Recap: Punk Anderson is grumbling to Ray and (lawyer friend) Harv Smithfield about how the DOA (Daughters of the Alamo) ladies got the better of them...and Harv concurs and says that the temporary kibosh on their Takapa development is out of their hands now that it's a matter for the Select Committee of Legislative Inquiry to vote on. Sounds intense. Punk growls at Ray for not heeding his warning about how much trouble Miss Ellie and Donna could mean for them...and Ray acknowledges that they underestimated the ladies' savvy, to which Punk snaps, "What they've got is husbands who can't control their women!" Ray's all, "Whoa! Hold on!" and suggests to the hillbilly misogynist that they look into whatever kind of help they can get from the elected officials in Austin...and Punk perks up at that and says they're going to need to start calling in favors. After breakfasting on the Southfork patio, Bobby and Pam agree to put their tedious marital problems behind them, then hug and exchange I love yous before Pam heads off to work. Miss Ellie emerges from the house looking grim-faced...and when Bobby asks her if she and Jock are going to be able to settle their differences, she shrugs despondently and says she's determined to bring the Takapa turdpile matter to court, and absolutely refuses to compromise what she believes in. Bobby cries, "You're choosing swampland over your marriage!" and Miss Ellie's like, "Well d'yuh" and reminds him about all the shit Jock has kept her in the dark about over the years, and is therefore more than willing to put her marriage on the line in an effort to protect something as random as unspoiled swampland. A few seconds later, Donna arrives to pick her up, and the two head off to strategize. JR calls Leslie Stewart and leaves her a message to come by Ewing Oil asap...and while he's doing that, Leslie is in her apartment and listening to the message without making a move to answer the phone. Sue Ellen ambles downstairs and amusedly asks JR if he's having trouble with "the help" ... and after he shoots her the stink-eye before stalking off, she answers an incoming call from Clint, who invites her to meet up with him for another nooner. Sue Ellen lights up and purrs, "I'm hungry already." Mmm hmm.. Jock returns home and runs into Bobby, who urges him to pull out of the Takapa deal and let Punk and Pat find a different investor. Jock growls that he doesn't want to leave his friends high and dry, and insists that Takapa is important to him...and when he starts bellyaching about all the trouble Miss Ellie is causing, Bobby points out that she's just doing what she believes in. Jock snarls, "So am I!", says he gave his word to his friends, and is stubbornly refusing to back down.
Downtown, Miss Ellie asks Donna if she knew that Jock was an investor in the Takapa project, and Donna says she did, but had zero desire to come between her and Jock by revealing that nugget of juicy intel. When she admits that Ray also knew, Miss Ellie says she's not surprised, given that the yokel is now a full on Ewing spawn...then rails once again about all the secrets Jock has kept from her during their many decades of marriage. Over at Ewing Oil, Leslie tells JR she has spent the last day or so wandering around, pretending to wrestle with her conscience...then hands him her letter of resignation for overstepping her boundaries. JR's all, "Wuh?" and calls the move drastic, and she implores him to not make this more difficult than it needs to be, and moans about how it's the first time she's failed in her professional life. She sadly adds, "I'm just sorry it had to be you" before dejectedly shuffling out of his office. Over at The Store, Rebecca Wentworth unexpectedly drops in to see Pam, and Pam's all, "Hiya ma!" and suggests they have lunch. Bobby is settling into his senatorial office when Cliff arrives and gives him the low-down on his committee assignments: Committee For Industrial Relations (BO-ring), and Select Committee of Legislative Inquiry (BO-ring, but also problematic). Cliff grimaces and tells Bobby that the latter usually includes stuff that a lot of senators don't want to touch...and in this case the issue on the table is deciding what to do regarding the DOA's proposal to have the Takapa swampland declared preserved wildlife, which is in direct conflict with Jock's plans to build a shopping center. Over lunch, Rebecca breaks the news to Pam that her sugar daddy husband died, and that she sold their ginormous Houston house and is now looking for a permanent place to live. Pam suggests she reside in Dallas, and urges Rebecca to also invite her half-sister Katherine to move to Dallas. Rebecca asks how Cliff is going to feel 'bout that...and a sheepish Pam's all, "Oops, I haven't actually told him you're alive yet." She suggests they start with a friendlier option, aka joining her and Bobby for dinner - but Rebecca says she's not up to meeting any Ewing and asks Pam to take her house-hunting instead. Donna tells Bobby she didn't expect him to end up on a committee that would put him squarely between Jock and Miss Ellie, then says the only thing he can really do it vote his conscience. Bobby contemplates that notion as he stares back at her with his default wooden expression. Back at Southfork, Jock tells JR that his relationship with Miss Ellie is still in the shitter, then admonishes him again for letting Leslie ruin the cartel's strip mining deal. JR fibs and says he fired Leslie for her impudence, then promises to do his best to get Ewing Oil back into the cartel's good graces.
