Barbie went from hero to most wanted after Big Jim double-crosses him in Under the Dome’s “Speak of the Devil.”

Big Jim (Dean Norris) began the episode in the hot seat – being questioned by sheriff Linda (Natalie Martinez) about the propane drug ring he had been operating before the dome came down on Chester’s Mill. He spins the story and insists that his illegal dealings may not have been honorable, but are the only reason the town is still running. Then, Big Jim plants the seeds of suspicion: why is Linda wasting her time investigating the savior of Chester’s Mill when she should be asking questions about Barbie (Mike Vogel). Isn’t it an interesting coincidence that Barbie showed up at the exact moment Peter Shumway went missing?

Before Linda can even think about it, Barbie radios in: someone shot Julia (Rachelle Lefevre). Barbie didn’t see who it was, but he knows what the audience knows: Maxine (Natalie Zea) is guilty. After Barbie said no to her, Max was less than pleased and showed up that morning to shoot Julia in the shoulder. Barbie calls Linda for help, and she comes running.

Linda’s car breaks down on the way when she runs out of gas. Desperate for a ride, she manages to convince Phil (Nicholas Strong), the radio host who also knows about Barbie’s job as an enforcer, to drive her to Julia’s. In the meantime, Julia is running out of time, and Barbie is growing impatient to get her to the clinic.

Joe (Colin Ford), who was sent by the group connected to the mini-dome to tell Julia about their discoveries, shows up just in time to give Barbie and Julia a ride to the clinic – he has his learner’s permit. While Barbie and Joe are trying to save Julia’s life, Junior (Alexander Koch) and Angie (Britt Robertson) upset the dome. Junior tells Angie, once again, that they have a deep connection, and that the dome is telling them that they are meant to be linked forever. Angie disagrees, strongly. She tells Junior that once the dome comes down, she’s out of there for good. Unsurprisingly, Junior gets angry and declares that, if taking down the dome means losing Angie, he’s not going to help them anymore. He won’t be the fourth hand.

Junior’s newfound bitterness does not sit well with the dome, which creates a hurricane inside the dome to express its displeasure. When Angie realizes that the extreme weather is being caused by Junior jumping ship, she reasons with him and gets him to realign with her. The hurricane is sucked back up into the dome’s atmosphere and the town is safe.

Joe, however, doesn’t think Junior is the one who stopped the hurricane. He watched as Barbie saved Julia singlehandedly, using only a ballpoint pen, some disinfectant and occasional help from the clinic nurse. Just when Julia began breathing again, the hurricane stopped. Joe realizes: Barbie is the monarch that will be crowned. He will be the savior of Chester’s Mill. Barbie clearly thinks Joe has gone mad, but there’s no time to think about that now. He leaves a stable, but unconscious, Julia in the clinic with Joe and the nurse and rushes off to bring Max down once and for all.

Big Jim intercepts Barbie and the two work out a plan to go hunt her down at the cement factory. Barbie and Big Jim enter the dark cement factory and are, immediately, apprehended by Max and her goon. Max seems ready to kill them both, and she laments how good she could have been for Barbie. She is also, rightfully, pissed at Big Jim after finding her mother’s body washed up on shore. Just when Big Jim and Barbie think they may have met their end, the lights go out (all part of Barbie’s genius plan), and Barbie and Big Jim end up holding Max and her goon at gunpoint. They exit the factory. Barbie insists that they bring Max to the authorities alive – he doesn’t want more blood on his hands. He leaves to get the car. The second his back is turned, Big Jim kills Max and her goon point blank. They were always going to be a problem as long as they were alive, he tells Barbie before turning the gun onto him. Before Big Jim can kill him, Barbie jabs Big Jim in the throat, disarming him and making him fall to his knees.

And then, Big Jim spins the biggest lie of all. Linda, who saw the blood in Julia’s empty house and assumed that Barbie must have killed her after she found out that Barbie killed her husband, shows up at the cement factory looking for Barbie and Max. Big Jim tells her that Barbie just went crazy, and shot those two people and was about to shoot Big Jim too. Linda wants Barbie to surrender, but, instead, he elbows her in the face and escapes, running for the hills.

Over a radio broadcast, Big Jim blames all the local deaths (all the murders Big Jim committed) on Barbie and declares his intention to arrest Barbie and charge him for the murders. He will seek the death penalty, he says.

At the radio station, Dodee (Jolene Purdy) tells Big Jim that she overheard a military frequency saying that they knew Barbie was under the dome and that they had been looking for him.

“Speak of the Devil” also advanced the dome mythology. Noticing that the mini dome had projected four dots not consistent with constellations, Joe, Norrie (Mackenzie Lintz), Angie and Junior guess that those four dots are supposed to symbolize their group, and the constellations above them are meant to be a map. They go to the point in town where the constellations told them to and touch the dome as a group. A vision of Big Jim comes to them on the other side of the dome. He stares at them, and then slowly begins to bleed. Angie looks down and sees a knife in her hand – they all see them. According to Norrie, the dome is telling them that they have to kill Big Jim for the dome to come down.

Next week, Under the Dome returns with the first season’s penultimate episode, “Exigent Circumstances,” airing Monday at 10 P.M. on CBS.

Olivia Truffaut-Wong

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More on Under the Dome:

'Under the Dome' Recap: Barbie Tells Julia The Truth; Big Jim Kills Again; Junior Is Fourth Hand

'Under The Dome' Recap: Big Jim And Barbie Join Together To Fight Ollie; Junior Switches Sides, Kills Ollie

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