Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="James from London" data-source="post: 39926" data-attributes="member: 22">&quot;Crash of 83&quot; This has to be one of DALLAS&#039;s cleverest episode titles (even if it did take me a few years to get the pun) as well as the only one that refers to the period in which the series was made.&quot;There are very few things in this world JR Ewing cannot afford. Patience is one of them.&quot;In fact, time is of the essence for each of the Ewing brothers in this episode. &quot;You get me that refinery. I need it now,&quot; says JR to his broker, Russell Slater. &quot;Find somethin&#039; ... that I can use to turn Hicks around. Time is very important to me,&quot; Bobby tells Wendy the hooker. Even Ray&#039;s master-plan to &quot;make or break&quot; Mickey has acquired a sense of urgency. &quot;I think he might come around,&quot; says Lucy. &quot;I&#039;m just not sure I can wait that long,&quot; Ray replies. While this episode finds JR intent on acquiring another refinery and Bobby focused on pressuring George Hicks so that JR won&#039;t have any use for another refinery, each brother is able to spare a scene or two to discuss other business ventures. First, Bobby gets an update from Thornton McLeish on how their deal in Canada is progressing. The short answer is: it isn&#039;t. &quot;We haven&#039;t been able to start drilling yet,&quot; Thornton admits. &quot;Hang in there, huh?&quot;With Bobby&#039;s Canadian venture stalled, the breaking of Hicks becomes all the more imperative. &quot;I think I have something you can use,&quot; Wendy tells Bobby after an evening on the town with George. &quot;Cocaine. Hicks is a user.&quot; (Strange how clean-cut Bobby is the Ewing who attracts all the drug related story-lines: Hicks&#039;s coke, Lucy&#039;s diet pills, Jeff Faraday&#039;s dealers, Veronica Robinson&#039;s overdose, Tommy Mackay&#039;s bad trip and whatever was going on with those 90210 girls in Season 13.) &quot;Wendy, I like the way you&#039;re handling this,&quot; he tells her. &quot;And I like you, Mr Ewing,&quot; she replies, &quot;When this is all over if you&#039;d like to get together?&quot; Bobby looks terrified. &quot;Wendy, you&#039;re very beautiful and you&#039;re nice,&quot; he says wimpily, &quot;but this is strictly a business deal.&quot; Later on, Wendy calls Bobby at the office. &quot;All the signals point to us ending up at his place,&quot; she tells him. &quot;Just say the word and I&#039;m ready to roll.&quot; Bobby takes a deep breath. &quot;All right. Do it,&quot; he tells her. It&#039;s the last we see of Wendy. Shame really; of the DALLAS hookers, I think she&#039;s my favourite (with Millie Laverne and Season 7&#039;s Rhonda following close behind).Meanwhile, Russell Slater&#039;s fruitless search for a refinery prompts a terrific rant from JR. &quot;That&#039;s my picture on the front page,&quot; he begins, waving a newspaper in Slater&#039;s face. &quot;You know why it&#039;s there? Because I provide low-cost gasoline to the little man. Without another refinery, I&#039;m not gonna be able to process enough oil to satisfy the little man ... The minute my picture is off that front page, the TEC is gonna rescind my variance. They rescind the variance, I&#039;m gonna have to shut down all my gasoline stations. No gasoline stations means no profits and no profits means I&#039;m gonna lose my whole company, and I guarantee you, you will never hear about that!&quot; &quot;Well, I may have a lead,&quot; admits Slater. &quot;The owner lives in Houston ...&quot; &quot;Well, get on a plane and lock it up!&quot; orders JR.As determined as JR is to get a refinery, Rebecca and Cliff are equally determined to stop him. &quot;Wentworth Industries does business with practically every refinery owner in Texas. If JR gets close to a deal, I&#039;ll use all the influence I have to kill it,&quot; Rebecca promises. &quot;That&#039;s all I wanted to hear,&quot; smiles Cliff.With Rebecca not long for this soap opera, there are some subtle attempts at closure for the character in this episode. She finally gets to enjoy a harmonious scene with her two eldest children. The only previous occasions where the three characters have been alone together have been at Brooktree and Dallas Memorial Hospitals after Pam and Cliff&#039;s respective suicide attempts. In this episode, Rebecca watches fondly as Pam introduces Christopher to Cliff: &quot;Cliff, do you recognise this child? ... When was the last time you saw him? When have you ever seen him? ... You have never seen him, your own nephew!&quot; Katzman and co seem to have forgotten the scene in Season 4 where Cliff runs into JR at Southfork while on his way to present Pam and Christopher with a cuddly toy. Nonetheless, this scene helps set things up for the post-Rebecca era in which Cliff and Pam regain the closeness they shared in the early years, and also the post-Pam years where Cliff and Christopher become (slightly unlikely) best buddies. &quot;You hungry?&quot; Cliff asks his soggy nephew. &quot;I got some leftover Chinese food I can warm up for him.