Caribbean Connection (DALLAS, 04 Mar 83) v Carousel (DALLAS, 28 Oct 88)
In Caribbean Connection, Sue Ellen is JR’s strongest advocate. “He’s a different man and I just know that,” she tells Miss Ellie dreamily. “I’m working at my marriage … I’m gonna do everything in my power to make sure we never break up again.” Bobby, meanwhile, is JR’s fiercest opponent. He and Ray break into Walt Driscoll’s motel room where they discover that JR plans to sell a million barrels of oil to Cuba, illegally. Bobby vows to stop him.
In Carousel, Sue Ellen and Bobby have swapped positions. Instead of standing by her man, Sue Ellen has just shot him in cold blood and thinks he’s dead. “You mean to tell me that that bastard is still alive?” she asks in dismay when she finds out he isn’t. Rather than doing “everything in my power to make sure we never break up again,” she instructs her lawyer to do “whatever it takes for a clean and fast divorce.”
JR may not be dying, but he orders his doctor to make it seem like he is. His motive is the same as when he was selling oil to the Cubans: to strengthen his position at Ewing Oil. Now as then, Bobby sees through the deception but ends up taking him back into Ewing Oil anyway. “He’s my brother. That’s the bottom line. I love him,” he tells Sue Ellen during a really great scene at Southfork. “It’s a little strange to hear you defend him as well as you know him,” she replies — a tad richly given that’s what she’s spent half her life doing.
Carousel is such a great season opener. With JR and Sue Ellen loudly accusing each other of murder and with a genuine desire to see one another behind bars, their mutual hatred is at an all-time high. Sue Ellen’s vengeful mood is complemented by her wild mane of Medusa-like curls, just as her matronly mullet of five years earlier is equally appropriate for the political wife she hopes to become. As she and JR discuss the possibility of him running for office, she worries about the attendant publicity: “I don’t want my life to become an open book, but if you want me to do it, JR, I will.” "I'm touched, Sue Ellen," he replies. In Carousel, ironically, it’s the prospect of scandalous headlines (specifically, their effect on John Ross) that obliges them both, reluctantly, to drop the charges against one another. But that doesn’t stop them threatening each other’s lives right up until the closing credits.
Lucy performs the same function in both eps, that of Southfork’s resident wisecracker. “It’s a tense time in the old breakfast room today,” she observes in Caribbean Connection as JR and Bobby glare at each other across the eggs and bacon. In Carousel, she scolds Sue Ellen for botching her attempt on JR’s life. “If you’re gonna try again, I’d be happy to help steady the gun,” she offers cheerfully.
In 1983, Cliff is on a high after his first meeting with Mark Graison ("He's a terrific guy!"). When we first see him in 1988, he is equally excited at the prospect of flying to Florida where Pam has been spotted for the first time since her disappearance. Pam and Bobby are living apart in ’83 and Katherine meets with Mark (at the same racquet club where Pam once lunched with Leanne Rees) to encourage his pursuit of her sister. This leads to Pam accepting Mark’s dinner invitation — the first time they’ve been out together without the pretext of trying to helping Miss Ellie or Cliff. By 1988, Pam has moved even further away from Bobby, and indeed the rest of her family. “That part of my life is over,” she tells Cliff firmly. “Forget you ever had a sister … We’re never gonna see each other again.” This news is so devastating to Cliff that it literally splits him into two people — the fumbling, flappy one we’ll continue to see on screen and the one who coldly commits the evil deeds we’ll eventually learn about in New DALLAS.
While house-hunting in 1983, Clayton admits to Miss Ellie that he’s really hankering for “something like Southfork.” Five years later, he’s wangled half-ownership of Southfork and has moved from buyer to seller as he shows Carter Mackay round the Krebbs ranch on Ray's behalf.
Speaking of houses, I was extremely over-excited to realise that the living room Cliff and April are standing in when they first get to Florida in their search for Pam is the very same one where Pam and April’s eventual successor, Ann Ewing, will shoot her ex-husband in cold blood.
