'Under the Dome': 9 Questions about the dome

Day two under this…thing, guys and I've gotta say -- it's not cramped per se, but I still sort of feel cramped? Like, I'm very aware of this device overtop our town, apparently cutting us off from the outside world? It was cool at first, sure, especially when I realized didn't have to go to that baby shower I'd been dreading in Huntsville. Taken care of! But you spend hours, then more hours living with and trying to process that sort of isolation…and I don't know, it just seems really crappy.

Some of the more curious residents of our town gathered together in that diner today, the one run by the woman who looks like Kate's mom on LOST, to lay down a "what we know/don't know" information sheet on this thing. Here's what we came up with:

How big is it?

According to the nerdy-but-cool kid, Josh, who's been doing trigonometric calculations even though there's been no school since the event, the thing could be 10 miles wide. That would encompass basically all of Chester's Mill, along with the lake next to us. So sue me that I can't remember its name! I never swim. As for height? I mean those birds were crashing into it last week, so pretty high I'm guessing. Oh, and that plane. So sad. This is already not a very fun chart.

Is it some kind of detention camp?

That first presumes it was put here, which none of us are sure of. But a dentition camp seems unlikely, considering most of us are just waitresses and hospital workers (and what did we ever do to you?) and I can only think of a few "bad" guys among us, one of whom is really handsome. Yes, that guy Barbie. I guarantee he killed the redheaded journalist's husband and refuses to tell her. Also that his real name is "Mike Vogel." Call it intuition. But like I said, he's the only bad guy I can think of.

PS - You know who's super-cute? Big Jim's son.

Is it radioactive?

Probably not? People have touched the walls of it and not, like, melted, but then again that's a very cartoony way of looking at radioactivity, which can sink into your system without any noticeable symptoms or "side effects" before just eating you the way it did in post-bomb Nagasaki and Hiroshima. So actually I don't know. Good question, Candice!

Is it a magic bubble?

Magic doesn't exist.

Is it gonna fall on us?

Seems pretty stable so far, considering both a plane and truck crashed into it without seeming to cause any sort of damage. It was dropped into place, presumably, which would suggest that its most ardent physical challenges are in the past. Then again nobody has tried to nuke it, which would definitely cause the thing to fall. Or might. I don't know, I'm realizing we really don't know much of anything.

Could it be like a sieve?

Science kid couldn't stop raising his hand last night and suggested yes, the thing could totally act like a sieve. Apparently he and his buddy were walking past a group of scientists on the other side spraying water, some of which penetrated through to our side? "Like a pasta strainer," science kid tried to tell us, patronizing everyone in the diner. We know what a sieve is, kid!

Does it neutralize things with a battery or engine?

Duke's pacemaker did explode right next to it, but then again all those other destructive events nearby seemed to have more to do with crashing than, say, touching. Jury's out. Big Jim seems convinced the device shuts down any/all battery-powered machines that get too close, so for now we're keeping our distance. But he could be full of it.

Did the military install it?

The sound engineer down at the radio station/new news HQ says she keeps picking up military frequencies that seem just as perplexed by the device as we are. On the one hand: glad it's not an inside job! On the other: IT'S SCIENTOLOGISTS, PROBABLY.

Can anything penetrate the dome?

Water, dummy. We covered that one. But, like, not bullets (RIP Officer Freddie, at least I think that was your name). As I said, we're learning new things all the time. This will probably not be the last of these meetings.

Image: Daily Beast