Recap: During pre-dinner drinks at Southfork, JR urges Bobby to write off Ewing 23 now that it's been blown up, and Bobby glares at him and snarks back, "You'd like that, wouldn't you, JR? Then you could cut Cliff Barnes right out of his share." Bobby insists that he wants Ewing 23 back in production asap and points out to Jock that the oil wells can generate an annual revenue of $30 to $40 million. Across the room, Mitch discreetly asks Lucy if the Ewings have nothing better to talk about than money 24/7, and Lucy's like, "Uh, nope." Bobby admonishes JR for not doing as he was instructed during the previous episode, to which Sue Ellen growls, "Extortion money" while JR says he wasn't about to give $5 million to a terrorist. When he tries to draw Mitch into the conversation to get him to agree with him, Mitch shrugs cluelessly and says he has no concept of that kind of money. Lucy snappishly asks if they have to talk about this now, and Miss Ellie concurs and announces that dinner must be ready by now, prompting everyone to get up and dutifully file over to the dining room. On the way, Miss Ellie urges Jock to spend some time talking to Mitch, but Jock makes a blech face and haughtily growls, "What the hell do I have to talk to a parking lot attendant about?" Miss Ellie informs him that Mitch is working his way through medical school, and a still unimpressed Jock just sneers disinterestedly...and the two idiots are having this conversation within earshot of Mitch, who's standing just a few feet away. Pam gets a call from her PI, John Mackey, who reports that he's pretty sure he has located her mother, who's now living in Houston. He urges Pam to get to Houston asap so she can get a look at the woman in question, and Pam excitedly tells him she'll be on the next plane. After dinner, Pam rushes upstairs to pack for Houston. A disapproving Bobby tells her it'd be better for her to travel when she's not so wound up, then says he'd accompany her if he didn't have a smouldering Ewing 23 to deal with. He asks her to please be back in Dallas by Wednesday night 'cause Jock is insisting that the family attend a fundraising dinner for Dave Culver...and Pam sarcastically retorts, "Oooh, well I'll be home then. I wouldn't want to disappoint your family." Downstairs, Mitch tells Lucy they don't belong together, and that it's obvious the Ewings don't like him 'cause they clearly only have respect for money and power, aka two things he'll never have. When Lucy assures him that the Ewings' acceptance of him is just going to take some time, he says he couldn't give a rat's ass about their acceptance 'cause he has zero desire about wanting to be in their orbit, then suggests they stop seeing each other for awhile. Lucy snaps, "OK, fine" and angrily opens the front door. After Mitch exits, JR - who's been eavesdropping on the conversation - says, "You sure can pick 'em" and mocks his niece for being a magnet for losers and failures. Lucy somehow refrains from pointing out that Mitch is studying to be a doctor and is therefore not an "up and coming pauper" as JR characterizes him, and glares at her uncle as she snaps, "I can't do much worse than Sue Ellen, can I?" and stomps up the stairs. In Houston, John Mackey shows Pam all of the evidence he's gathered that prove Rebecca Burke (who now goes by Rebecca Wentworth) is her mother. He then suggests they regroup first thing in the morning so she can get a good look at the woman. The next morning on the patio, Jock asks Lucy whassup with her moping, so she tells him she's bummed that Mitch put a pause on their relationship, but is confident that they'll make up soon enough. Jock makes a blech face and says that while Mitch seems like a nice enough guy, he's definitely not good enough to be dating a Ewing, even when the Ewing in question is an obnoxiously infantile twit. Lucy argues that Mitch is "as good as they come" 'cause of how honest, smart, and ambitious he is...then points out to her crusty granddad that Mitch likes her in spite of the fact that she's a Ewing, 'cause he's made it clear that he really can't stand the pompous, back-stabbing, money-obsessed clan. Bobby meets up with Jordan Lee, who offers him the opportunity to join the cartel in an oil drilling venture off the Gulf Coast if he's able to scrape together the required $12 million. Bobby says he'd loooove to participate and be able to boast to his daddy that Ewing Oil and the cartel are playing nice again - but admits that he's currently in a cash bind and will have