Critique: ‘Dallas’ Episode 85 – ‘The Split’

The show has well gotten over Jock Ewing’s death by now, and the most dramatic storylines have ended, but there are 9 episodes left in the season. This episode felt slower and more awkward than most, as a result of this fact. But it does a good job of creating more storylines, or enlarging them to become interesting, but it overall only works on the 2 major plots, leaving all the minor B-plots to seem boring and pointless.

Not that it was entirely bad. I was shocked, however, at how nosy J.R. is. Having a man watch Sue Ellen’s house 24 hours for Cliff, making his best effort to destroy Cliff’s career. What right does he have to do this?

But this episode is largely about jealousy, and the irrational feelings it produces. I enjoyed watching Afton see through J.R.’s attempt to turn her against Cliff and tell him off for being jealous of Sue Ellen and Cliff, asking “How stupid do you think I am?” That’s a thing about J.R. He constantly thinks that he is so clever, and that he can fool everyone with the slightest tricks, and yet he is so often mistaken.

And yet in the very next scene Afton goes to Cliff’s house, demanding to know what he is doing with Sue Ellen, and he bluntly tells her. When she asks if he does not wish to be involved with her anymore, he replies, “Yeah.” And Afton leaves, furious in her jealousy, warning Cliff over and over again that J.R. will break him, and he will not get away with a relationship with Sue Ellen.

Afton never cared about Cliff while they were together. She called him a loser and all statements about her attraction to him seemed mostly to get what she wanted, and yet the idea of someone else being able to have something which she cannot infuriates her. That is what this episode was all about, this human emotion.

Similarly, Lucy separated Mitch, and yet she is devastated by his dating an older woman. Of course, it is none of her business, though, and Mitch bluntly calls her out on it. The characters in this episode are so jealous they are incapable of seeing how nosy and outlandish their actions are, until they are called out on it.

One of the things I enjoy most about Dallas is how well the characters are developed. J.R.’s statement that Sue Ellen can’t stand being alone has only been proven true with every episode. She hasn’t gotten over Dusty yet, and refuses a strong relationship with Cliff because of this, (Cliff only spent the night because he got drunk and fell asleep on the couch, an unfortunate tragedy given what J.R. is planning for him) and yet she is so lonely and depressed at home all by herself, when she hangs up the phone with Clayton, who is flying to see Dusty at a rodeo, but offers to visit Sue Ellen, instead, which she refuses, and the babysitter declines her offer to stay and play baccarat. In her boredom and depression, she sees a glass of wine in the cabinet and walks toward it and opens it, but promptly closes it again, unwilling to fall off the barrel again.

But this episode did have some very glaring flaws. For example, why was the wine there to begin with if Sue Ellen has completely given up alcohol? And Lucy’s photographer’s romantic advances on her are so sudden and awkward as to be laughable, and it is ridiculous how little Lucy reacts to it.

And the lack of interesting material was so plainly obvious at the beginning when Pamela goes to an aerobics lesson with her friends which serves no point to the plot and has pointless dialogue with her friends before. And I was again annoyed by the blatant sexism in the writing, as Pamela tells her friends she merely waits for Christopher to wake up once he goes to sleep for hours on end, and refuses to go back to work until Christopher is grown when Bobby brings it up. For God’s sake, this is 1982, post women’s lib and the feminist rebellion. Why are these blatantly sexist attitudes allowed to persist so shamelessly as this?

And J.R.’s scheme to persuade Donna to convince Ray to give up his voting shares was fairly blatantly added for dramatic tension, but my main disappointment is that it was not continued well, but in pointless scenes of Donna and Ray.

But the episode was largely interesting, and the dramatic tension was excellently ratched up in the Bobby’s adoption plans storyline, which was expertly written. The attorney Bobby consults tells him they will hold a trial to get custody of Christopher, but first they will have to post an ad for the father, just so the courts will see they’ve done all they can to locate him, they won’t post in a major newspaper, the father will never read it. But what if J.R. does? is obviously Bobby’s biggest worry.

I am again annoyed by Bobby’s lying to both his lawyer and Pamela. The situation which led to Christopher being adopted by Pamela is ludicrous and would never have taken place in real life. And yet now that we’ve gotten past that, at least they’re trying to write the storyline well and realistically. I’ll respect them for that.

All-in-all, the dramatic tension was fairly good in this episode, and it contained some very good scenes, but it contains a few glaring flaws, and is overall just a so-so episode of Dallas.

Notes

– That aerobics session with the women was so blatantly fan service. And yet I’m ashamed to admit that a large part of me wishes it had gone on longer.
– Funny how Mitch cuts his speech off a good 5 seconds before Lucy begins talking.
. Katherine is a completely pointless and unnecessary character. All she does is have awkward sort-of conflict with Cliff.
. Rebecca was only in one scene in this episode.
. Miss Ellie wasn’t in this episode at all. I missed her.
. Love how J.R. assures his son at the end that he and Sue Ellen will be back living with them soon. He’s so sure that he’s J.R. Ewing, he always gets what he wants.