S5 Ep13 Dallas : The Search- "The Flashbacks and Final Goodbye" Episode

A missing helicopter, a family on edge, and a show trying to say goodbye without breaking its own world. We’re back in Dallas Season 5 Episode 13, “The Search,” and I’m watching in real time, checking in with quick recaps and unfiltered thoughts as the Ewings scramble to find Jock. The first thing I can’t let go of is how small the initial search sounds, because if a man like Jock Ewing goes down, you don’t call it after an afternoon and go home. What makes “The Search” hit, is the structure: flashbacks come fast, and each one is basically a confession. Miss Ellie remembers promises and tenderness; Bobby gets drafted to be the steady one; Ray’s grief is tangled up with belonging; and J.R. shows how much of his drive is really about pleasing his father. While the men head to South America and push past tents, bad radio connections, and real danger near the border, the women at Southfork are left with the hardest job: waiting, coping, and trying not to fall back into old patterns. We also talk about Sue Ellen fighting for space right when everyone wants to pull her closer, and why that boundary is brave. Then the search narrows to a river, a dive, and one clue that changes the temperature of the whole story. The episode closes with a Jim Davis in memoriam that’s genuinely moving, plus a big question for the series going forward: what is Dallas without Jock, and do the characters still hold? Subscribe for more Dallas recaps, share this with a fellow soap fan, and leave a review if you’re enjoying the ride. And if you’ve got thoughts, send me a text or voicemail via the link in the show notes, or email me at soaplorepodcast@gmail.com.

Transcript

Welcome Back To Soap Lore

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, welcome and welcome back to another fun filled edition of Soap Lore. I'm your host, Jess, Sylvioing and reviewing the Sophia Studzi of the Prime Time Storyline of 1982. We're on the lookout for big jocks down in Dallas. So whether you're new to this or true to this, sit back and enjoy. It's time to play outside or out of sight. Don't make no questions, suggestions, or concerns for the next 25 to 35 minutes. Everyone else in AirShop, cool, quiet, or kicked out. Only album you got, my dear, because we are watching our story. Ladies and gentlemen boys and girls of this soap lore. Back in Dallas. Actually, I never left Dallas. Last episode, we were at the barbecue. I had me a good old time. I'm talking, I'm laughing, I'm cackling, I'm really enjoying it. Then all of a sudden, they bring up the fact that Jock has died. It's not that I had forgotten, but they were doing all right with it. So it wasn't on the forefront of my mind, but now it is. We're gonna jump right into the next episode. Season five, episode 13 called The Search. I am going to watch this in real time and come back to you every 15 minutes with a quick little recap and my opinions, thoughts, questions, etc. on the whole situation. Go ahead and pour yourself up something bubbly and bright. We got a quick little piece of fan mail, and then we're gonna watch The Search, Season 5, Episode 13 of Dallas.

