out how to handle Max, and find some leads
- Barbie is blackmailed into fighting for Max, but Barbie has had enough of her
- Big Jim investigates Max‘s property, finds Max‘s mom, and gives her a watery grave
- Linda and Julia find out Duke and Jim‘s involvement with the propane secret
- Linda wants a word with Jim; Julia learns Barbie‘s secret, and what her husband was hiding
- The Four Hands unlock the dome, and they see the pink stars they have been seizing about
Full Episode Recap: Under the Dome episode 10, Let the Games Begin
Discovery Of The Fourth Hand
This episode of Under the Dome begins with Joe, Norrie and Angie sleeping in the barn where the mini dome has been brought. They wake up, and find that a caterpillar is inside the dome. They seem to think that that it may have gotten trapped inside when the dome came down. Joe realizes that it is a caterpillar that will turn into a monarch butterfly.
Joe seems to want to tell Julia about the dome, but Angie doesn’t want to. Joe thinks Julia may be the fourth hand, but they realize she hasn’t had seizures. They decide they need to find someone else who has had seizures. They head out of the barn, and we see that Dodee has been spying on them. Dodee heads in to the barn herself. She takes a photo of it from her camera phone, then touches it, and is immediately shocked and thrown away from the dome. Norrie, Joe and Angie have heard something in the barn, and find Dodee unconscious.
Norrie, Angie, and Joe take the unconscious Dodee to the hospital (How did they get there anyway? They don’t drive, do they?) Dodee wakes up asking what had happened to her. She doesn’t remember what happened, and Norrie lies to her, telling her that they found her next to the radio station’s generator unconscious, and “assume” she was electrocuted by it. While a nurse takes Dodee at the hospital, Angie asks the nurse if she knows of anyone having seizures recently. The nurse says not since her 10th grade dance.
This seems to spark something in Angie. Angie seems upset as they walk, now outside again. Angie then reveals that she thinks Junior is the fourth hand, because he had seizures in 10th grade. Angie also reveals to Joe that Junior had held her captive. Joe is infuriated by this news, and threatens to “kill” Junior. Norrie says that they need him for the mini-dome though.
Meanwhile, Junior sees a guy walking suspiciously on the street. He turns his siren on, which causes the guy to bolt. Junior runs him down, and finds that the man has stolen salt. Junior is confused about the choice of robbery. The man reveals that salt is a hot commodity at the cement factory.
Junior decides to head to the cement factory. He tries to provide his “payment” for entry (the salt he took from the previous man he busted), but the guard will not let him in because he is a cop. Junior protests, but he receives a punch to the face, and is still not allowed in.
Angie then takes Joe and Norrie to Junior’s mom’s art gallery. She shows the two of them the painting we saw last week: Junior and the pink stars. Junior then enters the room, and Joe rushes him, still fuming from learning about Junior kidnapping Angie. Junior gets Joe in a headlock, however. Angie calms Junior down, explaining that they need his help. Junior is angry at first, but eventually calms down. Angie explains that the four of them are connected to something “amazing”. They head for the barn.
Jim, Barbie and Max: My Enemy’s Enemy Is Still Not Trustworthy
Jim and Barbie talk about their predicament with Max, and how they should deal with it. Jim asks Barbie how Max knows him, but Barbie doesn’t want to answer until Jim explains first. Instead, they decide to try to figure out Max’s “insurance policy” for both of them. Jim remembers that she has some “legitimate” real estate property the “policy” could be held at. They begin searching through property records, and they decide to investigate a few properties.
Max walks in, however. She asks what they are doing, and Jim tries to play it off as something unrelated to her. She decides to have Jim be her errand boy, giving him a list of commodities to find for her, such as espresso. She also re-warns Barbie and Jim that they better do what she says or else she’ll reveal their secrets.
Barbie Joins “Fight Club”
Max takes Barbie on a trip, and they wind up at a cement factory. Max warns Barbie that he can’t trust Big Jim. Barbie then realizes that Max is trying to build her empire in Chester’s Mill. He begins rattling off different vices she will be using: gambling, drugs, and mentions prostitution–this seems to offend Max and she says she will never use it for profit.
Inside the factory, we see that there is an illegal fighting ring going on. Max proceeds to explain the workings of the fighting ring. People bet items. If they win their fight, they get to trade up for a better item. If they lose, then they lose their property.
Max then reveals to Barbie that he is the main event, and will be fighting a man he has been forced to make collections for on behalf of Max, since she was his bookie. Barbie tries to refuse, but then, she threatens to air his laundry…again.
Max announces the “Main Event” to the crowd. The man’s name is Victor. The fight will be until someone loses. There are no “rounds”. The fight proceeds, and Barbie seems to be winning. He lands a couple good blows, knocking Victor to the ground. But, Barbie seems to resigned to not letting Max win, he eggs Victor on, gets him back into the fight, and essentially throws it. Max seems to grudgingly give Victor the win.
