As I said in my review for the first four episodes of the season (My thoughts on episode 2x01 “Battle Lines” through episode 2x04 “False Confessions”) I’ve actually been enjoying season two of Dallas more than I loved the first season, which was an awful lot, and that continues to be the case with this episode. This was definitely the best episode yet of season two in a lot of ways. Although, there were a few things about the episode that I found somewhat disappointing, they are only fairly minor complaints, which I’ll get to later.
One of the reasons why I’ve been enjoying season two even more than I enjoyed season one is that I feel the writers have really been doing a lot of the things that I wish they had done in season one. One of them being that I really wanted the writers to give the viewers just a little bit more information about Ann’s past so I could better understand her behavior at times, and they’ve really delivered when it comes to that aspect of the season. While the writers had already revealed some more details about Ann’s past in the first four episodes of the season, this episode really delve deep into Ann’s backstory and finally answered a lot of the questions that I’ve had about Ann, such as how Sue Ellen and Ann met each other and became friends. They apparently met when Ann did volunteer work for one of the foundations that Sue Ellen started for battered and abused women.
Ann also mentioned that she grew up in a family that didn’t have a lot of money and never went to college, which is something Judith had apparently given her a hard time about when she was married to Harris. It sounds like Harris did treat her very well and was very generous with her when they first met. It was only after Judith met Ann and started to interfere in Ann and Harris’ marriage that the relationship between Ann and Harris took a turn for the worse. Apparently, Ann had been diagnosed with post partum depression after Emma was born, and she admitted that she’d taken more pills than she should have the day Harris kidnapped Emma at the fair. She also described herself as being a very awkward girl when she was growing up, saying that her mother had actually taken her to see doctors in order to see if they could find a way to make her stop growing. I can’t help, but wonder if that line was some kind of dig from the writers about the fact that Brenda Strong is really tall.
I have to say that I thought Brenda Strong’s acting in this episode was fantastic, especially when Ann was being questioned on the stand. I’ve always thought that Brenda was a great actress. She did a great job playing the role of Sue Ellen Mischke on Seinfeld, and she always did a fantastic job of narrating Desperate Housewives as Mary Alice Young, but I’ve been especially enjoying her work on Dallas. If you ask me, she should definitely consider submitting this episode for Emmy consideration.
One thing that really surprised me about this episode was how quickly the whole thing with Ann confessing to being the one who shot Harris, as well as being tried and convicted unfolded all in the same episode. I know that some people were wondering if the writers and producers combined footage from several different episodes to make one episode in order to accommodate having to write Larry Hagman/J.R.’s death into the show on fairly short notice, but I don’t think that’s the case here. If they had combined several different episodes worth of footage to make up the episode, I’m pretty sure that the episode would have credited more writers then they usually do for an episode, as well as list two directors in the credits. I suppose it’s possible that they could have combined two or more episodes that just happened to all be written and directed by the same people, but I don’t think that’s the case here, especially since the producers previously said that Larry Hagman had filmed six episodes for season two before he died, and the episode that’s airing this week is apparently Larry Hagman’s final episode. For whatever reason, it looks like the writers decided to jump ahead one month about ten minutes into the episode so they get right to having Ann’s trial.
When the episode jumped ahead one month everybody was going to the courthouse for Ann’s trial. John Ross and Pamela had a really nice moment at the courthouse where John Ross asked her to have dinner with him, but she turned him down, saying that she wanted to protect their deal. I thought John Ross acted really sweet in that scene, but I also found their conversation a little confusing. The way John Ross was acting kind of gave me the impression that he hadn’t seen Pamela at all in the one month that had passed, which I thought was weird considering the fact that they had been spending so much time together in the first four episodes. I have to say that in just the first five episodes of season two alone, the John Ross and Pamela pairing has become one of my favorite relationships to ship when it comes to couples on TV shows, especially since Josh Henderson and Julie Gonzalo have great chemistry together. I don’t know who the first person to come up with the shipper name “Jebecca” was, but I really like that name for the pairing. Although, I have to wonder why they chose to use the name Rebecca as a part of their shipper name since Pamela has gone back to going by her birth name. Regardless of the person’s reasoning for doing that, I still think Jebecca has a nice ring to it.
After the one-month time jump, Pamela was back to looking visibly pregnant, even more than she had looked at the end of the first season. I’m still curious as to why the producers decided to have Julie Gonzalo not even look like she was pregnant at the beginning of the season. Maybe they decided to do that so the initial love scenes with John Ross and Pamela wouldn’t seem weird. I just thought that was weird since I’ve never seen a TV show have an actress whose character is supposed to be pregnant go from looking visibly pregnant to not looking pregnant, and then go back to having the actress look pregnant.