Fan Mail And Soap Era Nostalgia

SPEAKER_00 1:53

Alright, let's jump into the fan mail first. We have a cute little letter from Crystal. Hey Crystal. Crystal says, Hey Jet, love the show. You mentioned on a previous episode that you grew up watching Passions. I can also tell by your Tabitha and Timmy reference. That brought back so many memories for me. I was a passionslash general hospital girl myself. I adored Ethan Crane with my whole heart. I feel like we're in the same age bracket, and I wanted to know if you ever got into the show popular. The late 90s, early 2Ks, CW era was iconic. Now that you've been watching these shows for a little while, are you more of a daytime soap or a nighttime soap girly? Do you currently watch any of the daytime soaps? Thank you, Crystal. Crystal with a C, by the way. Let's see. Um, I actually don't watch any of the daytime soaps currently, but I've been wanting to get into, I think it's called Behind the Gates. I don't know if it's online or where it's at, but I hear people talking about it from time to time. And it sounds like it's really good. I don't know if I'm a day or a nighttime. I always fancied myself more of a nighttime soap person because I feel like you can do a little bit more. And they move around. I I'm a fan of people being like outside, not just on a soundstage, but quite frankly, I would say the chokehold that passions and days used to have on me, I don't know. I think I think if I got into it again, as long as the story's moving pretty quickly, I would probably still tune in every day. I just hadn't had a chance in years. Um my mother-in-law, funnily enough, we were talking a couple days ago when she was telling me about her doctor's appointment and like her B12 levels and blah, blah, blah. And they were telling her B12 levels are too high. And her doctor asked her what she was doing. Is she taking any extra supplements? She says, Yeah, well, I take a B12 supplement and I take blah, blah, blah. And then I take a five-hour energy at 1:30. And her doctor tells her, okay, well, you can back off on one of those, maybe not the five-hour energy. And she's like, Oh no, I have to take those because I have to watch. General Hospital comes on at two, and I that's when I start getting sleepy. So I need to take my five-hour energy. She's so cute. I said, I know that's right, girl. I hear you. You got and I know she can record them, but I think it's just it's a daily ritual. That's what I think the difference between daytime and nighttime soaps is. Your daytime one is like, okay, I have an appointment. I gotta be home by this time. I don't want to record it, I want to watch it live. I totally get that, just having something that comes on every day, especially in the era of streaming. It's kind of nice to have something else outside of the norm to look forward to, you know, something you don't want to pause. But to answer your other question, girl, I have forgotten about that show popular. If memory serves me correctly, it was only on for a couple of seasons. I think it was Leslie Bibb, and I believe her name is Sarah. Is it Sarah Roo? I do remember when that came out, and I definitely watched that. As a matter of fact, anytime I hear Jay-Z's Hard Knock Life, I picture that one rich girl. I she, I don't know if it was in her mind or what was going on, but she was like wrapping it in this in this scene where she was dressed like Orphan Annie. Yes. Girl, what a time. I was a Days of Our Lives, which came on at noon. And then I would watch Passions. And then there was something that came on right around two, two o'clock was just like a filler hour because all the talk shows would come on at three, if I remember correctly. What a time to be alive. You're 100% right about the CW's run. They had a really, gosh, it was really magical. I want to say for about I'll give them more than 10 years. There, I know they have that Dawson's Creek. There was another show probably popular. Gosh, I can't remember. I'll have to go back and look up the lineup, but I feel like there was another show that came on right around the time of Dawson's Creek. And then, of course, you got into the One Tree Hills and what's the one with the the kids uptown? Some that okay. That this is where it starts to get blurry for me because this is when that show, the OC, comes into my mind. But I think the OC was on Fox. OC was like the new 90210. What's the one I'm thinking of? It's not the one where the girl writes XOXO. Okay, that's gonna bother me, and I'm not gonna bore you guys with the details. Those are now vintage primetime soaps, too. That's kind of hard for me to swallow since that was late 90s, early 2000s. But yeah, those are I think those are vintage. Wild. I guess we'll get there eventually. Thank you for writing in. I really love hearing from you guys and always have a good time, especially in email. I'm really good about emailing back. So if you want to chat or drop your opinions or you have any questions for me, I would love to hear from you. You can send me an email at soaplorpodcast at gmail.com. That's S O A P L O R E P O D C A S T at Gmail.com. Or you can send me a text. Listening on your phone or another mobile device, check the show notes. There is a link that says send us a text. You can send a text. Here's the tricky part of that is that it only allows 150 characters, so send as many as you need to. Clearly, if you listen to this show, you know I am long-winded. I get the feeling you all are too. Otherwise, you wouldn't be listening to long-form content like a podcast. You can send a text, you can send a voicemail within that same link. Pick your poison either way. I'd love to hear from

