Why couldn't Under the Dome have been this good from the beginning? 

Imagine how awesome Season 1 could have been if we started getting into the mystery instead of Maxine's fight club? It's unfortunate because the show has lost viewers and it's gotten better over the last few episodes.

The main annoyance remains Big Jim. Even his story is bound to get juicy now that he reunited with his presumed dead wife at the end of Under the Dome Season 2 Episode 9. His evil glares, manipulation of Junior and Rebecca, and deal with the evil men outside were just typical Big Jim moves.

What did we learn? Barbie's father, Don, is a bad man. At least, Big Jim made a deal to get Junior out with him. Despite his huge ego and desire for power, he does love his son and has gone out of his way to protect Junior. Meanwhile, Don had no regard for his son's well-being at all. He wanted the egg even if it cost him Barbie.

Junior fell under his father's spell temporarily and told him the truth about Barbie and the egg. He came to his senses soon enough to realize his father would use the egg for his own purposes. At the same time, Melanie feared that Julia would give it up in order to save Barbie. They came together and decided to protect the egg from both Jim and Julia. 

It's all about the egg.

Outside the Dome, Don and his company want the egg for the actual power it possesses. Inside the Dome, Big Jim wants it for the power it gives him. It's a means to an end for both of these men. The real purpose of the egg and it's potential remain a mystery. In an odd turn, Junior is probably one of the best people to keep the egg. That wouldn't have been the case last season or for most of this one.

Junior has matured more than anyone else in Chester's Mill. It was creepy seeing him in the bunker with Melanie though. I kept having images in my head of when he locked up Angie and kept her prisoner down there. In the few weeks since the Dome fell, it's an entirely different situation. 

People have changed, gotten out of the Dome and now returned through a mysterious portal through the town's lake.

The Red Door was found! Barbie knew immediately where it was and that it was on his father's property. Everything and everyone is connected somehow. The past and the present are colliding in a freaky manner with none more astounding as that revelation that Barbie met the teenage Melanie when he was a child. What?

When they each (except Hunter) came through the portal to the lake, they had a vision. Barbie saw himself at the red door to the bunker with Melanie. In their past meeting, she told him that "her mother" wanted them to meet. Umm. Okay? Does that mean they are related somehow? Could they be siblings? Or is her mother somehow related to what's going on with the egg and the Dome and knew they would meet again in the future?

This shocker just adds more questions to the mix. Did she meet with Young Barbie before or after she "died"? Could she have been living in Zenith without aging all these years and come back through the Red Door when the egg called her?

With Pauline back in Chester's Mill perhaps she will continue to have premonitions through her drawings which will help them figure it all out. I'm excited see what happens now that the group from Zenith has returned to Chester's Mill. It's an entirely new dynamic now for solving the mystery and for control of the city. 

Pauline's arrival will disrupt both Big Jim and Junior's lives, it's just a matter of whether she will help or hurt the situation.

"This is where it began. This is where it ends for all of us," Melanie said to Pauline in her vision. That's quite an ominous warning.... 

What Happened to Lyle?

Carla Day is a staff writer for TV Fanatic. Follow her on Twitter and on Google+.