Recap: Sue Ellen marches up to the front door of the house she gasped 'oh dear God, it can't be!' at the end of the last episode and asks the maid who answers the name of the man who just drove off. The maid says she can't reveal that...and when Sue Ellen asks her if, by chance, the man is Dusty Farlow, the maid clams up and refuses to answer. When Sue Ellen threatens to wait at the house until he returns, the maid says that the mystery man will be gone for several days, then slams the door in her face. Haha! Hank Johnson tells JR that everything in Southeast Asia has "fallen into place" and that by tomorrow the communists will be out of power in whatever fictional country currently holds ownership of JR's oil leases. JR orders him to call back tomorrow to confirm, then buzzes Louella to ask her to track down Jordan Lee and the rest of the cartel. Cliff is glumly boozing on his apartment balcony when Pam drops by to make sure he's OK after learning that Bobby was chosen to run for the state senate. Cliff whines about always being shit on by the Ewings...blah blah... and says he plans to spend the day filled with self-pity and bitterness. Pam points out that the committee may not have ever chosen him to run, calls him "a royal pain in the ass", and storms out...and Cliff stares at his drink and decides he doesn't want to go down the same alcoholic path as Digger and dumps the liquor. Over at Ewing Oil, Leslie is meeting with JR when Jordan Lee arrives with the rest of the cartel in tow. JR tells them he knows it would greatly please his daddy if they could go back to doing deals together - just as Hank Johnson happens to call to share some good news. JR puts him on speaker and then turns on the TV in time to hear a news anchor announce a bloodless coup that just occurred in Southeast Asia, which has resulted in Ewing Oil's oil leases being de-nationalized. The cartel woots happily and tells JR they're so pleased by this development that they'd definitely be open to working with him again. Jordan Lee invites JR to meet up with them for a celebratory lunch at the Cattlemen's Club...and once he and the cartel are out of earshot, Leslie congratulates JR on a job well done, then asks if he knew in advance what Hank Johnson was going to call about. JR's all, "Wuh? Of course not" and pretends he had absolutely no idea what has been going down in Southeast Asia. Bobby and his advisers return to his Ewing Oil office after his first campaign speech...and they all wank him about the marvellous job he did, and that he should continue to tell voters what they want to hear. Pam tries to join the conversation with her thoughts on the matter, but can't get a word in edgewise and then is asked by Bobby to make everyone some coffee. Sue Ellen returns to the house of mystery and is told by the maid to go away...but when she hears a familiar voice, she shoves her way inside and is stunned at the sight of Dusty Farlow in a wheelchair. After the commercial break, Sue Ellen cries, "You're alive!" and smothers Dusty with hugs and kisses. He explains that when his plane crashed, his ranch hand was trapped aboard and died when it exploded - while he, on the other hand, was thrown clear. He was then able to crawl to a nearby ranch house and call his father for help. Sue Ellen asks him why he never phoned her to let her know he didn't perish in the plane crash, and he says that since he no longer has the use of his legs, he didn't want to be a burden to her. Mitch stops in at the condo to pick up a textbook and finds Dolores vacuuming the bedroom. He's all, "Wha-at is going on?", so Dolores explains that Lucy hired her as a maid to keep their apartment tidy. Mitch says that starting now they'll no longer be requiring her services, and Dolores just kind of shrugs and is like, "OK, then. I'll be on my way." Jock is at the Cattlemen's Club with Ray and Punk, discussing Donna's and Miss Ellie's very vocal protesting of the Takapa development. Punk worries that their activism might stall the project and asks Jock to call off Miss Ellie, and Ray volunteers to persuade Donna to get the pesky womenfolk to ease up. Bobby is meeting again with his campaign advisers when JR enters the office and congratulates him on his favorable poll numbers and smarmily compliments Pam for working alongside him as a devoted political wife. After he and the advisers leave, Bobby fixes drinks for himself and Pam and thanks her for pitching in and helping. When Lucy returns home, Mitch asks whassup with her hiring a maid and not telling him, so she explains that she's too much of a lazy slob to keep the condo clean, so she figured 'why not just hire someone else to do it?' Mitch irritably points out that he hasn't been working nights so she could blow the extra money on a cleaning service, and she sheepishly promises to avoid any similar such expenses in the future. Mitch looks satisfied enough with that and gives her a happy smooch. Leslie calls JR and says she needs to speak to him in private at her apartment this evening, and he gleefully assumes that this means she's ready to hit the sheets with him and cancels a romp he had just scheduled with Marilee Stone. Dusty confesses to Sue Ellen that he put up the bail money after she was arrested for trying to kill JR in the Who Done It episode, then had her followed by Mr. Appleton to make sure she was OK. Sue Ellen insists that she loooooves him and doesn't care about his paralysis - just as the maid informs Dusty that it's time for him to take his medication and rest. Sue Ellen agrees to leave, but promises to return tomorrow. JR arrives at Leslie's apartment with two champagne bottles - but she tells him she's not in the mood to celebrate, then explains that whatever effort she's put into rehabilitating his image pales in comparison to whatever he did to mend fences with the cartel. She says that while she was doing piddly things like putting ads in newspapers and setting up interviews, he