Dallas: This has got to be the best episode yet of the series (My thoughts on episode 2x06 “Blame Game”)

As I said in my review of the first four episodes (My thoughts on episode 2x01 “Battle Lines” through episode 2x04 “False Confessions”), I truly believe that Dallas has been lucky enough to avoid suffering a dreaded sophomore slump like Revenge has been suffering from this season, and this episode once again reinforced that belief for me. This is definitely the best episode yet of the season, and perhaps the best episode of the series at this point. As far as I’m concerned, this episode only had one little flaw, which I found very forgivable. 

 

Since I only have one very minor issue with the episode, I’m just going to mention it now and get it out of the way. The only issue that I have with the episode is the fact that this episode features a continuity flaw in the scene where J.R.’s assistant is showing him how to use what looks like an iPad or a Surface when they already showed J.R. using a tablet to look at Elena’s loan agreement with Sue Ellen in episode 2x03 “Sins of The Father” and they also showed J.R. using a tablet again later on in that same episode in order to look through articles that have been published about him in the media over the years . I read somewhere that they were going to use some deleted scenes from the first season in order to help give the character J.R. a sense of closure before he died. If I had to guess, the scene where his assistant was showing him how to use his tablet was a deleted scene from last season that was used in order to allow J.R. and Bobby to have a nice moment with each other when J.R. keeps messaging Bobby on his computer and emails him a link to a funny video featuring a dog.

What I like about that scene is that on the surface it looks like a nice moment between J.R. and Bobby where J.R. is just trying to cheer him up that also gives the viewers a chance to like J.R. despite all of the bad or questionable things that he’s done over the years. However, it ends up being revealed later on in the episode that it was J.R.’s way of pulling one of his very last schemes, because the email of the video apparently included a computer virus, which erased the Cloud Drive from last season when Bobby tried to show Sue Ellen what was on it. That moment also seems very telling of how Bobby feels about J.R., in my opinion. Bobby obviously wanted to see it as his brother doing something nice to try and cheer him up, but instead it ended up being a part of one of J.R.’s schemes. Since I thought it was a nice moment that also ended up being revealed as another one of J.R.’s many tricks and schemes, I’m willing to let that whole whole continuity error go.

  

Personally, I thought that this episode was absolutely crazy, and I mean that in the best way possible. The part of the episode where Vicente and his men took John Ross, Pamela, Christopher, Elena, Bobby and Sue Ellen hostage in Bobby and Ann’s house reminded me a lot of the season three episode of Desperate Housewives “Bang” where Lynette and several of the other characters were held hostage in a super market. To this day, that episode continues to be one of my top all-time favorite episodes of Desperate Housewives.

 

Another TV show that I found thinking about as I was watching this episode was Melrose Place given how crazy this episode was. The whole episode had a bit of Melrose Place vibe to it in my opinion, but the part of the episode where John Ross, Pamela, Elena, Bobby and Sue Ellen were all being held hostage by Vicente while Christopher was taken to the Ewing Energies’ office by several of Vicente’s men to get the information on his methane extraction process reminded me an awful lot of all the crazy things that happened on Melrose Place throughout its run. I feel like I should mention that Linda Gray guest-starred on Melrose Place as Amanda Woodward’s mother in order to launch the short-lived Melrose Place spin-off, Models Inc., which she starred in. I’ve never seen Models Inc. before, but Melrose Place was actually the first thing that I ever saw Linda Gray in. Anyway, back to discussing this episode of Dallas.

There was a lot of drama going on throughout the episode, and I thought that the writers did a great job of weaving all of the storylines together towards the end of the episode with the whole hostage crisis situation. First off, John Ross was encouraging Sue Ellen to seize Elena shares in Ewing Energies since Drew got arrested in the previous episode for smuggling stolen goods, therefore violating the morality clause in Elena’s contract with Sue Ellen. Christopher and Pamela were mediating the terms of their divorce. Initially Pamela wanted to get half of Christopher’s shares in Ewing Energies in the divorce, as well as priority custody of the twins once they are born, which naturally caused Christopher to throw once of his infamous tantrums. After a minute or two more negotiations, Pamela agreed to give him joint custody of the twins once they are born, the annulment that he wanted so that he and Elena could have a church wedding, but she wanted10% of his shares in Ewing Energies. Since they established that the annulment wouldn’t be finalized until after the babies are born, I’m guessing that Pamela will do something to try and screw that up for him so he can’t get the annulment, which would apparently mean that Christopher and Elena wouldn’t be able to have a church wedding since they’ve made it sound like Elena is Catholic this season.

