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<blockquote data-quote="James from London" data-source="post: 37374" data-attributes="member: 22">&quot;Goodbye, Cliff Barnes&quot; The second of four season finales written by Arthur Bernard Lewis.Bobby decides to go to Los Angeles to investigate Kristin&#039;s hospital bill. For some reason, he chooses this time, just when he&#039;s so close to wrapping the whole thing up, to come clean to Pam about Christopher&#039;s paternity. When one considers all the dramatic ways she could have found out that JR was her son&#039;s apparent father, Bobby&#039;s confession (which we don&#039;t actually see on screen) is somewhat anti-climactic. &quot;Christopher belongs to us,&quot; Pam insists. &quot;I&#039;d fight JR to my last breath before I&#039;d give him up!&quot; There is a parallel between this situation and the events of the Season 3 finale, where it was Pam taking JR&#039;s son away from him. Now the cowboy boot is on the other foot. This dramatic irony could have formed the basis of some very meaty drama between JR and Pam, but the two characters never confront each another over this situation. While Pam rails against JR in the privacy of her marital bedroom, (&quot;That child&#039;s just another thing for him to manipulate. He was going to use a child he fathered to blackmail you. He doesn&#039;t give a damn about anybody or anything but power!&quot;) Bobby keeps a cool head. (&quot;I just want to get as much information as possible before we confront JR ... I think we oughta save Mama heartache as long as possible.&quot;) By the end of the episode, this dynamic will have been reversed, with Bobby bursting with moral outrage and Pam acting as the voice of reason.They travel to LA together and head straight for 90210 Memorial Hospital. &quot;I want to know why she was in the hospital,&quot; Bobby tells the records clerk. &quot;What was wrong with her?&quot; When told such matters are confidential, he simply snatches the report from the clerk&#039;s hand then throws some money at her to make her complicit. It transpires that Kristin&#039;s bill was for a miscarriage. &quot;If she had a miscarriage on this date, that means she lost JR&#039;s baby,&quot; says Pam. &quot;She must&#039;ve gotten pregnant again,&quot; Bobby replies. &quot;That means JR isn&#039;t Christopher&#039;s father,&quot; Pam concludes. &quot;It says here that Christopher was premature, that he had to spend some time in an incubator,&quot; continues Bobby. &quot;Kristin miscarried JR&#039;s baby, got pregnant by another man, gave birth to Christopher.&quot; They visit Kristin&#039;s old apartment building where a sexy android named Sharon reveals that &quot;[Kristin] and Faraday got married. It was right after she knew she was pregnant.&quot; Back at their hotel, Bobby and Pam take it in turns to explain the plot to each other. &quot;Honey, when Kristin lost that first baby, she could&#039;ve lost all the money that was comin&#039; in from JR and Jordan Lee, and so she substituted Christopher for the child she miscarried. That way, the money keeps coming in indefinitely.&quot; &quot;And Faraday continued the blackmail after she died.&quot; &quot;Using me.&quot; &quot;And his own baby.&quot;Clayton returns from his vacation, tanned, relaxed and taking an awful lot for granted. He meets Sue Ellen for lunch, an engagement ring burning a hole in his pocket. &quot;I was lonely after Amy died,&quot; he begins, in the mistaken belief that Sue Ellen is remotely interested in hearing about someone else&#039;s life, &quot;and I really wasn&#039;t aware of it. Steven was always around at first and I found a way to make my work fill my days ... I know exactly how I&#039;d like our relationship to be and I feel very good about it.&quot; &quot;Oh Clayton, I&#039;m so happy that we can still be friends,&quot; she interrupts, anxious to turn the conversation around to herself. &quot;I have so many things that I&#039;ve wanted to talk to you about ... JR and I have been seeing quite a lot of each other lately ... Frankly, our relationship has never been better.&quot; &quot;Are you sure, Sue Ellen?&quot; asks a quietly disappointed Clayton. &quot;There might be someone who could care for you a lot more than JR ever could.&quot; Sue Ellen doesn&#039;t agree. Is it really only six episodes since she was ranting to Clayton about how much JR had screwed up her life? (&quot;When am I ever gonna learn?!