Dallas - Season 4, Episode 7

Congratulations - it's a boy!

"The Fourth Son"
Original airdate: 12/12/1980

Episode summary: Bobby gets to the bottom of the sunken oil tanker mystery. Ray learns that Jock is his bio dad.

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Recap: ​JR is stretched out on a pool lounger, reading the Dallas Press and smiling with glee at the Tanker Sinks headline. A few seconds later, he gets up and joins the rest of the Ewing clan for the delicious looking buffet breakfast spread and hands out various sections of the newspaper, reserving the Tanker Sinks article for Bobby. He smirkingly points out that the top news of the day is that the 600,000 barrels of crude oil he was awaiting mysteriously vanished in the ocean, and Bobby sarcastically thanks him for his sympathy, says an investigation is pending, and that it's merely a minor setback 'cause he assumes that the insurance company is going to cover the financial loss.

Ray exits his house, climbs into his truck and drives off, unwittingly passing Amos Krebbs, who's parked on the side of the road, pretending to tend to a flat tire. He stares after Ray's truck and smiles all sinister like.

At Ewing Oil, Bobby asks Connie to get in touch with the oil tanker's insurer so he can go about filing a claim...and a few minutes later, Brady York pops by to nervously wring his hands about how worried he is about being able to deliver gas on time to all of the various service stations he has contracts with. Bobby gets defensive and says that the sunken tanker was not his fault, then once again gives his word that he'll get his damn gasoline on time.

Back at Southfork, Sue Ellen is rubbing suntan lotion on JR as he happily whistles and says he's pretty confident that Jock is soon going to come to the realization that the wrong Ewing is running Ewing Oil. He gets a phone call from Sally Bullock and agrees to a sexy rendezvous at her secret condo tomorrow, and keeps his part of the conversation vague sounding enough so it doesn't make Sue Ellen suspicious. After he hangs up, Sue Ellen remarks on how curious it is that a ginormous oil tanker just vanished into the ocean, then asks JR if he happens to know anything 'bout that. He smirks and asks her what her reaction would be if he said he did know, and she grins sexily and says, "I'd be real impressed" before the two break out in evil laughter.

"What would you say if I told you I concocted a scheme to risk the destruction of Ewing Oil just to get back at Bobby?"

"I'd say I'm more than a little turned on."

Miss Ellie tells Jock he can't possibly blame Bobby for the sunken tanker debacle, and urges him to help his son through this crisis - but Jock pissily retorts that since Bobby insisted on doing everything himself, he's not going to a damn thing to help him while keeping his fingers crossed that the crisis doesn't permanently harm the company. He adds that if Bobby can't prove he's the strong guiding hand Ewing Oil needs, then it's obvious that the wrong Ewing is in the job. Miss Ellie stares back at him in mute alarm.

Bobby helicopters over to a refinery to ask the foreman if he happens to have any excess crude oil, but he says no and that he's reserving a large supply for Mort Wilkinson's refinery, which is part of a handshake deal he made with Jock Ewing over twenty years ago. Bobby nods solemnly and agrees that anything involving his daddy's handshake is sacred, then gets on the phone with somebody named Steve Taylor to see if he happens to have any spare crude oil laying around. When Steve's like, "Uh, no", Bobby mulls over his options for a few seconds and orders the foreman to dip into Mort Wilkinson's supply and ship it over to the Ewing refinery and that he'll take the flak for renegging on the sacred handshake deal.

When Ray arrives home, he finds Amos Krebbs sitting on his doorstep. The old man introduces himself to Ray as his long lost daddy and as proof pulls out some black and white photos of Ray as a child. Ray reminds him that he ran off on him and his ma when he was just a tot, and never bothered writing or sending money. When he asks Amos why he came back all these years later, Amos replies, "Things is different" ... and by different he means that Ray now has a nice plot of land, a cute bungalow, and is in the good graces of Jock Ewing. Ray reminds him that after his ma died he was a young lad of fifteen and showed up at Southfork with a note his ma wrote, begging Jock to help him out. He says that Jock unquestioningly took him in and became more a father to him than Amos ever was...and when Amos pissily says he should be rewarded for raising him for the first three years of his life, Ray throws $100 at him and angrily snorts, "That should about cover it!" Amos complains that he ain't playin' fair, and that his life turned out a lot shittier than expected - but Ray's like, "I really don't give a rat's ass" and tells him to get lost. 

