Recap: Sue Ellen arrives at her doctor's office in a wood paneled station wagon, which I thought was a surprisingly frumpy car for the wife of JR Ewing to be driving. She parks, pulls out a flask and takes a few sips, then goes inside to see how far along her hapless spawn's fetal alcohol syndrome has progressed. Lucy is at the department store where Pam works, looking over necklaces in the jewelry department. She buys the most expensive one she can find and charges it to the Ewing account. Pam spots her and rushes over, assumes she's here for their previously arranged appointment to try on prom dresses, and tells her she put aside the prettiest ones for her to peruse. Lucy stares at her with a spaced-out expression for a few seconds, then says she forgot all about the prom dresses and just stopped by to buy her friend a birthday present. She then rushes out of the store, leaving Pam staring after her in puzzlement. Dr. Krane tells Sue Ellen that everything's fine...and by everything's fine, she means she needs to cut down on her binge-drinking asap. She tells her that her tests revealed high levels of alcohol in her bloodstream - not that it isn't obvious to anyone with half a brain that she staggered in here drunk. Sue Ellen says she has no right to lecture her, and an incredulous Dr. Krane points out to the nitwit that her health and that of her spawn are her responsibility. Sue Ellen haughtily retorts that she merely had one cocktail at lunch...and that if she continues to give her a hard time about her incessant drinking, she's going to shop around for "a more understanding doctor".
Lucy enters a pawn shop to sell the necklace she just bought and is offered a measly $50 for it. She hems and haws but eventually agrees to the price, then rushes off to meet up with her drug dealer, who hands her a fresh supply of pills and a soda to wash them down with. He invites her to attend a party at (their friend) Anne's house later, and Lucy says she's totes up for that. Pam stops by Ewing Oil to touch base with Bobby before the two head home. He tells her he read the new OLM guidelines, then grumbles about how they're even stricter than last year's. In short, nothing in Texas gets built without Cliff's approval. Pam makes a whaddya gonna do? expression and says that while she loves her brother, sometimes she doesn't like him...and isn't quite ready to return his phone calls. She swiftly changes the subject and asks him if he's noticed anything strange about Lucy, and he just shrugs and says she's mostly been quiet ever since getting the heave-ho from her closeted gay fiance. The two then have to put a pin in that discussion when Sue Ellen staggers in and says she's here to meet JR, 'cause apparently they're putting on a facade of marital unity while attending a fundraising dinner. Once Pam and Bobby exit the office, Sue Ellen makes a beeline over to JR's booze cabinet and pours herself a stiff drink. JR is in a meeting with a senator and some other white guy, and the three are bitching about how much they hate the new OLM guidelines. The senator invites JR to join them and another senator for drinks so they can continue bitching about the OLM...and JR checks his watch, stares contemplatively into space for a few seconds, then decides to blow off plans to attend the fundraising dinner with Sue Ellen without bothering to tell her. Sue Ellen, meanwhile, continues to throw back the booze while waiting for JR to show up. She drunk dials Cliff and asks him if she can come over, but he says no 'cause he's currently canoodling with a woman...then adds that he'd have no problem rebuffing her even if he were home alone. Ray is in his ranch hand hovel, polishing his boots when a blitzed Lucy drops by and touchily-feely invites him to get it on with her. He pushes her away and snappishly says he's not in the mood for her games, then asks her if she's been drinking. She gigglingly says no...and when he asks her what she's on, she coos, "It's soooo wonderful" and starts unbuttoning his shirt, as if we didn't get enough of the yokel's naked pecs in the previous episode after he hit the sheets with Donna. The horruh. Ray reminds Lucy that they made a deal to just be friends, not least 'cause at some point in the series he turns out to be her $#@&% uncle, then goes over to his kitchenette to put on a pot of coffee so she can sober herself up.
