History Main / UnderTheDome

*** To put it in perspective: Chester's Mill had a population around two thousand when the dome dropped. [[spoiler:There are less than thirty survivors all in all.]]

* {{Loads and Loads of Characters}}: A comprehensive list of them is provided at the beginning of the book, after the map of the town.

* OneSteveLimit: Averted. There's Joes [=McClatchey=] and Boxer, and Jacks Cale and Evans.
** There's even an aversion with last names, by Petra Searles and Melvin Searles. It is never specified that they are related, and considering the vast differences between the two, one has to assume they are not.

* DoNotCallMePaul: Chef dislikes being called on his real name, Phil.

** It's especially jarring as it happens mere moments after he and his cronies physically and verbally assault two people they practically dragged naked out of bed.

* EvilVersusEvil: [[spoiler: For given values of 'evil', but neither side is really ''good'': Big Jim Rennie sends eleven of his cops over to the Holy Redeemer church to take out Chef and Andy Sanders, and take possession the propane stored there. Chef and Andy, who knew Big Jim would send men after them eventually, were lying in wait, and they kill every last one of the cops, except the one who really deserved it, Melvin Searles, who raped Sammy Bushey, who was Chef's wife back when he was still Phil Bushey and relatively sane. However, Melvin does buy it when Andy and Chef blow the stored propane and pull a TakingYouWithMe on the entire town.]]

* GoingColdTurkey: Andrea Grinnell beats her painkiller addiction that way. Rusty advises him against that, telling her that she'll suffer greatly and will have seizures, which does happen.
* GodzillaThreshold: The government does everything in its power to free the town of Chester's Mill from its predicament. This includes firing a cruise missile at the invisible dome surrounding the town, then a second missile when the first one fails, using specially modified acid which can melt through two miles of bedrock, despite the possibility that it could set the dome on fire, and then attempting to use a 'pencil nuke', only to have it melt down and kill fifteen people before it could be used. The government continues, trying to build a second pencil nuke, but by that point, things are so bad they finally decide they don't have time.

* InterruptedSuicide: [[spoiler: Andy Sanders]] is about to kill himself, when he's interripted by a phone call.

* OhCrap: Rusty has a truely magnificent one when [[spoiler:he realizes that the Propane Supply is about to explode and flash-fry the town.]]

** It's especially jarring as it happens mere moments after he and his cronies psychically and verbally assault two people they practically dragged naked out of bed.

* DomedHometown

-->'''Soldier:''' Yeah?'
-->'''Ollie:''' Yeah. My dad says something's wrong with the grass. He says the grass is wrong because the air's wrong. It doesn't smell good in here, you know. It smells like crap.

* NextSundayAD - A specific date is never given, but it takes place either during President Obama's second term or while he's running for office (in 2012 or later). Also, there's free long-range Wi-Fi ([=WiMAX=]?) in rural Maine. Some time into Obama's second term is more likely: one car is described as having a faded ''Yes we STILL can'' bumper sticker on it and Big Jim refers to the President's signature as "gobbledygook."

* CorruptPolitican: Big Jim Rennie.

* IWantMyMommy: [[spoiler:Frankie [=DeLesseps=]]] cries out for her mother right before he's killed by [[spoiler:Sammy Bushey]].

* ManipulativeBastard: Big Jim. If you're not getting the pattern yet, [[{{Understatement}} he is not a nice guy]]. About five days into the Dome ordeal he has [[spoiler:instigated a riot, framed one of the few men who could save the town for murder, burnt down the newspaper offices and effectively turned the whole town into a police state.]] He'd be a MagnificentBastard if he weren't so [[CompleteMonster utterly vile]].

* ExtremeDoormat: Andy Sanders. While he's the town's first selectmen, technically outranking Big Jim Rennie, he actually completely under Rennie's control. [[spoiler:After reaching his DespairEventHorizon, he meets Chef, and starts blindly following him, even to death.]]

** Early in the book Sammy stated that she will not [[spoiler: commit suicide]] because she is "not that kind of mom". Guess [[RapeAsDrama what]] [[TearJerker happens]] later...

* {{Anticlimax}}: [[spoiler:The build-up of the conflict between Big Jim Rennie and the heroes doesn't lead to a final battle. Instead, Big Jim is brought down by an explosion that destroys the town, se he has nothing to rule over anymore, and eventually dies of a heart attack.]]

* RefusalOfTheCall: Dale Barbara is in the midst of this as the story opens but the womon who's about to give him a ride out of town changes her mind and drives on at the last second. From then on, whenever he's in trouble he thinks of the woman and wonders what would have happened had she stopped for him.

* {{Good Feels Good}}: Junior of all people experiences this, when herescues the Appleton children. As a consequence, [[spoiler:protecting them even becomes his final goal in life (after killing Barbie and his dad, that is) - although by the time he decides on this, he's gone [[AxCrazy completely mad]] and the safest place for the children would be as far away from Junior as possible.]]