Setting Up Dallas The Search

SPEAKER_00 7:40

you. So after the last episode, I had to go back. I always say, oh, I'm gonna go back and look at this, I'm gonna go back and look at this. I really did because barbecue is one of my favorite episodes. I was right, it is season one, episode five. It was even better than I remember. But what I came across is that homeboy Larry is either the owner of the catering company or they completely forgot who was catering because, according to my calculations and my rewatch nation, it was uh this black lady. Y'all remember the lady from Soul Food, Big Mama? First off, that woman's skin is flawless. The prettiest complexion I've seen, gorgeous, baby smooth skin. She, how you have perfect skin since 1978. Perfect, flawless, no scars, no pimple, no nothing. She probably didn't even have on, she probably had on a little conceal, not even concealer, a little powder, and she moved on with her life. Anyway, pretty skinned lady. Her name was Tilly on the show and Sam. So it was Tilly and Sam and them, not Larry, who were doing the catering. And I know this for a fact because everybody wore little cowboy outfits. Also, watching that episode back made me really miss Jock. I didn't realize I missed him on the show, but I do. I also missed Digger Barnes on the show. Original Digger Barnes was way better than the skinny second one. That first one, you couldn't convince me he wasn't a drunk. He played that part a little bit too well, but that's neither here nor there. I just want the record to reflect that Lucy was banging the hell out of Ray all season one. Matter of fact, she was dangling it over his head that she was going to tell her grandpa about their little affair if he didn't do exactly what she told him to do every time she told him to do it. Number two, Larry, the guy who was afraid that Ellie was cheating on him with another caterer, was not her caterer unless he picked it up for the last year. I don't know who did it, but it was Tilly and Sam and them originally. All right, y'all. Let's jump into the search. I have to say this before I start this episode. According to Ellie, mind you, this is the last like two minutes of the of the show. She's explaining to JR and the audience that Jock was flying in inland. His helicopter or his plane crashed. They looked for him all afternoon and then decided that was enough. That is a half-assed search party if I ever heard one. An afternoon? It should be days, months at least. It's a whole helicopter. The whole it's a it's an apparatus. It is a vehicle. And swamps aren't that deep, are they? I don't really know. Let's get into it. Show opens with JR on the phone, sharing my sentiments. He's on the phone with whoever the search party is on the other end of the phone, and he wants to know why more isn't being done. JR brings up a very interesting fact that I have forgotten. Jock was on a mission with the U.S. government, and he feels like at the very least, the U.S. government can jump in and start looking for him. Don't y'all have planes and helicopters and parachutes and stuff? That's a great point, JR. You I'm I'm with you when you're right. I guess they tell him, all right, we'll see what we can do. We see if we got any gas money for all that, and we'll talk. We'll we'll see. He's he's satisfied with that. So he and Ellie walk into the sitting room where everybody usually gathers for the pre-dinner pep rally. Everyone is sitting there, just kind of at bated breath, wanting to know what the heck's going on. So JR comes in and he reiterates what we all heard on the last episode. Jock was flying in the interior. I'm assuming that means he was on U.S. soil or airspace. His aircraft went down. Nobody saw anything. They have been circling the air looking for him, which does not make sense if it went down. We all know through modern television that there's all sorts of black boxes, etc., when things like that go down. You're the pilots are in constant contact with ground control. Doesn't seem like that was happening with Jock. And it's like this is between Louisiana and Dallas. That's not very far. But I mean, there's a lot of trees and stuff. Which brings everybody to this next point. Bobby and Ray are thinking, okay, so those they're in the air. Is anybody on the ground? JR said, listen, I'm just telling you what they told me on the phone. They didn't say nothing about the ground. They said the air. Bobby points out that like you're not going to be able to see that. If he like went down in trees, it's going to be really difficult to see in the air. So as I'm saying this out loud, I'm I'm guessing the rationale for all of this is that if he went down, there would either be smoke from fire, like the plane might have, you know what I'm saying? They might be looking for that in the air, which would be a little bit harder to see if you were on the ground level. But I agree. Somebody should definitely be on the ground walking around, picking up on things that you can't

