Her love
In “Hurt,” a third-season “Dallas” episode, Bum (Kevin Page) lets Sue Ellen (Linda Gray) into his home after she surprises him on his front porch.
SUE ELLEN: You have something you want to tell me about J.R.’s death? You were J.R.’s most trusted friend. Once I remembered that, it was easy.
BUM: Sue Ellen, I’m so sorry.
SUE ELLEN: You’re sorry? I’m sure you are. I’m sure you’re sorry for shooting J.R. I am sure you are sorry of robbing me of a goodbye.
BUM: I made a promise to J.R.
SUE ELLEN: J.R. was my husband! He was my love. I should have been the first one to know he was sick. Not you. I should have been the one that was there with him. Not you. I should have been — was he scared? Was he in pain?
BUM: He was brave. And he loved you very much.
SUE ELLEN: [She sits at the table and pulls a tissue from a box Bum places in front of her, then notices a sketch of J.R.] You painted this? You painted his portrait?
BUM: [Sits across from her] It was Bobby’s idea. I told him I’d be honored to do it. [Leans back in his chair, smiles] I was taking J.R. down to Mexico for his treatments, and of course he was worried all his hair was going to fall out because of the chemo. And he said to me, “Bum, if I should lose these wondrous eyebrows of mine, please don’t tell Sue Ellen. She and her tweezers have been circling around these furry devils for half a century, and she’ll be devastated if she found out chemo got to them first.” [Sue Ellen chuckles.] Sue Ellen, can you ever forgive me?
SUE ELLEN: [Strokes the sketch] You’re not the one I need to forgive.
Dallas Decoder 
Sue Ellen’s scene with Bum and her scene with Bobby could both easily be Scene of the Day!
I am so glad that you choose this scene as your scene of the day. There was a lot to choose from in this episode. But this one was heartfelt. You know, Sue Ellen has been the only person who has expressed their concern about what JR went through. Of course, being Sue Ellen, a good part of her angst was about herself. And that is okay..Sue Ellen has often been somewhat self absorbed…but she also is often the one who sees through the current drama and worries about the person. I love that she stopped amid her tirade about being the one and asked about JR. One of the constants Over the many years of their tornado of a relationship was that a truly hurt JR always, ALWAYS, melted Sue Ellen’s heart.
And I loved the Bum line about JR’s eyebrows. Those brows! Man I get a kick out of them. I remember on the original that occasionally they would be out of control and would do the little devil horn thing. I know that they used to always have to use mustache wax on them. I used to wonder if they would purposefully let them ‘horn up’ if JR was being especially devilish. I loved the EW article about them that featured the makeup artist talking about them. That was a nice touch for Aaron Allen to include that story.
Kevin Page does such a great job as Bum. And I really like the character. The character is a great vehicle for the writers to keep JR and his schemes and his past history alive, it truly is a valuable tool. We dont know the full history of the Ewings…even all of us that did watch the entire first series. We have 20 years of downtime. We know that Bum was pals with JR and worked for him all during that time…so he can be the source of a lot of future JR tidbits and storylines.
Good call! In never thought about it that way but you are right. Bum is our window into JR’s past.
J. R. wasn’t her husband, he was her ex-husband 2x, Bum had to go with Ex-Husband To Miss Texas Twice Over Command decisions while he still had his faculties. J.R. was suffering, it was the right call.
This was a great scene with Sue Rllen and Bum…two of the bright spots in an otherwise dismal show.
Again, the writers could have made this scene more authentic if Sue Ellen’s line was “he was the love of my life” instead of “he was my husband.” The way it was written was not natural for the characters nor the viewing audience.
It is the in attention to little details as well as the major goofs that cause long-time fans to have no respect for Showrunner Cynthia Cidre and writing/production crew.
Speak for yourself! I am a long time fan and currently re-watching all the original episodes. I am enjoying this remake of the show. It’s better than having no reincarnation at all. Now we must get it renewed for season 4!!
I did speak for myself. I want a season 4 too, but not with more of the low quality that Cynthia Cidre has foisted on us. I want and expect better than what we’ve gotten from Dallas TNT. There is enormous potential and unlimited room for improvement, given better writing, casting of newbies and production.
I agree with you both John and Roseanne! The fact that the writers admit that none of them had watched all the episodes of the original series spoke volumes and explained why there were so many mistakes. However, it was better to have a few mistakes here and there than not to have it reincarnated at all.
Yep.