Having your dream season AND leaving it out in the rain

[Lastkidpicked]

So let’s put Pam in the Scully role where she is forced to put her own somewhat self-righteous moralising to one side and adopt Bobby’s more pragmatic approach to dealing with his brother, as well as the oil business in general. This would also mirror the journey taken by Bobby himself when he originally took over Ewing Oil after JR was shot. Initially determined to run the company completely on the up and up, he soon found himself swimming in murkier moral waters. I ain’t saying the overall arc of the non-existent 1985/6/7 season would be The Corruption of Pamela Ewing, but it’s as close as we’ll ever get.

This is a great perspective!

It would be interesting to see Pam losing out on deal after deal while competitors are willing to fight dirty to grab business out from under her. We could see her pushed farther when long time Ewing Oil deals get stolen away using underhanded techniques. Pam getting pushed to the point that she has to "get down in the mud" as Bobby has said, could lead to a revelation:

"I guess J.R. was right. If everybody else is willing to play dirty then we have to play dirty if only to level the playing field."

Once she offers up that first bribe, there is no going back. Pam loses a little bit of herself.

And gains a bit of respect for J.R.

 

[DallasFanForever]

Once she offers up that first bribe, there is no going back. Pam loses a little bit of herself.

And gains a bit of respect for J.R.

This is how Pam working at Ewing Oil should’ve gone. So much potential there but they never really tapped into it. It would’ve given her a better understanding of what Bobby went through during the battle a few years earlier.

 

[Willie Oleson]

Pam loses a little bit of herself.

In the scenario of "Bobby stays dead" and assuming it would be Pam's final year regardless of Bobby's whereabouts, they could have done with Pam whatever they wanted to do. Pull a "Chase Gioberti" and end her Dallas story with hatred and bitterness, for example.

Didn't Miss Ellie, in the dream, suggested that it would be in everyone's best interest if Pam would sell Bobby's shares to JR?
While I believed that Miss Ellie believed that the suggestion was based on good intent, it doesn't mean that Pam has to see it that way.
Even though it's possible that I'm completely misremembering that very scene, somehow the feeling of a double reading has always stayed with me.
They did more with that "Ewings first" in NuDALLAS as we saw Elena Ramos turn into a Ewing antagonist.

Pam could be in the car when she receives a phone call from Cliff, and she happily reveals that she's finally found the weapon that will destroy the Ewings once and for all.
*Crash* oops.
I can imagine an anxious Cliff hovering at Pam's mummified hospital bed, more concerned about what she discovered than about her health.
Maybe, in an Abby Ewing kind of way, she discovered Vanessa and James Beaumont. It would be nice if they showed up because of Pam - even if it happened a few years later.