- A potential exit from the Dome is revealed just as the walls begin closing in on those trapped in Chester's Mill.
- Pauline is dying but Big Jim refuses to accept that possibility. He tries desperately to find something, anything, to save her. When he is unsuccessful, he goes on a rampage. Joe and Norrie explore the new tunnel and think they may have found a new way out from under the dome. Barbie and Julia begin organizing a evacuation of all of the town's residents. Deep in the tunnels they receive help from an unexpected source. Some people are left behind.—garykmcd
- Moments after the ground opened up and swallowed Melanie, there's another earthquake. They're debating how to explore the crater when Big Jim walks out of the woods carrying Pauline. She tells Julia she had another vision, and the Dome did chose her, but it also chose someone else who doesn't yet know he's important. Jim and Sam take Pauline to the school where the medical supplies are.
They hear cries from Tom Tilden's farm and Barbie and Julia go to help. Joe wants to get a tablet, figuring the cracks in the ground might be letting a wifi signal through and if the Hounds of Diana can confirm Melanie's in Zenith, they'll know the crater is the way out.
At the farm they find Tom pinned beneath farm equipment. Barbie tries to free him but the dome is going haywire and shoots lightning into the barn, electrocuting Tom in front of his young son, Aidan. Barbie carries him away. At the high school, Sam doesn't know how he can help Pauline without an MRI or surgical equipment.
Back at the crater, they can't get a wifi signal and Norrie has had about enough of the Dome. Joe pulls a rope out of his backpack and prepares to rappel down into the crater.
With Pauline, Sam privately tells Jim that her internal damage is too great to be stopped without surgery. Sam says there's nothing he can do. Jim thinks it's just another test and the Dome won't let her die. Junior wants to get back to the crater but Sam says they can't move Pauline and she needs saline. Jim goes to get some from the clinic.
Down in the crater, Joe, Norrie and Hunter find it's another tunnel, laced with purple glowing deposits of something. Junior sits with his mom, who asks for her brushes and canvas on the chance she can paint her way out. She says good-bye to Junior. When he's gone, Pauline tells Rebecca she saw her own death and knows that the Dome is done with her. She thinks Jim won't let her go and asks Rebecca to help her go peacefully.
Walking back to the crater, Julia decides to take Tom's son Aiden back to the high school and plans to meet Barbie back there. In the tunnels, the kids reach a split with three possible paths forward. As they debate which way to go, a monarch butterfly flits past and down one of the tunnels, which glows with light, leading the way. The tunnel continues to shake around them as the Dome contracts. They decide to head back to tell people.
At the top of the crater they run into Barbie and tell him about the monarch's path. He decides the crater is their only shot and radios Julia. She tells Sam and Rebecca to round up the town and get them on school buses to the woods.
At the clinic, Jim is ransacking the place for saline. Back at the high school, Norrie is in tears over the idea of going back to her old life without her mom. She tells Joe she was on her way to boot camp, passing through Chester's Mill, because she punched a girl who insulted her hair. Joe reassures her they'll face whatever's out there together.
Back at his mom's studio, Junior sees her final painting of his mom bleeding to death. Rebecca tells Pauline to hold on until they can get her out through the crater, but Pauline thinks the dome wants her to die to pay for her sins. She begs Rebecca for morphine and she goes to get it.
Barbie and Julia oversee loading people onto school buses in the pouring rain, which suddenly stops. Sam and Jim return to Pauline's bedside. She tells them her pain is gone and apologizes, asking him to take care of Junior. She slips away. Jim sees Rebecca standing there with the morphine syringe in her hand. In tears, Rebecca tells him it was her last request and it was what the dome wanted. Jim advances on her, seething. Sam steps between them and tells Jim to walk away. Jim turns, but then wheels around and knocks out Sam.
He looms over Rebecca and picks up a nearby hammer. As she cowers, defenseless, he smashes it down into her skull. Junior returns to see Rebecca dead on the floor, Sam coming to and his dad and mom's body gone. Sam tells Junior what his dad did and that his mom is gone.
Back at Pauline's studio with her dead body, Jim smashes her final death painting. Jim addresses the dome: "I'll make you a deal, if you bring her back right now, I won't murder every single one of your special friends." When Pauline doesn't revive, Jim swears revenge and douses the studio with gasoline, lighting every part of it on fire before walking out as it burns around Pauline's body.
At the crater, Barbie explains the procedure for going through. People are skeptical, but they have no other choice. Barbie, Carolyn, Joe and Norrie lead the first group into the tunnel and over a small chasm.
Above the crater, Julia gets a radio call for help from Andrea, who says she's at her house and needs help. Julia runs there and goes inside with a baseball bat and knife. She finds Jim holding a gun on her. Sam radios Julia and tells her that Pauline is dead and Jim killed Rebecca. Andrea wonders why Jim would want to hurt her.
He shoots her in the head. He puts the gun away to wail at her with the hammer, but she fends him off with a nearby frying pan. She runs to hide in the living room, but he grabs her and bounces her off a dresser. Jim looms over Julia as she's on the floor, about to bring the hammer down on her. She opens her knife and stabs him through the foot.
Out in the woods, Julia runs away from Jim and into Junior and Sam. Junior takes out his gun and goes to confront his father, telling him he's not his son anymore. Jim seethes that no one tells him what to do, not the Dome nor anyone else. Junior shoots his father in the shoulder and then walks away.
Down in the crater, Julia finds Barbie. Sam goes ahead with Aiden. Barbie crosses the small chasm first to catch Julia on the other side. But after he's over, there's another earthquake that widens the chasm too much for her to cross. She tells him about Pauline's vision and the idea that he's the one to lead the town.
She has faith that if he does what the dome is asking, it will protect her. He promises to come back for her, but goes on ahead. Junior races away from his dad and into the tunnel, where he meets up with Julia.
Farther ahead, Barbie follows the path Joe and Norrie saw to a cave filled with butterflies. They light up, then fly away, revealing a dead end. Norrie yells at the dome as she bangs on the wall, begging it to show them what it wants.
They all watch as a single butterfly returns and lands on a rock in the wall. Barbie touches the wall, which glows blue under his handprint, then begins to disintegrate. The wall falls away to reveal a bright white light, as well as a dripping wet Melanie, who says, "Follow me, we're going home."
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