Sue Ellen wisely decides she's too drunk to continue driving, so she pulls over to the side of the road and promptly passes out. Ray pours Lucy a cup of coffee...and when she snarks that she doesn't want it, he looms over her and asks her if she wants her grandparents to get wind of her pill popping. She wails, "I don't care! No one notices me anyway!" and a fed up Ray shoves the mug in her face and forces coffee down her throat, snapping at her to shape up. Bobby spots Sue Ellen's car on the side of the road, and both he and Pam pull over to check it out. When they find Sue Ellen passed out in the driver's seat, Bobby picks her up and transports her to his car and tells Pam he'll send a ranch hand to collect her car in the morning. When they arrive at Southfork, they discreetly bring her upstairs and deposit her atop her bed. Bobby then decides, "Enough is enough" and says he's going to confront Jock and Miss Ellie about tonight's bender. Pam, meanwhile, sits by Sue Ellen's bedside...and when she regains consciousness, she tears up and whimpers about how Cliff won't talk to her anymore, then says she's pretty sure he was with a woman tonight. Pam clucks sympathetically, then urges her to shut it about her ex-lover and get some rest. Bobby contorts his default blank expression into one of grave concern as enters the study and gives his parents the what-for for pretending that everything is A-OK with Sue Ellen...and uselessly looking the other way while she continues to poison their unborn grandchild with her binge-drinking. He explains that this evening she had spent hours boozing it up in JR's office while waiting for him to show up...and eventually gave up waiting, got behind the wheel, and was found by him and Pam passed out in her car. JR enters the study and asks whassup...and when he's informed about Sue Ellen's drunken incident, he gets defensive, says his meeting ran late, and that it's not his fault his wife is a hopeless boozer. Miss Ellie abruptly clears the room so she can have a stern-faced mother-son chat. She chides him for being a power hungry douche (like Jock) when it comes to business, but having no redeeming qualities (unlike Jock) in his personal life...and that he's neglected Sue Ellen since day one of their marriage and doesn't even bother to be discreet about his serial womanizing. She warns him that his baby is in danger from her constant drinking and that he urgently needs to do something - but JR snaps, "It's too late!" and stalks out of the room. Miss Ellie tears up and whimpers to herself about the lousy parenting skills she exercised during JR's formative years, which...no fucking duh. It's interesting she's not the slightest self-reflective about the shit job she also did raising Lucy after the family cruelly ripped her away from Gary and Val.
Ray tells Lucy he's going to fetch Bobby so he can help get her into the main house without her grandparents noticing how stoned she is. After he leaves, Lucy giggles to herself as she sneaks out of his hovel and heads off to Anne's party. When Ray returns to his hovel with Bobby, he's dismayed that Lucy has disappeared...even though anyone with an ounce of foresight could have seen that coming. Ray thinks she might be at Anne's house, so the two climb into his truck and speed off. They arrive at Anne's house, notice that there's a party in full swing, and find Lucy canoodling with a boy. Bobby yanks her by the arm and tells her it's time to go home...then tells Anne that he plans on tattling to her parents about the party. Bobby then grabs Lucy's purse, finds a little bag of pills inside, and asks her how long she's been taking them. When she just giggles in response, Bobby stuffs her into the passenger seat of her car and ferries her back to Southfork. When they pull up to the house, Bobby instructs Lucy to act as normal as possible in front of her grandparents and hope to hell they don't clue in to her pill popping. He then tosses her car keys at Ray and decrees that she's no longer allowed to drive her car without their permission. Bobby fibs to Miss Ellie by telling her that Lucy got a flat tire...and Lucy nods and does her best to not appear spacey. After she heads up to bed, Miss Ellie remarks to Bobby how ghastly Lucy looked, and Bobby breezily says she's been going through a rough patch lately and will hopefully get over it before the end credits start rolling. At daybreak, JR thrusts open the curtains of his bedroom, smashes one of Sue Ellen's booze bottles on the floor, and admonishes her for embarrassing him in front of his family with last night's bender. Sue Ellen snaps back that it's his fault for keeping her waiting at his office [which, unfortunately, was equipped with a fully stocked bar] ... and when he whines that he was at a business meeting, she snarls, "Which was more important than me!" JR sheepishly promises it won't happen again, and Sue Ellen chuckles and says he must have gotten a tongue lashing from Jock for his negligence. She taunts him by chirping, "'Til death do us part" and he snaps back that he has no intention of putting up with a drunk wife, and orders her to dry out and transform herself into "an admirable wife and mother". Sue Ellen lets out a caustic laugh and asks what reward she'll get from him, then asks, "A good father..?" and JR snidely retorts, "Not for that bastard you're carrying, you won't." Yeesh. After he storms out of the room, Sue Ellen gets out of bed and staggers over to the closet, pulls out a hidden bottle of booze in a shoe box, and takes a big swig.
