Miss Ellie Acted Very Callous Towards Jock After Her Mastectomy

[Billy Wall]

And it pretty much continued right through the Takapa storyline. After his first wife came into the picture, something just seemed off with their marriage. Jock just couldn’t please her. I know, 1st Jock had a 1st wife he never told her about, then they finds out that Ray’s his son.

It just seems as if she looked at Jock with a raised eyebrow after she found out about Amanda and got worse when Ray came into the picture.

For some reason, I didn’t like them putting conflict in Jock/Miss Ellie’s marriage. It’s one thing to have JR/Sue Ellen and Bobby/Pam to have issues, but Jock/Miss Ellie were the patriarch and matriarch of the chore family. They should have been untouchable in that regard.

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

Boobies are a big deal.

 

[Seaviewer]

I think it was realistic that Miss Ellie should lash out in frustration. You can't argue with the illness, and those closest often find themselves in the line of fire.

 

[Chris2]

Honestly, if I had been married to someone for 40 years and I found out that they had a previous spouse they never told me about, I’d act the same way. Trust is so important in a relationship - it’s built in drops and lost in buckets, as they say. One of the times that Dallas portrayed a situation realistically.

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

Jock had secrets. Ellie had anger. There was probably a connection between these things.

But not the breast cancer -- Jock didn't cause that unless he and Jacqueline Perrault buried nuclear waste under the ranch along with the Ewings' share of that Nazi treasure. And that just has to be considered... But my vote goes to Jeremy Wendell spiking the Southfork aquifer. Well before 1984 when the resultant hallucination made family think Miss Ellie had a different head and designer for a year, and then caused another year of history to be erased via a twelve-month long dream.

Damn you, Weststar!! :scream:

 

[DallasFanForever]

For some reason, I didn’t like them putting conflict in Jock/Miss Ellie’s marriage. It’s one thing to have JR/Sue Ellen and Bobby/Pam to have issues, but Jock/Miss Ellie were the patriarch and matriarch of the chore family. They should have been untouchable in that regard.

I didn’t like Miss Ellie and Jock having conflict either, but I have to say that it was definitely well written and so well acted out by both that at one point I actually started believing they were headed for divorce.

 

[Snowcat]

Honestly, if I had been married to someone for 40 years and I found out that they had a previous spouse they never told me about, I’d act the same way. Trust is so important in a relationship - it’s built in drops and lost in buckets, as they say. One of the times that Dallas portrayed a situation realistically.

Really? Im not sure I would. I would want to understand what happened & why he didn’t tell me. Was it one of those things where you were young & stupid. I’ve been married over 15 years. my heart and my husband’s heart are fixed on each other. After 40+ years, I don’t know that I would care about previous relationships unless it was affecting our lives now. I posted a thread about this the first time I saw these episodes. I thought Miss Ellie was mean to Jock. Amanda was mentally ill. He couldn’t take care of her. It didn’t matter how much Jock supported her with the mastectomy. She kept rejecting him. At least latter, she realized how she acted. She told Clayton she was unkind to Jock. Before Pam ran away, Bobby was talking to Miss Ellie about how to support her. She said be patient with her & keep telling her you love her, just like your daddy did with me. To be fair to ME, a mastectomy is traumatizing, especially back then. I don’t know if they had the prostheses or reconstruction options we have today.

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

Some have argued Jock loved Ellie more than she did him. I'm not sure I could say that for sure -- and that opinion probably depends on which character one relates to most.

We all know women have often accepted men into their ... ummm... lives due to a desire for resources -- that's probably biological: women have to physically have the children and then are the predominant caregivers (even if the father is present and conscientious). So women are going to need those resources --- even today, when women are doing as well or better financially than men, women still want to pair or marry "up" with a guy with even greater resources.

So it's hardwired into our biology. Also hardwired is a man's romantic -- or sexual -- interest in women. (Well, some men...) And that's designed to spread his DNA (eeew!) in order to create offspring -- requiring her cooperation, if she'll supply it.

So are such relationships mutually exploitive by nature? Does the reproductive needs of the species justify that exploitation? Does justification even matter?

Seeing how the sausage is made, pardon the expression, is rarely pleasant. But most people still eat it.

Are Jock & Ellie metaphoric for the human condition, at least as it pertains to heterosexual pair bonding? Does he "love" her more because he wants her cooch? And does she love him less because she wants his wallet? Both are in the pants, after all.

And is true love a real thing that transcends sex and money?

Ellie's reaction when Jock died seems to suggest that she cared a lot about her first husband. And it certainly wasn't about her concerns over resources, since she would obviously inherit a queen's ransom.