After the fight, Barbie tries to claim he didn’t throw the fight. Max doesn’t believe him, and even planned for this scenario–she bet on Victor winning, while most others bet on Barbie winning. Max brags about her winnings, and tells Barbie that they make a great team. Barbie warns her that Chester’s Mill will not let her win. Max reveals if she doesn’t get her way, the town will “burn”.
Barbie decides that he is through with Max at this point. Max continues her threats, but he pays her no attention.
Big Jim’s Find
As for Big Jim, he has taken his boat out, and pays a visit to a nice looking property. He finds a nice house that has an older lady tending some flowers. She tells Jim that her name is Agatha, and that she recognizes him from his TV commercials. She reveals she is the caretaker of the house, which is owned by Oliver Luckland. He happens to be away for the time being, but she tells Big Jim that he is welcome to wait for him. Jim tells Agatha that he is just checking with people to make sure that everyone has what they need.
Agatha says she will make Big Jim a cup of tea. As she is making tea, Big Jim is peeking around the house. Jim asks about the owner of the house, and how he thought there was a different owner. As he is looking, he stumbles upon a photo of a younger Max. Agatha is then holding a rifle to Jim. She then explains, Max learned how to be who she was from her mother.
Agatha has Big Jim take a seat, while still training her rifle on Jim. She says they will wait for Max to come home, which may be a while. Agatha asks if Big Jim remembers her. He doesn’t, so she gives him a hint–she was pregnant in high school and dropped out. Big Jim tries to remember her, but only remembers a girl named Claire dropping out of school for that reason–Agatha is Claire. Agatha then explains her resentment of the town, as she was a “pariah” in Chester’s Mill, and was used by many guys, seemingly hinting that Jim was one of these guys.
Agatha then proceeds to explain how Max has told her about the propane. Jim then begins to asks Agatha what she knows of Barbie. Agatha reveals to him that she knows of Barbie’s murder of Julia’s husband. She then moves on to how she knows about how crazy Junior is becoming. This angers Big Jim, who then tells Agatha that she doesn’t have the “look” of a killer. He is then able to disarm Agatha, taking the rifle for himself.
Big Jim ties Agatha’s hands, and has her on his boat. Agatha asks what his plans are for her, but she winds up falling from the boat. Big Jim circles back to her for rescue but then decides not to. Agatha pleads for help, but Jim simply drives away.
Julia and Linda’s Investigation
Julia is looking for Barbie at the police station, but bumps into Sheriff Linda. Linda asks Julia about the propane warehouse, and the lady, Andrea Grinnell, who had talked to her about it. Julia confirms that the lady did talk her about it, but she assumed she was just “loopy”. Linda explains she believes the Mrs. Grinnell, and shows Julia the security footage she took from the propane warehouse. Linda also tells Julia about “Rapture”, and that she thinks there is a cover up going on. Linda is determined to figure out what Duke knew, and finally has an epiphany–the secret must be in Duke’s hat. Inside she finds a safety deposit key. Linda and Julia head to the bank to investigate.
At the bank, they begin looking for the safety deposit box. While searching, Julia and Linda talk about Julia’s husband’s gambling debts, and his fleeing Chester’s Mill. After searching for a while, they move to the safety deposit room. Julia tries to find the key, but Linda decides to break it down with a metal compression tank.
Inside the room, Linda finds the safety deposit box. Inside is a letter. Julia reads the letter aloud, revealing Duke’s involvement. Linda and Julia learn that Duke’s kid had died from drugs, and Duke in the letter swears to keep drugs out of Chester’s Mill. Duke then in his letter admits that he helped get Max the propane in order to keep drugs out of Chester’s Mill. He explains he was promised the manufactured drugs would not be sold within his city. Duke also names Big Jim as a co-conspirator, and also names Lester Coggins. Julia then decides to pull her husband’s safety deposit box. Inside, she finds a life insurance policy.
Linda Confronts Big Jim; Julia Confronts Barbie
Night has fallen, and Big Jim is returning home. Linda is waiting on his porch. Linda asks to talk. She decides that their conversation has to be done at the police station. Jim says that he thinks he has earned the right to wait until morning. Linda concedes, but warns she will be back with handcuffs if he doesn’t show.
Meanwhile, Barbie has returned to Julia’s house. Julia is sitting down on her staircase. Barbie tells Julia that he needs to tell her something. Barbie then begins telling her the truth about her husband. She begins filling in blanks, and Barbie realizes she somehow already knows. Julia then reveals that she found her husband’s gun case–missing a gun, but still had all of the bullets in it. Julia reveals that her husband basically forced Barbie to kill him–so that she could benefit from the life insurance policy she found in the safety deposit box.
Barbie apologizes for what he had done and Julia surprisingly returns an apology. She then tells him that their future can have no more lies. Barbie asks if there is a future, to which Julia says, “maybe”.
The Unlocking: The Four Hands
At the barn, Joe, Norrie and Angie lean down, putting their hands on the dome. Junior hesitates. They see that the caterpillar has made a cocoon inside the dome. Junior then finally decides to touch the dome.