It’s definitely not a good thing that Christopher is such an unlikable character, especially considering the fact that he’s supposed to be the “good guy” of the younger generation. It’s really hard to like Christopher when he goes around throwing childish tantrums left and right, making the most outrageous threats that he doesn’t even have the power to follow through on, as well as acting very arrogant and self-righteous towards people, especially John Ross and Pamela, all while masquerading as one of the good guys on the show. I’ll admit that I’ve found Bobby very self-righteous and annoying at times, especially last season, but he’s definitely a lot more likable this season, if you ask me. Plus, it also helps that character Bobby has a fair amount of moments where he’s likable and that unlike Jesse Metcalfe, Patrick Duffy has a certain sense charm and can actually act.

One thing that I’ve had to learn to do when it comes to watching this show, especially for the purpose of writing reviews for the show, is to try my best to basically to not allow my thoughts on the character Christopher and Jesse Metcalfe’s acting play a big part in deciding what rating I give the episodes. I had to do the same thing with Gossip Girl since I hated the character Serena as well as Blake Lively as an actress. If I wasn’t very lenient on how much my thoughts on the character Christopher and Jesse Metcalfe’s acting on the show factored into my final overall rating for the episodes, then I’m guessing that I would almost never give the episodes a rating higher than a C+.

 

Somebody on the IMDB message board for TNT’s Dallas actually likened Christopher’s behavior to the way the characters on Gossip Girl acted, and I couldn’t help but laugh at that, because that’s a very fair comparison in my opinion. Christopher’s petty behavior is very reminiscent of Gossip Girl, especially when it comes to the character Blair Waldorf. He’s basically acted almost exactly like her at times. The only difference between the two of them is that unlike Jesse Metcalfe, Leighton Meester can actually act and Blair still managed to be a likable character in my opinion, whereas I can’t help but hate Christopher. I actually think that Leighton Meester would be a great fit for this show, because she really is great at playing characters that are constantly scheming and act like a bitch at times, but at the end of the day you still can’t help, but love her. Ever since I’ve read that comment, I haven’t been able to stop wishing that the writers would ship Christopher off to the Upper East Side of New York City so he could hang out with the characters on Gossip Girl, never to be seen or heard from again.

While I didn’t like Christopher very much at all last season, he was still somewhat bearable to watch. Unfortunately, the character Christopher has taken a major turn for the worse this season, and he’s absolutely unbearable to watch now. Given the fact that Cynthia Cidre has always come across as a very talented writer and a competent woman, I’m very hesitant to place a lot of the blame for Christopher being such an annoying and unlikable character on her. All of the writers have done a great job when it comes to the writing for the show though, if you ask me. Personally, I think a lot of the blame for Christopher being such an unlikable character should be placed on Jesse Metcalfe. I’ve been familiar with Jesse as an actor ever since he was on the now cancelled soap opera Passions, I’ve seen him on Desperate Housewives and I also saw the movie John Tucker Must Die. I’ve always thought that Jesse’s acting was terrible in everything I’ve seen him in, so I was pretty upset when I found out that he had been cast in a series regular role on this show. Jesse basically only knows how to make two facial expressions, one where he looks really angry and another one where he’s squinting his eyes like he’s trying to cry, but failing to do so.

That being said, a part me thinks that the writers deserve at least some of the blame for Christopher being such an unlikable character. After all, they are the ones that come up with the dialogue for Christopher’s constant tantrums and empty threats and are responsible for deciding what the character does on the show in general. If you ask me, Christopher was completely out of line for calling John Ross a sociopath simply because he and Sue Ellen were going after Elena’s shares in Ewing Energies. If you ask me, if anyone deserves to be called a sociopath based on their behavior in this episode, it’s definitely Christopher.

Given the fact that Christopher is constantly talking about wanting to be a good father to the twins once they are born, you would think he would have rushed to Pamela’s defense when Vicente was threatening to kill Pamela and the babies if he didn’t get the plans for Christopher’s methane extraction process, and yet he just stood there like an idiot, not saying or doing a single thing. He only showed concern for Elena’s safety after Vicente realized that Christopher is with her now and that there’s something going on between John Ross and Pamela and was threatening to hurt Elena. It was actually John Ross who rushed to Pamela’s defense.

