I think you might not have too much of a problem - so far it seems to have been a recap with some slight hints at adjustment along with a certain amount of 'what if' because of the 'one year later' which presumably is not a year of real time though if it is that might make things even weirder. It's definitely worth seeing the episode but if ep.2 is anything like the first, if might be almost safe-ish to watch it in the wrong order.


I'm not sure this will be too much of a problem - there will no doubt be no shortage of flashbacks - I hope they don't overdo it!

What you might find helpful is this "recap" of the S3 opener. It's from a US site so covers what will be Episode 2 over here so I would suggest you only read pages 1-3 as the fourth page talks about what we haven't yet seen. It's actually quite amusing to read, even if you did see It on Monday.

http://www.tv.com/shows/under-the-do...-143527653870/

Thanks for the tip. I'd like to say it was enlightening, but I am beginning to think mssing ep. 1 (and maybe 2 as well) might be a help rather than a hindrance!

Seriously?

You think "actually quite amusing"???

Rubbish!

The 10 minutes I spent P-ing myself says you're completely and utterly wrong

Glad I'm not the only one who found this mystifying! Too much leaping from here to there, and back again. And surely if, as appeared to happen, the dome has gone, it can hardly still be "Under" The Dome!!

not so, the stuff of them under the dome, and 1 year later, all seems to be fake, whilst they are in pods under the dome.

My suspicions were first raised by the voiceover 'recap' right at the very start which questioned whether Melanie was leading them to freedom or an alternative reality.

A 'spoiler' of ****wit proportions on the part of the producers/network.

It's not just Barbie though, we've seen Norrie at college, Joe still in Chesters Mill, Sam in jail.

They're all experiencing a shared illusion that the crisis is over and they're all free when in reality they're all 'wired together' in the Matrix and 'Melanie' (whatever the hell she actually is) is directing the action somehow. I'm also assuming that 'CSI Willows' is Melanie's avatar in the illusory world gently steering the townsfolk to 'move on' and away from reflecting too much on past events in order that they don't somehow realise things are a bit 'off'

I saw an interview with Mike Vogel on YouTube in which he said that there are rumours of a fourth season!

I don't think I'd call it a spoiler because that's just the writers saying 'this is what it is, get over it' (we have no choice!) and if you think about what the townsfolk are doing - they are in a previously undiscovered cave system under an impenetrable invisible dome that sprang out of nowhere that does weird stuff, and a wall of that cave has just crumbled away to show a glowing white mist-filled space behind it (complete with a dead girl that says 'come with me if you want to live') that definitely does not belong in anyone's normal world what with looking like a magical doorway type thing so maybe they had to say 'alternate reality' because they didn't have the rights to use the name 'Wonderland'...?

Being a voice-over may mean it was added late in the process. I think the producers were worried that without it, viewers wouldn't have a clue what was going on, would see all the scenes outside of the Dome and give up before the "it is all a dream" reveal.

darn, didnt know this had started already!

will have to catch up

thanks for the heads up

Not really a surprise - the producer, Neal Baer, has said before that he wants to do 5 seasons.

It might be possible as long as season 3 doesn't manage to lose the entire existing audience

I guess depending on when the YouTube interview was, it may suggest that season 3 doesn't conclude by wrapping it all up neatly (as if we ever thought that it might!!! )

Here is the interview which was only posted a couple of weeks ago! Whatever, he is looking good!

Mike Vogel interview

fair enough if it was just for Barbie she wouldnt bother with the other people, unless they come into contact with Barbie, and certainly not to the point they become to be aware something isnt quite right.

I suspect her program does allow people to guide themselves a bit, but like "CSI Willows" she has some control over it.

ok seriously WTF? exactly how high were the producers when they came up with this stuff, because I am not sure I am high enough?

Tut tut! If you had been following what was going on you would know that they had got out of the dome only they hadn't and now they are free from the pods but not actually out of the woods. And Don Barbara takes the role of the person in the shower by virtue of having turned up soaking wet. Carrying a bag with a mysterious egg in it, as one does.

Some will know that it's not one years later, some won't, one or two will be *really* annoyed about that, especially the two new ones that seem to have been 'born' from the pods who are presumably going to be a bit stuck because their entire existence happened in a year that didn't actually happen.

Hope that helps

But just to register some annoyance, I see that one of the two new characters, 'Eva', the new love interest for Barbie, is incorrectly listed in at least one cast list I've seen, with actress name and character name the wrong way round.
The annoyance didn't really kick in until I tried looking on the ch5 site for information, which I really should stop doing because it's almost never there, or is several years out of date.
The other character being 'Christine', in case anyone forgot the name

The CBS site is splendidly up to date (and even has things with words in them to convey actual interesting stuff) though on the other hand the 'cast' page only has 9 people on it (i.e. not an actual cast list) and with no reference as to their character name.
Don't bother with the 'epic quotes' link because these aren't UTD gems, it another one of those crap generic '10 quotes' things with one per page and they aren't original quotes just different people saying them.
The site also has that annoying 'feature' where the pointer turns to a hand to signify a link only it isn't it's just crap web design.

Back to IMDB again because nobody seems to know what 'credits' are supposed to be and the entire TV production industry has forgotten how to type.
Also it seems that the Under The Dome TV site don't much like it though maybe that's one of those "oh no it didn't follow the book" things.

arrr .. same here .. doh!

Well, at least last night's episode did start to make a little more sense* (relatively speaking, of course). However, if that was the second half of the US two-hour season premiere, then surely C5 has scored something of an own goal by splitting it in two. It left the first hour episode as so incomprehensible to new viewers, it can't have encouraged them to tune in again, however hard C5 tries to scoop up BB viewers by sticking the show in between BB itself and BOTS.

* Mind you, I'm not sure if that was due to what was aired or more down to what I've read online, here and elsewhere!

I think most of the confusion isn't real or at least not serious because I suspect that's part of the appeal, being mainly a sort of participatory experience like a special hat that you wear for the occasion.

Hmm! All that aside from the fact that we know the producers have no idea how many series they're going to get from it and thus are making it all up as they go along, tempered by the realisation / fear that we're investing the time in watching it whilst being mindful that C5 could well give up on later series and we won't even get to see the resolution.

I watched the first two series on Amazon Prime! So presumably subsequent series will go on there eventually.

I know what happened on screen, its just WTF, why is this happening?

Very close to switching off last night it's just so dull all this dream crap.