Never a dull moment in Chester’s Mill. So far this season we’ve seen a magnetic dome, killer caterpillars, and now a little Type O in the town below.
The episode opened with New Girl going through Barbie’s belongings (err probably more of Julia’s belongings since he moved in with her). Barbie caught her and became suspicious, and after admonishing Julia for “bringing in strays,” the hospitable redhead gave this wonderful retort.
“The last stray I brought in was you.”
Meanwhile, guest star alert! In a barber shop across town, Big Jim got a clean shave from none other than Lyle Chumley (Dwight Yoakam). The two later joined everyone at the only restaurant in town, where Rebecca Pine rallied together the young 14- to 18-year-olds to do an experiment involving wind energy (sans Norrie who refused to participate because she didn’t go to school there and had better things to do like pout). New Girl showed up with Julia and volunteered participation in the study, much to the strange delight of Joe, who was suddenly nice to the young woman he just last week tried to shoot in a jail cell.
After it began to rain blood, Lyle started spouting scripture from the Bible, which went against Rebecca, who attributed the “blood” to science. The science teacher believed she had a way to fix this bloody rain, and so she and Big Jim went on an adventure to do so. Unfortunately, en route for the big repair, Big Jim got car-jacked after crashing into a tree, and a man in a dark black slicker got in the car and took off with Rebecca inside!
The Bloodfist Club
After last week’s cliffhanger with Junior telling Uncle Sam he may have killed Angie, this week Uncle Sam encouraged Junior to return to the spot of the murder. That’s where he’d get answers (and further incriminate himself). When he got to the high school, he met Joe, Norrie, and New Girl, who were doing research for Miss Pine’s extra-credit class (the extra credit is that everyone gets to live another day without having to eat each other!).
At the high school, the kids discovered they had Wi-Fi.
“What is it?” said Norrie, to a seriously disturbed Joe.
“Email. I’m getting email.” (#firstworldproblems)
Like all teenagers, the first thing they did was check Twitter (“We’re trending in Atlanta”).
While Joe was checking his email, he discovered a message from his parents: “Take care of your sister.” Joe had no idea what to do. Should he email them back? Should he tell them what happened? Should he make sure they’re DVRing all his favorite HBO shows? Offering her condolences, New Girl moved in on Norrie’s man, telling the forlorn teen: “We’ll figure it out, sweetie.” The most disturbing part of this exchange is that Chester’s Mill is so far behind other communities that they use Microsoft Outlook instead of Gmail.
When Junior checked his email, amidst the sea of Reddit responses to his “Should I kidnap my girlfriend and put her in a basement?” post, he discovered a video of his mother, alive and well. In the clip, she advised him to talk to Lyle Chumley. “Only to Lyle.” Junior set off to find Lyle, which led him to the barber shop where he discovered Julia and Barbie rummaging through Lyle’s stuff. There, they discovered a photo of Sam, Lyle, and Pauline (Junior’s mother). Apparently Lyle and Pauline dated decades ago. Ewww!
Despite his usual dimness, Joe had a brief moment of brilliance this week when he decided to find where the Wi-Fi signal was coming from.
“If we find a source for the signal, we might find a way out.”
Joe traced the source of the signal to where Angie died—the locker with the bloody handprint. New Girl unlocked the locker, after putting her hand against Angie’s bloody handprint. When they opened the locker, there was nothing inside, not even pinned-up One Direction pics.
Norrie accused New Girl of killing Angie because 1.) she showed up the day Angie died 2.) she knew the combination to the locker where Angie died. That seemed like enough evidence. But not for Angie’s little brother.
“Why don’t you trust her?” said Joe. Once again, it was only the day before he tried to kill her himself.
The three teens retreated to old yearbooks, where upon further research, they discovered a familiar classmate—New Girl, a.k.a Melanie.
Abducted!
Who kidnapped Rebecca? Another new character? Nope, it was Lyle Chumley (CBS booked him for this episode and dammit they’re going to use him well). Lyle was the man in the black slicker. Rebecca pleaded with Lyle to let her go so she could stop the rain because she was the only one who could (???). Lyle proceeded to spout scripture at her.
“After this rain stops, the rapture comes. True believers will be reunited in the hereafter.”
Then, he attempted to baptize Rebecca with the “rain” water, which was flammable and highly contaminated—just ask Big Jim who experienced a toxic reaction to it. Lyle made Rebecca renounce her beliefs in science and pledge allegiance to the dome.
“You’re wasting my time,” said Lyle to Rebecca, which is kind of how I felt about his character, being that Mr. Yoakam is just a guest star.
Just then, Julia, Junior, and Barbie showed up, after figuring out where Lyle was by the spot in the photograph they had found.
“Lyle, please don’t hurt her,” said Julia, who has proven to be the least effective character on the show. Hearing her plead to a villain is pretty much a death sentence for victim (although Rebecca would end up escaping).
Lyle explained that the Dome directed his actions, and that he, too, had a relationship with it, just like Julia.
“I have faith the answers will be revealed.” Julia quoted a line from ABC’s “LOST” fanbook.
Life is Bloodi-ful
Back at the restaurant, Big Jim recuperated from his car-jacking and rain contamination, but not without wondering why Sam helped save his life, since they had an estranged relationship. Sam told Big Jim that he wouldn’t let him die. At least not yet.
After escaping her captor and fixing the water situation (by hosing down the blood?), Rebecca gave Big Jim a nonlayman’s explanation to what she did, breaking it down to: “It’s pretty science-y.”
If by science-y you mean Hitler-y. Because just minutes later, Rebecca would suggest the idea to “selectively thin the heard” of people in Chester’s Mill. Remember the energy project she had the teens working on? It was a census to decide who lives and who dies. Since Barbie could kind of understand Rebecca’s point, as SS as it was, Julia got angry.
“I thought I knew you. I was wrong,” said Julia to Barbie. Again, they’ve been together two weeks.
Rebecca may be a science teacher, but she spouted off the plot of Shirley Jackson’s“The Lottery” like a creative writing instructor, talking about taking the elderly, putting them in a tree, and shaking the tree until the feeble fell out. And Big Jim ate this up. Just hand him a stone and direct him to the tree.
“My Sister,” Sam
Because CBS booked Dwight Yoakam, they also got a performance out of him, with a jailcell rendition of “Who’ll Stop the Rain?” How appropriate.
At the jail, it was revealed that Sam and Lyle knew each other and had a buried secret from decades ago. But something happened to make the contract null and void.
After Sam left, Junior showed up, telling Lyle he knew his mom was still alive, and that she told him the crazy religious barber would have the answers to everything. Lyle said he’d help him—if he let him out of the jail cell.
What did you think of this week’s episode? What crazy supernatural event do you hope to see in the future?
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