During pre (or after?) dinner drinks at Southfork, Mitch drops by to say hey to Lucy. She squeals excitedly, introduces him to the family, and steers him over to a private room. He tells her that after some deep thought, he's decided to not let her family's wealth get in the way of their budding romance 'cause for some God-only-knows-why-reason, he digs her more than he probably should. Lucy lights up and happily chirps, "Oh Mitch!" - but he makes clear that he'll only continue dating her as far as his meagre income will allow.

Pam is reading in bed when Bobby finally arrives home. He bitches about his lousy day 'cause he had to do something he's not proud of: back out of a handshake deal that Jock made years ago so he could honor his own commitment. Pam reminds him that there's no shame in walking away from a job and a repressive home life he (meaning she) hates - but he tells her he can't bring himself to quit Ewing Oil after hitting his first snag. Pam's like, "Drats", then despondently shuts off the lamp on her nightstand and goes to sleep.

"There's no shame in wanting us to have a life and a home away from all this obnoxious Ewing drama."

"I'm prepared to make our lives a misery if it means preventing JR from getting the best of me."

The next morning, Mort Wilkinson drops by Ewing Oil to give Bobby the what for for breaking the handshake agreement he had with Jock. He then whines that he doesn't have a wife or kids -  just his gasoline delivery business - and if he doesn't meet his contractual obligations, he's finished. Bobby stares back at the sad sack with his usual wooden expression and says there's not a helluva lot he's willing to do for him at the moment. 

Amos stalks Jock to downtown Dallas. Eventually he stops Jock on the street, introduces himself, and suggests they stop in at a nearby eatery for a brief chat.

Amos tells Jock that he married Margaret Hunter despite the fact that 1) she always carried a torch for her WWIII lover, and 2) was pregnant (!) with his spawn on their wedding day. When Jock's all, "Wuh?", Amos pulls out Margaret's diary, hands it to him, and points to it as proof that Jock had an affair with Margaret in London during the '40s and unwittingly fathered her son. Amos tells Jock he's willing to sell him the diary in exchange for whatever amount of money Jock is willing to be extorted for...and Jock stares contemplatively into space and says he's going to need a few days in order to fully process this startling news. Amos shrugs and says that since he's waited all these years for a Ewing windfall, he'll happily wait a few more days. 

Bobby meets with the insurers and is aghast to learn that only the tanker, not the oil, was insured...which essentially means that Bobby is without coverage for the loss of 600,000 barrels of crude oil. He stares ashen-faced at the insurers and says he just assumed that the Bullocks had taken care of all the insuring, but the insurers are like, "Uh, no" and inform him about another piece of bad news: there's an investigation pending 'cause it looks like the oil tanker, which was insured for double its value, sank under suspicious circumstances. After they exit the office, Bobby asks Connie to give Eugene Bullock a heads up that he's about to angrily storm over to his office.

Cliff is dining out with Donna Culver when he gets a phone call about the sunken oil tanker and the news that there will be a full investigation for insurance fraud. He cackles gleefully and anticipates a huge power struggle between Bobby and JR...and adds that he doesn't care who loses, "'cause either way a Ewing loses". Donna nods politely and somehow refrains from suggesting that Cliff get a life that doesn't include such an unhealthy fixation on the Ewings. 

Bobby bursts into Eugene's office and demands to know what in blazes he's up to. When Eugene says he has no idea what he's talking about, Bobby rails that his reputation is at stake after the oil he bought from him sank and turned out to be uninsured. When he asks to see his accounting books, Eugene says that ever since he lost his mind and put his wife in charge in much of the day-to-day operations, the books are stored in her personal safe...then chuckles and calls her "a very vigorous woman". Bobby ignores the grossness of that remark and says he strongly suspects Sally of being involved in something nefarious, and Eugene's like 'yep, it would be totally in character for her to be up to no good'. LOL. He then smiles mischievously and produces a key, and explains that he secretly keeps a key to his wife's safe so he can keep tabs on whatever she's up to whenever it becomes necessary. 

