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Message: <blockquote data-quote="James from London" data-source="post: 262558" data-attributes="member: 22">The Enemy of My Enemy (DALLAS, 11 Jul 12) v Enigma (DALLAS, 17 Oct 86)In both episodes, the mistress of Southfork — Ann Ewing in 2012, Ellie Farlow in 1986 — is deeply disturbed when a long lost keepsake (or two) associated with a previous spouse resurfaces. A locket sent from ex-husband Harris Ryland reduces Ann to a sobbing mess. The discovery of Jock’s buckle and knife in the possession of Southfork’s new foreman Wes Parmalee sends Miss Ellie into a tailspin. Tellingly, both women choose not to confide this crisis to their current husband, Bobby and Clayton respectively. While we know what’s bothering Ellie (namely, Wes’s claim that Jock’s belongings “are mine — and always have been”), we’re as much in the dark as Bobby as to what’s troubling Ann. Nonetheless, he bursts into Ryland’s office and takes a swing at him anyhow. (At this stage in New DALLAS, Harris and Sue Ellen are the only two characters who even have an office. John Ross seems to be operating out of the Southfork bedroom he time shares with his daddy.)   It’s interesting to chart Bobby and Sue Ellen’s fluctuating morality over the years. In End of the Road (1981), Bobby was so appalled by Jeremy Wendell’s plan to put small independent oil companies out of business that he resigned from Ewing Oil rather than honour a deal with West Star. In Enigma (1986), he cheerfully concludes that if you can’t beat Wendell, you might as well join him, suggesting to JR that they take advantage of the current oil crisis by buying up as many struggling independents as they can. JR readily agrees: “Like Daddy used to say, ‘When things get tough, buy, don’t sell!’” By the time of The Enemy of My Enemy (2012), the Ewing brothers are on opposite sides once again as Bobby and Christopher battle to stop JR and John Ross drilling for oil on Southfork. But when Christopher stoops to blackmailing John Ross over a sex tape of him and Marta Del Sol, Bobby is disappointed. “A lifetime of dealing with JR has put me on both sides of blackmail. It never pays off in the end. It’s not just that it’s wrong, it’s bad business,” he counsels. (“John Ross and Christopher get along so well,” Pam observes contendedly in Enigma. Not anymore they don’t.) Sue Ellen has also learned, and relearned, from her mistakes over the years. Her plan to discredit JR using a private detective backfired horribly in Divorce Ewing Style (1980) when he made her look like a delusional drunk instead. Six years later in Enigma, she has learnt to deploy the services of a PI much more subtly. Realising that Sue Ellen’s having them followed, JR tells Mandy they need to keep their relationship on the down low. Frustrated at being a kept (out of sight) woman, Mandy defies his wishes and auditions to become the Valentine Girl. Little do JR and Mandy realise this is what Sue Ellen had planned all along. Twenty-six years later in New DALLAS, however, Sue Ellen is as reluctant as Bobby to return to her scheming ways. She’s running for governor and is determined not to compromise herself. (“If I start down that road …”) This cuts little ice with John Ross when he asks her to pull some political strings to get Ryland to transport the oil he’s drilling on Southfork. “You’ve been compromising everything with me since I was born!” he snaps at her. Her maternal strings tugged, Sue Ellen does indeed start down that road.    And the winner is ... EnigmaBONUS BEATS:[MEDIA=youtube]0862GngTdn8[/MEDIA]</blockquote>

Verification: What month follows July?