Flashbacks Start And The Family Mobilizes

SPEAKER_00 12:45

see from the air. So Bobby and Ray both agree that yeah, somebody needs to be on the ground. We should fly over to Louisiana and start a search party of our own. The men agree. Yeah, that's a good idea. That's a good idea. We'll do it. Donna gets up immediately, Donna Culver. She goes into the, she says, I'm gonna go see when the next flights out are. She immediately jumps on that. Ellie tells her, Donna, go ahead and book four flights, not just the three. Now Donna's out of earshot. It's Sue and Lucy and Pam in the room and the men, and they're like, Mama, you don't need to go. It's gonna be dangerous, and blah, blah, blah. Pam, I think Pam is still on her nut house sedatives because she's like, Miss Ellie, you old. These are young men. Young men move fast. Your old mind can't move that fast. Don't you think you've slowed them down a little bit? Don't you want to sit your old stuff down somewhere? Ellie just kind of holds it in like you have to say it like that. Donna Culver is very quick on the phone. She comes right around the corner and she says there's flights going out in the morning. Miss Ellie, should I get three tickets or four? Ellie decides she's gonna listen to Pam because maybe her hip hurts, but it's it's a valid point. She probably would just be in the way. Not because I think she'd be slow, but this just isn't the place. So she agrees she's gonna stay put at South Fork. So she figures she'd just call Gary. And I suppose at first I thought she meant she was gonna call him and have him fly there to help, but knowing what we know about Notts Landing, they never really bring it up. So I I don't they only bring it up that he recently died, that Jock had recently died. So I don't really see that working out. Anyway. This is the first of I think I've counted five or six flashbacks on this episode already, and I am only 17 and a half minutes through it. Ellie's flashback is a moment right before Jock went into his open heart surgery, and he's regretting being a poor father, not being a very good husband, and he tells Ellie, Ellie, you promised me if anything happens to me, you're going to keep this family together. It does the woo-woo-woo music. She comes out of her flashback. JR goes upstairs to his bedroom, where Sue Ellen has fallen asleep in the same bed that she and JR and Afton and God knows who else have shared. She and the baby are sleeping peacefully when JR pops in and wants to chat a little bit. He's admiring how beautiful she and the baby look sleeping in the bed and how John Ross Ewing III doesn't have any disappointments in his life so far. She realizes that it's kind of late and she's like, Oh, I'm so sorry. We'll go ahead and take off. And he's like, No, no, no, y'all just sleep. It's already too late to be on the road. She agrees, continues her sleep, I suppose, but this is J.R.'s turn to have his flashback. And his flashback is the day that sadly Stu Ellen had crashed into that pole and gave premature birth to John Ross Ewing III. And I had forgotten this. It's the day that the baby was born, and John Ross Ewing I volunteered J.R. to name the baby John Ross Ewing III. I I am interpreting this as a neutral andor good memory. I suppose Ellie's is probably a neutral or good memory with a lot of sadness because there's like a weight to it. There's an action she has to take. All right, it is time for the Donna Culvers and the Ray. Why can't I remember Ray's name? Ray Krebs to have a flashback. Now he's in his living room going through it. He is clearly the most upset person on the show at this moment. Now, because of the crash, Donna is being cool. She's gonna allow that little stunt that Ray pulled at the barbecue where he was dancing all up and down that girl. She's gonna let that slide for the time being because he's going through something. She comforts Ray while he tells her how he regrets his day drinking stupor and can't believe he was acting such a fool all day while Jock's out here missing. She's like, Ray, you had no way of knowing. It's okay. He's gonna be fine. Now, Ray is a little less stealthy than the rest of their cast, and he has announced his flashback in the form of a remember of a memory. I can remember a time right before you got here. I was gonna marry Connie. No name. So he flashes back to the moment in the study. He he lets the audience know that he didn't know that Jock was his dad at this time. But Jock pulled him aside and said, Well, Sandra's gonna get married. I got a little something for you. And he forked over a good chunk of South Fork to Ray. And Ray reiterates, you don't know how much he means to me. You don't know how much he means to me. Donna. You mean no to me. You want my everything. I swear they all are tricking them at us. Sorry, y'all. Upstairs, Pam and Bobby are in their bedroom. So weird. One, two, three. Yeah, three flashbacks already. Pam is trying to encourage him to work well with his brothers. Again, I think she's still on a little bit of tranquilizers from the nut house. She's sort of just talking, not really thinking about what she's saying. Like, y'all don't really be getting along. I hope y'all can get along long enough to find them because Jock always wanted y'all to be together. Now, Bobby checks her. Hey, hey, hey, he wants, not wanted. We're gonna speak everything in in the present, not past tense. She's like, oh, you're right, you're right, you're right. I'm sorry, my bad, my bad. But I know Jock likes having his family together. Pam's flashback is pretty convenient for me because I just watched this episode. She flashes back to season one, episode five, no, episode six. When she had freshly fallen from the Raptors losing the baby. Jock is apologizing for her to her for almost beating the brakes off her drunk dad that day. And he's sorry that he acted a fool because she was a Barnes, but at the end of the day, she's family now and he wants to keep his family together. That's her memory. So let's say that one is a good memory. Bobby decides he's gonna go downstairs and check on his mama, who is cleaning out the refrigerator as one would because you have all this nervous energy. What the heck else is she gonna do? She's cleaning out the fridge and she tells Bobby that she wants him to be a char in charge of this whole fantastic plan. Ellie wants Bobby to be in charge of the search party. Bobby is once again put in a position he didn't ask to be. He's uncomfortable. Why, mama? Why would you do that? Why do I need to be in charge? I agree with Ellie. I think Ray is not really in the headspace to be doing this. He's not in the headspace to be leading anything. He seems a little fragile. He's on the verge of his own breakdown. And I think that JR is liable to say something crazy to somebody and piss them off. So yeah, everybody report to Bobby. I think that's a good idea. She also says, or rather, reminds Bobby, that he is the one that his daddy could always count on. Bobby's flashback is when him and his daddy almost went to fisticuffs in the middle of the cattleman's club when Jock took out 10 million of his own dollars, let him tell it. Bobby said, Nah, nah, old man, you told me I was in charge of this company, so you need to run it by me before you start withdrawing money. And Jock said, Who are you talking to? Bobby said, I'm talking to you. Jock bucked up. He said, Look, you want you feeling froggy? Bobby said, like Kermit, ribbit, ribbit. Jock said, Let me tell you, little, let me tell you something, little boy. This my company, I will spend every nickel, dollar, and dime the way I see fit. Bobby says, not on my watch. You gave me the power. Jock scoffs. Power. I gave you power. Let me tell you something. If I gave you power, you got nothing at all. Power in something somebody gives you, you take it. Like a man. Audience? Do we think that is a positive memory or neutral? Or I feel like Bobby's the first one to keep it real. Which explains why quiet is cat. Bobby doesn't seem all that upset about his dad being missing. He's like,

