Recap: JR returns home from the office and asks Pam and Bobby if Christopher has been put to bed yet, adding that he's become very fond of the little gaffer. Pam looks surprised at his interest in her tot and tells him that since Christopher may not be asleep yet, he's more than welcome to go up to the fugly nursery and look in on him. JR mutters about how his young son had once filled Southfork with joy...and that he'd been soooo hopeful he'd return to the ranch - until someone turned Sue Ellen against him. As Bobby stares sheepishly into space, Miss Ellie points out to JR that he's able to see John Ross on weekends, but JR says it's not the same as him living at the ranch full time, something that Pam and Bobby can certainly appreciate with their bundle of joy. He then goes upstairs to visit with Christopher...and Pam and Miss Ellie cluck sympathetically about how sad it is that he misses his son so much. JR enters the nursery and tells Christopher, "You don't know it yet, but I'm your daddy", then devilishly wonders how "Aunt Pam" would react if she were to ever find out the truth. Over at Studio Creepy, Roger is barking at Lucy to smile as he takes photographs of her sad disheveledness. She cries, "I can't!", then gets up and tries to make a break for it out of the room - but he physically restrains her, forcibly kisses her, and promises that when they're finished with the session he'll make her something to eat. He then continues to snap more photos, purring, "Now come on. Make looooove to this camera" while Lucy sobs at the horror and frustration of being this freak's captive. Bobby is in a travel agency, booking a one-way plane ticket to Rio under the name Jeff Farraday. Cliff drops in on Ewing Oil to smugly report to JR that he just purchased a plot of land known as the Wellington property, which is adjacent to the ones that WestStar and Ewing Oil/the cartel just purchased. JR looks faux outraged and rails about Marilee double-crossing him, and Cliff chucklingly remarks that he clearly doesn't know how to treat women. JR yells at Cliff to get out of his office, and Cliff happily says he's so certain he's about to become filthy rich that he doesn't anticipate any problem convincing Sue Ellen that he's more than capable of wedding her and funding her pampered lifestyle. [Dare to dream, Cliff.] After he happily scampers off, JR grins and says, "Oh Barnes...you just get dumber and dumber every day." LOL. Over at Casa Yokel, Donna continues to wring her hands about how to best handle the yet unpublished Sam/Jock/Jonas scandal. She says she's reluctant to tell Miss Ellie about it 'cause it's pretty obvious that she hasn't even fully accepted Jock's death yet, and has no idea how she'll react to learning that he may not have been the greatest man who ever walked the earth. Ray tells her she can't just pretend the scandal doesn't exist [even though she totally could and hardly anyone would be the wiser] and urges her to open up to Miss Ellie about it, and Donna's like, "I know, but I'm skeered." Clayton drops by Sue Ellen's house to tell her he's going to be out of the country for awhile so he can recombubulate his brain into thinking he no longer has the hots for her. When Sue Ellen scrunches her face confusedly, he explains that JR called him out on his non-platonic feelings for her...and this made him take a good hard look at himself and realize that his once paternal love for her was starting to enter 'my naughty parts are, uh, tingling' territory. Sue Ellen implores him to not allow JR to turn their lovely friendship into a sordid affair, but Clayton insists that he really really does need to put some distance between them so that there's no danger of their BFF relationship morphing into a May-December type thing that has the very real potential to ick viewers out. Bobby arrives at Jeff Farraday's apartment with the requested blackmail payment of $50,000 and the Rio plane ticket. He finds the door unlocked...then further discovers that someone has trashed the apartment and left Jeff lying dead on the floor. Bobby's all, "Ack!" and stares at the corpose in stunned horror. After the commercial break, Bobby checks Jeff's pulse...and when it's clear that there's no sign of life, he calls the police to anonymously report a homicide. He then carefully wipes his fingerprints from the phone and the doorknob and beats a hasty retreat. As he rushes out of the building and into his car, someone parked nearby is watching, and jots down the number of his license plate. JR returns to the office and gets a message that Sue Ellen called...and when he calls her back, she chides him for destroying her friendship with the finest man she's ever known. JR says he was merely pointing out the truth - but Sue