to figure out to free up that kind of dough. John Mackey drives Pam to the gated estate where Rebecca Wentworth lives with her rich husband. The two peer through the gates as a sophisticated looking woman exits the front door, chats with a womanservant for a few seconds, then climbs into a chauffeured car before it drives off. Pam tells John she's stunned that her mother is living so high on the hog, so John explains that after she quit her waitressing job, she put herself through secretarial school, got a job at an oil company named Wentworth-Pitts, and caught the eye of the magnate-in-charge, Herbert Wentworth. Not long after that, she became his trophy wife...and the two seem happily married and have a daughter named Katherine. JR arrives at the Cattlemen's Club and finds Jock and Ray lunching with Punk Anderson and Pat Powers. When JR ambles over and asks whassup, Punk spills the beans about their prospective plans to invest - by each throwing in $10 million - in a project that will transform swampland on the Texas-Louisiana border into a recreational area. As Jock looks visibly irritated that JR now knows about this, JR smugly points out that Bobby has been overspending and wonders aloud if his daddy will even be able to extract $10 million for the venture. Jock growls that he can't fathom the day Ewing Oil doesn't have that kind of cash laying around for a pet project, gruffly reminds Punk and Pat that he's still in the process of thinking about the investment, then abruptly gets up and exits the restaurant. Pam phones up Rebecca Wentworth, introduces herself, then asks her if the name Pam Ewing means anything to her. Rebecca says that naturally the name Ewing rings a bell, but not Pam Ewing specifically. Pam tells her she really really needs to speak with her in person about an important matter, so Rebecca invites her to swing by the estate at 5pm. After the call, Herbert Wentworth, a wrinkly old man, tells his wife he's off to Dallas, and she chides him living such a fast-paced life at his advanced age, says she has no idea what she'd do if he suddenly keeled over, and gives him a goodbye kiss. Lucy and her bespectacled friend Muriel are walking together on campus. Muriel tells Lucy she's a jerk if she continues to chase after Mitch, given that they definitely don't belong together. When she tells Lucy she should be happy that Mitch walked out on her, Lucy huffily retorts, "No one walks out on me!" and stomps off in search of Mitch. Pam arrives at Casa Wentworth via cab, and is ushered inside the house by the womanservant and brought to an indoor pool area, where Rebecca is waiting. Pam gabbles about how she's rehearsed this moment a dozen times...and that when she was a child she thought about her mother every day, never accepted that she was dead, and launched a search for her against the advice of everyone. She giddily squeals, "And then I found you! You're alive! I'm soooooo happy!" - to which Rebecca Wentworth reacts by stonily saying that it's literally impossible for her to be her mother. Pam's face falls as she's all, "Wuh? That can't be", but Rebecca insists it be, and that she's sorry to have to break such difficult news. JR calls a Ewing Oil flunky named Baxter Kirby and orders him to bring the company's accounting books to Kristin's old condo tomorrow morning...and to keep their meeting on the down low. Les Crowley tells Bobby that the bank is nervous about giving yet another multi-million dollar loan to Ewing Oil, and urges him to slow down with spending like a drunken sailor. Bobby says he's sure the cartel venture will result in huge profits and urges him to convince the loan committee that it's a sure thing. After Les exits the office, Pam calls Bobby to report that she'll be back in Dallas by noon and really really wants to have lunch with him so she can bare her soul about what just happened on her ill-fated trip to Houston. Bobby declines and says he's far too swamped and suggests they talk tonight, so she sourly reminds him they're scheduled to attend the Dave Culver fundraiser this evening. Bobby tells Pam to just spit out whatever it is she wants to talk to him about, so she tells him that it turns out the woman John Mackey tracked down isn't her mother after all. Bobby's like, "Oh well, it was a long shot" and says he really has to go now. Lucy complains to Ray about how everyone thinks she and Mitch are wrong for each other, then points out that it's the very same reason he and Donna Culver broke up. Ray says he understands