&quot;) Since then, of course, JR has successfully completed the task she set for him--to paper over the cracks in her fantasy of their relationship.Denial fully restored, JR proposes (&quot;Sue Ellen, I need you. Marry me.&quot;) and she accepts. A family announcement garners a muted response from all but Miss Ellie. &quot;Here&#039;s to the bride,&quot; says Ray dryly (virtually his sole contribution to this season finale) while Lucy puts her post-kidnap/rape/divorce trauma to one side long enough to snigger derisively.Even more exciting than JR and Sue Ellen&#039;s re-engagement is the return of Muriel, who hasn&#039;t been seen since Lucy&#039;s wedding. &quot;I guess that business with Roger was pretty rough,&quot; she tells Lucy perceptively. &quot;Muriel, Roger raped me.&quot; &quot;Oh no! Lucy, you should have told your family or doctor or the police.&quot; &quot;I couldn&#039;t.&quot; &quot;What if you&#039;re pregnant?&quot; (Cliff-hanger #1.)JR tries to let Marilee down gently. &quot;I gotta turn over a new leaf,&quot; he explains. &quot;From now on, my life is gonna be strictly monogamous ... I&#039;m gonna remarry Sue Ellen and I&#039;m gonna get my little boy back on Southfork permanently.&quot; Marilee&#039;s reaction seems a tad extreme. &quot;You used me to get Cliff Barnes out of Sue Ellen&#039;s life!&quot; she yells, (well, duh) before hurling an unspecified object from her bed as he walks out the door (just as Lucy would do to Eddie Cronin in Season 7). She then comes to Cliff&#039;s apartment to confess all: &quot;Cliff, I&#039;m sorry ... I was a very foolish woman. I thought I had something going with JR, maybe marriage, and I wanted to please him. I was the front for the Wellington land deal, but it was all JR&#039;s money. He had the geologists&#039; reports doctored. He used me to set you up and to get Sue Ellen back, and then he dropped me.&quot; &quot;I don&#039;t give a damn about your love life,&quot; Cliff tells her. Indeed, Marilee&#039;s &quot;wronged woman&quot; performance isn&#039;t much more convincing than the one she gave in order to sucker Cliff into the Wellington deal in the first place, but the most important thing about her confession from a story-telling standpoint is that Afton overhears it, so that she can relay the information to Rebecca, who in turn passes it onto Miss Ellie, who then confronts JR with it.Afton later finds Cliff propping up a bar recounting a similar tale of woe to the one Cliff and Pam heard Digger telling when they tracked him down to a bar back at the very beginning of the series. &quot;I was about that far from being a millionaire and marrying the prettiest girl in Dallas .... and the Ewings did it. They broke me ...&quot; &quot;We have to go,&quot; Afton tells him. &quot;I&#039;m not gonna let you drink yourself to death the way your daddy did.&quot;The following morning, Cliff gets rid of Afton (&quot;I gotta tell you, you&#039;re makin&#039; me feel uncomfortable with all you&#039;re doin&#039;. Why don&#039;t you go home?&quot;) in order to pay a visit to Bette Davis Towers. &quot;I don&#039;t want you here,&quot; declares Sue Ellen. &quot;I just have to tell you something,&quot; Cliff pleads. &quot;I have to tell you that I shouldn&#039;t have asked to borrow the money. I was panicked and I didn&#039;t know where to turn. It was a mistake. I shouldn&#039;t have done that ... We had a good thing goin&#039; and we could&#039;ve had a great life and we still can. Sue Ellen, I need you, I love you and I&#039;ve lost everything, but I know I can start over ... I know I can build a new life if you&#039;ll just believe in me and love me.&quot; &quot;Cliff, I think you should know that JR has asked me to marry him and I accepted,&quot; she replies. &quot;I don&#039;t wanna see you again. Please go.&quot; By now, they&#039;re both crying. Cliff&#039;s tears I understand--this is a man on the edge--but Sue Ellen&#039;s don&#039;t quite make sense. In the next episode, the character herself describes her rejection of Cliff here as &quot;pretty cold&quot;--so cold it leads directly to his suicide attempt. So why does Linda Gray feel the need to emote? Could it be there&#039;s a part of the actress that doesn&#039;t want to be seen in such a harsh and unsympathetic light? Is it perhaps an attempt--even a subconscious one--to upstage Ken Kercheval (who does an excellent job of conveying Cliff&#039;s desperation) and claim some of the audience&#039;s sympathy for herself? In any case, Sue Ellen&#039;s tears miraculously evaporate at the sight of a sable coat presented to her by JR. While she slips upstairs to admire herself, he steals a few words with his son that serve as a reminder of his ulterior motives: &quot;I&#039;m gonna take you back to Southfork permanently and we&#039;ll be one big happy family. And of course, I&#039;ll have your ten shares, and with sixty shares, well, I&#039;ll be able to run Ewing Oil as I see fit.