The Ewing Boys Head To South America

SPEAKER_00 20:40

I mean, it's just a swamp. He can swim. Trees and they'll be fine. Louisiana ain't that far. All right. So they appear to fly off on what I thought was a southwest flight, but they were in first class. So I'm still well, it looks like first class to me. They're serving drinks and glasses. But this could be the way of the world in 1982. I really don't know. Those seats look way too big to be economy, though. So as men fly off to Louisiana, the women folk are still at South Fork. Now uh Christina. Oh my gosh, not Crystal. Why don't I want to say Crystal so bad? Sue Ellen and John Ross Ewing III have woken up. She's gonna take him downstairs and say hey to his grandma, and then she wants to get back to Dallas. She has a fresh home to decorate. You know what I'm saying? Ellie comes in and she's like, Sue Ellen, I just thought we could talk here for just a moment. Sue Ellen says, sure, what do you need? Ellie wastes no time manipulating Sue Ellen's emotions so that she'll stick around that effing ranch for the sake of being a dependable family member. Sue Ellen's like, Miss Ellie, you know it took a lot for me to leave JR and I I'm not really comfortable coming back. Real sorry to hear about Jock and I hope he's all right, but I I really do need to get back into town. And Ellie's like, Well, I I understand that, but you're needed here. It's really important that you're here right now. We really need you. I sure hope I can depend on you. Sue Ellen is fresh off of a divorce, a very lucrative divorce, if I might add. She hasn't had sex in months. She hasn't had carbs in years. She has a fly apartment she needs to get back to. Leave her alone. Give this woman a space. You lucky she came to this damn barbecue. Now Jock's missing and she needs to stick around. Well, Sue Ellen's flashback is the morning following JR's shooting. She comes to the hospital. Her and bad girl Kristen show up together. And Jock immediately, she's like, Is he okay? Is everything alright? She's clearly like upset. Jock immediately starts chastising her about her whereabouts, her lack of care for her husband. He accuses her of being drunk and gallivanting all around Dallas, embarrassing herself and whatnot. Now, despite all of that being true, he didn't have to say it like that. And Badgirl Kristen feels the same way. She was like, hey, don't say that to her, Jock. She was sick. Sue Ellen was sick. And he's like, she wasn't sick. She was drunk. I cackled a little bit. I know this is supposed to be a serious moment, but I'm thinking to myself, wouldn't it have been so funny if Kristen? Despite the fact that she's been banging JR all this time, disrespecting her sister. That's still her sister. Like, okay, I okay. Me and her can fight, but I'm not gonna let anybody else talk to her like that. It would have been so funny if she said, you know what? You want to f around and find out what happens when you cross me? You end up in that bed like your son. I guess this would be the wrong time to bring that up. But I wish she would have whipped out a pistol and be like, yo, who you talking to, Jock? Don't call my sister drunk. She was sick. Let's see what the next 15 minutes will bring. Well, hell. Looks like I went ahead and finished it. So Sue Ellen cries tears of guilt and frustration, all while holding little John Ross Ewing III. What is a girl to do? What is she gonna do? Okay, y'all. Also, my bad. They're not in Louisiana. I guess when I heard inland, I thought they meant in the US, considering they were expecting him home in two hours. Yeah, yeah. That just I don't know. Whatever. It seemed like he would have been stateside if they could plan a whole barbecue, knowing he'd be there in a couple hours, versus him flying in from halfway across the world. That's neither here nor there. So the gentlemen are flying to South America. They're gonna go to the actual site, they're gonna see what they can do. Ray immediately starts getting on my nerves in this scene. They're in the plane, the overhead light comes on, and they can now remove their seatbelt and move about freely throughout the cabin. JR, Bobby, and Ray start reminiscing on all the times that Jock used to take them camping. Now, if memory serves me correctly, when we found out that Ray was, excuse me, the Jock's son, the story went that he had shown up to the ranch. Maybe he said 15 years ago, I'm I'm a little bit muddy on that detail, but there's a flashback on this episode where Ray is remembering when Jock gave him the land. Jock said, I'm giving this to you. It's your 20th anniversary anyway, in a couple months. Happy 20th anniversary. Here's a piece of property for you and your new too soon-to-be wife. So maybe that tracks. Okay, fine. So