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Message: <blockquote data-quote="JROG" data-source="post: 127394" data-attributes="member: 43">EPISODE 10: THE STINGContrary to what the title suggests, this isn’t as painful as I thought it would be. Although the ranch war is wrapped up unconvincingly and implausibly (at least in legal terms), the story has a few more twists up its sleeve. For reasons plotty, Wendell must sell most of his Weststar stock to buy Section 40 but McKay will not cooperate any further unless Wendell gets his son out of a South American jail within three days. George Kennedy gives a breathtaking performance when Tommy calls from the hospital, but despite his incredible happiness that his son is back in the country, McKay doesn’t feel any particular need to visit him.Wendell is not having a good week (and it’s about to get worse). He shows up at Sue Ellen's with some bracelet and attempts to reconcile. "You make my skin crawl when you touch me," Sue Ellen replies. "I’d rather sleep with a carnival freak." Damn, Sue Ellen, tell us how you really feel!Shocking as Miss Ellie's decision to sell was, you could understand why she made it, and the potential for story was huge. Therefore, when the Ewings and McKay reveal that they’ve set Wendell up, have his confession, and he gets arrested and thrown in jail, it feels unexciting, anticlimactic, and a waste of potential. Too sudden. Why would they just end it like this? The DALLAS book seems to give the answer: Smithers asked for a raise and they wrote him out, throwing an entire season’s worth of story away.The show gets meta once again as they have Bobby and Ray lament how different and empty the show and family feel nowadays. Just as they’re doing this, they’re setting things up for Ray’s (second) exit. Um, maybe you want to do something different? When all is said and done, Ray’s goodbye scene later with the family (minus that awkwardly fake J.R. part) is really touching. "There’s a part of me that’s never going to leave here," Ray says before getting into his decidedly un-Ray-like limousine and driving off. It’s sad – I’ve been watching this man for almost 14 years. I wish they’d let him stay.April and Lucy, in their final installment of Get a Clue, confront Casey about his conman ways and they part ways for good. A shame – April is right: if Casey had handled things differently, and hadn’t changed his character, this could have worked out. I hate it when April is right. April jumps right into her next storyline, when she and J.R. agree to go into the oil business together, but what’s Lucy going to do now? Hmmm, maybe Tommy McKay.Since he has nothing else to do, Cliff tells Tammy that he only married Jamie to get his hands on her Ewing Oil shares.After reconciling with Tracey, McKay is surprised by none other than Kimberly Cryder! She bought Wendell's Weststar shares. This has potential as well, let’s see how the show wastes it.Sheriff Hanks shows up at Ewing Oil to tell J.R. never to show up at the Place that Shall Not Be Named Again. I mean, you probably couldn’t pay J.R. to go there, and indeed, he asks why he’d ever want to go back to that “stinkhole”! That’s exactly what we feel too, J.R. During dinner at Southfork, Cally shows up, ready to claim her geriatric husband. Poor Miss Ellie initially looks like she’s about to have a stroke! Bobby asks J.R. if this is true. "It was true in a kind of vague sense," he hilariously replies. And, for once, the show plays something for laughs that is actually funny, as the Ewings are hardly keeping themselves from laughing and Cally takes her place next to J.R….  </blockquote>

Verification: What month follows July?