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Message: <blockquote data-quote="James from London" data-source="post: 207816" data-attributes="member: 22">The Big Shut Down (DALLAS, 13 Nov 81) v Billion Dollar Question (DALLAS, 15 Oct 82)In The Big Shut Down, JR is stockpiling the Farlows’ oil and starving their refineries to get them to turf Sue Ellen and John Ross off the Southern Cross. While going after his wife and kid as if he were overthrowing a foreign government makes him seem a little unhinged, this fiendish campaign mostly boils down to some dull meetings with anonymous bankers and phone calls to equally nondescript refinery owners. How best to sex this storyline up? By bringing back another character from sexy Season 2, that’s how! We’ve already had Kristin and Dusty, and now it’s the return of Vaughan Leland, who is still nursing a grudge against JR while pretending not to. Adding more glamour to the plot, JR enlists a reluctant Afton as bait to keep Vaughan sweet.This episode is chockfull of historical moments: the first meetings between Pam and Katherine (the latter has yet to perfect her evil glare so she mostly just darts her eyes around and hopes for the best), and Bobby and Jeff Faraday, who brings with him the deets on Kristin’s son (“The father’s here in Dallas,” he says with technical accuracy). While Pam anticipates her eventual exit from the series by telling Bobby, “No-one can fix what’s wrong with me — if I went away, you’d find someone else,” Katherine’s attraction to her brother-in-law manifests itself for the first time (“I can understand why Pam fell in love with Bobby”), even though their introductory encounter takes place off-screen. Also off-screen, Jock sets foot on Texas soil for the last time as he changes planes on his way to South America. (JR misses this final opportunity to see his father because he’s off trying to win his approval by getting John Ross back — an irony which sums up the tragedy of their relationship.) Punk accepts a last-minute invitation to join Jock in South America, thereby securing himself a pivotal role in several storylines to come and leaving Ray to go it alone on his first and last land deal. At the Southern Cross, Sue Ellen listens to Clayton recalling how he destroyed the old ranch house following the death of his sick wife. Although he makes no mention of a sister or a fire and says that Dusty was born at home rather than London, this scene lays the foundation for Lady Jessica’s storyline almost three years later. More immediately, this is DALLAS's first attempt to depict Clayton as something more than just Dusty’s father, as well as sowing the seeds of a friendship between him and Sue Ellen that exists independently of his son. All this plus the requisite “When Jock was here, the family sat down together at six” reminiscence from Miss Ellie.The Big Shut Down ends with JR signing a loan agreement with Vaughan Leland that endangers the future of Ewing Oil. By Billion Dollar Question, eleven months later, he’s been voted out of the company after using it “to savagely destroy someone.” The only way he can get back in is to have his daddy’s will read, and the only way that can happen is for Miss Ellie to have Jock declared legally dead. And so JR spends most of this episode pressurising both Bobby at the office (by setting the IRS on him) and Miss Ellie at home (“Would Daddy approve of the way this family’s been handled since he died?”), building to a three-way clash between them in the final scene where Mama makes it clear that she won’t be strong-armed into taking action. But JR won't take no for an answer. “One way or another, that will is going to be read,” he vows.Meanwhile Pam, no longer the quivering mess she was during The Big Shut Down, acts as Lucy’s rock when she undergoes the Ewingverse’s first and only abortion, and Sue Ellen is back at the Southern Cross, happily oblivious to the fact that Clayton is now in love with her. Not so JR. “Are you confusing Sue Ellen by telling her how much you really care for her?” he asks him. “Haven’t said a word,” Clayton replies. “Good. Dealing with one lovesick Cliff Barnes is about all I can take.”And the winner is ... The Big Shut DownBONUS BEATS[MEDIA=youtube]MQOG5BkY2Bc[/MEDIA]</blockquote>

Verification: Who played JR Ewing?