Recap: Sue Ellen is laying in bed next to JR when Baby John starts mewling...and when his fussing shows no sign of letting up, she reluctantly gets up and slowly shuffles in the direction of the nursery. The camera pans over to Pam, who is in the nursery, enjoying some post-diaper change cuddling when Nurse Reeves bursts in. As Sue Ellen loiters unseen in the doorway, Nurse Reeves marvels at Pam for responding so quickly to the baby's cries and says he's lucky to have her - particularly since his cunty bio mom doesn't seem remotely interested in even having him around. Pam chides her for being so hard on Sue Ellen and says she's been through a lot...and after a few more minutes of cuddling the baby, she returns him to his crib and tiptoes back to her bedroom. JR asks Sue Ellen if the baby is OK...and she snippily tells him he's fine and just needed changing. JR correctly assumes that Pam was the one who changed his diaper, then asks how she always seems to get to the baby first. Sue Ellen stares at him blankly and asks, "What difference does it make?" and JR says it makes a difference to him...as well as to his mama and daddy, who have remarked more than once on what a negligent disaster of a mother she's proving herself to be. He wonders aloud why he's shelling out big money for her therapy sessions when it's clear she hasn't shown any signs of improvement, then comes right out and calls her an unfit mother. Sue Ellen yells back that he's an unfit father and husband...and JR growls that Baby John is her responsibility and that he doesn't like the idea of Pam raising him. Or himself, evidently. JR's/Sue Ellen's sniping is loud enough to wake up Bobby...and when Pam returns from the nursery, he tells her that JR's not happy that she and not Sue Ellen is the one who's always responding to the baby's needs. Pam shrugs indifferently and says she can't not respond to his frequent crying - and Bobby says he's siding with JR on this issue and thinks that her responsiveness to the tot has ventured into unhealthy obsession territory. Pam points out that she's only doing it 'cause he doesn't have anyone else, the paid nurse notwithstanding, who gives enough of a crap about him (pun intended) to change his dirty diaper in the middle of the night. Miss Ellie and Jock look on as a crew prepares the oil well on Section 40 so that drilling can get underway. Miss Ellie stares dejectedly into space as she recalls her daddy's solemn vow to never allow drilling on Southfork, then admonishes Jock for instilling within JR an insatiable need for money and power. As Jock sheepishly drives her back to the house, they honk at Ray, who hired a couple of men to begin construction of his new house. Jock tells Miss Ellie he gifted Ray the shittiest of the lots available on Soutfork - LOL - but figures that since beggars can't be choosers, he's fairly confident that the dumb yokel will make something good out of it. Jock heads over to Ewing Oil, where he announces to JR, Bobby, and Vaughn Leland that he's swiftly cutting their losses and selling the Asian oil leases at a loss of 75 cents on the dollar. JR looks alarmed and cries, "You can't doooo this!" - but Jock snappishly orders him to sit down and shut up, which JR meekly does [in the way he always does whenever he's snapped at by the grizzly patriarch]. Vaughn tells Jock he'll do his best to round up some potential buyers and get back to him by Friday, then heads out. Jock tells JR and Bobby that he came to this moronic decision after seeing how upset Miss Ellie was about drilling on Southfork. Bobby cautions him to think carefully about selling off the leases, and JR concurs and points out that there's a really good chance the Asian wells will come through now that the typhoon crisis has passed. Jock gruffly retorts that he's determined to appease Miss Ellie by avoiding any drilling on Section 40, which means he needs to get back as much of their cash as possible...and a despondent JR exits the office and tells Kristin he's off to the Cattleman's Club to drown his troubles. Bobby arrives at the Cattleman's Club and finds JR sullenly boozing it up at the bar. Bobby laments blowing the whistle on him, then says he only did it 'cause he mortgaged Southfork...and JR's like, "Whatever, jerkwad" and says as far as he's concerned, he's an only child. Sue Ellen arrives at a Daughters of the Alamo luncheon and is informed that the keynote speaker bailed, so Cliff Barnes was scheduled to fill in at the last minute. Sue Ellen pales and says she's suddenly not feeling well...but then runs into Cliff on her way out. He tells her he really really needs to talk to her and asks