‘Under the Dome’ season 1 finale review: Who is the monarch?

“Under the Dome” has taken us on quite the adventure this season as we watched the folks in Chester’s Mill learn to adapt to the giant dome cutting them off from the rest of the world. With Big Jim drunk on power and a personal agenda to do away with Barbie we couldn’t be more excited for tonight’s season 1 finale.

Mini dome problems: The monarch butterfly inside the mini dome has hatched and every time it hits the inside of the dome it leaves a black ink mark. As this happens inside the mini dome it also starts to happen outside in the big dome too completely closing everyone off from the outside world – no more sunlight. Linda tries take the dome from the kids as police property, but when she touches it, she is electrocuted like Dodee was. The kids take off with the mini dome, just before Jim shows up to “help” Linda and get his hands on the mini dome.

The Monarch: After moving the mini dome Joe, Norrie, Angie and Junior put their hands on the dome and it breaks letting the monarch butterfly out. It flies straight to Barbie, making everyone think that he’s the monarch, but when the egg starts to glow and convulse, Julia picks up the egg without trouble and it is revealed that she is the monarch. Junior goes crazy (as usual) and tries to take the egg by force, but Norrie, Joe, Angie and Julia run off with the egg, leaving Barbie in Junior’s custody to bring back to Jim.

Egg communications: The group with the egg decided to try to communicate with it, in hopes that they can find a way to bring the dome down, or at least bring the sunlight back. The dome communicates with them in the form of Norrie’s dead mother, telling them that they have to protect the egg to earn back the light and also that the dome was sent to protect them. If this turns out to be aliens this is really going to suck.

Big Jim: He is still power tripping and with the dome in darkness people are looking to him more now then ever before. After Barbie decided to plead “not guilty” to the charges against him (and now he’s on the run with Julia and the kids), Big Jim has a plan that will make an example out of him and restore faith in the town that law and order still prevail. He builds gallows and tries to bargain with Julia – the egg for Barbie’s life. What’s really weird about this whole situation is that the town is okay with the gallows going up and no one is speaking out against it, not even Linda. As Barbie is being marched out to the gallows to be hung, Julia makes her choice between saving Barbie and protecting the egg. She’s chosen to protect the egg and in doing so she brings light back to Chester’s Mill, but will that stop Big Jim from executing Barbie?

Do you think that Jim will go through with the execution of Barbie? Is Julia the right choice as the monarch? If you can’t wait for season 2 and want to read some theories just click here.

Photo: CBS