Ellen says she despises him for causing Clayton even a moment of pain and discomfort. JR tells her he can [pretend to] sympathize, since he too has been feeling pain ever since their marriage [mercifully] ended and she snaps, "Good." Cliff's oil consultant, Tom, suggests they bring in another geologist to reassess the Wellington land before beginning to drill - but an impatient Cliff puts the kibosh on that and says he just wants to rush into drilling based on the faux geology report that Marilee gave him. Marilee tells Cliff it's actually not a bad idea to be extra sure of the presence of oil - but Cliff once again insists on starting to drill asap. After the meeting wraps up, Cliff summons Mr. Forest (the accountant of Wentworth Tool & Die), and tells the weirdo he needs him to cut a check for $500,000. Donna drops in on Miss Ellie in the Southfork kitchen and tells her that, during the course of her research, she learned that Sam and a partner wanted some land that was owned by Sam's Uncle Jonas...and when Jonas declined to sell it, they had him committed to a mental hospital with the intention of releasing him once they successfully seized the land. Unfortunately, Jonas was so distraught about being screwed over so hard by his own nephew that he committed suicide, and when his last will and testament was unveiled, Sam learned that he inherited everything. Miss Ellie looks shocked and appalled as she murmurs, "That poor man, killing himself." Donna asks her if Jock had ever told her anything about Jonas's demise, and she's like, "Why would Jock have known about it and/or told me about it?", so Donna drops the bombshell that Sam's unnamed partner in this whole fiasco was none other than Jock. Miss Ellie calls that a lie, and chides Donna for believing something so terrible about her saintly husband, haughtily adding that to spread "these lies" is to destroy the reputation of the finest man who ever lived "all for the sake of a cheap book". She cries, "How dare you?!" and vows to Donna that if she does, in fact, go ahead and publish the book with this juicy tidbit included, she'll sue for defamation. That evening, Cliff drops by Sue Ellen's house to happily report that he's [under the delusion he's] sitting atop a big oil deposit, which will make him rich enough to afford a high-maintenance society lady such as herself. He hands her a diamond ring and proposes marriage, but she hastily replies that she's not interested in marrying anyone at the moment 'cause of all the turmoil in her life. Cliff says he'll settle for that non-answer for the time being, insisting that all he wants is to make her happy...so Sue Ellen half-heartedly throws him a bone and promises to contemplate his proposal, and the two lean towards each other for a pre-engagement [spoiler: not] smooch. Over at Southfork, JR hands Bobby an envelop, which contains a copy of the affidavit signed by Sue Ellen regarding Christopher's adoption proceeding. Bobby pales and asks him where he got this, and JR breezily says it's public record, and that he's positively delighted that he and Pam are so eager to adopt his child and is A-OK being forever known to the tot as "Uncle JR" - as long as Bobby pinky swears to always use his Ewing Oil voting shares in his (JR's) favor. He stares at Bobby and says, "I do you a favor, you do me a favor" and exits the living room...and Bobby pours himself a drink and stares concernedly into space. The next morning, Bobby glances through the newspaper and finds an article titled Transient Shot. JR, meanwhile, is laying it on thick to Pam about how full one's life is when one has children...and after he leaves for the office, Pam remarks to Bobby how surprising it is that JR is suddenly so interested in Christopher. [That it is, Pam. That it is.] She then changes the subject to her concern for Miss Ellie, who's been oddly reclusive since yesterday, and Bobby agrees to go upstairs and check on her. Miss Ellie is despondently staring out the window when Bobby enters her room to ask her whassup with her not coming down to breakfast. She coldly tells him she'd like to be alone for awhile, and Bobby's like, "Can do" and promptly leaves the room. Miss Ellie then wanders across the room to pick up a framed photo of Jock, stare at it wistfully, and hug it against her chest. Donna laments to Ray how much she upset Miss Ellie, who continues to put Jock on a pedestal. She says she now regrets researching a second book and can only hope that Miss Ellie forgives her for discovering that St. Jock did something pretty fucking dickish fifty years ago. Over at Ewing Oil, Bobby tells JR he's concerned about Miss Ellie, and JR self-servingly chalks it up to her missing the way the family used to be: when Sue Ellen and John