I know Soaps tend to have a hazy chronology, and it’s all the more curious considering they are dubbed ‘continuing’ dramas. Nevertheless, Dallas always seemed to me to be particularly mystifying in trying to map the passage of ‘real’ time onto the events that happened on screen.
I found all the big storylines pretty easy to follow. They had twists and turns but nothing "mystifying." The closest thing to what you're describing that I recall is the storyline where Cliff thought he owned a third of Ewing Oil and then he married Jamie because he thought she was also entitled to a third of Ewing Oil. Together, Jamie and Cliff would have majority ownership. In court he found out that Digger had sold his third of Ewing Oil to Wallace Windham. Jason Ewing also sold his third to Wallace also because it was in The Great Depression and Jason and Digger both thought their shares would become worthless. It was a great storyline.
Afterwards though, Cliff didn't seem to understand that Digger had not been cheated out of his rightful share of Ewing Oil. He'd sold it. Cliff had some serious apologizing to do for all those years he'd slandered Jock, attacked the Ewings and attacked Ewing Oil to get "what rightfully belonged to Digger." Instead of acknowledging what had been proven in court, Cliff pretty much went on as if nothing had changed, as if he still didn't understand Digger had lied to him and everyone else about Jock "stealing" his share of the company.
That was odd although it did prove what we'd always suspected: Cliff was using Digger's supposedly having been robbed as validation for Cliff's actions. Saying he was trying to avenge his father and that he wanted justice made him appear noble (to people who believed him). Cliff wanted it to look like he was justified in his actions when his real motives were that he was jealous of what the Ewings had and bitter that Jock was a success while Digger was a drunk and a lousy businessman.
