'Caged' 

'Under the Dome' hints at what's next: EW exclusive teaser

All roads lead to Bird Island in “Caged” because… get it, “Bird” Island. And there’s a cage… on Bird Island… because birds are kept in cages. Yes, nothing’s ever subtle on

, and luckily “Caged” doesn’t change that fact.

With Christine captured by Aktaion but the mind meld on Chester’s Mill continuing to exert its grasp, the fate of the town’s future falls into the hands of a few brave, unaffected souls: Big Jim, Julia, Joe and Norrie. So clearly the townspeople have nothing to worry about.

And while Jim and Norrie deal with the fallout of their accidental maiming of Hunter, the real action centers on Bird Island. Marston fills Jim in on their plans to discover what exactly Christine’s motives are as the official dome spokeswoman. From their footage, it appears Christine touching the egg set off the dome’s creation, but other than that, they have little else to go on. So what else is a major, seedy corporation to do than rely on a loud, temperamental man to extract information from an otherworldy being?

That’s exactly what Marston chooses to do, tasking Big Jim with finding out what exactly Christine wants to do with Chester’s Mill. Marston provides Jim with an extra incentive, promising they’ll infect him with whatever has transformed Christine unless he complies.

Jim plays along at first, as he’s returned to his cage with Christine. He starts to probe her for information, but she’s not willing to say much of anything. She proves she’s great at faking human emotions but offers him little else, assured that Junior will come for her. Jim seems concerned about this fact (despite having wanted to

his own son only a few episodes ago), and the emotional distraction prevents him from pulling any more information out of her.

Marston is unhappy with the results, so he has a soldier smokebomb the room, knocking Jim and Christine out so he can pull Jim out of the room for another debrief. Jim explains that he needs leverage, so they concoct a plan to make Jim seem like he could be an ally for Christine. They give him the key to his cell, which Jim, once back in the cage, pretends that he pulled off a guard during a struggle. They even rough Jim up a bit, much to his displeasure, to ensure the lie seems authentic.

Christine quickly buys into it, which either means the town’s general lack of common sense has found its way into its dome overseers, or the alien controlling Christine is just very, very dumb. Either way, she promises Jim she’ll help him out of the dome, later revealing the ultimate plan is for the dome to come down anyway. But their conversation is cut short when gunfire sounds from outside, as Barbie and Junior storm the Aktaion compound.

Jim makes a move to leave after his dog runs away, but Marston tries to stop him. Unfortunately for Marston, Jim has little time for things like conversation and sense, so he slits Marston’s throat and chases after his only friend in the world. Fortunately for Christine, Barbie and Junior have killed every one of Aktaion’s personnel and come to save their dome queen.

But Barbie and Junior haven’t just been sitting around, waiting for the chance to rescue Christine. Without her presence in town, Junior has tried to carry out the projects she began, building dorms in town hall, while Eva attempts to continue working her magic on Barbie.

NEXT: Julia tries to reason with Barbie, but reason has no place in Chester’s Mill.

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