Critique: ‘Dallas’ Episode 29 – ‘John Ewing III, Part 2’

Crash test mommy

What a difference a year makes!

Sue Ellen has just four lines in “Digger’s Daughter,” “Dallas’s” first episode, but “John Ewing III, Part 2,” which debuted 369 days later, features the character in almost every other scene.

My favorite: When Sue Ellen tells Bobby that Cliff may be the father of her unborn child. This really isn’t a conversation as much as it is a monologue. For four-and-a-half uninterrupted minutes, Linda Gray delivers almost 500 words of heart-wrenching dialogue. It’s a tour-de-force performance, and it makes me appreciate how far Gray has come from those first-season episodes, when all she had to do was gaze adoringly at J.R.

The most surprising moment during Sue Ellen’s monologue comes when she kisses Bobby. No matter how many times I see the scene, the kiss is always a little startling. I used to find it odd how Patrick Duffy barely reacts to it, but I’ve decided it’s because the kiss isn’t a romantic gesture as much as it is an expression of Sue Ellen’s desperate loneliness.

Gray dominates “John Ewing III, Part 2,” but the other actors have good moments, too.

Larry Hagman’s performance in the final scene, when J.R. and Bobby sit at Sue Ellen’s bedside, is one of his most memorable. Despite all the rotten stuff J.R. does in the second season, it’s hard not to be moved when Hagman purses his lips, shuts his wet eyes and bows his head. J.R. has never seemed more human.

Ken Kercheval is equally moving in the penultimate scene, when Cliff sees Sue Ellen’s baby in the incubator and tearfully collapses into Pam’s arms. Like Duffy in Bobby’s scene with Sue Ellen, Victoria Principal doesn’t have much to do here, but she makes the most of it. I like how the actress moves from exasperation when Pam first spots Cliff in the hospital corridor to tears when he begins sobbing.

That Duffy and Principal shift so effortlessly from “Dallas’s” stars when the series begins to supporting roles in this episode reflect the cast’s evolution into a true ensemble.

What a difference a year makes, indeed.

Grade: A

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Crying, shame

‘JOHN EWING III, PART 2’

Season 2, Episode 24

Airdate: April 6, 1979

Audience: 17.8 million homes, ranking 11th in the weekly ratings

Writer: Arthur Bernard Lewis

Director: Leonard Katzman

Synopsis: In the sanitarium, Sue Ellen bribes a nurse for booze, escapes and is injured in a car crash. Her doctors are forced to prematurely deliver her son, whom Jock names John Ross Ewing III. J.R. weeps as the lives of Sue Ellen and the baby hang in the balance.

Cast: Dimitra Arliss (Nurse Hatton), Barbara Bel Geddes (Miss Ellie Ewing), Karlene Crockett (Muriel Gillis), Jim Davis (Jock Ewing), Patrick Duffy (Bobby Ewing), Meg Gallagher (Louella), Ellen Geer (Dr. Krane), Linda Gray (Sue Ellen Ewing), Michael C. Gwynne (Dr. Rogers), Heidi Hagman (receptionist), Larry Hagman (J.R. Ewing), Peter Horton (Wayne), Dawn Jeffory (Annie Driscoll), Sherril Lynn Katzman (Susan), Ed Kenney (Senator Newberry), Ken Kercheval (Cliff Barnes), Jeanna Michaels (Connie), Victoria Principal (Pam Ewing), Alan Rachins (Dr. Miller), Charlene Tilton (Lucy Ewing)

“John Ewing III, Part 2” is available on DVD and at Amazon.com, iTunes and TNT.tv. Watch the episode and share your comments below.