&quot; Everyone laughs - it&#039;s the calm before the storm.In addition, the possible pairing of Rebecca and Clayton, which has been hinted at periodically since their reunion at the Southfork barbecue the previous year, is finally discounted. Ellie, flush from her chance meeting with Clayton in Galveston, (&quot;If you&#039;re not careful, Miss Ellie, you&#039;ll find these little vacations are addictive,&quot; he tells her. One never-ending cruise coming up) asks for clarification of their relationship. &quot;You were seeing each other, weren&#039;t you?&quot; she asks. &quot;Oh no, Miss Ellie. Not like that,&quot; Clayton replies. &quot;I like Rebecca very much. She was married to a very dear friend of mine and we share a pleasant friendship like yours and mine, but that&#039;s all.&quot;Miss Ellie&#039;s relationship with Frank Crutcher is also laid to rest. &quot;Frank is a very charming man and I like him, I really do, but Clayton is very special,&quot; she tells Sue Ellen. &quot;He has something different, a sweetness, a strength.&quot; &quot;Clayton is a fine man,&quot; agrees Sue Ellen through gritted teeth.&quot;Of all the people for Mama to take up with, Clayton Farlow!&quot; exclaims JR when Sue Ellen tells him the news. &quot;Mama&#039;s very vulnerable right now. It wouldn&#039;t take much for that man to move in on her. I&#039;ll be damned if I&#039;ll let that happen!&quot; And right there is the central plot for the second half of Season 6. Clayton&#039;s shock decision - &quot;I&#039;ve sold the Southern Cross&quot; - will also return to haunt him during the latter part of that year.Lucy shares a couple of scenes with Ray in this episode. It&#039;s the first time the two have been alone together since her move back to Southfork at the beginning of Season 4, and it won&#039;t happen again until he discovers her working at the Hot Biscuit in Season 7. For now, however, the topic of conversation is Mickey. &quot;He screwed up again,&quot; Ray sighs. &quot;The real problem&#039;s his attitude.&quot; &quot;How come you&#039;re in the doghouse?&quot; Lucy asks when she finds Mickey baling hay. &quot;[Is it] because you drove me to the airport? ... I&#039;m really sorry. I&#039;ll talk to Ray.&quot; &quot;Don&#039;t bother,&quot; he snaps. &quot;I&#039;m not gonna be around long enough for it to make any difference ... I&#039;m tired of this cowboy crud. I&#039;m gettin&#039; outta here.&quot;Lucy trots back to Ray and tries to make things right between him and his cousin: &quot;You know I think all he really wants is for you to trust him ...&quot; &quot;You kinda like him, don&#039;tcha?&quot; Ray asks her. &quot;There&#039;s nothing going on between Mickey and me, believe me,&quot; she assures him. Nevertheless, a change seems to come over Lucy in this episode, and it&#039;s kind of sweet to see her emerging from her withdrawn period, without her even realising it. (Funny how her withdrawn period and her &quot;I like myself&quot; period of Season 7 each result in her getting the same minimal amount of screen time.) Holly&#039;s a no show this week and Donna appears only once, discussing JR&#039;s latest appearance on TALK TIME: &quot;Politics? I never really gave it a thought,&quot; he chuckles, &quot;If a political offer were made to me, I would seriously have to weigh the good I can do the little man at the gas pump against the good I can do for the little man as his political representative.&quot; &quot;We need to stop JR before it gets outta hand!&quot; exclaims Donna, not for the first time.There are two collisions in this episode: the off-screen crash that happens between the Wentworth jet and another, unnamed aircraft (Jock&#039;s phantom helicopter, perhaps, piloted by an undead version of Chico Steve?), and the collision of several story-lines in the lead up to that crash. Such is the knotty structure of this season, it&#039;s hard to pinpoint the exact moment where the chain of events leading to Rebecca&#039;s death begins, (heck, one could argue that it started with the birth of the Barnes/Ewing feud four decades earlier) but in terms of this episode, it&#039;s a chance encounter between JR and Gil Thurman that changes everything. &quot;Lookee here, there&#039;s somebody I know!&quot; hollers Gil across a crowded restaurant. &quot;Until you get rid of that despicable animal, I&#039;ll be in the ladies&#039; room,&quot; Sue Ellen tells her husband before beating a hasty retreat. JR&#039;s conversation with &quot;that despicable animal&quot; soon turns to the refinery deal JR recently lost to Cliff and the cartel. &quot;I could beat Barnes in any fair deal, you know that ... What kind of edge did he have?&quot; he asks. &quot;Five foot four, long blonde hair, pretty. Name&#039;s Afton Cooper. I can&#039;t remember the last time I got so little sleep,&quot; replies Gil gallantly. &quot;That explains it,&quot; chuckles JR without missing a beat. &quot;Afton was talkin&#039; about you ... I got the impression she was very fond of you.&quot; &quot;... Maybe I oughta look the lady up,&quot; muses Gil. &quot;What a truly loathsome man he is,&quot; Sue Ellen shudders once Thurman has gone. &quot;Don&#039;t be so hard on him, Sue Ellen,&quot; mock-chides JR. &quot;A man like that might do us some good some day.