&quot;Cliff returns to both his condo and the bottle. Afton has arranged to meet him there at 8 pm. &quot;Sorry I&#039;m late,&quot; she says prior to noticing Cliff unconscious on the floor next to an empty bottle of tranquillizers. &quot;There was an accident on the expressway.&quot; This suggests that Cliff took the overdose in the expectation of being found (and rescued) earlier than he was. Although the suicide attempt is generally referred to as the Season 4 cliff-hanger, this scene takes place roughly ten minutes before the end of the episode. It&#039;s what happens as a result of Cliff&#039;s actions that is really interesting. Cliff is taken to hospital where Afton gives a guilt-ridden Rebecca (&quot;I&#039;m responsible ... I should have been able to forgive him&quot;) the information that will galvanise the final minutes of the season. &quot;Oh Afton,&quot; replies Rebecca, &quot;I never thought JR was capable of this!&quot; Along comes Dr Cliche with the latest: &quot;He&#039;s still comatose ... It&#039;s too soon to tell ... The next twenty-four hours will be critical.&quot; (Cliff-hanger #2.)Back in Los Angeles, Bobby and Pam are still explaining the switched-baby plot to each another. &quot;Faraday&#039;s blood type was B, the same as JR&#039;s. That is such a coincidence!&quot; exclaims Bobby. You said it, Bob. &quot;I still can&#039;t believe that he sold his baby,&quot; marvels Pam. &quot;Faraday was a cheap hustler, but what does that make JR?&quot; replies Bobby, his Ewing blood starting to boil. &quot;He thought Christopher was his son, but he was perfectly content to be known as Uncle JR as long as I voted my twenty shares of Ewing Oil his way ... I thought that deep down inside when it came to children, he&#039;d have some human feelings, a spark of decency ... My own brother tried to blackmail me. If I have my way, when we get back to Dallas, I&#039;m gonna vote to throw him out of Ewing Oil. But not until I&#039;ve taken him apart.&quot; (Cliff-hanger #3)The climax of the episode is the scene in which Rebecca confronts Miss Ellie in the Southfork living room. Priscilla Pointer is particularly impressive here. Like Barbara Bel Geddes, Pointer occasionally falls into the too-serene-for-the-scene trap that Donna Reed was particularly prone to, where the actress seems to hover above the action rather than being a part of it. (Has Pointer ever played a nun? She&#039;d look great in a wimple.) However, Pointer also possesses an interesting combination of imperiousness and grit reminiscent of Agnes Moorhead. In spite of Rebecca being a fundamentally underwritten character, Pointer is believable as a woman that &quot;clawed her way over the tough side of the tracks.&quot;&quot;This is not a social call, Ellie,&quot; Rebecca declares. &quot;Maybe Digger was right, and when I was married to him, I was too young or too stupid to realise it ... Digger never had a chance. Jock was too shrewd, too strong and too fast. And now it&#039;s happening between JR and Cliff. It&#039;s the same fight all over again ... When I found out that Cliff was using Wentworth funds, I fired him. I think it&#039;s time that you did the same with JR. He used Ewing funds to destroy my son!&quot; JR and Sue Ellen join a bewildered Ellie in listening to Rebecca&#039;s rant. &quot;Cliff is in Dallas Memorial in a coma,&quot; she continues. &quot;JR set him up. He lost everything. Last night, he tried to kill himself ... I&#039;m here to warn you. The Barnes/Ewing feud is still going on. It&#039;s always been an uneven fight, the rich Ewings against the poor Barnes. Well, now it&#039;s even. I swear I&#039;ll break the Ewing family and I have the money to do it.&quot; (Cliff-hanger #4) Rebecca exits, swiftly followed by a hyperventilating Sue Ellen (&quot;I have to go to the hospital to see Cliff!&quot;).Left alone together, Miss Ellie confronts her first born. &quot;I wanna hear it from you, JR. Did Rebecca tell me the truth?&quot; &quot;Yes, she did.&quot; &quot;You drove Cliff to attempt suicide?&quot; &quot;If that man is dyin&#039;, it&#039;s because of his own greed.&quot; &quot;You don&#039;t care, do you?