A BRIEF DALLAS INTERLUDE: PART 7 OF 12
Episode Title: End of the Road: Part Two
Season 04, Episode 12
Written by Leonard Katzman
Directed by Irving J. Moore
Original Airdate: Friday,
January 23rd, 1981
The Plot (Courtesy of TV.com): J.R.'s flirting with Afton at Lucy's wedding sends Sue Ellen
after an old boyfriend. Jock upsets Miss Ellie.
In our last Brief Dallas Interludes, J.R. had been shot and was lying in a hospital bed unsure of who exactly had shot him. As we jump quickly back into the world of Dallas, we see that, even though that was just a few months ago, quite a lot has changed in this world. For instance, in that last Interlude, we were not yet aware that Ray Krebbs was actually a Ewing, that Jock was his illegitimate father, but now that information is out and about and the characters are all discussing it. Or, for a better example, last time we had an Interlude, Lucy was just meeting Mitch for the first time, and now here she is getting ready to walk down the aisle with him.
A quick note about the episode,
as well. You’ll notice that I am not
writing about End of the Road: Part One. The reason for that is because this did not originally air as a big two-hour
double block of television; rather, the two episodes aired as singular entities
one week apart from each other, so I don’t believe I need to see Part One to write about Part Two. Secondly and more importantly, neither Gary
nor Val appear in Part One, so it
simply doesn’t count as part of our Interlude series. Okay, moving on.
Honestly, this may very well end
up being the briefest of the Brief Dallas Interludes,
mostly because Gary and Val don’t have very much to do within the confines of
this ep. The majority of the episode
focuses heavily on Lucy’s wedding, obviously, but we also have some storyline
going on involving Bobby making a business deal or something. I will say that while I am glad I’m doing
these Dallas eps as they come along,
sometimes it’s a little bit weird to jump from show to show and return to the Dallas world. Even though I’m really only interested in
writing about what Gary and/or Val do within their appearances, I still find
myself trying to remember what was going on in the overall storylines on the
series, so I’m like, “Why is Cliff dating Donna?” and stuff like that, things
I’ve forgotten about even after viewing the entire Dallas series (twice, actually).
In any case, I’ll give you a
really speedy update. As we start the
episode, we see that the wedding of Mitch and Lucy is in turmoil; perhaps they
won’t get married after all. Mitch is
talking to his sister (Afton, who will become a pretty important character in Dallas) and his mom (Anne Francis from Forbidden Planet) about why he and Lucy
are splitting up, that it just won’t work.
Well, after Lucy shoves him in the pool, he changes his mind and they
decide to get married and most of the second half of the ep is about that wedding. Sure, there’s stuff going on with Sue Ellen
(she’s considering an affair on J.R.) and Bobby (who is trying to run Ewing Oil
and is finding himself in J.R.’s shadow) and pretty much everyone in the
cast. But this is a KL blog, not a Dallas one,
so let’s just ignore their storylines, shall we?
Miss Ellie and Jock show up at
the airport to meet Gary and Val. It was
here that I really perked up and started paying attention; I wanted to see if
any of the storylines from over on KL would
be mentioned, if perhaps we’d get some small hint of Gary’s recent infidelity
with dykey-looking broad or a mention of J.R.’s recent trip to town, something
like that. You’ll recall that our last
two Interludes linked rather heavily into KL
by having Gary mention KL characters
and talk in some detail about his troubles going off the wagon. This ep is not nearly so linked,
however. Gary and Val come to see Lucy
get married, and that’s about it.
Not to say I’m necessarily
complaining; I still love the fact that these crossovers feel so organic. They do, too, because other shows would
probably just be like, “Here are two characters showing up from the spinoff;
please watch the spinoff on Thursday nights,” but here, it doesn’t feel like
tacky cross promotion. It’s Lucy’s
wedding and of course her parents
would show up to see this event. Even if
you were watching Dallas and were
completely unaware that there was a spinoff, you wouldn’t question Gary and
Val’s presence in the ep because it makes sense for the story.
The fact that Ray Krebbs has
been revealed as a Ewing also plays somewhat into our beloved KL characters. When Gary speaks to Ray about the recent
announcement, he basically says that this is great because it means he can stay
in California and Ray can sorta fill the hole in Miss Ellie’s life (oh wait, that sounded dirty). Obviously this does not please Miss Ellie, who later takes Jock aside and says she’ll
“Never forgive him for what he’s done,” essentially blaming him for Gary
staying in California. This is a bit
perplexing to me for a number of reasons, by the way. In case I haven’t mentioned it, Miss Ellie is
easily my least favorite character from the entire original cast of Dallas; I just think she’s a boring old
hag with an annoying voice. Well, I
suppose that’s not particularly important to my next point, but here it is: Why
the hell is Miss Ellie so obsessed with Gary moving back to Texas? Did she not buy him a house in California and
tell him it was specifically so he could start a new life out there? Now here we are, just a little over a year
later, and she’s all heartbroken that he’ll be staying in California. Huh?
Isn’t that what you wanted? And
why blame Jock for this? Gary was gonna
stay in California no matter what; it doesn’t matter at all that Ray is now a
Ewing. Gary has his own show and its
ratings are increasing (slightly, very very slightly), so he’s sticking to that
series, dammit! Oh yeah, and one last
note: Why doesn’t Miss Ellie just, you know, fly to California and see him?