what she's going through, but that she and Mitch go together like oil and water. Lucy snarks at him for being too chicken to give a relationship with Donna a chance, then huffily declares that no way in hell is she going to allow a diamond in the rough like Mitch to slip away. The Ewing clan arrives at the Dave Culver fundraiser and warmly greets Dave and Donna, while ignoring Cliff. When Sue Ellen asks JR why Jock was so insistent about the entire family attending this event, JR explains that since it's Dave is likely going to become governor one day, it never hurts for the Ewings to preemptively suck up to the politician. Pam, meanwhile, runs into Rebecca Wentworth, who introduces her to Herbert and looks visibly weirded out when Pam points at Cliff and identifies him as her older brother. Cliff goes on stage and introduces Dave Culver as the Texas state senator and future governor...and when Pam glances around the room, she notices that Rebecca and her husband are no longer sitting at their table. The next morning, Lucy finds Bobby doing laps in the Southfork pool and tells him she definitely doesn't want to talk about how supposedly ill-suited she and Mitch are. Bobby advises her to make her own life decisions and stop asking people what they think, and then respond by getting upset. Lucy translates this to mean that she should permanently hook up with a dud she met just seven episodes ago, and happily hugs her uncle and gushes about how terrific he is. Over in Kristin's old condo, JR is looking over the Ewing Oil books with Baxter Kirby. JR tells Baxter he's dismayed that Bobby has everything tied up in equipment and leases and left the company with a total lack of liquidity, and says that one day soon Jock is going to want to withdraw $10 million for his swampland-leisure area venture. He then stares contemplatively into space before grinning devilishly. Bobby tells Jordan Lee he still wants to get in on the Gulf Coast oil drilling deal, but first needs to sort out his cash flow problem. Jordan warns that the clock is ticking, but that he'll give him 24 hours to come up with the cash. Lucy and Mitch are lounging on a campus lawn, and for some reason they've dressed themselves in matching shirts. Mitch apologizes to Lucy for being so distant lately, and Lucy acknowledges that they come from very different backgrounds and regrets inviting him to Southfork and making him endure the shittiness that is her family. Mitch says that, yep, her family makes him very uncomfortable, and Lucy chirps, "Me too!" and points out that that's something they have in common. Mitch chuckles and says, "I love you very much", prompting Lucy to propose so he can take her away from the Ewings. Mitch laughingly calls her "a genuine little stinker" ... and when Lucy says if he had any guts he'd marry her, Mitch mulls that over and accepts her dare, er proposal. The two start smooching and going at it as Lucy happily shrieks that they're going to have the biggest, bestest wedding ever. Rebecca Wentworth stakes out The Store until Pam exits the building. She asks Pam if they could take a walk together and have a soul baring one-on-one so she can admit that, yep, they are mother and daughter after all. Rebecca explains that she managed to seal off the first part of her life for many years - but when she saw Pam and Cliff in person at the Dave Culver fundraiser, the whole facade instantly broke apart, and she had to endure the pain of admitting that she's Rebecca Barnes, the woman who abandoned her own children. Pam tearfully asks, "You are my mother..?", and Rebecca confirms she is, and explains that she never divorced Digger 'cause she was terrified he'd find her and force her to resume her shitty life as his wife...and eventually she saw a chance for happiness and took it. She adds that Herbert has no idea she was previously married with two children, and that the shock of it would devastate him. She implores Pam to try to understand that she doesn't want to lose her second family by telling them she had a first family, and Pam weeps and sympathizes about how difficult this must be for her. Later, Pam drops by Cliff's apartment to report that John Mackey wasn't able to locate their birth mother after all...and Cliff shrugs disinterestedly and murmurs, "Well, that's that" even though there's no chance in hell of that being that. Thanks for reading! If you are enjoying TVofYore's recaps, consider thanking me by buying me a "coffee"!
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