he's about 35. That tracks. Anyway, Jock used to allegedly take these guys camping all the time. Now let Ray tell it. Jock would tell them ghost stories and taught them how to survive, and he's very confident that Jock knows how to survive, but he remembers it. Gary was very scary and would get real nervous whenever Jock told ghost stories. Bobby remembers it. Ray was kind of a chicken. And he would get real scared. JR remembers, well, the first time I went camping with my dad, I was seven years old. He taught me everything he knew. Whoop, woom, you woo. For the rest of the episode, they are referred to as the Ewing boys, which, although I consider Ray their brother, I never really think of him as a Ewing, but I guess he is. And he's been trying to prove that I guess I can see it now, Ray. I'm part of the problem. I'm part of the problem. So it flashes back and forth quite a bit. Meanwhile, at Southport, Lucy, Sue Ellen, and Donna Culver are chilling, or Donna Culver Krebs Ewing are chilling in the family room, just trying to keep it light. Ellie's out of pocket. Ellie's out of the way. You know, they're just trying to keep it cute. Lucy has to pop some champagne to soothe her nerve. Now she's been crying in her room all day, let them tell it. Pam is MIA, and I don't blame her. There's a lot of sadness there. She's got a fresh baby she needs to tend to, but Donna steps in, where normally Pam would step in to comfort Lucy. Donna steps in, comforts her, gives her a hug. So the guys finally, we get to see South America finally. And you see Punk Anderson and a man cosplaying as a South American man named Julian. Julian is in charge of manning the radios. So he's getting all the information coming. He's giving what he has. Right about this time, we get to see the Ewing boys walk into this tent. I think kind of a crappy tent. I guess I hadn't really thought about what they'd be saying at. I assume they'd be staying in like a villa or something. But no, apparently they've been living in a tent all this time. These old men. It has been two days. Let Punk Anderson tell it that Jock is missing. Now, it is my opinion that Punk Anderson is a little bit too eager to say that Jock is deceased. We all know the actor's deceased, but he's a little too eager to be like, well, I guess he's dead. I mean it's been two days. And the boys are like, damn, he can't. You know, people live in the jungle all the time. This is a whole country where people survive every day in it. Jock may be all right. In the plane, they kept going on and on about how Jock has these survival instincts and stuff. And I'm like, he was in freaking. I guess he did go to war in Europe. Last time I checked, Europe didn't have a jungle. He also grew up in Texas. Last time I checked, Texas didn't really have a gum. I I guess whatever. Survival is survival. What do I know? Right about this time, now that everybody's good and settled, the boys are in South America, the women folk are back at the ranch. Ellie calls and she starts hollering over the phone so that we, the audience, understand that the connection is crappy. Almost as crappy as the tent they're living in. Luckily, Julion, with his silky faux Spanish accent, informs us that a plane has been sighted and that looks like somebody's walking around out there. The gentlemen get very excited. I would like to go ahead and award the actor who plays Julio, whose real name is probably Sam from Resita, as the most extra extra on this here episode. He does a damn fine job. His radio voice is silky, it's smooth, there's no franticness, franticness in it. I love it. The next day the fellas saddle up, and Annie up there got horses and guns because there's some sort of war going on in a neighboring country. Just in case they accidentally cross the border, they might need to defend themselves. This is Punk Anderson telling them that, okay, well, there's gonna be a war. I don't know if y'all really want to do all this, but if you insist, that's cool. Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Ellie and Donna are sitting at the table, and Ellie tells Donna, I feel like this is Deja. I feel like I've already been through this before. She reminds Donna, or tells Donna and reminds the audience that four years previous, Bobby and JR's plane had crashed over Louisiana. Nobody wanted to tell Jock because he just had that open heart surgery and they didn't want him to worry. So Ellie's flashback, second flashback, is Jock coming down the stairs in his or he's coming out out of the room with the robe on, and he's like, Ellie, you can tell me anything. I need you to understand, honey. I'm alright. I'm alright. I think she's remembering this because it's him telling her he's strong and he's alright. He can take it. This feeds

