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Message: <blockquote data-quote="James from London" data-source="post: 202801" data-attributes="member: 22">Bail Out (DALLAS, 25 Jan 85) v Bar-B-Cued (DALLAS, 12 Dec 86)<img src="https://dallasdecoder.files.wordpress.com/2015/07/critique-dallas-episode-178-bail-out-2-copy.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /><img src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/cArw9RDnup8/hqdefault.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" />These two episodes take place on either side of the Dream Season and show Bobby making himself so indispensable — bailing Jenna out of jail in early ’85; resolving the Wes Parmalee storyline singlehandedly in late ’86 — that you wonder how they got along without him in-between.Both eps see the Ewings united against an outside threat — first, Cliff and Jamie’s claim to two-thirds of Ewing Oil, then Wes’s claim that he is Jock. There’s room for some infighting too, of course — Sue Ellen giving Donna Reed a hard time for supporting JR and Bobby; JR giving Barbara Bel Geddes a hard time for going out with Wes.Pam is lovely in both, but I’m not she was ever more appealing than during the latter part of Season 7. As well as being beautiful, she’s remarkably open and emotionally spontaneous in Bail Out — whether it’s her joy at being told Mark might still be alive, her vulnerability when she tells Bobby of her dream that they could still end up together, or her trembling fury when she realises she has been deceived by JR about Mark.In Bail Out, Pam shows a glossy photo of Mark Graison to a foreign doctor who confirms that he is alive. In Bar-B-Cued, Bobby shows a glossy photo of Wes Parmalee to a foreign doctor who confirms that he is Jock Ewing. Whereas Pam is delighted, Bobby is dismayed. But in both eps, the doctor’s assertion is seemingly discredited in the final scene when Gerald Kane reveals that JR paid him to pretend he’d seen Mark and Bobby declares Wes’s real name to be Wyatt Haines.In both eps, someone gets Pam-slapped: Gerald Kane in Season 7 after he confesses to lying on JR’s behalf, and JR himself in Season 9 after he punches Cliff at the barbecue.Bail Out marks the beginning of JR and Mandy’s sexual relationship. “I hate games and I hate you!” she snarls before hurling a glass of champagne in his face. He then grabs her by the neck and kisses-her-until-she-likes-it. By the time of Bar-B-Cued, Mandy has ascended to Hollywood and been replaced by April — this is back when April was naughty and fun instead of wholesome and boring. Here, she schemes with JR, torments Jack, offers to herself to Wes and struts around the Ewing barbecue in a tiny leather minidress and matching boots.Bar-B-Cued is also the ep where Donna meets future husband Senator Dowling while lobbying in Washington on behalf of small independent businessmen who are suffering at the hands of OPEC — men like, we will learn in Season 13, Sheila Foley’s suicidal husband John. So you could argue April’s fate was sealed as far back as '86.And the winner is … a close-run thing. While Bail Out is the slicker and more exciting of the two, Wes Parmalee’s story gives Bar-B-Cued an irresistible streak of poignancy so … Bar-B-Cued it is.BONUS BEATS:[MEDIA=youtube]oIBxZiW1Vyo[/MEDIA]</blockquote>

Verification: Who played JR Ewing?