&quot; Or maybe not: as a direct result of JR revving up Gil&#039;s engine with thoughts of Afton pining for him, JR&#039;s two worst enemies (Cliff and Pam) each end up inheriting a fortune.JR gets confirmation that the refinery in Houston is for sale. &quot;Russell, you have just about made my day,&quot; he beams to his broker, &quot;Let&#039;s not hang around here. We don&#039;t want the cartel to snatch this one away from us.&quot; (This little back reference to the Gil Thurman deal neatly illustrates how closely connected all the plot points of this season are.) &quot;I&#039;m on the three o&#039;clock flight to Houston,&quot; Slater assures him. &quot;Whatever it takes, make this deal for me,&quot; replies a suddenly serious JR.News travels fast: &quot;I heard from my source in Houston ... that JR has finally smoked out a refinery for sale,&quot; Cliff tells Rebecca in their final scene together. &quot;Who&#039;s the owner?&quot; she asks. &quot;Mike Hughes. He&#039;s got some big notes comin&#039; due ... JR&#039;s offered him a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.&quot; &quot;The name Wentworth still carries clout with men like Mike Hughes. He won&#039;t sell to JR. Not if I specifically ask him not to ... Did your source say when the deal with JR might close?&quot; &quot;Yeah, as soon as day after tomorrow.&quot; &quot;You might have to fly to Houston tomorrow to bring Mike Hughes a letter from me.&quot; &quot;... I&#039;ll fly to the end of the moon to stop JR.&quot; &quot;I&#039;ll fly to the end of the moon ... a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.&quot; Maybe it&#039;s just me, but there&#039;s something about these phrases that evokes a feeling of impossibility. Like Icarus flying too close to the sun, this plane journey already feels somehow doomed.Bobby drops the boom on George Hicks, handing him a selection of Polaroids taken in his house. &quot;That white stuff there is your favourite party substance, Hicks,&quot; he explains. &quot;Are you blackmailing me?&quot; &quot;Blackmail, bribery. I don&#039;t see the difference. You wanted to play hardball, my friend.&quot; &quot;Wendy. She planted them. This is a frame up!&quot; &quot; ... You got forty-eight hours to call a meeting of the TEC and then I want you to vote the way you used to before you got mixed up with my brother.&quot; Bobby may have the upper hand, but Hicks gets the final word: &quot;Ewing, I gotta give you credit. You&#039;re just as dirty as your famous brother.&quot; Looks like Bobby&#039;s self-righteous words about the consequences of playing hardball apply as much to himself as they do to Hicks. At that moment, JR is on the phone to Mike Hughes, the unseen refinery owner in Houston: &quot;I think we oughta make the deal on your refinery right this minute. Wentworth is not gonna top this. You know that as well as I do. Could I consider that done? You have my word on it. You&#039;ll never regret it. And just remember, ol&#039; JR never forgets a friend.&quot;OK, let&#039;s keep track here: the fact that JR has already made a deal with the refinery owner means that Rebecca&#039;s plane journey is not only doomed but pointless. In addition, Bobby&#039;s successful blackmail of Hicks means that the TEC will now vote to rescind JR&#039;s variance, thus rendering said refinery deal equally pointless. It&#039;s an ironic-timing pile-up!Unaware of any of this, Rebecca cuts short an afternoon at Southfork with Pam, Christopher and Ellie so that she can pick up Cliff and take him to the airport. &quot;He has to convince a refinery owner not to sell to JR. I know what I said, Ellie, but I really have no choice.&quot; &quot;I don&#039;t need an explanation, Rebecca,&quot; Miss Ellie replies before revealing her new strategy for dealing with the fight for Ewing Oil - voluntary denial. &quot;The only way I can continue to live here is to ignore the war and get on with my own life.&quot; Pam is less philosophical. &quot;Why are you getting involved in the feud again, Mother?&quot; she demands before issuing one last warning: &quot;I&#039;m just terribly frightened somebody&#039;s really going to be hurt.&quot; Alas, just like her previous prognostications of disaster, (&quot;This thing could destroy all of us!&quot; ... &quot;That battle is really going to hurt somebody!&quot; ... &quot;Your dirty deals might just get somebody killed one of these days!&quot; ... &quot;Everyone&#039;s going to be hurt, especially you!&quot;) it falls on deaf ears. &quot;The stakes are very high here, Pam!&quot; barks Rebecca, glaring fiercely through those strangely triangular eyes of hers.Over at the blue and white condo, Afton&#039;s flower-arranging interlude is rudely interrupted by Gil Thurman demanding &quot;an instant replay of our last time.&quot; &quot;Get out!&quot; she gasps. &quot;You don&#039;t have to tease me to get me excited. I heard how you were all hot and bothered waiting for me to come back, so just pucker up!&quot; Cliff arrives in time to see Afton fighting Thurman off. &quot;Hey hey, what the hell is goin&#039; on?&quot; he demands. &quot;All I&#039;m doin&#039; is havin&#039; another ride on the roller-coaster ... our little Afton here,&quot; explains Gill charmingly, &quot;I told you, you knew how to put a deal together.