Sue Ellen and Clint arrive at a posh hotel room to enjoy their second nooner, then reminisce about all the romps they enjoyed during their college years. Clint coos about how much he wanted her back then, pours her a glass of [hopefully non-alcoholic] champagne, and laments not being able to hold onto her after JR came sniffing around and somehow convinced her he was marriageable material. Sue Ellen tells Clint to shut it and just enjoy the moment, but then stares sadly into space while reflecting on all the good men in her life who have abandoned her. Bobby drops by Casa Yokel to tell Ray they have to do something about the Takapa conundrum. When Ray's all, "Whaddya want me to do about it?", Bobby suggests he convince Jock to pull out so that the dumb thing doesn't completely destroy his marriage. Ray points out that Jock was involved with Takapa long before "the do gooders" starting objecting to developing the swampland...and when Bobby points out that his own wife is one of those do gooders, Ray explains that they've agreed to leave the issue at the door. Bobby says he doesn't much like the hard line he's drawing, or the way he's talking like a dickish Ewing while insisting on retaining the [awful sounding] Krebs name...and Ray just shrugs and tells him he's going to have to learn to live with that. Jordan Lee calls Jock to rail about Ewing Oil's policy statement that was just published in The Wall Street Journal...and a confused Jock grabs the paper from Bobby, reads the statement, and snarls, "What in the hell has JR done now?!" JR arrives at Ewing Oil and comes face-to-face with a large crowd of reporters in the foyer, shouting questions about if he truly stands by the policy statement. JR rushes into his office with Louella to find out what in blazes they're talking about, so she shows him the full page article that Leslie wrote up and titled Ewing fights those who rape the land, ruin the air, and run roughshod over environmental restrictions. An aghast JR mutters, "OMG.." while Louella tells him he's gotten a bunch of messages from ecology and environmental groups, along with a call from the governor. JR returns to the foyer...and when asked by a reporter if Ewing Oil is on a crusade to protect the environment, he replies, "Absolutely", pretends as though Ewing Oil just had a come to Jesus moment about the wretched environmental impacts of strip mining and is an oil company that now stands for more than just profits, and invites the reporters to resume the impromptu press conference in his office.
Sue Ellen is in session with Dr. Ellby, waxing on about how awesome it is to hit the sheets with Clint during their now regular lunch hour trysts. She then admits that she's carrying on with this married man 'cause Dusty is lost to her forever and that she has a pathological neeeeeed to be adored by someone. Dr. Ellby warns her that Clint may choose to stay married to his wife, and she assures him she's A-OK with that...then dreamily stares into space and says that Clint was the first man she was ever in love with, and that her college years - during which she was elected Campus Queen and then voted Miss Texas - were the happiest of her life. While house hunting, Rebecca tells Pam that returning to Dallas after all these years is going to be difficult for her, and that she really should meet Cliff before she fully settles in. Over at Casa Shortstack, Lucy is giving an interview to the host of the local TV Morning Show while decked out in a silly newsboy cap [for the second time in as many episodes], a white blouse with a bowtie, and pants with matching suspenders. Mitch happens to stop by the condo to pick up something he forgot - but the producer bars him from coming anywhere near the filming and bitchily orders "Mr. Ewing" to step far away from the cameras and lighting equipment. Mitch backs up to the doorway, snarls, "Mr. Ewing has backed up as far as he's going to", and stalks off, while Lucy stares after him and scrunches her face concernedly. Bobby is attending his first meeting of the Select Committee of Legislative Inquiry, where the topic du jour is the temporary injunction against development of the Takapa swampland. One of the senators expresses concern about Bobby's conflict of interest, given that the Ewing family has a present financial interest in the matter, and asks him to remove himself from the panel...and Bobby's all, "Wha-a-a?" and scrunches his face in irked puzzlement. Jordan Lee storms over to Ewing Oil and demands to see JR before railing at the two secretaries about JR et. al. being "a bunch of do gooders". JR quickly intervenes and hustles him over to his office, where Jordan bellows, "Just what in the hell are you doing?!" JR reminds him about how the cartel made itself scarce when Ewing Oil was going through the Southeast Asian Oil Well Quagmire and is now looking to attract new sources of capital. Jordan calls the cartel's abandonment of Ewing Oil "old news", and whines about the impending federal investigation into their strip mining deal. JR shrugs disinterestedly and says that that prolly would have happened anyway...and Jordan snarks that they're now going to have to scrap the entire project, grumbles about "the bad hand" Ewing Oil just dealt them, and storms out of the office.
In a campus diner, Mitch overhears a group of horny young men admiring Lucy's cover shot on Young Dallas Magazine while cackling about how the blonde hottie married a med student. Mitch is about to storm over and confront them when one of his classmates appears out of nowhere and and asks if she can borrow his class notes. As the young men get progressively crasser about wanting to do the nasty with Lucy, Mitch seethes, "That's my wife they're talking about about" - but his gal pal advises him to "just live with it". Bobby tells Cliff he's worried about pissing off both of his parents by being on the Select Committee of Legislative Inquiry, and Cliff points out that he should, uh, be a lot more worried about serving his constituents and demonstrating to them that he's not in the pocket of big business. After the lunch break, Bobby explains to the senators on the panel that he won't recuse himself from this case 'cause he promised his district that he'd represent them and won't back out of the committee just 'cause he's between a rock and a hard place. He firmly states, "I'm in", and the collection of old white men stare back at him in befuddled annoyance. When JR drops by Leslie's apartment, she tells him she's leaving Dallas for a job out east...and JR's all, "Wha-a-a?", says he needs her here, and offers to give her the kind of backing she'll need to start up her own PR firm. Leslie tells him that that isn't going to work 'cause she wants something more: him (with no marital entanglements). JR replies, "You got me" and breezily calls his marriage to Sue Ellen "a minor inconvenience" - but Leslie says she's steadfast in her refusal to come between a man and his trophy wife. She tells him he's free to do what he wants...and when he asks her if she'd fully succumb to his charms if he were to divorce Sue Ellen, she cagily replies, "The ball's in your court." And, quite clearly, in her purse. Thanks for reading! If you are enjoying TVofYore's recaps, consider thanking me by buying me a "coffee"!
1 Comment
Lee
2/3/2023 07:28:28 pm
Yeah, Leslie is a bitch. Leave a Reply. |
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