And the winner is ... Carousel
BONUS BEATS:
In Caribbean Connection, Sue Ellen is JR’s strongest advocate. “He’s a different man and I just know that,” she tells Miss Ellie dreamily. “I’m working at my marriage … I’m gonna do everything in my power to make sure we never break up again.” Bobby, meanwhile, is JR’s fiercest opponent. He and Ray break into Walt Driscoll’s motel room where they discover that JR plans to sell a million barrels of oil to Cuba, illegally. Bobby vows to stop him.
In Carousel, Sue Ellen and Bobby have swapped positions. Instead of standing by her man, Sue Ellen has just shot him in cold blood and thinks he’s dead. “You mean to tell me that that bastard is still alive?” she asks in dismay when she finds out he isn’t. Rather than doing “everything in my power to make sure we never break up again,” she instructs her lawyer to do “whatever it takes for a clean and fast divorce.”
JR may not be dying, but he orders his doctor to make it seem like he is. His motive is the same as when he was selling oil to the Cubans: to strengthen his position at Ewing Oil. Now as then, Bobby sees through the deception but ends up taking him back into Ewing Oil anyway. “He’s my brother. That’s the bottom line. I love him,” he tells Sue Ellen during a really great scene at Southfork. “It’s a little strange to hear you defend him as well as you know him,” she replies — a tad richly given that’s what she’s spent half her life doing.
Carousel is such a great season opener. With JR and Sue Ellen loudly accusing each other of murder and with a genuine desire to see one another behind bars, their mutual hatred is at an all-time high. Sue Ellen’s vengeful mood is complemented by her wild mane of Medusa-like curls, just as her matronly mullet of five years earlier is equally appropriate for the political wife she hopes to become. As she and JR discuss the possibility of him running for office, she worries about the attendant publicity: “I don’t want my life to become an open book, but if you want me to do it, JR, I will.” "I'm touched, Sue Ellen," he replies. In Carousel, ironically, it’s the prospect of scandalous headlines (specifically, their effect on John Ross) that obliges them both, reluctantly, to drop the charges against one another. But that doesn’t stop them threatening each other’s lives right up until the closing credits.
Lucy performs the same function in both eps, that of Southfork’s resident wisecracker. “It’s a tense time in the old breakfast room today,” she observes in Caribbean Connection as JR and Bobby glare at each other across the eggs and bacon. In Carousel, she scolds Sue Ellen for botching her attempt on JR’s life. “If you’re gonna try again, I’d be happy to help steady the gun,” she offers cheerfully.
In 1983, Cliff is on a high after his first meeting with Mark Graison ("He's a terrific guy!"). When we first see him in 1988, he is equally excited at the prospect of flying to Florida where Pam has been spotted for the first time since her disappearance. Pam and Bobby are living apart in ’83 and Katherine meets with Mark (at the same racquet club where Pam once lunched with Leanne Rees) to encourage his pursuit of her sister. This leads to Pam accepting Mark’s dinner invitation — the first time they’ve been out together without the pretext of trying to helping Miss Ellie or Cliff. By 1988, Pam has moved even further away from Bobby, and indeed the rest of her family. “That part of my life is over,” she tells Cliff firmly. “Forget you ever had a sister … We’re never gonna see each other again.” This news is so devastating to Cliff that it literally splits him into two people — the fumbling, flappy one we’ll continue to see on screen and the one who coldly commits the evil deeds we’ll eventually learn about in New DALLAS.
While house-hunting in 1983, Clayton admits to Miss Ellie that he’s really hankering for “something like Southfork.” Five years later, he’s wangled half-ownership of Southfork and has moved from buyer to seller as he shows Carter Mackay round the Krebbs ranch on Ray's behalf.
Speaking of houses, I was extremely over-excited to realise that the living room Cliff and April are standing in when they first get to Florida in their search for Pam is the very same one where Pam and April’s eventual successor, Ann Ewing, will shoot her ex-husband in cold blood.
And the winner is ... Carousel
BONUS BEATS:
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