&quot; This moment of appalled realisation on Ellie&#039;s part is almost identical to the one she has when she appeals to JR at the end of Season 1--&quot;Sue Ellen&#039;s in trouble, JR, and your child&#039;s life is in danger. You must do something!&quot;--only for him to reply coldly, &quot;It&#039;s too late.&quot; Back then, she lamented sorrowfully, (&quot;I gave you up too soon, JR&quot;) but now she adopts a tougher stance. &quot;You&#039;re a cold and insensitive man, JR,&quot; she tells him, &quot; and I&#039;m gonna remove you as President of Ewing Oil as soon as Bobby gets back.&quot; &quot;Well, you don&#039;t know it yet, but you won&#039;t be able to that,&quot; he replies. Well, you don&#039;t know it yet, JR, but yes, she will! (Umm, let&#039;s call this Cliff-hanger #3a)Sue Ellen joins Rebecca and Afton at Cliff&#039;s bedside. &quot;It&#039;s all my fault,&quot; she admits. &quot;It&#039;s too bad Cliff didn&#039;t know how guilty everyone felt before he swallowed those pills,&quot; replies Afton bitterly, before being led away by Rebecca. &quot;I never realised how much in love with me you were,&quot; Sue Ellen whispers to Cliff (although &quot;I never cared how much in love with me you were,&quot; would perhaps be more accurate) &quot;Cliff, please get better. Please.&quot; JR enters the room. &quot;Sue Ellen--&quot; he begins. &quot;Look what we&#039;ve both done to him,&quot; she says. &quot;He did it to himself,&quot; JR replies. &quot;Come on home, Sue Ellen,&quot; he urges, his words echoing the speech he gave her two episodes ago: &quot;It&#039;s time for you to come home to Southfork, to your husband&quot;. This time, however, she is not seduced. &quot;No, JR. We did it to him,&quot; she insists, &quot;and I feel so guilty.&quot; If, as has often been suggested, Sue Ellen is as addicted to JR as she is to alcohol, Cliff&#039;s overdose--and, more importantly, her own sense of guilt because of it--has the effect of sobering her up, of tearing a hole in her denial much bigger than the one created by Bobby&#039;s revelation over Christopher&#039;s parentage. Can that hole be repaired? Sue Ellen is doubtful: &quot;If Cliff dies, I don&#039;t think I&#039;ll ever be able to marry you.&quot; (Cliff-hanger #4)It may not have been as easy as in previous years to reduce the 1982 season finale to a simple &quot;Who Did What to Who?&quot; water-cooler question, but this is arguably DALLAS&#039;s most sophisticated use of the cliff-hanger convention, whereby the cumulative effect of four or five mini cliff-hangers, none of which are especially earth-shattering or original when viewed in isolation, creates something more than the sum of its parts. With Rebecca&#039;s vow to the Ewings and Ellie&#039;s to JR, there is a palpable sense of a New Ewing Order afoot, (not for nothing is the next episode called &quot;Changing of the Guard&quot;) which ensures the Season 5 premiere will be compulsory viewing, while avoiding the almost built-in feeling of anti-climax that accompanies some of the bigger, more life and death season cliff-hangers.Aww, thanks!</blockquote>

[QUOTE="James from London, post: 37374, member: 22"] [U][I]"Goodbye, Cliff Barnes"[/I][/U] The second of four season finales written by Arthur Bernard Lewis. Bobby decides to go to Los Angeles to investigate Kristin's hospital bill. For some reason, he chooses this time, just when he's so close to wrapping the whole thing up, to come clean to Pam about Christopher's paternity. When one considers all the dramatic ways she could have found out that JR was her son's apparent father, Bobby's confession (which we don't actually see on screen) is somewhat anti-climactic. "Christopher belongs to us," Pam insists. "I'd fight JR to my last breath before I'd give him up!" There is a parallel between this situation and the events of the Season 3 finale, where it was Pam taking JR's son away from him. Now the cowboy boot is on the other foot. This dramatic irony could have formed the basis of some very meaty drama between JR and Pam, but the two characters never confront each another over this situation. While Pam rails against JR in the privacy of her marital bedroom, ("That child's just another thing for him to manipulate. He was going to use a child he fathered to blackmail you. He doesn't give a damn about anybody or anything but power!") Bobby keeps a cool head. ("I just want to get as much information as possible before we confront JR ... I think we oughta save Mama heartache as long as possible.") By the end of the episode, this dynamic will have been reversed, with Bobby bursting with moral outrage and