It’s not like she’s busy; she’s a wealthy woman who sits around the
house all day, and she has plenty of spare time to pay her son a visit,
particularly since she whines so much about him not being around.
I enjoyed seeing Lucy getting
adorned in her (actually quite ugly) wedding dress, and I think there’s some
line about this being handed down from generation to generation, although I may
very well have hallucinated that particular line. Mostly this scene is good just to see Lucy
and Val standing next to eachother, and I had a realization as I watched this: This
is the very last time we see Lucy and Val together ever. Valene only appears in two more eps of the series, our next Interlude, The Split, and then she won’t be making
an appearance on Dallas again until
the very last episode in May of 1991 (over ten years after the airing of this episode), and when she does appear, not
only is Charlene Tilton no longer a cast member on the show, but even if she
was, I don’t think we would have footage of them together based simply on how
that episode of Dallas plays out (and
fear not, for we will be discussing that one in, oh, a couple of short decades). Also, we’ve already had our one and only
appearance from Lucy crossing over to KL,
and that was back in Home is For Healing. So really, this is a moment to be cherished,
as we shall never see the mother/daughter pair onscreen together, which is
pretty weird to think about. Reflecting
on the two actresses, I’ll take a quick moment to say the casting was just
perfect on both ends, as the two really do
look like mother and daughter and they also look so close in age that it’s easy
to believe Val had Lucy when she was very young.
Another lovely moment occurs
when Gary proudly walks his daughter down the aisle. Now, I don’t think what I said about Lucy and
Val holds true of Lucy and Gary. Gary
will be showing up five more times on Dallas,
and I am fairly certain we get scenes of him and Lucy together in at least a
couple of those appearances, so when we reach those, I’ll try to note when we
are seeing their final scene together
as father and daughter. In any case, it’s
not here.
So jeez, what else to say? I would say this is very much a Dallas episode and the appearances of
Gary and Val are just there because they make real sense for the story. Sure, I’m willing to bet that the writers and
producers were, again, hoping to strike up interest in the spinoff series by
putting the two characters in this episode, but it doesn’t feel tacky the way,
oh, the episode Kristin felt tacky;
this one just feels natural. I
definitely think that if a viewer watched both A Family Matter on Thursday and then End of the Road: Part Two on Friday night, they would probably be
tempted to devote fully to both series, as they are both pretty good eps that
signify the two series doing solid work.
I would be very curious to get an episode-by-episode listing of the
ratings for all KL eps and see how
eps that aired immediately after a Dallas
Interlude ranked in the overall ratings.
I’d be willing to bet that if Gary and Val showed up in a Dallas, there would be a spike in the
ratings of the very next KL ep,
whatever one it might be, but I currently have no way of knowing this for
sure. Anyone who has access to such
information please feel free to contact me.
The last thing I want to say,
and this is a bit of a revelation for me, is how much more I am enjoying KL
over Dallas even at this early
point. If you’ll recall, I believe I
said that during seasons one, two, and three of KL, Dallas was the
superior series on television at that point (it would be, for Dallas, seasons three, four, and five),
but now I don’t think I believe that anymore.
Whenever we jump into A Brief Dallas
Interlude, I just find myself less interested and a bit eager to return to
the world of KL. This is very odd, as I absolutely remember
the first three years of KL being my
least favorite, but upon this rewatch, I already
am finding KL to be the superior
show. Jumping into Dallas, it just seems less interesting to me, not just in the
writing, but also in the very way the show looks. It’s just shot kinda drab and I have zero
interest in quite a few of the characters (not to beat a dead horse, but Miss
Ellie, again), whereas with KL I love
all the characters (sans Kenny and
Ginger, of course). Anyway, don’t
mistake this for me calling Dallas bad,
because I’m not. I’m just observing
that, for me, KL is already the
superior, more mature, and more interesting show.
That oughta do it for awhile as
far as Dallas eps. We won’t have another Interlude until very
late in 1981, when Dallas is in its
fifth season and KL is in its third
(we actually get two Dallas eps in a
row, and they are The Split and Five Dollars A Barrel). That’s a ways away, however, so for now we’re
gonna return to our beloved friends on the cul-de-sac with our next KL episode. Originally airing Thursday, January 29th,
1981, our next episode up for discussion is called Choices and I will speak to you then.
FOR THOSE INTERESTED IN MY THOUGHTS ON DALLAS, OTHER BRIEF DALLAS INTERLUDES INCLUDE:
REUNION: PART ONE, REUNION: PART TWO, SECRETS, RETURN ENGAGEMENTS, NO MORE MISTER NICE GUY: PART ONE, NO MORE MISTER NICE GUY: PART TWO, THE SPLIT, FIVE DOLLARS A BARREL, JOCK'S WILL, THE FAMILY EWING, AND CONUNDRUM.
FOR THOSE INTERESTED IN MY THOUGHTS ON DALLAS, OTHER BRIEF DALLAS INTERLUDES INCLUDE:
REUNION: PART ONE, REUNION: PART TWO, SECRETS, RETURN ENGAGEMENTS, NO MORE MISTER NICE GUY: PART ONE, NO MORE MISTER NICE GUY: PART TWO, THE SPLIT, FIVE DOLLARS A BARREL, JOCK'S WILL, THE FAMILY EWING, AND CONUNDRUM.