Christopher Ewing: Nature vs. Nurture

How much is Christopher Ewing really like Bobby Ewing? Everybody knows that Christopher Ewing was adopted as an infant by Bobby Ewing and his first wife, Pamela, and was always raised as a Ewing. But his real parents were the conniving Kristin Shepard, Sue Ellen’s baby sister, and a drug dealer named Jeff Faraday. Not the most stellar pedigree.

Despite the deep love that his adoptive parents had for each other and shared with him as a child, Christopher’s life hasn’t exactly been a bed of roses at Southfork. His parents divorced when he was still just a tot. They remarried and he came back to Southfork a few years later, Christopher’s young world was rocked hard when he learned he he was adopted. He overheard a conversation between his grandparents, Miss Ellie and Clayton Farlow, and did not find out directly from Bobby and Pamela. That same day, his mother was severely injured in a car crash. Because of the severity of her injuries, Pamela did not want to return to Bobby and she left her boy, too. Well, Victoria Principal, the actress who played Pamela, just didn’t want to be on Dallas anymore, so that’s what it was really about and it wasn’t because Christopher was adopted, as he thought. Then Jeff Faraday’s sister launched a custody battle, but she backed off when Christopher wanted to stay with Bobby.

Christopher still struggled with periodic feelings of inadequacy, as well as jealousy of “real Ewing” cousin, John Ross. But when the show returned in 2012 with Jesse Metcalfe as the grownup Christopher and Josh Henderson as the grownup John Ross,  we learned there were times when Bobby was a father figure to John Ross as well.

In Season 1 of TNT’s Dallas, Christopher struggled with the unfairness of playing fair while everyone around him is getting down and dirty, but Bobby impressed the importance of a clean victory upon him.

It just never has been in Bobby’s character to be sneaky and dishonest. J.R. got all the conniving genes in the Ewing clan and John Ross has certainly inherited his share. But we think it’s in Christopher’s genes, too. He doesn’t seem to know who his real parents were either. It may have been quite a shock to learn that Rebecca is Cliff Barne’s daughter, but that would pale in comparison to finding out that Sue Ellen is his aunt by blood.

In Season 2, Christopher is feeling hamstrung again by the constraints of playing fair. After complaining to Elena about it, he instructs his secretary to get all buddy buddy with John Ross’s secretary and report back every thing she finds out.

If Christopher was to one day totally reject Bobby’s fair and square approach to life and business, wouldn’t that leave the two Ewing boys on a more level playing field? And Christopher certainly has as many scheming genes as John Ross, if not more.