I have to say that I have somewhat mixed feelings about the writers’ decision to jump ahead one month ten minutes into the episode. On the one had, I’m kind of glad that the writers didn’t drag things out with Ann’s trial several episodes. Although, I have to wonder why they only jumped ahead one month instead of jumping ahead several months. That just doesn’t seem very realistic when it comes to lawyers having to prepare for a trial dealing with someone who’s being tried for attempted murder. Also, like I said earlier, I think the writers should have made it more clear how much John Ross and Pamela had seen each other in the month that had passed, or if they saw each other at all during that time.
As I mentioned in my review for the first four episodes of the season, John Ross and Pamela making the business arrangement they’ve made and embarking on a romantic relationship with each other has been my favorite thing about season two so far. There was definitely some great material in terms of their relationship in this episode. If I haven’t already made it perfectly clear, their conversation with each other at the court house was definitely my favorite John Ross and Pamela related moment in this episode, but I also thought that scene where Cliff tells Pamela that he’s really upset with her about all of the problems that came up last season and so far this season simply because she allowed herself to become emotionally attached to Christopher when it came to them trying to carry out their plans. Cliff asked her if she was falling for John Ross, but she promised him that she wasn’t and that she wouldn’t allow herself to fall in love with John Ross in the future. Personally, I don’t buy it when she says she doesn’t have feelings for John Ross, and I think she’s using her constant claims to John Ross about wanting to protect their business arrangement to as a way to resist any desire she may have to have a committed relationship with him.
The conversation between John Ross and J.R. where J.R. tells John Ross that he’s going to forgive him for becoming involved with Pamela, both professionally and romantically, and for going to Cliff Barnes for help since it’s what Sue Ellen wants also deserves honorable mention, but not just because it continues to solidify my belief that John Ross is falling in love with Pamela. The other reason why I liked that scene much is that it once again illustrated how awesome J.R. is, especially when it comes to being on top of his game in the scheming department and knowing everybody’s business, in this case the details of Elena’s contract with Sue Ellen. J.R. wouldn’t be J.R. if he didn’t plot and scheme against people until the day he died.
Before I started watching Dallas (The TNT series), I was used to pretty much only watching characters who are around John Ross and Pamela’s age or who are at least middle aged plot and scheme in soap operas. I find it very refreshing to watch characters that are played by people Larry Hagman and Ken Kercheval’s age plot and scheme in soap operas. Given the fact that they are older, they are also more experienced when it comes to business matters and scheming, which often allows them to be much more clever than John Ross and Pamela are at times.
Another one of the many things that I’ve really liked about season two so far is the fact the writers have been featuring Linda Gray and the character Sue Ellen a lot more than they did last season. I for one really liked Sue Ellen’s comment about how she thought Christopher and Elena were being very insensitive by being openly affectionate with each other in front of John Ross and everybody else when they were arriving at the court house. Personally, I would love to see Sue Ellen chew Christopher out for his behavior towards John Ross one of these days. My opinion of Elena continues to remain in the crapper after watching this episode. The conversation between J.R. and Sue Ellen where she told J.R. that she had been the one who gave John Ross Cliff’s personal phone number, so if he wanted to be mad at someone, he should be mad at her and not John Ross was also another one of my favorite Sue Ellen moments in this episode.
The same can also be said about Ken Kercheval. It really bothered me last season that the writers didn’t feature him and the character Cliff Barnes all that much, but after watching the season one finale it made wonder if that had been intentional on the writers’ part so they wouldn’t completely give away the fact that the character that the viewers thought was Rebecca Sutter was actually Cliff Barnes’ daughter, Pamela, and that he was also one behind Rebecca/Pamela’s scheming. It’s been great getting to see the writers featuring Ken/Cliff a lot more this season.
Right before the one-month time jump, J.R. got a phone call from Cliff where he told J.R. that John Ross had gone to him for help and had showed concern for Pamela. Their conversation on the phone was definitely one of the biggest highlights of the episode for me. Considering the fact that the episode that will be airing this week is the last episode that Larry Hagman filmed before he died, I’m guessing that will end up being the last time J.R. and Cliff have any kind of interaction with each other before J.R. is killed. Personally, I would have liked for their last conversation with each other to have been in person instead of being just a phone call, but at least the writers were able to have J.R. and Cliff Barnes talk each other one last time right before J.R. gets murdered. As I said in my review for the first four episodes of the season, they’ve had a lot of very nice moments with J.R. that give both the character and the viewers a certain level of unintentional closure, and that was definitely one of those moments. Even if the closure that J.R.’s scenes in season two give the viewers was unintentional when the episodes were written, I still think that all of the scenes with J.R. have been great, especially considering the fact that it doesn’t sound like Cynthia Cidre was all that prepared to write Larry Hagman’s death into the show on fairly short notice.
