Nothing to forgive
In “Dallas’s” fourth-season episode “Ewing vs. Ewing,” while Jock and Donna (Jim Davis, Susan Howard) watch, Ray (Steve Kanaly) hands Miss Ellie (Barbara Bel Geddes) a legal document he commissioned to relinquish his claim of the Ewing fortune.
JOCK: Ray, I made you part of that trust because it’s rightfully yours. Don’t throw away your birthright.
RAY: I’d rather give it all up, leave Southfork, go anywhere, rather than be the cause for you two splitting up. You’re paying too high a price for me to be a Ewing.
ELLIE: [Turns and slowly turns away] I can’t let you do that, Ray. [She rubs her temple.] I guess, I guess the truth has finally come home. All this time, I couldn’t let go of Gary. I couldn’t let go of the hope that he’d come back to Southfork. But Gary’s not coming back. It’s because he doesn’t want to. This time, he wasn’t driven away. He left because, because he wasn’t happy. And you were right. I did blame you for that, Ray. It was easier to blame you than looking at myself and see the truth. And because you were Ray’s father, Jock, I focused all that hurt and hate on you being part of Takapa. But it never was Takapa. I used it as an excuse. It was all inside of me. [Tosses aside the document, turns back to Ray, sobs] And Ray, you are a Ewing. [Walks toward him] I want you to stay. [She touches his face, and then he embraces her as she cries.]
JOCK: Does that include me too?
ELLIE: Oh, yes. [Jock smiles as she walks toward him.] Forgive me. I almost destroyed everything.
JOCK: Nothing to forgive. I love you, Ellie.
ELLIE: I love you, Jock.
Dallas Decoder 
This scene between Miss Ellie, Jock and Ray made me cry. I felt bad for everyone. And it’s made so much more poignant knowing it’s Davis’ final episode. 😦
It’s a really great scene. It really makes me appreciate the unique dynamic Jim Davis and Barbara Bel Geddes brought to the show. In many ways, “Dallas” is never the same after this scene.
In a later episode Miss Ellie would say to Ray something along the lines of ‘I have four sons you know.’ It was in this moment that “adoption” takes place.
I love that scene. Thanks, Dan.