Jock's Trial, Part One

Dallas 

Season 3 Episode 22

Original Airdate:   February 22, 1980 

Recap:  Jock is complaining about how Miss Ellie is never at home anymore, since she is trying to save Mimosa Park.

   Cliff is given the case about the body found on Southfork.

   Miss Ellie and the ladies of the DOA are trying to get support for their cause; Matt Devlin comes over and tells them he is tired of them holding all their meetings on his property.  They tell him that they will stop him.  He offers to take Miss Ellie home, and she accepts.

   JR tells Kristin that he doesn’t want her involved anymore in the plan; it wouldn’t look good if she was, and his parents wouldn’t appreciate her being in the picture before he and Sue Ellen are divorced.

   Sue Ellen throws things at JR when he comes into the room, he stops her and she tells him that she knows that someone was going through her things, he tells her that he had one of the maids do it to see if she was hiding any liquor.  He asks her if she is coming down for dinner.  Sue Ellen tells him no. 

   Downstairs Lucy is making a date for lunch the next day with a boy from one of her classes.  JR tells the family that he thinks he needs to put Sue Ellen back into the sanitarium.  Cliff calls and tells Pam that their father is back and that he is drinking again.  She tells him that she will be right over.  When she gets there he tells her that Digger got back before he came home from work, he tells her that Digger was fired and that he relapsed and drinking everything Cliff had in the house and tearing it up looking for more.  He tells Pam that it’s all the Ewing’s fault.  Pam tells him that she doesn’t want to listen to that again, she leaves and Cliff makes a phone call to talk to the Sheriff the next day about the body that was buried at Southfork.

   Jock tells Miss Ellie that he wants to spend the day with her, but she tells him that she has plans already with Matt Devlin. 

   At the Sheriff’s office, Cliff questions him about the body, he asks to see the effects found on the body, he sees the initials on the belt buckle and he asks if they found out who he was.  The Sheriff tells Cliff that he is busy.  Cliff tells him he wants the employment records from Southfork.  Cliff arranges it so an anthropologist will look at the body at the morgue.

   Bobby tells Sue Ellen that he thinks she has been spending too much time alone, he asks her if she needs help.  She asks him if he believes that she started drinking again.  Bobby tells her that he wants to believe that she isn’t.  Sue Ellen tells him that JR is trying to put her away; she tells Bobby that she wants a divorce from JR.  Bobby tells her that she needs to leave JR in the open and not hide it.  He tells her not to play any games, that JR is too good. 

   Matt Devlin shows Miss Ellie the plans, but she says that it won’t convince her that it’s a good thing, but showing them to her.  He asks her to have lunch with him; she tells him that she has to go.  Matt tells her that he will call her and they can talk again over lunch tomorrow. 

   The Sheriff is over at Southfork and tells Jock that the DA is going to investigate.  He tells him that they want the employment records.  Jock says that they don’t keep them that far back, but that they can have them if they can find them.  Ray suggests that he check the shed.

   Pam goes over to Cliff’s, she sees all the empty bottles on the floor, she goes into Digger’s bedroom and finds him lying on the ground, she calls for an ambulance.

   Bobby bursts into JR’s office and asks him why he cut back the on the oil field that he just opened.  Bobby tells him that he is supposed to consult him; he asks him what Jock would say if he went to him about his.  JR tells him that if can open the fields up again and that next time he will consult with him first.

   Cliff and the Sheriff are going over the records and find a couple of names that match with the initials on the belt, HM.  Cliff is told about one of the men, Hutch McKinney, who was the foremen at Southfork, he had a bad temper, Cliff asks if he thinks that Jock could have killed him.

   Cliff meets up with Pam at the hospital; she is upset that he hasn’t been with their father all day.  He tells her that he is trying to help him his own way.  She tells him that it’s not good; all his drinking has done a lot of damage.

   Sue Ellen tells Dr. Elby that she is going to leave JR, he asks her about the baby, she tells his that she has thought of nothing but him, she knows that if she took him with her that JR would come after her, so she will leave the baby and Miss Ellie and Pam will take good care of him till she can come for him.  He asks her if she is strong enough to leave her baby, she tells him that with Dusty’s help she can do it.

   Cliff is assigning investigators what he wants them do for the case.  He tells one of them to take metal detectors to Southfork.  The assistant DA comes in and tells him that he can’t keep the investigators on the case for too long since they have newer murders that they need to wrap up; he tells Cliff that he just has a grudge against the Ewing’s.  Cliff calls the anthropologist that he needs him to hurry and get the results to him.

   Miss Ellie asks Bobby how Digger is doing, he tells her not good, and tells them that Cliff is after the Ewing’s again.  Bobby tells JR that Sue Ellen told him that she thinks he is trying to put in the sanitarium and that he is trying to make them all believe she is drinking.  JR tells him to stay out of it.  Bobby asks what he’ll do, make them all think he’s drinking too.

   Cliff gets to the hospital and tells Pam to go home and rest, she tells him that she doesn’t want to leave Digger, she will rest out in the waiting room.

   Sue Ellen goes to the nursery and talks to Baby John, she tells him that she has to leave but it won’t be for long and that he will be with her and Dusty soon.  When she turns to leave he says Mama.

   The anthropologist brings the model he made from the body to Cliff. 

   The Sheriff tells Jock, JR, and Bobby what Cliff has come up with, Ray comes over and tells them that a gun was found not far from where the body was buried.  Jock tells his son’s that they need to pull all their favors in and get Cliff taken off the case, because if Ray is right then the gun is his.

   Cliff is interviewing a man who was at the bar and witnessed a fight between Hutch McKinney and Jock, he has him tell the Sheriff everything he told Cliff.  He tells him that Jock and McKinney were fighting and Jock fired him, and told him that if he didn’t leave the ranch by the morning then he’d kill him.

   Sue Ellen goes to Dusty’s, but he isn't at his place yet.

   Miss Ellie and Matt are having lunch together, he tells her that he doesn’t want to talk about the park, she asks what he wants, he tells her that he wants to talk about them.  He tells her that all this time that they have been fighting he has been falling in love with her and she’s been falling in love with him.  She tells him that she wants to leave, and he says that he won’t talk anymore and asks her to finish her lunch.

   At Dusty’s Sue Ellen is watching the news when she gets the news that Dusty’s plane crashed and there  was no sign of life.  She goes over to the bar and gets a drink.

   Bobby comes home as the Sheriff is reading Jock his rights; he is being arrested for the murder of Hutch McKinney.

Final Thoughts:  Of course Cliff would be given the case, even though I think that they would want to get someone with no prejudice to try the case, since everyone in the state of Texas knows about the feud between the Barnes' and the Ewing's.  If he were to be convicted they could get a retrial since the prosecution wasn't impartial, we've been watching a lot of Law & Order lately.  And Sue Ellen's drinking again!  Won't JR be happy.

Best Outfit:  I had a hard time picking something for this episode, and the only reason why I picked this is because his hair matches his suit, and plus he look just plain creepy.