If there’s one thing that I haven’t liked at all about this season, it’s definitely the character Christopher and the fact that his behavior in the first four episodes of the season was even more unbearable than it was last season. Christopher has definitely taken Serena van der Woodsen’s place as being my least favorite character on a TV show. Both the character Serena and Blake Lively’s acting was always my least favorite thing about Gossip Girl, and the character Christopher and Jesse Metcalfe’s acting has always been my least favorite thing about Dallas. That being said, Christopher surprisingly enough acted rather mature for him in this episode despite the fact that he was being extremely hypocritical when it came to how he was acting about the whole situation with Ann shooting Harris under premeditated circumstances, and yet he was still determined to see Pamela get sent to prison for killing Tommy, which was done in self-defense. Usually I feel like he has an irrational tantrum that would make even a toddler blush in offense in pretty much every scene he’s in, but he basically only had two outbursts in this episode, which is a massive improvement for him.
He threw his first tantrum in the episode when he saw Pamela at the courthouse and found out that she was serving as a character witness for Ann. I really liked that scene for several reasons. First off, it was nice to see Pamela mention the fact that Ann had basically been the only one who continued to show her kindness and compassion after the truth about her sending the email to Elena came out, especially since Ann acting the way she did towards Pamela last season made me very curious about Ann’s past. The other reason why I really liked that scene was because it was great to see Pamela really let Christopher have it for the way he’s been acting since the season one finale, telling him that Tommy had attacked her last season and that if he continued to treat her the way he had been, she would move Barnes Global’s headquarters to Bermuda and make sure that he never saw the twins once they were born. Towards the end of the episode, Christopher agreed to mediation so they could finalize their divorce in more civil manner, and they even bonded over the fact that the twins started kicking while they were talking.
Christopher’s second tantrum was when he and Bobby saw Vicente who was at the courthouse for an extradition hearing before he was sent back to Venezuela where he would most likely be sent to life in prison for all of the crimes that he committed last season. Christopher immediately assumed that Vicente was going to be given a free pass for everything he did last season before the lawyer explained the situation to him and Bobby. Christopher definitely needs to stop going around making false accusations against people when he doesn’t even have any solid proof to back them up, because he almost never has a clue about what’s actually going on around him. Christopher really needs to go see the Wizard of Oz and ask him for brain, because he’s constantly acting like a total idiot. That moment once again illustrated just how hot headed both he and Bobby have a habit of being since they both immediately blew a gasket as soon as they saw Vicente before they even knew why he was there. I loved it when Vicente told Christopher that he’s really judgmental, because that’s absolutely true.
Personally, I thought that Vicente’s sudden return in this episode was very random, and I’m still trying to figure out what reason for bringing him back was. Even though the episode where J.R. is killed hasn’t aired yet, I have a feeling that Vicente will end up being the one who kills him. After all, Vicente told Christopher and Bobby that they had unfinished business to attend to. Besides, having Vicente be the one who kills J.R. would be a way to have a somewhat significant character kill him without the writers being forced to write out one of the main characters simply to accommodate Larry Hagman’s death.
While Christopher was surprisingly bearable to watch in this episode, Jesse Metcalfe’s acting in this episode seemed to be even worse than it’s ever been before just when I thought his acting couldn’t get any worse. Seeing how bad Jesse’s acting abilities have become this season, especially this episode, makes me wonder if he took classes on how to be a bad actor between seasons. He’s always had a very limited variety of facial expressions in everything that I’ve seen him in, but he basically only used two different facial expressions in this episode. With the exception of the scene where he was talking to Emma about how she had looked like she was starting to question everything Harris and his mother, Judith, had ever told her about Ann over the years, Christopher spent the whole episode frowning regardless of whether he was mad about something or was simply showing concern for Ann or Pamela. It’s really hard to watch Jesse Metcalfe in anything since he basically always has the same look on his face, and I still can’t help but wonder how he’s managed to get quite a few acting jobs over the years.
When it comes to the few things about this episode that I didn’t really care for, the main thing I didn’t really like about this episode was the whole storyline with John Ross having Clyde follow Drew around as he was transporting various goods in a truck so he can get proof of him doing something illegal. The reason John Ross was trying to get proof of Drew doing something bad is because the morality clause in Elena’s contract with Sue Ellen apparently also applies to the people working for Elena. John Ross’ thinking is that since Drew apparently has always had a tendency to get in trouble with the law, he can use anything bad that Drew does as leverage to have Sue Ellen seize Elena’s shares in Ewing Energies, which he believes Sue Ellen will then give to him.
