Farewell, my lovely
In “Dallas’s” fourth-season episode “Lover, Come Back,” Sue Ellen (Linda Gray) is preparing to leave Dusty (Jared Martin) for the evening.
SUE ELLEN: I have to get to Southfork, darling, but I’ll be back first thing in the morning. [She kisses him and begins walking away.]
DUSTY: No, Sue Ellen. Don’t come back. Ever.
SUE ELLEN: [She turns back toward him.] I have to. I couldn’t stand to lose you again.
DUSTY: You have lost me, Sue Ellen. You’re pretending we are as we used to be. We’re not.
SUE ELLEN: [She stands behind him, leans down and puts her arms around him.] But we love each other. That hasn’t changed.
DUSTY: The only thing we have left is a memory of how we were. And that was perfect. But I’d rather remember it like that than to be together now and have it die.
SUE ELLEN: [Moves around to face him, kneels down] But I won’t let it die.
DUSTY: I know you wouldn’t, Sue Ellen. You wouldn’t want to. You look at me now, you see me the way I used to be, and nothing else matters.
SUE ELLEN: And it never will.
DUSTY: Sue Ellen, someday it will. Not now, not a month from now, not a year, maybe even more than that, but someday you’re gonna walk in that door and you’ll see me – not as you want to see me, but as I really am. And then you’re going to realize that you’re married to a man who can’t walk again, who’s never going to make love again.
SUE ELLEN: [Crying] No, no.
DUSTY: And I’ll see it in your eyes. And you’ll cover it up, pretend that nothing has changed, but I’ll know. And that’s going to destroy me.
SUE ELLEN: No, I’d never hurt you. Dusty, I love you.
DUSTY: I love you. That’s the only thing I have left. If I didn’t know that, I might as well not have survived that plane crash. But if you really love me, don’t make me see myself in your eyes every day. Let me have my memories of you, and my dreams of you. Love me enough to do that.
SUE ELLEN: [Sobbing] You’ll never know how much I love you. Never. [They kiss.] Goodbye, my darling. [She rises, exits the room] Goodbye.
Dallas Decoder 
[…] actors are especially wonderful in the episode’s touching final scene, when Dusty sends Sue Ellen away because he believes he can’t make her happy as long as he’s […]