Jock arrives at Ray's house as a shirtless (blech) Ray is chopping wood. Jock tells him he had a chat with Amos Krebbs earlier, and that the man tried to put the squeeze on him. He then explains that he and Ray's ma were close friends in England during WWII...and by close friends he means that they repeatedly hit the sheets despite him being married to Miss Ellie at the time. Philandering douchebag. Eventually, he and Margaret were separated when they both got shipped out of England, and he never heard a word about her until he (Ray) showed up at Southfork soon after her death. Ray apologizes for having been harassed by Amos and says he'll handle his daddy, to which Jock retorts by blurting out, "He's not your daddy. I am." Ray stares at him in shocked bewilderment as Jock tells him he got a pretty good look at Margaret's diary and considers it proof of his paternity - but also that he "feels it" and has no idea why he never realized before now that they're father and son. When he adds that he hasn't told any of this to Miss Ellie, Ray urges him to keep this life-changing secret under wraps 'cause he knows it's going to cause problems for his already dysfunctional family.

"Turns out I'm your bio dad."

"Your family is so screwed up that I'd much rather stick to remaining a lowly Krebbs."

As Bobby and Eugene pore over the books, they discover that the missing crude oil arrived at a holding harbor in Corpus Christi and was transferred to the harbor storage tanks. Bobby says he'd really like to confront Sally about the brazen theft, and Eugene writes down the address of her "secret" condo, but warns him to go easy 'cause he still intends on "keeping her", which...ew.

Amos stops by Ray's place to taunt him about being a bastard whose bio dad refuses to publicly acknowledge him, and is basing this assumption on the $10,000 Jock gave him to keep his mouth shut about Ray's paternity. Amos flashes the wad of bills and smugly calls it his retirement - I guess $10,000 went a long way in '80s Texas - and tells Ray he should be thanking him for making him aware he has a pedigree. He grins stupidly some more before finally climbing into his car and squealing off.

Sally is shocked to see Bobby when he arrives at her condo, and is even more shocked when he tells her that Eugene provided him with the address. She mutters that she didn't think her fossil of a husband knew about her secret love nest, and Bobby wryly says the man's old but not stupid. He then tells her he knows all about how she and JR conspired to overload a decrepit tanker with water that was purposely sunk, while the 600,000 barrels of crude oil safely made its way to Corpus Christi. When she weakly tries to deny the scheme, Bobby says he has proof that can land her in jail for fraud. She switches gears and gazes at him all sultry-like and offers him a proposition: she'll let him screw her brains out after she arranges for another shipment of crude oil that should take about a week to arrive. Bobby stares back at her stonily and tells her to listen carefully, then do as he says: sign over the 600,000 barrels of the Corpus Christi crude oil to him and decline all insurance money for the lost tanker...and in exchange he won't blow the whistle on her for stealing his oil. Sally mulls that over, acknowledges that the jig is up, and agrees to sign whatever he wants her to.

"Your husband helped me easily uncover and get proof of your nefarious scheme."

"Drats."

That evening at Southfork, Bobby confronts JR about the scheme he devised with Sally, but JR plays dumb and pretends to have absolutely no idea what he's talking about. Bobby asks him if he was really willing to destroy Ewing Oil just to get him out as president, and JR calls that "a crazy accusation" and chides him for not being more on top of the insurance contract. Bobby warns him to stay out of his way, then advances on him - just as Ray enters the room and puts a stop to the near brawl. A few seconds later, the entire Ewing clan files into the room, per Jock's request so he can drop a bombshell on everyone at the same time: he doinked Ray's ma during WWII and fathered a child he just learned he had. He then walks over to Ray and reveals he has a fourth son, then gruffly welcomes the yokel to the family before giving him a hearty man hug. After that, the camera pans across the faces of each family member, capturing varying degrees of shock, astonishment, and dismay. (I couldn't tell if it was dawning on Lucy that she used to bump uglies with her now uncle. Ick.) 

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