was using some secret backchannels to overthrow a foreign government. JR denies that he had anything to do with the bloodless coup, and Leslie's like 'whatever you say, JR' and says that since he clearly doesn't need her services anymore she wants him to void her contract. JR argues that he likes the work she's been doing for him, so she says that if he wants her to stay on she needs to know exactly what he's up to at all times, including the de-nationalizing of his Southeast Asian oil wells. JR says he never shares all of his secrets with one person, and that if she expects to gain his full trust they're going to need to get a whole lot closer. He says, "The ball's in your court", which Leslie calls "quite an offer" and says she needs to think it over...and after JR leaves her apartment, she opens a box containing a tape player that's been recording their conversation and hits the stop button. Ray and Donna return to his house after a night out...and after some pleasant chit-chat, Ray comes right out and tells her the real reason he asked her out: to get her and Miss Ellie to back off of their protesting the Takapa development. Donna's all, "Why the hell do you care if we protest a swampland development?", so he reveals that Jock is one of the investors, and that Miss Ellie's anti-development activism is putting a major strain on the old goat. Donna irritably says that Jock should have the balls to break the news to his wife, insists that the development is a terrible idea, and refuses to stop protesting. Ray argues that the project has great potential and that he has a deep respect for Jock's judgement. Donna accuses him of being like the rest of the greedy Ewings and starts to storm out - but Ray pulls her towards him, snarls, "I'm not through with you yet!" and forcibly smooches her...and after a couple of seconds she looks totes into the yokel's icky rough play and starts smooching him back. After breakfast the next morning, Lucy tells Pam she heard that Alex Ward was starting up a new magazine and asks if she could pull some strings to get him to hire her as a model. Pam somehow refrains from pointing out that fashion models are generally required to be at least five feet tall and promises to look into it. Ray and Donna - blech - wake up in bed together. Ray regrets their breakup and wasting so much time not being coupled with her, and Donna says he can easily change that if he wants to. He perks up at that and says he definitely wants to...then asks if she'd be interested in marrying him, and she's like 'yeah, sure, why the hell not?' Sue Ellen returns to the Farlow house and is ushered inside by Dusty's father, Clayton. He comes right out and says he's less than thrilled about her being back in his son's life 'cause he's worried it'll put pressure and stress on him. When Sue Ellen just stares back at him quizzically, he reveals that the paralysis-type injuries Dusty sustained include a penis that's no longer in proper working order...and she stares back at him in shocked bewilderment. Ray tells Jock that Donna prolly won't be easing off of her Takapa protesting anytime soon, but that he no longer gives a shit about the swampland conundrum 'cause she agreed to marry him. Jock exclaims, "That's great news!" and urges him to go out and buy his lady somethin' nice. Alex Ward drops by Pam's office and says he was surprised and delighted to get her call. Pam explains that she summoned him 'cause she needs a favor, namely would he consider auditioning Lucy as a model for his new magazine? Alex says he'd be thrilled to do her any kind of favor and that if she actually believes Lucy is anything close to resembling model material, he'd be more than happy to just offer her the job. Cliff is telling someone on the phone to look into JR's relationship with Hank Johnson 'cause he's suspicious the two cooked something up that may have resulted in the recent overthrowing of the fictional Southeast Asian communist government that had nationalized Ewing Oil's oil leases. After he hangs up, he mutters, "Nobody is that lucky, JR. Not even you." Dusty returns home from his latest doctor's appointment and sadly shakes his head at his father, which I translated to mean 'nope, still no movement below the equator'. Sue Ellen asks Clayton to step out of the room so she can have time alone with Dusty, then tells him she doesn't care about the no sex thing 'cause she loooooves him and wants to share her life with him. Dusty firmly tells her that since he's now a man in a wheelchair who can't have sex or father any children, he is flatly refusing to allow her to tie herself down to him. Sue Ellen insists that he's what she wants, then accepts an invitation from Clayton to stay for dinner. The Ewings congratulate Ray and Donna on their upcoming nuptials...and when Jock makes a toast, he announces that today he expanded his sons' trust fund to include Ray, who's suddenly a millionaire in his own right. Most of the Ewings express happiness or indifference at this latest development - except for Miss Ellie and JR, who both scrunch their faces into alarmed, WTF? expressions. After dinner, Dusty tells Sue Ellen not to come back to his house again, then explains that he wouldn't be able to bear the look in her eyes when it fully dawns on her that he's not the fully functioning man he was when they first fell in love. He says that if she really loves him she won't put him through that...and a sobbing Sue Ellen insists she really really does love him, but then kisses him and whimpers, "Goodbye my darling." Thanks for reading! If you are enjoying TVofYore's recaps, consider thanking me by buying me a "coffee"!
2 Comments
Kyle
8/17/2021 06:26:59 pm
This is the beginning of a plot thread that leads to Lucy being named Miss Short Dallas or something like that.
Reply
Jimi
9/12/2021 07:01:44 am
I am screaming at Kyle’s comment.Yes Pam’s hair is horrible!
Reply
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