Pam acting as the voice of reason. They travel to LA together and head straight for 90210 Memorial Hospital. "I want to know why she was in the hospital," Bobby tells the records clerk. "What was wrong with her?" When told such matters are confidential, he simply snatches the report from the clerk's hand then throws some money at her to make her complicit. It transpires that Kristin's bill was for a miscarriage. "If she had a miscarriage on this date, that means she lost JR's baby," says Pam. "She must've gotten pregnant again," Bobby replies. "That means JR isn't Christopher's father," Pam concludes. "It says here that Christopher was premature, that he had to spend some time in an incubator," continues Bobby. "Kristin miscarried JR's baby, got pregnant by another man, gave birth to Christopher." They visit Kristin's old apartment building where a sexy android named Sharon reveals that "[Kristin] and Faraday got married. It was right after she knew she was pregnant." Back at their hotel, Bobby and Pam take it in turns to explain the plot to each other. "Honey, when Kristin lost that first baby, she could've lost all the money that was comin' in from JR and Jordan Lee, and so she substituted Christopher for the child she miscarried. That way, the money keeps coming in indefinitely." "And Faraday continued the blackmail after she died." "Using me." "And his own baby." Clayton returns from his vacation, tanned, relaxed and taking an awful lot for granted. He meets Sue Ellen for lunch, an engagement ring burning a hole in his pocket. "I was lonely after Amy died," he begins, in the mistaken belief that Sue Ellen is remotely interested in hearing about someone else's life, "and I really wasn't aware of it. Steven was always around at first and I found a way to make my work fill my days ... I know exactly how I'd like our relationship to be and I feel very good about it." "Oh Clayton, I'm so happy that we can still be friends," she interrupts, anxious to turn the conversation around to herself. "I have so many things that I've wanted to talk to you about ... JR and I have been seeing quite a lot of each other lately ... Frankly, our relationship has never been better." "Are you sure, Sue Ellen?" asks a quietly disappointed Clayton. "There might be someone who could care for you a lot more than JR ever could." Sue Ellen doesn't agree. Is it really only six episodes since she was ranting to Clayton about how much JR had screwed up her life? ("When am I ever gonna learn?!") Since then, of course, JR has successfully completed the task she set for him--to paper over the cracks in her fantasy of their relationship. Denial fully restored, JR proposes ("Sue Ellen, I need you. Marry me.") and she accepts. A family announcement garners a muted response from all but Miss Ellie. "Here's to the bride," says Ray dryly (virtually his sole contribution to this season finale) while Lucy puts her post-kidnap/rape/divorce trauma to one side long enough to snigger derisively. Even more exciting than JR and Sue Ellen's re-engagement is the return of Muriel, who hasn't been seen since Lucy's wedding. "I guess that business with Roger was pretty rough," she tells Lucy perceptively. "Muriel, Roger raped me." "Oh no! Lucy, you should have told your family or doctor or the police." "I couldn't." "What if you're pregnant?" (Cliff-hanger #1.) JR tries to let Marilee down gently. "I gotta turn over a new leaf," he explains. "From now on, my life is gonna be strictly monogamous ... I'm gonna remarry Sue Ellen and I'm gonna get my little boy back on Southfork permanently." Marilee's reaction seems a tad extreme. "You used me to get Cliff Barnes out of Sue Ellen's life!" she yells, (well, duh) before hurling an unspecified object from her bed as he walks out the door (just as Lucy would do to Eddie Cronin in Season 7). She then comes to Cliff's apartment to confess all: "Cliff, I'm sorry ... I was a very foolish woman. I thought I had something going with JR, maybe marriage, and I wanted to please him. I was the front for the Wellington land deal, but it was all JR's money. He had the geologists' reports doctored. He used me to set you up and to get Sue Ellen back, and then he dropped me." "I don't give a damn about your love life," Cliff tells her. Indeed, Marilee's "wronged woman" performance isn't much more convincing than the one she gave in order to sucker Cliff into the Wellington deal in the first place, but the most important thing about her confession from a story-telling standpoint is that Afton overhears it, so