Ross lived at Southfork. He asks Bobby if he's given any thought to his ultimatum regarding quietly adopting Christopher in exchange for his voting shares, and Bobby points out that he has as much to lose in this situation, most notably how Miss Ellie is going to react when she learns that he fathered Christopher...not to mention that when this scandal goes public, it'll permanently destroy his relationship with Sue Ellen. JR counters by asking Bobby how Pam is going to react to losing Christopher, then weirdly decrees that if John Ross doesn't end up running Ewing Oil for whatever reason, his illegitimate son will do just fine. Bobby glares back at him with an appalled expression and accuses him of bluffing, and JR says that the best solution for both of them is if Bobby just uses his voting shares "wisely", and a disgusted looking Bobby exits the office without replying. Roger is encouraging Lucy to eat something - but she tells him she's not hungry, then asks how much longer he thinks he can keep her here before her family realizes she's missing. Roger informs her that his plan is for them to make a fresh start, maybe even get married (!) after they move to New York or California. Lucy points out that it'll take him a while to sell his studio, but he smugly tells her he already has a potential buyer lined up. Sue Ellen gives John Ross a snack - just as JR drops by her house to gloat about purging Clayton from her life, adding that he now just has Cliff's life to ruin as a means of getting him out of the way. He then tells Sue Ellen in no uncertain terms that he wants her and John Ross back at Southfork asap, and urges her to give what could only be an ill-fated reconciliation some serious thought. The next morning at Southfork, JR asks Miss Ellie if she's ok, and she assures him she's fine, then heads into the dining room to eat her breakfast...but looks all out of sorts and starts to cry when she tries to eat. Upstairs, Bobby tells Pam it's entirely possible that Miss Ellie is finally accepting the reality that Jock is dead. Pam says the best they can do is stay close to her and be supportive, then suggests they invite her to join them for dinner this evening. Cliff is dictating a letter to his secretary Marie about his desire to expand Wentworth Tool & Die, blah blah, when JR drops by to give him the gift of a bottle of oil and to quip that there's more oil in that bottle than he's ever going to drill from the Wellington property. Cliff chuckles at what he assumes is "sour grapes" and points out to JR he knows how badly he wanted to purchase that land. JR says if he had wanted it he wouldn't have used his company's money to get it...and says this all sanctimonious-like as if he didn't risk his family's entire estate when he sneakily mortgaged Southfork during Season 3's Asian oil leases debacle. JR then reveals to Cliff that he's been orchestrating an elaborate plan to lure him into buying a plot of land with zero chance of finding oil, making it inevitable that his life, finances, and career would be completely destroyed. Cliff chews on that alarming claim for a few seconds, then yells at JR to get out of his office...and JR cheerily predicts that a week from now this won't be his office anymore. Cliff calls Tom to nervously ask him how the oil drilling is going...and when the answer is fruitless as fuck, he orders Tom's team to drill 24/7 'cause he's suddenly more desperate than ever to locate a gusher. Mitch drops by Southfork to check on Lucy after breaking the news about his desire for a divorce. Miss Ellie looks confused and says that Lucy hasn't been home since she left to have lunch with him, then tries to track her granddaughter down by calling her friends. Lucy is tied to a chair while Roger sleeps atop the bed...and after much struggling with some very thick white rope, Lucy manages to free her hands and untie her ankles, then quietly tip-toes out of the room. The sound of the door closing wakes Roger, and he leaps out of bed and blocks her escape through the main door, giving her face a hard smack. Miss Ellie calls Bobby and tells him she's very worried about Lucy, who seems to have gone missing...and Bobby promptly hangs up and calls the police. Later, Ray and Donna drop in on the main house to express their concern for Lucy - but Miss Ellie acts all cold and bitchy towards Donna and snarks that they have nothing to say to each other. At Ewing Oil, Bobby receives a visit from two police detectives...not to investigate Lucy's disappearance - but to probe his relationship with the recently murdered Jeff Farraday. Uh oh. Thanks for reading! If you are enjoying TVofYore's recaps, consider thanking me by buying me a "coffee"!
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