Pam tells Bobby she's worried about leaving Lucy and Sue Ellen in the house alone - but Bobby brushes off her concerns 'cause what could go wrong with leaving a pregnant alcoholic and her dimwitted pill-popping niece to their own devices? Lucy is high on pills again, giggling as she plays with backgammon pieces. When she gets bored and staggers out of the study, she sees a drunk Sue Ellen teetering at the top of the staircase clutching a suitcase and staring down at her with her cold, bloodshot eyes. She suddenly collapses and topples down the flight of stairs, and a giggling Lucy hovers over her uselessly. Ray happens to enter the house at that moment, rebuffs Lucy's ill-timed attempts to smooch him, and calls an ambulance.
Ray calls Bobby at Ewing Oil to report Sue Ellen's accident, then shares the doctor's optimism that both she and the baby are going to be A-OK...aside from the deteriorating fetal alcohol syndrome situation that no one in the Ewing family seems interested in doing fuck all about. He adds that Lucy popped a bunch of pills again and was stoned out of her mind when Sue Ellen fell down the stairs...and Bobby's all, "Fuuuuuuuuck.." and rushes over to JR's office to give him the troubling update about his wife. At the hospital, Dr. Krane tells JR that, according to tests, Sue Ellen is fine - but that she wants to keep her in the hospital for observation. She adds that if Sue Ellen continues to booze it up, she'll continue to put the health of her baby in serious jeopardy and strongly recommends she be put into rehab, like pronto. JR replies, "Ewings take care of their own", and Dr. Krane rolls her eyes 'cause of how well that's been working out...and when Jock and Miss Ellie arrive, she also gives them a quick update. Jock pulls JR aside and gruffly tells him he's going to need to face up to his responsibilities as a husband and father...and since it appears as though that reality hasn't penetrated his skull yet, he's going to see to it that he straightens out so his grandson has a father he can be proud of. Bobby confronts Lucy in the study and solemnly tells her that Sue Ellen could have died during the fall. He asks her if she really wants to go through life doped up on pills, and she bursts into tears and says she's mortified that she was too stoned to help Sue Ellen while she was laying helplessly on the floor. Bobby orders her to stop popping pills, and says that coping with emotional pain is part of life. Lucy tearfully promises to try, and the two hug it out. Sue Ellen chuckles as she blames her high heels for the fall...and Jock and Miss Ellie smile blandly and pretend that, yep, that's the most plausible explanation for her accident. JR announces that he's putting her in a rehab clinic in Ft. Worth, and Sue Ellen poutishly replies, "But there's nothing wrong with me" and everyone in the room exchanges seriously? glances. JR drives Sue Ellen to the clinic, which looks to be a large mansion. She begs him not to leave her here - but he says he has to, not least 'cause when she's drunk he can't trust her to keep her pie hole shut about the baby likely being Cliff's love spawn. Two men in white coats rush over - LOL - and forcibly drag Sue Ellen towards the entrance of the clinic-mansion. She shrieks in protest, then shouts in JR's direction, "I'll get back at you someday!!" TO BE CONTINUED! Thanks for reading! If you are enjoying TVofYore's recaps, consider thanking me by buying me a "coffee"!
1 Comment
Amina
12/13/2018 01:11:13 am
Thanks again for the updates. The first time it was revealed Ray was the fourth Ewing brother my response was... GROSS!!! Leave a Reply. |
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