that she can relay the information to Rebecca, who in turn passes it onto Miss Ellie, who then confronts JR with it. Afton later finds Cliff propping up a bar recounting a similar tale of woe to the one Cliff and Pam heard Digger telling when they tracked him down to a bar back at the very beginning of the series. "I was about that far from being a millionaire and marrying the prettiest girl in Dallas .... and the Ewings did it. They broke me ..." "We have to go," Afton tells him. "I'm not gonna let you drink yourself to death the way your daddy did." The following morning, Cliff gets rid of Afton ("I gotta tell you, you're makin' me feel uncomfortable with all you're doin'. Why don't you go home?") in order to pay a visit to Bette Davis Towers. "I don't want you here," declares Sue Ellen. "I just have to tell you something," Cliff pleads. "I have to tell you that I shouldn't have asked to borrow the money. I was panicked and I didn't know where to turn. It was a mistake. I shouldn't have done that ... We had a good thing goin' and we could've had a great life and we still can. Sue Ellen, I need you, I love you and I've lost everything, but I know I can start over ... I know I can build a new life if you'll just believe in me and love me." "Cliff, I think you should know that JR has asked me to marry him and I accepted," she replies. "I don't wanna see you again. Please go." By now, they're both crying. Cliff's tears I understand--this is a man on the edge--but Sue Ellen's don't quite make sense. In the next episode, the character herself describes her rejection of Cliff here as "pretty cold"--so cold it leads directly to his suicide attempt. So why does Linda Gray feel the need to emote? Could it be there's a part of the actress that doesn't want to be seen in such a harsh and unsympathetic light? Is it perhaps an attempt--even a subconscious one--to upstage Ken Kercheval (who does an excellent job of conveying Cliff's desperation) and claim some of the audience's sympathy for herself? In any case, Sue Ellen's tears miraculously evaporate at the sight of a sable coat presented to her by JR. While she slips upstairs to admire herself, he steals a few words with his son that serve as a reminder of his ulterior motives: "I'm gonna take you back to Southfork permanently and we'll be one big happy family. And of course, I'll have your ten shares, and with sixty shares, well, I'll be able to run Ewing Oil as I see fit." Cliff returns to both his condo and the bottle. Afton has arranged to meet him there at 8 pm. "Sorry I'm late," she says prior to noticing Cliff unconscious on the floor next to an empty bottle of tranquillizers. "There was an accident on the expressway." This suggests that Cliff took the overdose in the expectation of being found (and rescued) earlier than he was. Although the suicide attempt is generally referred to as the Season 4 cliff-hanger, this scene takes place roughly ten minutes before the end of the episode. It's what happens as a result of Cliff's actions that is really interesting. Cliff is taken to hospital where Afton gives a guilt-ridden Rebecca ("I'm responsible ... I should have been able to forgive him") the information that will galvanise the final minutes of the season. "Oh Afton," replies Rebecca, "I never thought JR was capable of this!" Along comes Dr Cliche with the latest: "He's still comatose ... It's too soon to tell ... The next twenty-four hours will be critical." (Cliff-hanger #2.) Back in Los Angeles, Bobby and Pam are still explaining the switched-baby plot to each another. "Faraday's blood type was B, the same as JR's. That is such a coincidence!" exclaims Bobby. You said it, Bob. "I still can't believe that he sold his baby," marvels Pam. "Faraday was a cheap hustler, but what does that make JR?" replies Bobby, his Ewing blood starting to boil. "He thought Christopher was his son, but he was perfectly content to be known as Uncle JR as long as I voted my twenty shares of Ewing Oil his way ... I thought that deep down inside when it came to children, he'd have some human feelings, a spark of decency ... My own brother tried to blackmail me. If I have my way, when we get back to Dallas, I'm gonna vote to throw him out of Ewing Oil. But not until I've taken him apart." (Cliff-hanger #3) The climax of the episode is the scene in which Rebecca confronts Miss Ellie in the Southfork living room. Priscilla Pointer is particularly impressive here. Like Barbara Bel Geddes, Pointer occasionally falls into the too-serene-for-the-scene trap that Donna Reed