Honestly, Drew continues to come across as a character that’s essentially pointless. Unless the writers view Drew’s purpose on the show as being able help facilitate the whole storyline with John Ross scheming to get more Ewing Energies shares, I still can’t help but wonder why the writers thought it was necessary to add Kuno Beck (Drew) to the cast. Maybe he’ll become more significant to the show as the season continues, but for now he just seems like a rather pointless character to me.
In the end, John Ross’ plan appears to be slowly falling into place. Drew was pulled over for having a broken tail light, which Clyde had broken earlier in the episode. Honestly, I’m not sure why he did that. Maybe he did it because he figured that Drew was transporting items that were stolen or illegal, which the police would most likely find if Drew got pulled over for the broken taillight. Anyway, Drew was subsequently arrested for transporting smuggled goods (They were women’s clothing to be more specific) since he said he didn’t have the necessary cargo manifest or certification stamp for what he was transporting, but the police found a cargo manifest in the semi truck with the smuggled clothing that was listed as car parts. Towards the end of the episode, Elena went to go visit him in jail and she wasn’t one bit happy about the situation, but told him that she would get him a lawyer so he could get out on bail. Despite the fact that I couldn’t care less about the character Drew, it will be interesting to see what Drew being arrested means for John Ross’ scheme.
While the character Drew has yet to grow on me, Emma grew on me quite a bit in this episode. Despite the fact that she told the court that she was glad that Harris had taken her that day at the fair when she was little and that she was glad he had raised her in secret, Emma appeared to be questioning everything Harris and Judith have told her about Ann over the years more and more throughout the episode. I have a feeling that Emma may ultimately play a role in having the attempted murder charges against Ann dropped in a few episodes. I’m really anxious to see how long the writers will keep Ann in jail, because I’m pretty confident that she won’t be in jail for long.
One last comment that I like to make is that while I’m not entirely sure of exactly how much money the Ewing family has, I’m guessing that that their family has a lot of money. Regardless of the fact that they most likely have a lot of money that they could use to hire the best lawyers that money could buy, they sure keep hiring some pretty bad lawyers to deal with their legal problems. The first lawyer that Bobby and Christopher had at the beginning of the series (Mitch Lobell) seemed to basically be incompetent and skipped town as soon as J.R. blackmailed him with pictures of his ex-convict son doing drugs. As for Lou, he just seems like he’s an idiot who’s incapable of doing anything to actually help the Ewings whenever they actually have major legal problems that they are dealing with, especially last season.
For example, Lou told Ann and the rest of the family that silence is usually a good thing when it comes to a jury trying to decide on a verdict as they were waiting for the jury to make a decision, and then two seconds later he gets a phone call saying that the jury had reached a verdict for Ann’s trial. Not only that, they ended up finding her guilty. Where did Mitch and Lou get their law degrees from? Some mediocre online law school? If I were a member of the Ewing family, I would hire a lawyer who has reputation for being a real legal shark to be the family’s attorney, especially when they have had to deal with J.R. and his scheming, or someone facing attempted murder charges like Ann was in this episode. I can’t believe Bobby wouldn’t think to do that, especially when Lou has so far proven to be rather useless as a lawyer.
All things considered, this episode really was absolutely phenomenal. While this episode definitely had a few flaws, the things that I did love about this episode more than made up for them. The whole storyline with Drew was rather boring, but at least it moved the ongoing storyline with John Ross trying to get Elena’s Ewing Energies shares forward a little bit, which I can really appreciate considering the fact that the storylines with John Ross and J.R. plotting and scheming against Christopher and Bobby last season frequently felt like redundant filler that didn’t move forward for a large chunk of the season. As I said earlier, while I still don’t really care for Drew as a character, Emma definitely started to grow on me quite a bit in this episode.
It was great to see the writers finally dive deep into Ann’s past and answer a lot of the questions that I had regarding Ann’s backstory last season. Brenda Strong really shined in this episode, in my humble opinion. The fact that Christopher’s behavior was actually bearable in this episode was both shocking and refreshing all at the same time, even if he did act pretty hypocritical when it came to how he reacted to Ann’s situation compared to how he’s been treating Pamela when it comes to Tommy’s death. While it would have been nice if the writers had given the viewers more clarification as to how much John Ross and Pamela had seen each other in the month they skipped over, their conversation at the court house was still a great moment between the two of them and one of my favorite things about this episode as a whole.
Larry Hagman, Linda Gray and Ken Kercheval all had some truly great moments in this episode, which was great to see given the fact that they were a part of the cast of the original series. The writers definitely continued to really give me what I’ve been wanting out of the show since the first season in this episode, and this is definitely the best episode yet of season two.
That being said, I give this episode a rating of an A+.
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