her to please come by his apartment tomorrow afternoon. Sue Ellen is hovering over Baby John's crib and telling him she just exchanged words with his bio dad, but has no idea how she feels about it. JR enters the room and says he's glad to see that she's finally spending some quality time with their son - but when Baby John starts crying, Sue Ellen just stares down at him stonily. An impatient JR implores her to "pick him up, change him, or something", and Sue Ellen challenges him to do something before snarking at what "an expert parent" he claims himself to be, then saunters off. OMFG, these two. Crawl to the nearest phone, Baby John! And call Child Protective Services asap. Alan reports to JR that Cliff is still under the illusion that he can get elected to Congress, and JR nods approvingly and says he's done secretly funneling cash to that faux campaign. During a therapy session, Sue Ellen tells Dr. Ellby about Cliff's request for a one-on-one, then asks him what he thinks 'bout that...and Dr. Ellby throws it back at her and says it's irrelevant what he thinks 'cause she has to decide this kind of stuff on her own. Sue Ellen mulls that over and says, on the one hand, Cliff still has the power to hurt her...but then a few seconds later springs up from her chair and says she has a few things she'd like to say to the shitbag, and that she suddenly feels as though she has nothing to lose. Er...OK. JR calls Hank Johnson (his contact in Asia) to bitchily demand an hourly progress report on how the oil drilling is going. He adds that it'd be really great if oil could be struck before Friday. Bobby gets miffed when Pam shows him all the baby stuff she found on sale for Baby John...and seems oblivious to Bobby's furrowed brows as she races up to the nursery to shower the tot with his new stuffed animals and stack of designer onesies. When Sue Ellen arrives at Cliff's apartment, he peppers her with questions about Baby John's health, and she irritably says he's fine and that he really doesn't need to waste his time worrying about either of them. She then gets all in his face and accuses him of using her to get ahead and destroy JR...and reminds him that when she wanted to flee her marriage last season, he coldly abandoned her in favor of a political career. Cliff snorts derisively and calls her the user for marrying JR solely to attain wealth and a higher station in life...but when the marriage [predictably] went sour, she used him (Cliff) to get back at JR. He adds that she's now using her baby as a weapon to keep the Ewing name, which seems to be all she cares about, then bellows, "Because you're a parasite! You're incapable of loving! Even your son!" An enraged Sue Ellen smacks him hard across the face and insists that she loves her son - but Cliff snarks back that she's nothing but a soulless turd who lacks the capacity to love anyone. Sue Ellen stares back at him with a stricken expression before hastily exiting the apartment. JR implores Vaughn Leland to temporarily stall his search for buyers of the Asian oil leases - but Vaughn refuses and says he's way too skeered of Jock to cross him. Sue Ellen is sitting in her bedroom, staring sadly into space, when JR enters. She contritely asks him if he thinks she's changed since their wedding day, and JR shrugs and says she's roughly as hot looking as she was back then. Sue Ellen tells him she was referring to her personality, then asks if he thinks she uses people for her own ends. JR's like, "Oh, OK...thanks for clarifying" and tells her she hasn't changed a bit, and that she's no less a vapid shell of a woman now as she was the day he married her. Bobby shows Pam the postcard he received from Luke Middens (of the Lost Boy episode), and says he really misses the lad. A few seconds later, Baby John's crying starts up again - and Bobby quickly blocks the exit and reminds Pam that he's not her baby. Pam tearfully retorts, "He's the closest I'll ever come to having one" and shoves past him. When she gets to the nursery, she finds Sue Ellen standing uselessly beside the crib...and when she asks her why she hasn't picked up the baby, Sue Ellen spacily replies that Nurse Reeves should be here any minute. Pam leans over the crib and picks up Baby John and angrily says she can't stand to hear the poor tot cry...and an irked Sue Ellen orders her to put the baby back down and let Nurse Reeves deal with him. Pam hugs Baby John tighter and says it's no trouble to respond to his crying, and Sue Ellen shrugs disinterestedly and ambles out of the room. Sue Ellen storms over to Dr. Ellby's office and demands to know what she's paying him for, then snarks - as