Dallas: Guilt By Association Recap

It’s Episode 14, the next-to-last of Dallas, Season Two and John Ross Ewing is returning to Dallas from Las Vegas fresh from an impromptu marriage to Pamela Rebecca Barnes. The happy couple are on the Barnes Global private jet. Pamela shows her wedding ring and jokes that she always dreamed her wedding ring would come from “a gumball machine.” She asks John Ross how long till they land in reality, back into the fray of the Barnes-Ewing feud. John Ross picks up a handy notebook that just happens to have the plane’s flight log and discovers that Cliff Barnes was in Nuevo Laredo the night J.R. was killed.

Cliff is preoccupied with his takeover at Ewing Energies and tells workers packing up the Ewing belongings that he doesn’t care what they do with the stuff. John Ross calls his Uncle Bobby to announce what he found and make the observation that Cliff is the one who killed J.R. Now this isn’t even 10 minutes into the episode and the second one coming up is the finale, so you had to know Cliff didn’t really kill J.R. If you didn’t, shame on ya.

Bobby is with J.R.’s investigator Bum when he gets the call from John Ross and he tells Bum the “time to put the plan in motion” has arrived When John Ross and Pamela get there, Pamela can’t see Cliff as a cold-blooded killer. John Ross reminds her that Cliff was behind the oil-rig explosion that killed her babies but she says Cliff didn’t know anyone would be on the rig, and certainly not her. Gee, Pamela, you don’t know your daddy too well. He’s directly responsible for Frank’s suicide even if he didn’t shoot J.R.

Christopher and Elena are in Zurich, Switzerland on the trail of his mother. Elena’s mom calls while Christopher is out and confides how worried she is about Drew, who is in a motel room uncovering the secret of the pink shoes from the Ryland shipments. To ease her mom’s mind, Elena breaks out her secret phone and calls Drew. Christopher walks in like a second after she hangs up and she claims she was talking to her mom.

On Bum’s intel, Sue Ellen travels to the Cayman Islands where she confronts Ken Richards who confesses he had to back out of helping her because the Governor has something on him and his son. Sue Ellen assures him that if he helps her take down Ryland, Cliff and the Governor, she will protect him but he’s not buying it. She plays hard ball, threatening to expose him herself if he won’t help her and trust that she can protect him. She credits J.R. with her blackmail technique, saying he taught her “If you can’t count on someone to do the right thing, don’t give them the choice.”

Christopher has gone to the David Gordon residence, where he’s been told his momma lives. David Gordon answers the door and tells Christopher his mother is not there and never wants to see him again. Some banging around upstairs causes Christopher to barge in and he finds a woman upstairs who even plastic surgery couldn’t turn into Pam. Christopher really wasn’t in touch with his emotions on this at all. It all comes back and he’s truly distraught. When he returns to the hotel, Elena is in the shower. She gets a call and Christopher finds her secret phone. He calls the number on it and Drew answers. Drew immediately destroys his secret phone. Christopher tells Elena that she was the one person he thought she could trust and now he finds out she helped her brother get away in spite of his involvement in the rig explosion that killed his unborn babies. Elena tries to explain but he tells her she better be gone when he gets back and goes off to find his mom some more.

That Rhonda lady who works in Nuevo Laredo is still hanging out in Dallas because she talks to Bobby and Pamela. Bobby shows her a photo of Cliff and she claims he was in the bar the night J.R. was killed, staring at them. John Ross threatens to kill Cliff himself if they can’t put him in jail. Bobby tells John Ross he’s just going to have to trust him and wait for the master plan to unfold. That’s the least he can do after Bobby overlooked all his evil misdeeds.

Sue Ellen pays a visit to Governor McConaughey who is not impressed with her threats, while Sue Ellen pours a drink. He calls her a drunk but Sue Ellen tells him the drink is for him because he’s going to need it if he doesn’t dance to her tune. “Now, let’s discuss eminent domain,” she smiles victoriously.

Ann Ewing finds out that Emma has agreed to go to rehab so she and Bobby pick her up. Ann plans on weaning Emma off her drugs slowly until they stick her in the rehab but Emma takes off to cry on daddy’s shoulder, suitcase in hand. Harris Ryland agrees to let her come home.

At Southfork, Bobby and Bum have J.R.’s giant gold belt buckle but it turns out to be a copy they had made. Bobby shows it to John Ross and tells him they need Pamela to plant it on Cliff.

Drew goes into a local bar where he pays the lady bartender to give him a call when Roy shows up. We were like, oh, no, is Drew as dumb as Chrisotpher and Bobby, too? The woman is in Roy’s pocket and calls to give him Drew’s location first chance she gets. But Drew is not as dumb as Christopher and Bobby and had an ally planted at the bar. When Roy shows up and executes his plan to get Roy arrested. He plants something in Roy’s truck and his motorcycle zooms off. Roy gives chase and the cops get on their tails in no time. Roy looks real stupid when Drew’s ally in the bar is revealed to be operating the motorcycle, not Drew. But when the cop sees the pink shoe, now showing the drug content, it’s all over for Roy. He’s hauled off to jail.

Elena returns home to cry on her mom’s shoulder about Christopher. Carmen advises her to ask Christopher to forgive her and give him time to do it. Elena is also upset over how there’s no oil on her father’s land. Papi died in vain and Drew’s life is ruined for nothing.

Emma is frantically going through Harris Ryland’s desk for a key to his vault when her daddy catches her. She pretends she was looking for pills like the little junkie she is and he gets her some.

This episode wraps up with John Ross and Pamela at the bank planting the gold buckle in Cliff’s safety deposit box. In Zurich, Christopher is at another bank after learning the Patricia Barrett account is being closed out. Christopher grabs the woman wearing a floppy hat exiting the bank with David Gordon and it is the same woman he saw at the house. Back at the Dallas bank, Pamela suddenly discovers a document: “Oh my god. It’s Pam Ewing’s death certificate.” The document is dated July 14, 1989. Christopher’s mother has been dead for 24 years and Cliff knew it the whole time.

Continue to the Season Two Finale: Reckoning