The signs are everywhere; Summer 2013 is winding down. The good and bad news about that is we can expect number 1 summer show Under the Dome to really crank up tonight before next week’s season finale.

Although the series has been renewed for a second season, remember that during the Comic-Con panel, showrunner Brian K. Vaughan promised we’ll find out the answers about “all the people up here” – meaning ostensibly Mike Vogel (“Barbie”), Dean Norris (“Big Jim”) and Rachelle Lefevre (“Julia”) but that they’ll hold a few secrets about the dome. I’m hoping for an anthology-type format, where next season’s characters are all different. It’s been hinted, but not promised.

We’ll have a better idea after tonight’s penultimate Season 1 episode, “Exigent Circumstances”. We were left dangling over quite a few cliffs at the end of last week’s episode: Is Barbie the Monarch, and will he survive the manhunt started up by the murderous Big Jim Rennie who may be stabbbed to death by the four dome-connected teens?

TV Spot: Under the Dome – Exigent Circumstances

Clip: Under the Dome – Exigent Circumstances

If you’d like to re-analyze that Comic-Con panel you can do so here, where you can also find info about the very cool Amazon exclusive special edition Season 1 Blu-ray package that releases November 5.

Under the Dome, starring Mike Vogel, Dean Norris, Natalie Martinez, Jolene Purdy, Aisha Hinds, Britt Robertson, Alexander Koch, Colin Ford, and Nicholas Strong, airs Mondays at 10/9c on CBS.