was particularly prone to, where the actress seems to hover above the action rather than being a part of it. (Has Pointer ever played a nun? She'd look great in a wimple.) However, Pointer also possesses an interesting combination of imperiousness and grit reminiscent of Agnes Moorhead. In spite of Rebecca being a fundamentally underwritten character, Pointer is believable as a woman that "clawed her way over the tough side of the tracks." "This is not a social call, Ellie," Rebecca declares. "Maybe Digger was right, and when I was married to him, I was too young or too stupid to realise it ... Digger never had a chance. Jock was too shrewd, too strong and too fast. And now it's happening between JR and Cliff. It's the same fight all over again ... When I found out that Cliff was using Wentworth funds, I fired him. I think it's time that you did the same with JR. He used Ewing funds to destroy my son!" JR and Sue Ellen join a bewildered Ellie in listening to Rebecca's rant. "Cliff is in Dallas Memorial in a coma," she continues. "JR set him up. He lost everything. Last night, he tried to kill himself ... I'm here to warn you. The Barnes/Ewing feud is still going on. It's always been an uneven fight, the rich Ewings against the poor Barnes. Well, now it's even. I swear I'll break the Ewing family and I have the money to do it." (Cliff-hanger #4) Rebecca exits, swiftly followed by a hyperventilating Sue Ellen ("I have to go to the hospital to see Cliff!"). Left alone together, Miss Ellie confronts her first born. "I wanna hear it from you, JR. Did Rebecca tell me the truth?" "Yes, she did." "You drove Cliff to attempt suicide?" "If that man is dyin', it's because of his own greed." "You don't care, do you?" This moment of appalled realisation on Ellie's part is almost identical to the one she has when she appeals to JR at the end of Season 1--"Sue Ellen's in trouble, JR, and your child's life is in danger. You must do something!"--only for him to reply coldly, "It's too late." Back then, she lamented sorrowfully, ("I gave you up too soon, JR") but now she adopts a tougher stance. "You're a cold and insensitive man, JR," she tells him, " and I'm gonna remove you as President of Ewing Oil as soon as Bobby gets back." "Well, you don't know it yet, but you won't be able to that," he replies. Well, you don't know it yet, JR, but yes, she will! (Umm, let's call this Cliff-hanger #3a) Sue Ellen joins Rebecca and Afton at Cliff's bedside. "It's all my fault," she admits. "It's too bad Cliff didn't know how guilty everyone felt before he swallowed those pills," replies Afton bitterly, before being led away by Rebecca. "I never realised how much in love with me you were," Sue Ellen whispers to Cliff (although "I never cared how much in love with me you were," would perhaps be more accurate) "Cliff, please get better. Please." JR enters the room. "Sue Ellen--" he begins. "Look what we've both done to him," she says. "He did it to himself," JR replies. "Come on home, Sue Ellen," he urges, his words echoing the speech he gave her two episodes ago: "It's time for you to come home to Southfork, to your husband". This time, however, she is not seduced. "No, JR. We did it to him," she insists, "and I feel so guilty." If, as has often been suggested, Sue Ellen is as addicted to JR as she is to alcohol, Cliff's overdose--and, more importantly, her own sense of guilt because of it--has the effect of sobering her up, of tearing a hole in her denial much bigger than the one created by Bobby's revelation over Christopher's parentage. Can that hole be repaired? Sue Ellen is doubtful: "If Cliff dies, I don't think I'll ever be able to marry you." (Cliff-hanger #4) It may not have been as easy as in previous years to reduce the 1982 season finale to a simple "Who Did What to Who?" water-cooler question, but this is arguably DALLAS's most sophisticated use of the cliff-hanger convention, whereby the cumulative effect of four or five mini cliff-hangers, none of which are especially earth-shattering or original when viewed in isolation, creates something more than the sum of its parts. With Rebecca's vow to the Ewings and Ellie's to JR, there is a palpable sense of a New Ewing Order afoot, (not for nothing is the next episode called "Changing of the Guard") which ensures the Season 5 premiere will be compulsory viewing, while avoiding the almost built-in feeling of anti-climax that accompanies some of the bigger, more life and death season cliff-hangers. Aww, thanks! [/QUOTE]

Verification

Who played Sue Ellen in Dallas?