&quot; Cliff virtually shouts Thurman out of his house - &quot;Get outta here! GET OUTTA MY HOME! GET OUTTA HERE!&quot; - before turning his vocal chords on Afton: &quot;YOU SLEPT WITH HIM!&quot; &quot;That was his price ...&quot; she begins timidly. &quot;SO YOU&#039;RE TELLIN&#039; ME THAT I DIDN&#039;T PUT THAT DEAL TOGETHER, THAT YOU PUT THAT DEAL TOGETHER - IN BED! AND I THOUGHT YOU WERE MY GIRLFRIEND, NOT MY WHORE!!&quot; &quot;I did it for you, Cliff,&quot; she protests weakly, but he&#039;s already gone, slamming the door and sealing his mother&#039;s fate behind him.Shortly afterwards, Rebecca arrives to find a watery-eyed Afton huddled on the couch and Cliff nowhere to be found. &quot;The Wentworth jet is waiting for him right now,&quot; she frowns. Before leaving &quot;to find Cliff and get him to Houston&quot;, she finds time to dispense a little more of her patented fight-for-your-man advice: &quot;Oh Afton, don&#039;t give up on him. I know that Cliff loves you and you love him. Whatever your problems are, you&#039;ll work them out.&quot;In the midst of all this drama, JR is contacted by Walt Driscoll, back from the Cayman Islands with a new business proposition: &quot;I&#039;m talking about millions in profit and I&#039;m talking about immediate profit ... We&#039;re gonna run out of money bags to put it in!&quot;The two men convene on an off-the-beaten-track dirt road (in contrast to JR&#039;s recklessly out-in-the-open meet with George Hicks in last week&#039;s episode). &quot;I made contacts in the Caribbean,&quot; explains Walt. &quot;There&#039;s this country down there that&#039;s willin&#039; to pay over the market price for your excess oil ... They&#039;re on the State Department&#039;s embargo list ... It&#039;s illegal of course, but I&#039;ve arranged to cover your shipment of oil with phoney papers from a third non-embargo country ... We make obscene profits and you get rid of that stockpile of oil you can&#039;t refine ...&quot; &quot;Whatever happened to old Walt Driscoll, the honest public servant all Texans admired?&quot; wonders JR. &quot;I learned all about honesty from you, JR,&quot; he replies. &quot;I don&#039;t need a deal like that right now, Walt,&quot; JR tells him. &quot;All the oil I&#039;m pumpin&#039; goes straight to my gasoline stations ... Maybe another time.&quot; Maybe sooner than he thinks. Two short, seemingly disconnected scenes follow: Accompanied by Lance Rubin&#039;s sad piano score, Bobby returns home to a darkened Southfork living room, pours himself a drink and gazes up at the portrait of Daddy. Dozing on Cliff&#039;s couch, a hair or two out of place, Afton is disturbed by the phone. &quot;Cliff, where are you?&quot; she says immediately. There&#039;s a pause, then she asks &quot;Who is this?&quot; That ominous someone&#039;s-going-a-bit-mad music that plays during Katherine Wentworth&#039;s blonde wig scenes in &quot;Swan Song&quot; (as well as the DYNASTY speech in which Neil McVane confesses to dressing up as Joan Collins) begins. &quot;Oh my God!&quot; exclaims Afton. She slams down the phone, grabs her purse and runs for the door. Back to Bobby. Judging from the unsteady way he heads towards the stairs, he&#039;s obviously downed a few drinks since we last saw him. Pam watches from the bed as he enters their room and collapses wearily into a chair. &quot;You look terrible,&quot; she tells him matter-of-factly. &quot;Uh huh. Nothin&#039; like a celebration to really depress me,&quot; he agrees, putting his hands over his eyes. &quot;You know that guy Hicks on Donna&#039;s commission? Well, JR had him bought and paid for till I pulled a little number on him ... I got down in the mud, honey, just like I said I could ...&quot; &quot;What did you do?&quot; asks Pam, alarmed. &quot;I blackmailed him,&quot; he replies, &quot;and I feel so dirty.&quot; &quot;What do you want from me?&quot; she snaps. &quot;Sympathy? Because you&#039;re not going to get it.&quot; &quot;Pam, I don&#039;t want your sympathy.&quot; &quot;Oh yes, you do. You want me to slap your wrist and then reassure you that you&#039;re still the same wonderful man underneath it all. Well, I&#039;m not gonna help you out. You can stay dirty ... You&#039;re not the man I married. The Bobby I love would rather be dead than blackmail Hicks or anybody else, double cross the cartel or force his own mother into court.&quot; &quot;There were reasons,&quot; he insists. &quot;Reasons?!&quot; she shouts. &quot;There&#039;s only one reason! You would do anything to beat JR and get the company. Anything!&quot; This satisfyingly cathartic rant by Pam makes this probably the best scene of the episode, although it&#039;s hard to separate it from what comes next.We&#039;re treated to the rare sight of Afton running across the sound-stage patio and ringing the doorbell. (There&#039;s a doorbell on the patio? Who knew?) &quot;I have to see Pamela,&quot; she tells Teresa who leads her into the hallway. &quot;Afton, what on earth are you doin&#039; here?&quot; asks JR, chuckling with surprise. &quot;Delivering messages for Cliff Barnes?&quot; &quot;Who&#039;s at the door?&quot; Miss Ellie chimes in. &quot;Afton! My Lord, what&#039;s wrong?