The Dal-List: 5 Women Who Spied for Cliff Barnes

Welcome to the club, honey

Say what you will about Cliff Barnes (Ken Kercheval), but the man knows how to get women to spy on the Ewings for him. In “The Return,” TNT’s third-season “Dallas” opener, Elena Ramos (Jordana Brewster) becomes the latest gal to go undercover on Cliff’s behalf. Here’s a look at five others.

His kind of traitor

5. Julie Grey. When J.R. began taking his secretary/mistress Julie (Tina Louise) for granted, she got even by sneaking Cliff documents that proved the Ewings had bribed a state senator. Cliff exposed the Ewings and Julie left town, but she came back and pretty much did the same thing all over again — feeding J.R.’s secrets to Cliff. This time around, Julie wound up dead and Cliff wound up in jail, framed for her murder — courtesy of J.R., natch.

Reflections of a rat

4. Sly Lovegren. In an attempt to beat the Ewings at their own game, Cliff blackmailed Sly (Deborah Rennard), J.R.’s loyal secretary, into leaking him Ewing Oil secrets by threatening to have her brother’s parole denied if she didn’t cooperate. Sly reluctantly went along with the scheme — until J.R. caught wind and turned Sly into a double agent, using her to feed Cliff bad information that brought his company to the brink of disaster.

The shadow knows

3. Mandy Winger. Here we go again. When J.R.’s mistress Mandy (Deborah Shelton) suspected he was cheating on her — how could he! — she tried to get revenge by getting him to divulge Ewing Oil secrets, which she gave to Cliff. J.R. was wise to Mandy’s game, though, and turned the tables on her and Cliff. But poor J.R.: He seemed genuinely hurt by Mandy’s betrayal — which should’ve been our first clue this was all a dream.

Double spy

2. Pam Ewing. By the time Pam (Victoria Principal) remarried Bobby, she had become Cliff’s business partner. This put her in competition with J.R. and Bobby and made her life hell. Cliff didn’t help matters when he asked Pam to divulge which companies the Ewings wanted to acquire — and she did! J.R. would’ve been mad, except he used Pam to find out which companies Cliff wanted. Who knew she could be so valuable?

Daddy’s girl

1. Pamela Barnes. To destroy the Ewings once and for all, Cliff sent his daughter Pamela (Julie Gonzalo) to infiltrate the family by posing as “Rebecca Sutter.” She married Christopher — her own cousin! — and dutifully did Daddy’s bidding, eventually helping him gain control of Ewing Energies. And how did he repay her? By blowing up the Ewing Energies rig, causing her to lose her unborn babies. We can’t help but wonder: Elena, are you sure you want to do business with this guy?

What’s your favorite “Dallas” spy story? Share your comments below and read more “Dal-Lists.”