Dallas Scene of the Day: ‘Could You Learn to Live with Sam?’

Facing the truth

In “Royal Marriage,” a second-season “Dallas” episode, Lucy (Charlene Tilton) and Kit (Mark Wheeler) are in his apartment, seated on the sofa and talking about their future.

KIT: Lucy, I can’t marry you.

LUCY: [Flabbergasted] What are you talking about?

KIT: I can’t go through with it.

LUCY: I don’t understand. You said you loved me.

KIT: I –

LUCY: Didn’t you mean it? Did you lie to me?

KIT: No, I didn’t lie.

LUCY: But if you love me –

KIT: OK, listen. Remember when we met Sam the other night when we were dancing?

LUCY: Yeah.

KIT: He wasn’t just my roommate. We were lovers.

LUCY: [Stunned] What?

KIT: I’m a homosexual.

LUCY: You can’t be. I don’t believe it.

KIT: I am.

LUCY: Then why –

KIT: Because I didn’t want to be. I wanted to be socially normal. I wanted to be accepted. [Stands up, turns away] I wanted to make my parents happy, to make them proud of me. There are a whole lot of reasons. When I first started to care for you, I was like a drowning man who just found himself a life raft or something.

LUCY: Then that’s OK, Kit. [Stretches across the sofa, reaches and pulls him back down] Then everything will be all right. If a life raft is what you need, that’s what I’ll be.

KIT: Lucy, it’s not that simple.

LUCY: I love you, Kit. I don’t like what you’re telling me, but I can learn to live with it. I know I can.

KIT: Could you learn to live with Sam, too?

LUCY: Sam?

KIT: Or if not Sam, someone else? I’m telling you Lucy, I’m not going to change. I know it. I’m tired to trying. I’ve got to learn to like myself the way I am. Now could you marry me under those conditions?

LUCY: I don’t – No.

KIT: [Moves closer to face her] Lucy, somehow by loving you, I’ve managed to find out a whole lot about myself and I’m very grateful to you for that. I can’t tell you how badly I feel that I’ve hurt you. If I’d known it was gonna end up like this, I never would have let it get started.

LUCY: [Sobs] Oh, Kit.

KIT: Now it’s gonna be messy, too. Because Bobby understands but J.R. is furious and he’s not gonna keep his mouth shut.

LUCY: Bobby and J.R. know?

KIT: I told Bobby this morning. J.R. has known it all the time. Now, I’ll tell my folks. I don’t know how, but I will. But that’s not gonna satisfy J.R. He’s gonna want some kind of a scandal, I know it.

LUCY: I know how to deal with J.R. There won’t be any scandal. [Kisses him, stands over him] Kit, can we still see each other sometimes?

KIT: I would love to see you again. But I think we bought ought to wait until it stops hurting first.

LUCY: Well, that’s not going to be for a very long time.

She leaves.