&quot; No one can quite understand what Audrey Landers is doing on the Southfork set. Is she gonna start singing? Pam and Bobby come down the stairs to investigate. &quot;I have some very bad news,&quot; Afton begins, turning to Pam. &quot;I was at Cliff&#039;s. A call came and they told me what happened and I had to tell you in person ... The Wentworth jet crashed.&quot; There&#039;s a reaction shot of Pam and Bobby, then of Ellie, then JR. &quot;Cliff?&quot; asks Pam. &quot;No, no it wasn&#039;t Cliff,&quot; Afton replies. &quot;Pam, it was your mother.&quot; The camera zooms in on Pam, a darker quality to the shot which means you know it&#039;s the final one of the episode. &quot;She went in his place,&quot; says Afton&#039;s disembodied voice. &quot;My mother!&quot; whispers Pam. She&#039;s standing so still that it takes a second before one realises that the frame has frozen, and then bang - straight into the closing theme. Ironically, this is the first Pam freeze frame since &quot;Prodigal Mother&quot;, the episode that introduced Rebecca.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="James from London, post: 39926, member: 22"] [U][I]"Crash of 83"[/I][/U][I] [/I]This has to be one of DALLAS's cleverest episode titles (even if it did take me a few years to get the pun) as well as the only one that refers to the period in which the series was made. [I]"There are very few things in this world JR Ewing cannot afford. Patience is one of them."[/I] In fact, time is of the essence for each of the Ewing brothers in this episode. "You get me that refinery. I need it now," says JR to his broker, Russell Slater. "Find somethin' ... that I can use to turn Hicks around. Time is very important to me," Bobby tells Wendy the hooker. Even Ray's master-plan to "make or break" Mickey has acquired a sense of urgency. "I think he might come around," says Lucy. "I'm just not sure I can wait that long," Ray replies. While this episode finds JR intent on acquiring another refinery and Bobby focused on pressuring George Hicks so that JR won't have any [I]use[/I] for another refinery, each brother is able to spare a scene or two to discuss other business ventures. First, Bobby gets an update from Thornton McLeish on how their deal in Canada is progressing. The short answer is: it isn't. "We haven't been able to start drilling yet," Thornton admits. "Hang in there, huh?" With Bobby's Canadian venture stalled, the breaking of Hicks becomes all the more imperative. "I think I have something you can use," Wendy tells Bobby after an evening on the town with George. "Cocaine. Hicks is a user." (Strange how clean-cut Bobby is the Ewing who attracts all the drug related story-lines: Hicks's coke, Lucy's diet pills, Jeff Faraday's dealers, Veronica Robinson's overdose, Tommy Mackay's bad trip and whatever was going on with those 90210 girls in Season 13.) "Wendy, I like the way you're handling this," he tells her. "And I like [I]you[/I], Mr Ewing," she replies, "When this is all over if you'd like to get together?" Bobby looks terrified. "Wendy, you're very beautiful and you're nice," he says wimpily, "but this is strictly a business deal." Later on, Wendy calls Bobby at the office. "All the signals point to us ending up at his place," she tells him. "Just say the word and I'm ready to roll." Bobby takes a deep breath. "All right. Do it," he tells her. It's the last we see of Wendy. Shame really; of the DALLAS hookers, I think she's my favourite (with Millie Laverne and Season 7's Rhonda following close behind). Meanwhile, Russell Slater's fruitless search for a refinery prompts a terrific rant from JR. "That's my picture on the front page," he begins, waving a newspaper in Slater's face. "You know why it's there? Because I provide low-cost gasoline to the little man. Without another refinery, I'm not gonna be able to process enough oil to satisfy the little man ... The minute my picture is off that front page, the TEC is gonna rescind my variance. They rescind the variance, I'm gonna have to shut down all my gasoline stations. No gasoline stations means no profits and no profits means I'm gonna lose my whole company, and I guarantee you, you will never hear about [I]that![/I]" "Well, I may have a lead," admits Slater. "The owner lives in Houston ..." "Well, get on a plane and lock it up!" orders JR. As determined as JR is to get a refinery, Rebecca and Cliff are equally determined to stop him. "Wentworth Industries does business with practically every refinery owner in Texas. If JR gets close to a deal, I'll use all the influence I have to kill it," Rebecca promises. "That's all I wanted to hear," smiles Cliff. With Rebecca not long for this soap opera, there are some subtle attempts at closure for the character in this episode. She finally gets to enjoy a harmonious scene with her two eldest children. The only previous occasions where the three characters have been alone together have been at Brooktree and Dallas Memorial Hospitals after Pam and Cliff's respective suicide attempts. In this episode, Rebecca watches fondly as Pam introduces Christopher to Cliff: "Cliff, do you recognise this child? ... When was the last time you saw him? When have you [I]ever[/I] seen him? ... You have never seen him, your own nephew!" Katzman and co