Was it 50/50? Or 60/40? Or 30/70?

Ellie seemed to have self-esteem issues and lived in a certain degree of denial. Even JR said, "Mama, you don't know half of what Daddy did when he was running this company!" (or words to that effect). So Jock was capable of certain things Ellie was not, and things she didn't want to know about -- and on the rare occasion she spoke up about that, she used the word "disgust!"

Was she wrong to feel that way? Did Jock's supposedly superior love for her neutralize the significance of his Mephistophelean tendencies?

Who was obliged to love whom more? And who should've?


"There better not be another one, Jock..."

 

[Jock Ewing Fan]

I wonder if Ellie really ever loved Jock.

Married him to save Southfork.
Tried to give away Southfork to her missing then reappearing brother.
Seemed to betray her thoughts when she said she didn't marry Jock to lose Southfork, when the Asian wells deal seemed to fail
Tried to break his will and sell Ewing Oil
Took his portrait down from Southfork
Tried to sell Ewing Oil again during the dream season
Gave away half of Southfork to Clayton, in theory cutting off his sons from inheriting if she predeceased Clayton
Was perfectly happy to live a life of wealth and privilege,but would then complain about how Jock and/or JR conducted business

I just wonder

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

I wonder if Ellie really ever loved Jock.

Married him to save Southfork.
Tried to give away Southfork to her missing then reappearing brother.
Seemed to betray her thoughts when she said she didn't marry Jock to lose Southfork, when the Asian wells deal seemed to fail
Tried to break his will and sell Ewing Oil
Took his portrait down from Southfork
Tried to sell Ewing Oil again during the dream season
Gave away half of Southfork to Clayton, in theory cutting off his sons from inheriting if she predeceased Clayton
Was perfectly happy to live a life of wealth and privilege,but would then complain about how Jock and/or JR conducted business

I just wonder

Well, she seemed pretty devastated when Jock died. And there was a lot to complain about regarding how Jock and/or JR conducted business.

 

[Billy Wall]

I think you’re both (Jock Ewing Fan and Snarky Oracle) are right. Jock’s and Miss Ellie’s marriage is very complicated. Their marriage was almost like one of those prearranged marriages where it takes many years before the wife falls in love with her husband.

Jock wasn’t an easy person to love, but Miss Ellie did love him.

 

[Chris2]

I think Ellie - like the show’s writers - elevated Jock to sainthood after he died. That’s not unusual for some widows.

But I do think Jock loved her a bit more than she loved him.

 

[pete lashmar]

Ellie's reaction to Donna (when she was writing her book) shows how much she had elevated Jock after his death.

She knew that Jock was more than capable of locking someone in a sanitarium in order to get their company - if he were alive she'd have gone for him over such an accusation and demanded he tell her the truth, but in death she was adamant that he could never do such a terrible thing.

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

I think Ellie - like the show’s writers - elevated Jock to sainthood after he died. That’s not unusual for some widows.

With Ellie, of course, it's understandable. I do wish the writers had not quite gone down the same road. Today, of course, that wouldn't happen -- Jock would remain a Machiavellian monster in memory no matter how beloved the actor.

That said, Jim Davis is on film calling BBG "a c**t." So that's something.

 

[Taylor Bennett Jr.]

I also felt that there was more than enough marital trouble between the younger couples, and Jock and Ellie should have had some stability in contrast. Yes, Jock was stubborn, but would the titan of Ewing Oil really throw away his 50-year marriage over a stupid resort development deal?

Also, I feel the storyline was hindered by Jim Davis's declining health. The poor man could barely stand up and deliver his lines as the season went on. I've read that by the time they got to the reconciliation scene with Donna and Ray, Jim's brain cancer had progressed to the point where he was actually blind. It made it seem extra cold, even cruel, for Ellie to be leaving him.

 

[Billy Wall]

That said, Jim Davis is on film calling BBG "a c**t." So that's something.

Wait, what??? Lol

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

Wait, what??? Lol

Outtakes reel -- I'm sure somebody can find it!

 

[Chris2]

That’s still harsh even for an outtakes reel. Oh well, it was the 70s.

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

That’s still harsh even for an outtakes reel. Oh well, it was the 70s.

Bel Geddes laughed good-naturedly. Working for decades in the theatre, I'm sure she'd heard it before. Hopefully not directed at her, but who knows...?

And I always want to hear Jock scream, "You mothr-fu****g fa***ts!," whenever he's mad at his sons.

 

[Barbara Fan]

@Billy Wall

2 plus minutes in Jocks drops a bomb, re that scene

7 plus minutes in Momma swears