Waiting At Southfork And Tense Boundaries

SPEAKER_00 30:20

her hope. A little bit later on in the family room, they finally get to have some girl talk is all of the non well, the new ewing women, being Pam, Donna, and Sueella. They finally get to talk freely because Ellie and Lucy are out of earshot. Donna is stressed. She said she's afraid that Ray might not recover if Jock isn't found. You see, Ray is going through an identity crisis anyway, then he got that money crisis. He doesn't feel like a real ewing. He's been trying to prove this all this time, and the only thing that makes him feel like a ewing is Jock. And if Jock's not here, she's afraid he's not gonna know his place. Pam tries to comfort her, but Donna reminds her, no, no, Bobby is a natural-born ewing. He's always known his place. He didn't have to worry about that sort of thing. Ray, Ray's different. I don't know if he's gonna recover. Pam's like, yeah, you're right. Bobby will probably be sad for two or three days, judging by his flashback or not sad. But yeah, Bobby will be fine. He'll be just fine. Sue Ellen says, not JR. Let me tell y'all what J.R.'s sole purpose in life is to please his daddy. He's always trying to impress him, always trying to live up to him, always trying to be him. If Jock is gone, I don't think JR has a reason to live. Now, right about this time, unfortunately, Lucy starts to slink in, as does Ellie. When Lucy hears Sue Ellen say that if Jock doesn't make it, JR's not gonna have a reason to live. She gets pissed. I'm thinking she's offended because Sue Ellen said that he Jock might not be alive. The reality is Lucy knows that JR, despite him being a scumbag, has great memories with Jock. Bobby has great memories with Jock. Hell, Ray even has amazing memories with Jock. She is mad because if Jock is gone, that means her dad, her deadbeat dad, doesn't get to make memories with his possibly dead dad. She feels a way about it. My dad has nothing. Nothing. Girl, you met that man four times your whole life. Four times in your twinny. Calm down, my love. Down in South America, each of the Ewing boys have their second flashback of the episode. JR remembers day drinking and betting with Jock. Bet him $5,000 he could drink his daddy under the table. His daddy's like, fish pot, bring it, boy. They go out and they have a good time. Bobby remembers beating wholesale ass with his dad in Louisiana. I remember that episode too. That was good. Jock was hands. Man, Jock hands, huge hands, big old bear paw. He was beating everyone up in this little restaurant. He didn't even break a sweat. I don't even think his hat came off. And Ray, Ray remembers the day that Jock made an announcement in front of the whole family that this is my boy. This is my son. Beautiful memories. I think we can all say those are those are beautiful, warm memories. Did I mention that they're walking through the jungle this whole time? Did I mention that? They're walking through the jungle. I do this in quotations, and the whoever the sound guy was for this episode, bravo, brava. Lots of like monkey sounds, uh any any sort of sound you can think that I don't know. Just it's a whole lot of noise with zero sources. You don't actually see monkeys. You don't actually see anything. They're in, if I'm being honest, they're in grass and trees that are, I mean, they're high, but they're not jungle high. They're definitely not like more than a story or two, two stories high. They're in the jungle, and JR is wearing that jacket that I swear Gary had stolen from him. So I guess Gary's gonna come steal it a little bit later on, but he's actually wearing a safari jacket. Not on a safari, but close enough. Anyway, they happen upon a paramedic and a white-haired older white gentleman. Their hopes rise. They quickly fall when they realize that the guy is not Jock. He looks a lot like him, but it's not quite him. He's probably about eight inches too short. This guy is not Jock. He's a surveyor with equally as poor flying skills as Jock. He explained that he was alone in his little helicopter and that he glided to the ground, but he saw another helicopter drop out of the sky like a stone, implying that it was Jock, landed right in the river. So they're like, okay, to the river we go. They're flashing back to the women, but not much is happening. Ellie is waiting patiently by the phone in every single room and outside by the pool. Lucy called Mitch. She didn't get to talk to him very long. She decides she's just going to go into town. She can't stand being around the house just waiting. So in South America, Ray and Bobby show off their scuba diving skills while Punk Anderson and JR wait patiently in an inflatable raft. With a motor, of course. Ray hops up into the boat and he's got a little piece of the elevator, excuse me, the helicopter. And once again, punk Anderson is all like, well, I guess that's it. JR and Ray are like, What? Damn. It's just, it's a helicopter. It crashed. Like, obviously, it's in the water. That don't mean he's gone. Damn. Calm down. Punk Anderson's like, you're right, you right. Bobby comes up, sees that Ray got a little bit of the helicopter piece. He's like, Well, I'm gonna keep going down. JR tries to warn him, Bob, please don't. You're tired. Why don't you just rest? He's like, no, no, no, I'm fine. I'm gonna keep diving. Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Suean is up in her former bedroom, quietly, stealthily, trying to call a cab. When Pam happens to walk by the room and hears the whole thing, Pam says, Girl, I know you're not trying to leave. You leaving? Swellen's like, I have to get up out of here. I can't be here when JR comes home. Pam says, girl, why not? Ellie needs you. She's gonna be so upset. She's like, I know, I know she is, and I hope you'll talk to her for me. Do your girl a solid. But do you remember when JR got shot and I stuck around? I was by his side. I was by his side the whole time because he looked so sad. He looked devastated. He looked like a little boy to me, and I just needed to be there for him. I can't do that if Jock's gone. If Jock does not walk in that door with them, I can't risk basically saying she'll she'll be stuck there because she'll need she'll be drawn to JR and need to comfort him. I believe that. She doesn't seem to have a whole lot of animosity towards him. And at the barbecue, he's touching her face, all whatever. She's starting to remember things. Yeah, it would be too much. She would feel obligated. I respect her so much on this episode. She is trying her best to hold her own to establish these boundaries,