I’m honestly not sure what to think about that moment from the episode. On the one hand, I really liked it since it showed that John Ross genuinely cares about Pamela and wanted to keep her and the babies safe despite the fact that she had just gone back on their business agreement earlier in the episode, but on the other hand, I still think the writers should have had Christopher show some kind of reaction to Pamela’s life being threatened. Personally, I’m just going view that aspect of the episode as the writers once again reinforcing the fact that John Ross has feelings for Pamela, and based on the moment between John Ross and Pamela once the whole hostage situation was over, I think it’s pretty clear that Pamela is falling in love with John Ross too.

One last comment that I’d like to make about the character Christopher and Jesse’s acting on the show is that I can’t help but wonder if the character Christopher would be at least a little bit more likable if the role was played by someone who was actually a good actor. I’m not sure that would necessarily help though since the writing for the character Christopher would most likely be the same with another actor playing the part. I suppose the way they’ve been writing the role of Christopher is the writers’ attempt at playing towards Jesse’s strengths as an actor, which I don’t know how the hell they could ever do that since I don’t think that Jesse Metcalfe has any strengths as an actor. That concludes my weekly rant about the character Christopher and Jesse Metcalfe’s bad acting.

While Jesse Metcalfe’s acting has taken a major turn for the worse this season, Josh Henderson seems to be getting more and more comfortable in the role of John Ross this season. Although, for the record, I’ve always thought that Josh has done a great job of playing John Ross from the very first episode of the series. However, I feel like Josh has really started to add a little bit of humor in his performances this season that reminds me a lot of Larry Hagman’s portrayal of J.R. Ewing on the show. One moment in this episode that I found particularly amusing was when John Ross shows up at Pamela’s place to ask her about how the divorce mediation with Christopher went and is talking about how she had previously agreed to give him a portion of her shares in Ewing Energy’s, but he senses that she’s about to tell him something he won’t be happy about. I love that he asks her if the look on her face is just from morning sickness and then after taking a slight pause to look out the window points out that it’s nighttime.

Pamela ended up telling John Ross that she couldn’t give him a portion of her shares, saying that she needed to keep them for her children, especially since she’s the president of Barnes Global and Cliff is the C.E.O. She also pointed out that even if she didn’t give him some of her shares in exchange for the methane patent, he would still have her as an ally on the board of Ewing Energies. John Ross was naturally furious with her and made it sound like he was going to try and get revenge on her for betraying him. Although, he seemed to have forgotten all about being mad at Pamela by the end of the episode after everything they had been through together. I can kind of understand where Pamela was coming from wanting to keep the Ewing Energies shares for her children. Although, given the fact that Christopher is the father of her babies, I’m sure that they would get some shares in Ewing Energies from him at some point anyway, so that doesn’t completely make sense to me. Personally, I’m thinking that she really just wants to keep the shares for herself.

One of the many things that I’ve been enjoying about season two so far is the fact that Josh Henderson and Linda Gray have had a lot of scenes together, which I feel have really given Josh the chance to shine and showcase the charm and humor that he brings to the role. It’s also been really interesting to see the writers spend a lot of time exploring the mother and son relationship between Sue Ellen and John Ross, especially considering the fact that a large chunk of Josh Henderson’s scenes were with Larry Hagman last season.

After Sue Ellen made it clear that she was going to seize Elena’s shares in Ewing Energies after Drew got arrested, John Ross told her that he had been expecting her to give him Elena’s shares. Sue Ellen quickly realized that the reason why John Ross had showering her with attention lately was his way of buttering her up so she would give him the shares. She refused to do that, but made it clear that she would look out for him now that she was going to be on the board of Ewing Energies.

If you ask me, John Ross can still consider the whole situation with Pamela not giving him some of her shares and Sue Ellen refusing to give him Elena’s shares somewhat of a victory for him since he will at least have them as allies on the board. Plus, he won’t be nearly as outnumbered as he was before when Christopher, Bobby and Elena all had shares and were basically on the opposing side, regardless of what Bobby said in episode 2x02 “Venomous Creatures” about them not working against him.

In the end, this episode proved one of the things that I speculated about in my review for the previous episode (My thoughts on episode 2x05 “Trial and Error”) to be true, which would be that Ann wouldn’t be in prison for long. Although, I was wrong about how she would end up getting out of having to go to jail for many years though. I thought that Emma would play a role in Ann getting out of jail, but in the end the jury that was in charge of deciding on Ann’s sentence for shooting Harris decided to simply sentence her to probation.

