Dallas: Guilt & Innocence Recap

Picking up with the aftermath of one of the two cliffhangers from last week, in the opening of “Guilt & Innocence (Episode 10 of Season 2 ). we’re on Christopher’s rig after the explosion. The dazed Ewings are coming to after being flattened. Christopher checks on Elena while John Ross discovers Pamela pinned under a metal looking beam and calls Christopher to get it off her. Everyone ends up in the hospital in Dallas where the victim of the other cliffhanger — Harris Ryland’s mother, Judith — is being treated for a broken leg after falling down or being pushed down the stairs while arguing with her baby boy. (And we were so hoping that was the end of her, even if it meant Harris got away with murder).

Bobby Ewing frantically tries to find Ann who is none the worse for wear and they have a big so sorry, I forgive you over the Emma conflict. After all, your wife not telling you about a child pales in comparison to never seeing your wife ever again, doesn’t it?  Pamela is hurt so badly only immediate family can go in to see her, and that means Christopher Ewing, who is still technically her husband. She has an internal injury that will kill her unless they terminate her pregnancy. Pamela begs Christopher not to let them kill her twins. He agonizes over this turn of events and blames himself, sharing this concern with Bobby who does not believe it will turn out to be his fault.

Elena’s mother, Carmen, visits with Drew, who is feeling so guilty he expresses a need for fresh air. Drew goes to see Roy, who set off the explosion on Cliff’s order (with Cliff knowing his daughter was on the rig). Roy denies any involvement in the explosion happening with people on the rig and claims it happened because Drew screwed something up. He orders Drew to leave town.

In Judith Ryland Brown’s hospital room, Harris finally apologizes for the stuff he said to piss his mommy off, blaming it on hubris. Judith still wants an answer to her question of why Harris fell for Ann. His reply: “Because I was weak, like my father,” sure seemed like something she has made him say many times before! Judith promises him equal partnership if he will repair the rift between her and Emma. Harris runs into Emma in the hall talking to John Ross. He gives John Ross the evil eye more than once, like he better not get any ideas about his precious child. Lordy, if he only knew who the aggressor is there! When Emma goes to see grammy, Judith claims to be afraid of Harris. He made her badmouth Ann at the trial and pushed her down the stairs. Emma’s not buying it and Harris comes in the door just as Judith offers to give Emma the whole business in return for going back to England together. Seeing Harris sends Judith into hysterics and he holds her down until a nurse pops into give her a knock out shot. Emma warns Harris that Judith is out to get him. When Harris leaves, he runs into Ann and says he is sorry about the accident, and he’s glad she’s okay. She didn’t look like she believed he meant it, which he probably didn’t.

When Pamela is cleared for regular visitors, John Ross drops in and she pitifully asks him if he thinks what happened to her is karma. John Ross tries to cheer her up, pointing out that if there was such a thing, “I’d have been run over, shot, struck by lightning years ago….” He sure seems to care a lot more about Pamela Barnes than he does about Emma. Pamela’s mother, Afton Cooper, shows up to see her daughter after John Ross gave her a call. (At one point, John Ross had Cliff’s private number. Sue Ellen gave it to him. Cliff must have changed it). Sue Ellen is miffed that he called “that social climber,” but John Ross says she’s just harboring ill will over Afton sleeping with J.R. Wow, he’s particularly well-informed about who slept with whom when he was a child, isn’t he? Afton tells John Ross that he is more handsome than J.R. and probably smarter and nicer, too.” She tells her daughter, “Pammy” that she’s made a lot of bad choices trying to please her father, and says Cliff is like an anchor: “He brings people down, honey.”

When an  inspector from the Texas Environmental Safety and Hazards Administration (TESHA) shows up at the hospital to get some preliminary info, he mentions something about the methane being over-pressurized. Bobby tells him that they will answer all his questions some other time, with an attorney present. The investigator thinks an attorney will make a bad impression. Not one to be intimidated, Bobby reminds him that they are more worried about the twins’ survival than what he thinks and kicks him out on his ear. John Ross immediately jumps on the info that it might be Christopher’s fault because these people turn on each other on a dime. Sue Ellen reminds her son that even if it is Christopher’s fault, the entire company would have to take responsibility. She plans to get in touch with an old acquaintance at TESHA to “get ahead of the investigation and control it.” Yeah, after the stuff she pulled last season with compromising the coroner’s office… we wouldn’t put much past Sue Ellen…

And Sue Ellen is still hitting the bottle, or at least she meets her TESHA friend, Ken Richards, in a bar. Ken seems to have been carrying a torch for Sue Ellen since her Miss Texas days, and a grudge against J.R. for stealing her away. Sue Ellen says he doesn’t have to hate J.R. anymore now that he’s gone. Ken questions her motives for calling him, since he already knows about the investigation and Sue Ellen admits that was the trigger for the call, although she had hoped to run into him again.

For all the old Dallas fans, who remember that Afton was a singer, they had to work in a little tune. So in the hospital, she sings “Mockingbird” to Pamela. When Christopher shows up, Afton gives him a hard time about the explosion. But Pamela has to go into surgery right away and Chris asks the doctor to do what they can to save them all. John Ross gets nasty: “If she dies, it’s on you, Christopher,” while Elena tries to get Afton to give Christopher a chance. Bobby tells Afton to put her claws away, saying she’s caused enough trouble in the past. After the surgery, the doctor reports that mother and babies have pulled through for now.

Emma goes looking for Drew and finds him packing his stuff. She doesn’t believe he’s going off on some short trip like he claims, but it hardly matters, because she talks him into staying and they end up in the sack. If you hadn’t seen John Ross turn her down for a roll in the hay earlier, you might even think she was good for Drew. The next morning Drew goes to see Roy and tells him he’s staying. He promises to take Roy down with him, if there are any repercussions. “Forget you ever knew me,” he says, making himself a loose end. Not a good thing to be in the Barnes/Ewing feud.

Emma goes by Judith’s room and finds her father there alone. He waited for her because he knew she would come.  Judith has been sent somewhere where “she can’t hurt herself,”  and Harris lets Emma know that it meant a lot to him that she defended him against Judith’s accusations. He believes they are both “finally” safe from Judith now, who is being drugged in an ambulance at that very moment and told she’s on her way to rehab. We think he sent to a funny farm for real.

At Southfork, Bobby gets a special delivery with info on J.R.’s investigation into his first wife’s status. Pamela has been tracked down to Abu Dhabi, apparently entering the country in 1989 and never leaving it, so if she is alive, that’s where she is. Bobby tells Ann someone owes him a favor to help him find out. Ann wonders if there are any feelings involved: “I thought you were done with her, Bobby.” Bobby says he thought so too.  It was a strange question, ya know. If Bobby didn’t track her down, Christopher would anyway. Pamela was, after all, his adopted mother. And if anyone would understand that, you’d think it would be Ann Ewing.

It’s a big downer for Pamela to learn that the accident might be Christopher’s fault and Afton should not have told her. Whoever told her is an ass. But Ken Richards stops by to see Sue Ellen, hitting the bottle on the sly again. He says evidence has turned up that there were two explosions on the rig. So it wasn’t Christopher’s methane pressurization. Christopher and John Ross try to fit the pieces of the Cliff Barnes puzzle together when John Ross realizes it fits J.R.’s prediction. Cliff is out to make Ewing Energies worthless.

Just then a “Code Blue” call emanates for Pamela’s room. They all rush to the room to see Pamela in acute distress while the babies are flat-lining on the fetal heart- monitor. Pamela tragically loses both her babies.