seem to have forgotten the scene in Season 4 where Cliff runs into JR at Southfork while on his way to present Pam and Christopher with a cuddly toy. Nonetheless, this scene helps set things up for the post-Rebecca era in which Cliff and Pam regain the closeness they shared in the early years, and also the post-Pam years where Cliff and Christopher become (slightly unlikely) best buddies. "You hungry?" Cliff asks his soggy nephew. "I got some leftover Chinese food I can warm up for him." Everyone laughs - it's the calm before the storm. In addition, the possible pairing of Rebecca and Clayton, which has been hinted at periodically since their reunion at the Southfork barbecue the previous year, is finally discounted. Ellie, flush from her chance meeting with Clayton in Galveston, ("If you're not careful, Miss Ellie, you'll find these little vacations are addictive," he tells her. One never-ending cruise coming up) asks for clarification of their relationship. "You were seeing each other, weren't you?" she asks. "Oh no, Miss Ellie. Not like that," Clayton replies. "I like Rebecca very much. She was married to a very dear friend of mine and we share a pleasant friendship like yours and mine, but that's all." Miss Ellie's relationship with Frank Crutcher is also laid to rest. "Frank is a very charming man and I like him, I really do, but Clayton is very special," she tells Sue Ellen. "He has something different, a sweetness, a strength." "Clayton is a fine man," agrees Sue Ellen through gritted teeth. "Of all the people for Mama to take up with, Clayton Farlow!" exclaims JR when Sue Ellen tells him the news. "Mama's very vulnerable right now. It wouldn't take much for that man to move in on her. I'll be damned if I'll let that happen!" And right there is the central plot for the second half of Season 6. Clayton's shock decision - "I've sold the Southern Cross" - will also return to haunt him during the latter part of that year. Lucy shares a couple of scenes with Ray in this episode. It's the first time the two have been alone together since her move back to Southfork at the beginning of Season 4, and it won't happen again until he discovers her working at the Hot Biscuit in Season 7. For now, however, the topic of conversation is Mickey. "He screwed up again," Ray sighs. "The real problem's his attitude." "How come you're in the doghouse?" Lucy asks when she finds Mickey baling hay. "[Is it] because you drove me to the airport? ... I'm really sorry. I'll talk to Ray." "Don't bother," he snaps. "I'm not gonna be around long enough for it to make any difference ... I'm tired of this cowboy crud. I'm gettin' outta here." Lucy trots back to Ray and tries to make things right between him and his cousin: "You know I think all he really wants is for you to trust him ..." "You kinda like him, don'tcha?" Ray asks her. "There's nothing going on between Mickey and me, believe me," she assures him. Nevertheless, a change seems to come over Lucy in this episode, and it's kind of sweet to see her emerging from her withdrawn period, without her even realising it. (Funny how her withdrawn period and her "I like myself" period of Season 7 each result in her getting the same minimal amount of screen time.) Holly's a no show this week and Donna appears only once, discussing JR's latest appearance on TALK TIME: "Politics? I never really gave it a thought," he chuckles, "If a political offer were made to me, I would seriously have to weigh the good I can do the little man at the gas pump against the good I can do for the little man as his political representative." "We need to stop JR before it gets outta hand!" exclaims Donna, not for the first time. There are two collisions in this episode: the off-screen crash that happens between the Wentworth jet and another, unnamed aircraft (Jock's phantom helicopter, perhaps, piloted by an undead version of Chico Steve?), and the collision of several story-lines in the lead up to that crash. Such is the knotty structure of this season, it's hard to pinpoint the exact moment where the chain of events leading to Rebecca's death begins, (heck, one could argue that it started with the birth of the Barnes/Ewing feud four decades earlier) but in terms of this episode, it's a chance encounter between JR and Gil Thurman that changes everything. "Lookee here, there's somebody I know!" hollers Gil across a crowded restaurant. "Until you get rid of that despicable animal, I'll be in the ladies' room," Sue Ellen tells her husband before beating a hasty retreat. JR's conversation with "that despicable animal" soon turns to the refinery deal JR recently lost to Cliff and the cartel. "I could beat Barnes in any fair deal, you know that ... What kind of edge did he have?" he asks. "Five foot four, long blonde hair, pretty. Name's Afton Cooper. I can't remember the last time I got so little sleep," replies Gil gallantly. "That explains it," chuckles JR without missing a beat. "Afton was talkin' about you ... I got the impression she was very fond of you." "... Maybe I oughta look the lady up," muses Gil. "What a truly loathsome man he is," Sue Ellen shudders once Thurman has gone. "Don't be so hard on him, Sue Ellen," mock-chides JR. "A man like that might do us some good