Critique: ‘Dallas’ Episode 75 – ‘New Beginnings’

Two questions which worried every Dallas fan were answered in last week’s episode: Will Jock and Miss Ellie divorce? and What will Bobby’s vote be, and will it tear apart the family even more? We are now left with 2 more worrisome questions as this episode begins: Will J.R. divorce Sue Ellen to marry Leslie? and Will Sue Ellen divorce J.R. to marry Clint? On tonight’s episode, one of those questions was answered. It is the second one.

As with both of the questions which were answered on last week’s episode, the answer is no. Everything remains the same. Nothing changes. Although we are still left wondering Will J.R. divorce Sue Ellen to marry Leslie? The answer will probably be “No,” we think, but then we see a scene in the intro where he holds wine glasses with Leslie. Slightly taken aback, Leslie tells J.R. that “the break-up of a marriage is hardly anything to celebrate”. J.R. replies “No, but a man alone next to his future wife is certainly a reason to celebrate.” Then we begin to wonder. Then later in the episode, J.R. actually proposes to Leslie and states he plans to serve Sue Ellen divorce papers soon, but rest assured, the show brings a new factor into play. Leslie tells him she is not ready to marry him and wishes them to wait longer, then as soon as he leaves, she walks into the other room where her ex-husband lies in bed. They laugh over how she fooled J.R., her ex-husband laughing, “I think he might actually divorce his wife”.

This is something to note. Dallas may have answered 3 questions, but nevertheless, the new factors which come into play in this episode are numerous.

The episode starts off calmly with the resolution of the Takopa storyline as the Ewings have a party to celebrate Jock and Miss Ellie’s continuing marriage before they go off
on their second honeymoon (so they likely won’t be in the show for a while). But the new factors start near immediately as Sue Ellen receives a phone call during the party. It is from a woman who tells her she is “Alisha Ogden, Clint’s wife.” The tension begins as we suspect that Sue Ellen’s affair has been discovered. They arrange to meet at a restaurant. The tension is high during this meeting, but Alisha is calm. She tells Sue Ellen that she was so thankful when Clint had finally ended his relationship with Sue Ellen, stopped contact with her, and married herself. She tells Sue Ellen that she does not believe she can stop their relationship, and that she is willing to share Clint “just to keep him from leaving me”. Sue Ellen replies that “I would think that you would want to leave him”, but Alisha tells her she would never do that. Shocked, Sue Ellen asks how she can live knowing her husband is having an affair. Her reply is simple. “I love him.”

Here is a woman you cannot help but sympathize with. She has waited so long to marry him, and felt so happy when he stopped seeing Sue Ellen and married her, and now to see the man she loves so much start an affair with her behind her back. Yet she does not hate him for it. She loves him non-judgmentally, and is willing to let the affair continue just so that man she loves will not leave her, for this is her biggest fear, that he will divorce her to marry Sue Ellen.

Sue Ellen is not heartless. She, too, is taken aback with sympathy for Alisha. She calls Clint and asks to meet with him. At the meeting, she tells Clint that she does not feel right breaking up his marriage, and ends their relationship, leaving with a heartfelt “Goodbye, Clint.” “Goodbye, Sue Ellen,” Clint replies sadly, but acceptingly. Both are heartbroken. Clint was her first love, and so it would seem, the best man for her to marry. What Sue Ellen did was probably right, however, for Clint planned to divorce Alisha that night. Imagine that pitiful scene. Alisha dropping on her hands and knees weeping, begging Clint not to leave her, telling him that she is willing to share him. Sue Ellen is not truly a bad person at all. No matter how much she loves Clint and would be happy married to him, she will not allow this scene to take place.

Now that that question has been answered, there is something else we wonder at, although not one that seemed very pressing. Will Cliff discover proof of J.R.’s involvement in the South-East Asia counter-revolution? The answer comes brilliantly when Cliff meets Afton in the nightclub he frequents so often. They sleep together, and in the morning, the topic turns to J.R. Afton tells Cliff that J.R. broke up with her because she didn’t understand his business matters. She tells Cliff that “he was always on the phone with people from foreign countries with funny names”. You can see the look of stunned shock and glee on Cliff’s face. He asks if any of the phone calls were from South-East Asia. She replies that “I think so”. We cannot help but enjoy this victory a little ourselves. Dave may be withholding information from Cliff and reporting all their conversations to J.R., but now Cliff has found out via a completely different way, and J.R. is not likely to discover that he has learned.

But now we get to the primary issue we worried about at the ending of last week’s episode. Now that Jock and Miss Ellie have gotten back together, will J.R. end up selling Ewing Oil needlessly? We see J.R. has been dodging Jeremy’s calls until finally he is forced to schedule a meeting with him. At this meeting, Jeremy reminds J.R. he promised to sell the company even if Jock and Miss Ellie got back together, but J.R. tells him he has not gotten Jock to sign the papers and he and J.R. have decided to keep the company in the family “indefinitely”. Naturally, Jeremy is infuriated that J.R. has broken his word and left him to explain this to the East Star Oil board. Later, he calls a meeting with Dave where he tells Dave to give Cliff all the East-Asia counter revolution papers so that he can lead an investigation into Ewing Oil, which will create a scandal so large J.R. may be imprisoned. A new factor has definitely come into play.

The final scene finds Sue Ellen reminiscing with J.R. about the beginning of their relationship and finally asks why it cannot be the way it was then. No sooner has she said this than the phone rings. She picks it up and has a very brief conversation before hanging it up. A look of shock is on her face. She tells J.R.: “It’s Kristin, calling from California. You have another son.”

And so ends a very exciting episode of Dallas. I must say I enjoyed it,

This leaves but one question in the viewers’ mind: What will become of Sue Ellen next? She appears to have resigned herself to spending her days as a mother to John Ross, something she evidently feels guilty for neglecting. There is a heart-jerking scene at the end where she