The River Dive And A Hard Clue

SPEAKER_00 36:50

and it just is a weird tragedy out of nowhere. But a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do. So she's gonna go ahead and slip out under the cloak of darkness, hopefully, and get home. Okay, so back in South America, Bobby dives deep into this murky, murky river, and he breaks the water with a fistful of fool's gold. Or at least I thought it was fool's gold. Not just any fool's gold, but Jock's gold medallion necklace. Jock's gold medallion necklace with the diamond eyes. The one it's a lion and it's got diamond ice in the eyes. It's Jock's chain. Lloyd, Lloyd, it's Jock's chain. Ellie back at the ranch is alone in bed for her third flashback. And it's the episode where he's the Azul King. He's got his sepia-colored oversized sunnies on, and he fell fast asleep reading the newspaper. She just covers him in his favorite chair, and she just squats down, looks at him. She's admiring him. I love this man. I love this man. I remember that episode because I remember Jock had that ish on. I named him the Azul King that episode. He looked fantastic. Put that ish on. The memory is too much. She wanders out of bed and puts a robe on, walks through the house, down the stairs, to the dining room table, where she sits symbolically at the head of the table as flashback number four for Ellie washes over her. This time she remembers like a random Tuesday where they're outside on the patio and he asks her what time it is. And she said it's about three o'clock, and he goes, I guess it's getting late. She says, Jock, I have the rest of my life to love you. Seems kind of random, but it works. He tells her I love you. She tells him I love him. She just remembers their love. I love it, actually. Now that I'm thinking about it, a lot of symbolism there. She thought about him in the hospital, his regrets. She thought about him wanting to be strong and telling her he's strong enough to make it. She thought about him just in his favorite chair, unsuspecting. She's watching him, loving him just from afar. And then I'm gonna cry if I keep talking. Oh my gosh. Toughen up, Jet. Last memory is just their love. She's gonna love him for the rest of her life. Oh. She didn't get to get too deep into the memory because before you know it, you hear the door open and you see the Ewing boys walk in. All of them look a little down. All of them have five o'clock shadows. Bobby is, of course, leading the pack. He looks damn good with a little gruff. Actually, they all do. I can admit that they all look really good with gruff. It made me realize how clean-shaven everybody is on this show. Bobby walks in and he explains that they're sorry. They're sorry. They found the site. I think Ray says, We found the site. And she just waited with bated breath. And she realizes that they didn't say anything after that. She goes, but you didn't find him. No. She wants to know everything. Tell her what happened. So Ray and Bobby sit at the dining room table with her. JR walks straight outside. He goes outside and he's looking up at the night sky, and you can tell he's fighting emotions. He's not crying, he's not yelling, but you can see several different things washing over his face. Anguish, kind of joy from some memories, a little bit of fear, a whole lot of sadness. And you realize that he is holding Jock's lion head medallion in his hand, and he looks up at the sky and just sort of smiles. And then the final frame of this episode is a really beautiful oil painting of Jim Davis in Memoriam, 1909 to 1981. End

Jim Davis Tribute And After Jock

SPEAKER_00 40:45

scene. There's a lot of flashbacks this episode, but I'm really, really glad they did it. What a way to honor him and to get to send him off. I imagine that's really complicated when an actor dies, IRL, and you need, especially with when the with a part as heavy as his, like him being the head of the family. It's in yeah. Wow. I had a moment when I was watching episode one, excuse me, season one, episode five again, where I felt like you guys, you guys who are OGs and who got to watch this and get to re-watch it. There's so much I had forgotten and that I hadn't seen. And I realized that my this impression of it, the second go around, is much different than my first one. The first time I'm just sort of watching it, allowing the story to be what it is. I didn't have strong opinions on season one by that point. But flashing back, going back to this episode, season five, episode 13, two things set out. Number one, they have danced around this really, really well. It seems like a very likely story that Jock would be on an American expedition in South America teaching people how to drill for oil in a tent. But despite that, the second thing I realize is that maybe they may have intended Jock to be sort of the center of the family, that the glue, not necessarily the glue, but the um what's the word I'm listening looking for? He keeps everyone in check. Jock runs it. Even if he's not in every single scene, Jock is the one running things. But they have done really, really well developing each and every character to the point where, although you miss Jock, his presence is definitely missed. If you're a fan of the show, like I definitely do miss seeing him on here, it still works really, really well. The dynamics there are still as important. You still believe that JR wants to please his dad, even though he's only talking to him through the phone. You still believe that Ellie is patiently waiting for him while fighting the new responsibility that I guess is gonna fall on her shoulders. You really do buy it. Like the the season didn't fall apart. And I wonder to myself if it had been JR or if it had been another character, if it had played, if it would have played out differently. But they did the best they could. And I'm curious to see going forward if you will feel the difference of with jock and then after jock. Is there going to be an after jock effect? Ooh, is that the name of this episode? I don't know. I don't know, but I enjoyed it, and I think this is the perfect spot to just end it here. Thank you so much for joining me on this episode of Soap Lore. I hope we get to pick up our spirits a little bit on the next one. Remember, you can send me a text, you can send me a voicemail, or you can send me an email at soaploorpodcast at gmail.com. That's S-O-A-P-L-O-R-E-E-O-D-A-S-T at Gmail.com. No, in the meantime, in between time, recipe the original job no meant to do it. Stay hydrated, stay more drawn, mind your own business, and do all the drawing or mounting.