some day." Or maybe not: as a direct result of JR revving up Gil's engine with thoughts of Afton pining for him, JR's two worst enemies (Cliff and Pam) each end up inheriting a fortune. JR gets confirmation that the refinery in Houston is for sale. "Russell, you have just about made my day," he beams to his broker, "Let's not hang around here. We don't want the cartel to snatch [I]this[/I] one away from us." (This little back reference to the Gil Thurman deal neatly illustrates how closely connected all the plot points of this season are.) "I'm on the three o'clock flight to Houston," Slater assures him. "Whatever it takes, make this deal for me," replies a suddenly serious JR. News travels fast: "I heard from my source in Houston ... that JR has finally smoked out a refinery for sale," Cliff tells Rebecca in their final scene together. "Who's the owner?" she asks. "Mike Hughes. He's got some big notes comin' due ... JR's offered him a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow." "The name Wentworth still carries clout with men like Mike Hughes. He won't sell to JR. Not if I specifically ask him not to ... Did your source say when the deal with JR might close?" "Yeah, as soon as day after tomorrow." "You might have to fly to Houston tomorrow to bring Mike Hughes a letter from me." "... I'll fly to the end of the moon to stop JR." [I]"I'll fly to the end of the moon ... a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow."[/I] Maybe it's just me, but there's something about these phrases that evokes a feeling of impossibility. Like Icarus flying too close to the sun, this plane journey already feels somehow doomed. Bobby drops the boom on George Hicks, handing him a selection of Polaroids taken in his house. "That white stuff there is your favourite party substance, Hicks," he explains. "Are you blackmailing me?" "Blackmail, bribery. I don't see the difference. You wanted to play hardball, my friend." "Wendy. She planted them. This is a frame up!" " ... You got forty-eight hours to call a meeting of the TEC and then I want you to vote the way you used to before you got mixed up with my brother." Bobby may have the upper hand, but Hicks gets the final word: "Ewing, I gotta give you credit. You're just as dirty as your famous brother." Looks like Bobby's self-righteous words about the consequences of playing hardball apply as much to himself as they do to Hicks. At that moment, JR is on the phone to Mike Hughes, the unseen refinery owner in Houston: "I think we oughta make the deal on your refinery right this minute. Wentworth is not gonna top this. You know that as well as I do. Could I consider that done? You have my word on it. You'll never regret it. And just remember, ol' JR never forgets a friend." OK, let's keep track here: the fact that JR has already made a deal with the refinery owner means that Rebecca's plane journey is not only doomed but pointless. In addition, Bobby's successful blackmail of Hicks means that the TEC will now vote to rescind JR's variance, thus rendering said refinery deal equally pointless. It's an ironic-timing pile-up! Unaware of any of this, Rebecca cuts short an afternoon at Southfork with Pam, Christopher and Ellie so that she can pick up Cliff and take him to the airport. "He has to convince a refinery owner not to sell to JR. I know what I said, Ellie, but I really have no choice." "I don't need an explanation, Rebecca," Miss Ellie replies before revealing her new strategy for dealing with the fight for Ewing Oil - voluntary denial. "The only way I can continue to live here is to ignore the war and get on with my own life." Pam is less philosophical. "Why are you getting involved in the feud again, Mother?" she demands before issuing one last warning: "I'm just terribly frightened somebody's really going to be hurt." Alas, just like her previous prognostications of disaster, ("This thing could destroy all of us!" ... "That battle is really going to hurt somebody!" ... "Your dirty deals might just get somebody killed one of these days!" ... "Everyone's going to be hurt, especially you!") it falls on deaf ears. "The stakes are very high here, Pam!" barks Rebecca, glaring fiercely through those strangely triangular eyes of hers. Over at the blue and white condo, Afton's flower-arranging interlude is rudely interrupted by Gil Thurman demanding "an instant replay of our last time." "Get out!" she gasps. "You don't have to tease me to get me excited. I heard how you were all hot and bothered waiting for me to come back, so just pucker up!" Cliff arrives in time to see Afton fighting Thurman off. "Hey hey, what the hell is goin' on?" he demands. "All I'm doin' is havin' another ride on the roller-coaster ... our little Afton here," explains Gill charmingly, "I told you, you knew how to put a deal together." Cliff virtually shouts Thurman out of his house - "Get outta here! GET OUTTA MY HOME! GET OUTTA HERE!" - before turning his vocal chords on Afton: "YOU SLEPT WITH HIM!" "That was his price ..." she begins timidly. "SO YOU'RE TELLIN' ME THAT I DIDN'T PUT THAT DEAL TOGETHER, THAT [I]YOU[/I] PUT THAT DEAL TOGETHER - IN BED! AND I THOUGHT YOU WERE MY GIRLFRIEND, NOT MY [I]WHORE!![/I]" "I did it for [I]you[/I], Cliff," she protests