I’m honestly not sure what think about the whole thing with Ann simply being sentenced to probation given the fact that she basically tried to kill Harris. For starters, I’ve never heard of a jury being in charge of deciding on the sentence for a person being tried for shooting somebody, saying that they wanted to kill them like Ann had told Harris in episode 2x05 “Trial and Error”. That just seems very bizarre to me, especially since Texas is a very conservative state. I read a few comments from people on the IMDB message board for the show that make it sound like juries do decide on sentences in some states, but in those cases the judge ultimately has the final say.

Harris and Judith were furious when they found out that Ann was only sentenced to probation and Judith tried to declare a mistrial. The judge refused to listen to them though and chewed them out for the way they’ve acted in court and said that he agreed with the jury’s decision to sentence Ann to probation since he felt like they had already made her suffer enough by making Ann think that Emma was dead for years and then trashing her in court. I have to say that I loved the judge, especially when he told Harris that if he done to him (The judge) what he (Harris) had done to Ann that even he (the judge) might have shot him too.

 

The whole thing with Ann simply being sentence to probation reminds me a lot of 90210 and how Annie was simply sentenced to house arrest for the summer between the end of the second season and the beginning of season three and put on probation until she’s twenty-five for killing a guy in a hit and run car accident back in the season one finale. I always thought that was pretty stupid, especially considering the fact that they never mentioned the fact that Annie’s supposed be on probation beyond the second or third episode of season three. I really hope that won’t be the case with Ann being sentenced to probation for shooting Harris and that they will periodically make references to Ann being on probation for the foreseeable future. I think the writers could potentially do some pretty interesting storylines involving Ann being on probation. Perhaps Harris and Judith will try to come up with ways to put Ann in situations where she could potentially violate the terms of her probation. I can also see John Ross using the fact that Ann’s on probation against Bobby in some way in the future. Regardless, I just hope that Ann being on probation won’t be something the writers neglect to mention in future episodes.

This episode proved me to be wrong when I guessed that Vicente would be the one who will end up being J.R.’s killer due to the fact that Drew killed him at the end of the episode. Now I have no idea which character the writers will have be J.R.’s killer without it being a main character that could potentially put them in a tricky situation of having to figure out how they would be able to keep that character around without having to go to jail for a very long time.

I’ll admit that up until this episode, I’ve found the character Drew to be pretty forgettable and boring. However, Drew ended up making quite an impression on me when he killed Vicente with a sniper rifle. It’s a shame that it took killing Vicente to make me like the character Drew and find him interesting. Hopefully that won’t make me sound like a sociopath. That being said, it will be interesting to see what happens with Drew since he killed Vicente. Given the fact that this is a soap opera, the whole thing will probably be ruled as self-defense or something similar to that since everybody’s lives were in danger.

Emma also grew on me quite a bit in this episode. It also looks like she’s starting to question everything that Harris and Judith have told her about Ann over the years. She went to see Ann at the prison, and Ann told her a story about something that happened in the early days of her marriage to Harris. Apparently, Ann had gone to get her hair done and a hair stylist suggested that she get some highlights. Ann had agreed, but on the way home she started to worry that Harris wouldn’t like it, so she went back to the salon and had them change her hair back to the way it was before she got the highlights. Harris had apparently still figured out that she had gotten highlights and was furious. I can’t help but wonder if Emma has been abused in the past and Ann picked up on it, prompting her to tell that story.

Towards the end of the episode, Bobby was hoping that after everything the family had just gone through with Vicente taking most of the family hostage would make Sue Ellen change her mind about going after Elena’s shares, but she simply refused saying that she was only trying to look out for John Ross. It looks like Bobby is most likely going to go back to being very unlikable in my eyes since he said he was going to give John Ross and Sue Ellen the fight of their lives. I really hope that this doesn’t mean that Bobby is going to go back to being as unlikable and self-righteous as he was last season, because I’ve actually really liked Bobby this season.

 

All things considered, I really do think this is the best episode yet of Dallas. I know that rants about Christopher and Jesse Metcalfe’s acting might give people the impression that I hated the episode, but like I said earlier, I’ve pretty much decided be very lenient when it comes factoring in my thoughts on the character Christopher and Jesse Metcalfe during my critiquing process for the show. This episode was action packed with some very interesting storyline developments, especially when it comes everything involving John Ross, Sue Ellen and Pamela. Brenda Strong once again did an amazing job in this episode, but I also think that Josh Henderson also deserves an honorable mention for his acting in this episode though. There are definitely a lot of things to like about this episode, but the part of the episode with the hostage crisis was definitely one of the best parts of the episode, in my opinion. A part of me wishes that part of the episode had gotten more screen time, but for the most part I think this is one time when the philosophy “Less is more” applies.

That being said, I give this episode a rating of an A+.