Dallas: Love and Family Recap

“Love and Family” aired immediately after “A Call to Arms” on April 8, with Pamela going through her daddy’s online files to get the goods on Cliff. John Ross has spent the night and comes out to assure her something will turn up. Cliff is meeting with Harris Ryland, celebrating imminent victory with a Bloody Mary. He talks about their respective daughter issues, and cackles over the wonders of eminent domain. Ryland tells him not be supremely confident, since the Ewings are like a pack of wolves. Cliff is confident enough to think he will be taking over control of Ewing Energies the next day at high noon, with his daughter at his side. But he wouldn’t be if he could see what we can — his daughter and John Ross screwing like rabbits on the penthouse floor.

Pamela accompanies John Ross to a meeting at Ewing Energies, where Christopher is not too keen on suddenly welcoming her into the fold but she points out that she’s there because “my father has blood on his hands.” Bobby predicts that Cliff’s downfall will be his obsession with his business.

At Southfork, Emma looks like something the cat dragged in while she mishandles a big white horse. Ann saves her from getting kicked in the head then confronts Emma about her drug use, but Emma doesn’t want to hear it and she’s too strung out to be polite or cunning this time.

After discussing the John Ross and Pamela angle, Christopher and Elena go home and she takes a peek at the “Ryland red file” Christopher left out. Seeing the knock-off designer shoes makes her realize that there is more between Drew and Ryland than the Emma conflict and she rushes over to angrily make Drew tell her what the deal is. She finds out a lot more than she suspected. Drew tells her the full extent of his involvement including building the bomb that blew up the rig under the threat that they would kill Elena. She tells him he can’t run, and she’ll try to get him as much help from the Ewings as possible, but while she is spilling the beans to Bobby, Drew gets his guns out and takes off. He leaves a full confession and signs his share of the Ramos Southfork deed over to Elena.

Cliff drops in unexpectedly on Pamela while John Ross is there and she manages to divert his half-drunk attention while John Ross slips away unnoticed. Good thing he was dressed this time. Over lunch, Cliff gives Pamela emerald earrings that belonged to her aunt Katherine Wentworth. Pamela plays hard ball and demands Katherine’s shares of Barnes Global because she wants to be a partner after all she’s done. We guess Cliff was even more drunk by now or he really felt guilty about his evil deed. He gives her the shares.

A call comes in from the governor and Cliff joins McConaughey and Ryland who are freaking out now that Roy Vickers has been arrested and a warrant issued for Drew’s arrest. Cliff is unperturbed. Without Drew, he points out, they have nothing on Roy and even if they find Drew, they’ll make it look like he was a lone disgruntled wolf. When Christopher’s technology is cleared of fault, they’ll make another killing (and they’ll probably kill Drew, too).

After Emma sees the news reports, she storms over to her father and demands to know how why he set Drew up. Ryland points out that none of this would have happened if she hadn’t decided to go “slumming at Southfork.” He browbeats her with his chaos baloney and she agrees to move with him and his alien type ears.

In court, Roy Vickers is set free. The charges are dismissed because there is no corroboration unless they’ve got Drew and they don’t. There’s a manhunt out for him. Upon their return to Southfork, Bobby and Ann are informed by the sheriff’s office that Emma has been in a car accident and she’s going to jail because drugs were found in her car. Emma blames it on a raccoon and says that it was prescription medication. She accuses Ann of being a hypocrite and sentencing her to 20 years of Ryland/Brown abuse, while she got out of there after only four years. Ann sees some truth in Emma’s raging accusations but decides to take Sue Ellen’s advice. She refuses to bail Emma out of jail unless she agrees to go to rehab. “Why are you doing this?” Emma wails. “I’m your mother,” Ann self-righteously responds. Yeah, um, she’s an adult, Ann.

When John Ross learns that Pamela has wrangled Katherine’s shares in Barnes Global out of Cliff, he goes into this little test act about how does he know he can trust her. How does he know she won’t use that power against him either with her father or on her own? Pamela swears that she’s on the up and up and John Ross says that actions speak louder than words.

Elena and her mom, Carmen, meet up with Drew in the woods and give him $5,000 and an untraceable cellphone. Elena wants him to get the hell out of Dodge and go to Mexico but Drew insists he can’t until he finds Roy VIckers and makes things right. He hugs Elena, but not his mother, and tells Elena to find the oil on Southfork and make their father proud.

At Southfork, Christopher gets a call that a photo has been taken at the bank in Zurich of the Patricia Barrett woman. He brings his computer to Bobby and Ann as the photo is sent over and Bobby cannot identify this dark-haired woman with a big hat. Last time he saw Pam 24 years ago, she was sporting bandages after being badly burned in a car wreck. It could be Pam. Hell, it could be Katherine. Christopher is going to Zurich to confront the woman and fresh from her rendezvous with Drew, Elena wants to go along to get away. She claims she and her mom just came from church. One thing that was quite noticeable throughout — Elena and Christopher don’t trust each other worth a damn.

Bobby and Sue Ellen confer with Bobby musing how difficult it is for him to be sneaky, so hard that J.R. knew he had to spell out every move. Speaking of moves, Bobby gets a text from John Ross that says: “Her shares will be mine by morning.” Bobby and Sue Ellen look at J.R.’s photo and Bobby says: “Let Barnes have his day, let him go all in, think he’s won. Let him be the architect of his own disaster. Well, big brother, as you wish.”

We switch to a wedding chapel, where John Ross and Pamela Rebecca Barnes are about to be married! As the minister asks her if she takes John Ross for her husband, he asks if she is doing this because she loves him or because she hates her father. Pamela responds “I do.” and they are pronounced man and wife.

The next day Cliff arrives at Ewing Energies to get the keys off Bobby, but he doesn’t have his daughter by his side and he wouldn’t be looking so happy if he knew she just married John Ross. Bobby knows. He gives Cliff the keys telling him not to get too comfortable. Bobby leaves with a big smile on his face.