weakly, but he's already gone, slamming the door and sealing his mother's fate behind him. Shortly afterwards, Rebecca arrives to find a watery-eyed Afton huddled on the couch and Cliff nowhere to be found. "The Wentworth jet is waiting for him right now," she frowns. Before leaving "to find Cliff and get him to Houston", she finds time to dispense a little more of her patented fight-for-your-man advice: "Oh Afton, don't give up on him. I know that Cliff loves you and you love him. Whatever your problems are, you'll work them out." In the midst of all this drama, JR is contacted by Walt Driscoll, back from the Cayman Islands with a new business proposition: "I'm talking about millions in profit and I'm talking about [I]immediate[/I] profit ... We're gonna run out of money bags to put it in!" The two men convene on an off-the-beaten-track dirt road (in contrast to JR's recklessly out-in-the-open meet with George Hicks in last week's episode). "I made contacts in the Caribbean," explains Walt. "There's this country down there that's willin' to pay over the market price for your excess oil ... They're on the State Department's embargo list ... It's illegal of course, but I've arranged to cover your shipment of oil with phoney papers from a third non-embargo country ... We make obscene profits and you get rid of that stockpile of oil you can't refine ..." "Whatever happened to old Walt Driscoll, the honest public servant all Texans admired?" wonders JR. "I learned all about honesty from you, JR," he replies. "I don't need a deal like that right now, Walt," JR tells him. "All the oil I'm pumpin' goes straight to my gasoline stations ... Maybe another time." Maybe sooner than he thinks. Two short, seemingly disconnected scenes follow: Accompanied by Lance Rubin's sad piano score, Bobby returns home to a darkened Southfork living room, pours himself a drink and gazes up at the portrait of Daddy. Dozing on Cliff's couch, a hair or two out of place, Afton is disturbed by the phone. "Cliff, where are you?" she says immediately. There's a pause, then she asks "Who is this?" That ominous someone's-going-a-bit-mad music that plays during Katherine Wentworth's blonde wig scenes in "Swan Song" (as well as the DYNASTY speech in which Neil McVane confesses to dressing up as Joan Collins) begins. "Oh my God!" exclaims Afton. She slams down the phone, grabs her purse and runs for the door. Back to Bobby. Judging from the unsteady way he heads towards the stairs, he's obviously downed a few drinks since we last saw him. Pam watches from the bed as he enters their room and collapses wearily into a chair. "You look terrible," she tells him matter-of-factly. "Uh huh. Nothin' like a celebration to really depress me," he agrees, putting his hands over his eyes. "You know that guy Hicks on Donna's commission? Well, JR had him bought and paid for till I pulled a little number on him ... I got down in the mud, honey, just like I said I could ..." "What did you do?" asks Pam, alarmed. "I blackmailed him," he replies, "and I feel so dirty." "What do you want from me?" she snaps. "Sympathy? Because you're not going to get it." "Pam, I don't want your sympathy." "Oh yes, you do. You want me to slap your wrist and then reassure you that you're still the same wonderful man underneath it all. Well, I'm not gonna help you out. You can stay dirty ... You're not the man I married. The Bobby I love would rather be dead than blackmail Hicks or anybody else, double cross the cartel or force his own mother into court." "There were [I]reasons[/I]," he insists. "Reasons?!" she shouts. "There's only one reason! You would do [I]anything[/I] to beat JR and get the company. [I]Anything![/I]" This satisfyingly cathartic rant by Pam makes this probably the best scene of the episode, although it's hard to separate it from what comes next. We're treated to the rare sight of Afton running across the sound-stage patio and ringing the doorbell. (There's a doorbell on the patio? Who knew?) "I have to see Pamela," she tells Teresa who leads her into the hallway. "Afton, what on earth are you doin' here?" asks JR, chuckling with surprise. "Delivering messages for Cliff Barnes?" "Who's at the door?" Miss Ellie chimes in. "Afton! My Lord, what's wrong?" No one can quite understand what Audrey Landers is doing on the Southfork set. Is she gonna start singing? Pam and Bobby come down the stairs to investigate. "I have some very bad news," Afton begins, turning to Pam. "I was at Cliff's. A call came and they told me what happened and I had to tell you in person ... The Wentworth jet crashed." There's a reaction shot of Pam and Bobby, then of Ellie, then JR. "Cliff?" asks Pam. "No, no it wasn't Cliff," Afton replies. "Pam, it was your mother." The camera zooms in on Pam, a darker quality to the shot which means you know it's the final one of the episode. "She went in his place," says Afton's disembodied voice. "[I]My mother![/I]" whispers Pam. She's standing so still that it takes a second before one realises that the frame has frozen, and then bang - straight into the closing theme. Ironically, this is the first Pam freeze frame since "Prodigal Mother", the episode that introduced Rebecca. [/QUOTE]

Verification

Who played JR Ewing?