Note: Full spoilers for Under the Dome: Season 2 follow.

Sam leaning in to kiss Julia which then would have, if things went his way, led to him taking his shirt off for sex. Even though he definitely didn't want to take his shirt off because he had Angie defense scratches on his shoulder.

Barbie and Julia trusting Jim with their escape plan when he's Jim and Jim always does heinous things. Jim then did something to ruin the entire plan.

The town's spare citizenry being able to construct a giant electromagnet and/or windmill within a matter of an hour or two. Which was all more or less a part of the larger, more terrible Rebecca Pine character who'd turned to science after her mother died and there were "no answers." How do we know this? Because she told everyone about science and her worship of science every chance she got.

Julia (since all characters are extraordinarily mutable) being turned into the proponent for "faith" and, like Rebecca, giving everyone an earful about it any and every chance there was an opening for an unwelcome, unhelpful remark about faith.

Julia and Rebecca finally bonding in the penultimate episode because they thought the perfect merger of faith and science had happened when it was determined, for utterly bulls*** reasons, that Sam and Junior - representing two males who, in deferent eras, wanted to stick their penis inside Melanie - were able to "stand in" for Melanie's hand. Which not only is gross but has jack squat to do with quantum physics. Unless there's some "Boyfriendberg Uncertainty Principle" that I missed.

Norrie recognizing Hunter as a friend because he "direct tweeted" her. Which is a phrase that no one who uses twitter has ever said. Their moms sure have though. Their moms who watch Under the Dome. CBS!

Benny who, in one of his two appearances this season, decided to go out and skate in a dangerous dust storm. RIGHT AFTER HE VOTED FOR THE TOWN TO BUILD A WINDMILL BECAUSE THE STORM WAS DANGEROUS. Naturally, he almost died. BECAUSE HE HAD ASTHMA.

The reminder each week, during the intro, that it's only been a few weeks since the season premiere. There's often a time-crunch on TV shows (again, soap operas are a prime example) but we overlook them because it's part of a shared agreement. But the more it's directly addressed, the less we take any fast relationship formed within a few days seriously. A hard and fast marker came when Barbie got out of the dome and a Zenith billboard read that it'd only been 17 days.

As someone who enjoyed the Under the Dome series pilot -- a quote from my review of that premiere is on the Season 1 DVD set and everything -- it was painful to watch the show take an immediate dive in quality the very next episode. And then an even bigger drop in the third. The show would bounce back every so often in the first season, but the end result was that the show, after 13 episodes, had lost itself in either non-characters or extremely unlikeable characters, and random happenstance that was used to drag out the story.13 episodes later, things have only gotten worse. And it's a shame because those viewers out there who are willing to give a show a second chance in its sophomore season are hopeful that the producers of said show have learned from their initial mistakes. That they, through whatever means, received the appropriate feedback and course corrected accordingly. There was a "reset" vibe present in the Season 2 premiere, but ultimately the killings of Angie and Linda (who weren't even the show's worst characters, by far) didn't signal a sea change. They only stood to make room for even worse characters entering the mix. Like science-bot Rebecca and instantly suspicious Sam. Sam who, from the very first shot of him looking at Melanie as she was brought out of the lake, made me think "Oh, she's been resurrected and he definitely had something to do with her past death." Which in turn made me immediately suspect him when Angie got killed forty minutes later.And so while Rebecca and Julia weren't engaging in a meaningless argument about "science vs. faith" (in the grand scheme of anything that happened, none of their bickering mattered), which was so clumsy and on-the-nose that it felt like a middle school play, people just acted like psychopaths with little-to-no consequence. Sam, Lyle, Rebecca, and Jim all either flat out killed someone, or tried to kill someone, and were somehow still allowed to remain part of the ongoing adventure. And Lyle was even made to be some sort of rival romantic suitor for the affections of Pauline even though he was bats*** crazy and looked like a deranged derelict.Sam straight up took an axe to Angie because he saw a painting of something or other and thought it was a good idea. But he, along with Rebecca and Jim (who tried to kill a lot of people for just as flimsy a reason), were allowed to remain a big part of the story. And eventually, because they were all allowed to be a part of the ongoing arc, they inevitably wound up - surprise! - doing something crazy and drastic again. Like Lyle stabbing Pauline (after already assaulting Junior and torturing Rebecca), Rebecca killing/euthanizing Pauline (after trying to wipe out an entire church of "non-science" people she resented), and Jim tossing away the egg and then killing Rebecca and Andrea in the finale (after already killing, or trying to kill, a bunch of people during the first two seasons).The only guy who ever remained locked up (to be set free by a quake) was Phil - who went from being a flimsy character to being a non-character (just a drunk who threatened to shoot people when the show needed danger). Yes, this year Dome really spiraled into a laughable mess thanks to terrible characters speaking awful dialogue (daytime soap operas, where everyone recaps plot and says exactly what they're feeling at all times, spring to mind) and a series of dome-related dangers that we still have no answers about whatsoever.This season review could very easily turn into a list of bonehead character choices and idiotic plot swerves, so I'll try to streamline it as best as possible by naming my favorites.I could go on and on. It's taking all I have to not list things forever. But let's bounce off that last part on the list about Barbie getting out of the dome. I will say that things picked up once a few folks escaped into neighboring Zenith. Not only was I dying to get away from most of the people inside the dome, but I was curious about the outside world. Considering the fact that the army tried to blow up the dome with a giant bomb and all. So Barbie getting out seemed like the audience's ticket to some outside world perspective.But we never learned anything. Barbie didn't watch one news show or pick up one newspaper. All we saw was that billboard. And then it was all Don's energy company and private security force. Nothing opened up at all. We were introduced to Hunter, a guy devoted to secretly spreading the truth about the company and the dome but...he never said anything to anyone about those secrets. What do I have to do? Go to his actual website? He kept saying he was devoted to sharing the truth and dispelling lies. Why didn't any of those truths wind up on our laps?Which now leads me to the fact that, after two seasons, we don't know anything at all. And we've now watched 26 episodes of borderline hateable characters guessing about what to do whenever something randomly happens. Sometimes things work, sometimes they don't. But when they don't, boy do people get pissed about it. Like murderously so. Even though everyone's operating on pretty much the exact same information level. I don't know about you but I was eager to see hundreds of people die at the hands of Jim and Rebecca's weaponized pig flu. I guess it's a good thing they didn't though since there turned out to be tons of food over at Andrea's house. Enough for eight more seasons of the show if the pace holds.