The barn’s lights go out. Nothing happens for a couple seconds, but then the dome begins to light up. The four then are surrounded by what appears to be a hologram. It seems to be constellations–constellations of pink stars. Junior has the last line of the episode, asking what it means.
Josh’s Thoughts on This week’s episode of Under the Dome : Let the Games Begin
It looks like Max’s threats against Barbie are now worthless, considering Barbie has come clean to Julia. There are still the legal ramifications however, but right now, Chester’s Mill has other things on its plate. I have a feeling during Big Jim’s talk with Linda, Jim may try to turn Linda against Barbie with the news he had found out from Agatha.
As for Max herself, I am not sure her next move. I would imagine Barbie could try to shut down her fighting ring. She said she would “burn” Chester’s Mill if she didn’t get her way, however. How will she accomplish this though? Using other people in debt to her? Right now she seems like just one woman, but perhaps there is still more to her than what we have seen.
As for the “four hands”: what is their future? I really am at a loss as to what they have “unlocked”. Are we going down the alien route? Other than the dome itself, the show feels grounded in reality, so I do not see aliens coming in any time soon. Are the four actually helping bring the dome down? Are they simply “helping” whatever this mysterious force is? Hard to say.
Big Jim is on a murderous rampage, it would seem. He is not afraid to kill anyone in his way. Is Linda next? In a town with little law personnel, who is going to stop Big Jim, if anyone?
Violets’s Thoughts on This week’s episode of Under the Dome: Let the Games Begin
This was actually a pretty good episode, with lots of answers, revelations, and confessions that we’ve been waiting for. Just have to mention that I called it last week that the Fourth Hand was Junior. Okay, okay, so it was pretty obvious. At the beginning of the episode when Dodee put her hand on the mini-dome, I was thinking there’s no way the Fourth Hand is Dodee! I guess the mini-dome thought the same thing, since it gave her that warning shock. I also didn’t think it was Julia when the kids suggested it might be her. It seemed like the hands could only belong to teenagers. Did anyone else think that Dodee was lying when she claimed not to remember what happened? She probably doesn’t want the kids knowing that she knows about the mini-dome, because as she mentioned last episode, she doesn’t trust them. However, it is possible that the mini-dome doesn’t want her to remember, and that it took care of that when it shocked her, so maybe she really doesn’t remember. Either way, she still has that picture of the mini-dome on her phone, so I don’t think we’ve seen the last of her snooping around the mini-dome. But it’s kind of odd that Junior is the fourth hand, considering that the seizures didn’t start happening to Norrie, Joe, and Angie until after the Dome came down, whereas Junior had his seizure awhile before that. Maybe the reason Junior’s mother was crazy was because she could sense the Dome coming (even though it was years in advance)? And after she died, her craziness was passed to Junior, which was why he had his seizure well in advance of the Dome coming down? What will happen now that the kids have “unlocked” the mini-dome? I guess only time will tell.
Finally the truth comes out about where Angie was all that time she was missing. Hopefully this won’t get back to Big Jim and spell trouble for Angie, since she wasn’t supposed to tell anyone. We all know that if you’re enemies with Big Jim, it seems like you end up dead. Well, unless you’re Barbie. I was surprised that Big Jim didn’t shoot “Agatha” when he got the gun from her. It seemed like he was in a remote enough area that no one would know. I wonder what he was planning on doing with her when he was bringing her back with him on the boat. At first, I thought she jumped from the boat because she was trying to get away. But I guess she really did fall. Either that, or she didn’t think far enough ahead to realize she wouldn’t be able to swim while being tied up. In any case, it presented Big Jim with the perfect opportunity to get rid of his problem without even getting his hands dirty.
I have to say I’m not really surprised that Barbie came clean to Julia. I had a feeling after last episode that that might happen, so that he wouldn’t have to be under Max’s thumb. I thought that’s why he stayed up late, to contemplate whether or not to tell Julia. I didn’t think that Julia would be so understanding though, but now that we know that her husband staged his own death to benefit Julia, I guess that Julia can see that it wasn’t really Barbie’s fault. Unfortunately, now Big Jim knows Barbie’s secret, and who knows what he’s going to do with that. In any case, it seems like Big Jim’s next step should be to get rid of Max, now that he’s gotten rid of her “insurance policy.” However, those who have read the novel Under the Dome might find Max’s threat to burn the town reminiscent of certain events that happen in the book… It has been a long time since I’ve read it, so I don’t really remember all the details, but that part, I do remember.
Side note: Did anyone ever watch the soap opera Passions? While many people might identify with Natalie Zea (who plays Max) with her character from The Following, I mostly remember her when she played Gwen Hotchkiss for a bit on Passions. The way she acts in Under the Dome reminds me of her character on Passions more so than on The Following.
Anyway, ready for next week, when we see more about what happens with the unlocking of the mini-dome (hopefully)!
Scenes from next week’s episode of Under the Dome: Speak of the Devil
Here are scenes from Under the Dome, Episode 11, titled Speak of the Devil:
Scenes from Under the Dome Episode 11 Titled Speak of the Devil