if it's his fault - that she still can't bring herself to hold her own child. Dr. Ellby calmly asks her what happened during her tête-à-tête with Cliff, so she stares back at him sadly and recounts that he called her a parasite who was incapable of loving anyone. She adds that she doesn't believe anyone truly cares about her...and by anyone, she means JR, Cliff, and possibly Dusty. She ponders her recent history of hooking up with the crappiest of men, and Dr. Ellby warns that if she continues to go through life afraid, she might never be able to love anyone. He urges her to take a chance on someone - her infant son, for example - but Sue Ellen moans about how afraid she is of letting her guard down...then realizes that that's some pretty fucking stupid logic to apply to a helpless baby and figures the little gaffer's probably worth a shot. When Lucy hears Baby John crying, Lucy wanders over to where Sue Ellen is calling up the Farlow residence and leaving a message for Dusty to call her. Lucy bitchily tells her her baby is crying for the umpteenth time this episode...and when Sue Ellen's like, "And this is my problem because..?", Lucy starts railing about the curse of being a neglected, unwanted Ewing kid. She invokes her own dicked up childhood and says she spent years believing that her parents didn't want her, then snarkishly vows to teach her tiny cousin how to survive in the dysfunctional family they've had the misfortune to be born into. Over at Section 40, Bobby tells Jock that everything's in place to begin drilling for oil. He again urges his father to briefly hold off on selling the Asian leases in order to wait out a possible gusher - but Jock refuses and gruffly says he's done begging the banks for anymore extensions. Jock and Bobby stop by Ray's plot of land, where two county sheriff's officers are milling about. Ray explains that during excavation he discovered a buried skeleton...so he called the local police who are now investigating the matter. JR is slumped over his desk at Ewing Oil, staring despondently into space while Kristin gives him a shoulder rub. A few seconds later, he gets a call from Hank Johnson, who reports that Ewing Oil's Asian wells just struck oil...and by struck, he means the biggest strike the Pacific has ever seen. JR lets out a loud woot and hugs Kristin...and suddenly various phones around the office start ringing all at once. LOL. As Kristin and the other secretary scramble to answer the many calls, JR announces that he's off to Southfork to gloat to his family members about his successful gamble. As Lucy takes a call from a reporter, Pam tells Miss Ellie she's happy for her that there's no longer any need to drill on Section 40. Lucy bounds into the room and excitedly tells everyone that the press is on its way, then rushes upstairs to primp for the cameras. When Jock and Bobby arrive home and look confused by the aura of gaiety, Pam shares the joyous news about the Asian oil wells. Jock's all, "Hurray!" and canoodles Miss Ellie, who tells him how relieved she is that her [brief] nightmare of foreclosure and Southfork oil drilling is over. An ecstatic JR bursts into the house clutching two large flower bouquets and two bottles of champagne. Lucy chuckles at him and says they've all already heard the good news, then explains that the Associated Press called the ranch for a statement. A deflated looking JR wanders over to the study, where the family is excitedly gabbling about the gusher, and asks if someone should maybe thank him for making the Ewings billionaires - but Jock's like, "Er, no" and chides him again for gambling their home and committing the sin of stressing out Miss Ellie. JR promises to make it up to her, and Jock snaps, "You damn well better!" and announces that he's coming out of retirement to reinstall himself as Ewing Oil's CEO. As JR stares back at him in shocked bewilderment, Pam hears Baby John cry again and rushes up to the nursery with a miffed looking Bobby trailing after her. Pam is unpleasantly surprised to find Sue Ellen actually tending to her own baby. Sue Ellen shoots her a smug grin and says, "It's OK, I have him now", and Pam dejectedly exits the nursery and spacily lumbers over to her bedroom. As Bobby hovers behind her, she tears up and squeaks, "I lost him" ... and Bobby gives her a comforting from-behind hug as he dickishly points out, "He was never yours." Thanks for reading! If you are enjoying TVofYore's recaps, consider thanking me by buying me a "coffee"!
1 Comment
Amina
12/12/2019 03:04:03 am
Poor Pam.And that is NOT comforting your wife Bobby.
Reply
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