The Dallas Season 3 finale just aired on the East Coast, and in it, we found out the answer to the #WhichEwingDies hashtag.
Spoiler warning!
In what seemed like a last minute tacked on shocker, much like how this character’s birth mother Kristin died in a Dallas cliffhanger decades ago, it seems Jesse Metcalfe’s Christopher Ewing has taken the TNT slogan to a new level and gone “boom.”
The end of his adoptive mother, Pamela Ewing, also came with flames back in 1987.
The next cliffhanger involving Dallas is this: Will there be a fourth season? TNT has not officially renewed it. And cliffhanger #2: Will someone over at TNT’s Dallas realize that J.R. had another son and not a daughter? And finally, cliffhanger #3 which isn’t that much of a cliffhanger: Will Christopher’s funeral be as boring as his life had been?
Hopefully we’ll have some answers soon.
5 Comments
Craig, there’s an interview over at EW.com.
J.R. had two other children during the original series, in addition to John Ross: James Beaumont (by his old flame Vanessa Beaumont) and an unnamed son by his second wife, Callie Harper Ewing (who also attended J.R.’s funeral last season.)
And just like Bobby’s second wife April (who was also kidnapped and murdered) neither sibling of John Ross’s has been mentioned on the revival. Yet, anyhow.
“In what seemed like a last minute tacked on shocker, much like how this character’s birth mother Kristin died in a Dallas cliffhanger decades ago” – Kristin Shepherd, Sue Ellen Ewing’s sister, was NOT Christopher’s birth mother.
I kept thinking, surely, Christopher Ewing didn’t die in that explosion – but multiple interviews and articles contradict my assumption. So, if Christopher really IS gone – methinks that will spell big problems for revival Dallas.
Original – had the contrast between JR and Bobby, plus the Barnes – Ewing feud. Revival – had John Ross and Christopher, pluss the Barnes – Ewing feud. JR and Sue Ellen had only one (known) legitimate child: John Ross. Bobby, in spite of 3 marriages, had only one (known, albeit adopted) child: Christopher, whose mother was wife number one, Pamela Barnes. Reflect on John Ross’ comment to one of the cartel ‘My cousin Christopher is the golden boy.’
Altho’ I don’t consider the following character a ‘Ewing’, revival Dallas apparently does: Emma. It would have made much more sense to eliminate her – her character has basically been a parasite – and that would have opened up lots of avenues for new directions in story lines: Bobby’s guilt over kicking her out; Ann’s depression; increased conflict with Rylands, etc.
But – killing off ‘a Ewing’ – and virtually one of the originals, especially since this is Bobby’s only child – just doesn’t seem like a bright decision.
IMHO – observation – Pamela Barnes Ewing, upon learning that her daddy was indeed framed as JR’s murderer, left him in a Mexican prison – this made no sense to me. One would think that would have raised the level of the Barnes Ewing Feud. And what of all their antics in framing Cliff? There is vulnerability there that even they acknowledged ‘if they got caught’; Bobby assured John Ross and Christopher all the loose ends had been tied up. Yet, producer and writers have virtually ignored these events. After Bobby & Sue Ellen managed to buy control of Ewing Global, Pamela finally tells them they’ve done to her the same thing Jock did to Digger and J.R. did to Cliff – and the feud is taken to a new level.
And what happened to all the Ewings money??? ok, they didn’t have enough to buy the ‘arctic leases’ but they now seem to be paupers.
There aren’t enough episodes in a season to do justice to this show- or to the story lines. While I’ve enjoyed the revival, I have to candidly say there is a lack of character and plot development….revival seems to be committed to a brand of sensationalism (topping the last show/season).
TNT hasn’t been fair in all this either. They c/should have had a blockbuster hit on their hands – but they’ve opted to curtail the season so drastically it’s had a negative result on the show. Original Dallas had up to 30 shows (about 49 min. each) in a season, so they could fully explore, and explain, the back story as well as the plot. We’ve had 39** shows in THREE seasons (about 46 min. each)
Don’t get me wrong – I WANT Dallas to be renewed, to continue. But – TNT needs to put their foot down and tell producer and writers to get back on board with the basics of the established, original series.
**40 shows if you count the last 3 hour episode as two shows.
A few things I’d have to debate with you on in this comment:
– Kristin Shepard WAS Christopher’s birth mother. His father was Jeff Faraday. At first it was thought that J.R. was Christopher’s father, but Kristin miscarried the baby that J.R. fathered.
– Bobby actually did have a non-adopted child: Lucas, with Jenna Wade. Bobby got back with Pam, though, so Jenna had Lucas alone, but thankfully for her Ray Krebbs was around and they started a romance, and I believe Ray even adopted Lucas. So, Bobby does have another kid out there somewhere.
– Agree with you about not enough episodes but a bigger problem than that, to me, is the scheduling. The show starts in the start of the year on Monday nights at 9 against tons of competition. Then it goes away, and what? Comes back the middle-end of August, going into the new show launches in September. There was a ton of new TV up against it on September 22, for example. I wish they just ran it straight in the summer like they did with Season 1. Also, I don’t like this “two episodes in one night” thing. 15 episodes is already too little, but then to have those 15 spread over what, 13 weeks it felt like? Season 2’s scheduling was even worse if I remember correctly.
April was sort of mentioned in an early episode of the new Dallas, although indirectly. I forget which episode, but J.R. referred to Ann as “Wife #3” for Bobby. Ann being #3 of course references Pam as #1 and April as #2.
And you’re right with the two other children. I figure James Beaumont was known to everybody, but the baby with Cally could be a surprise for all. But maybe not enough, since now there’s a daughter in Morocco or something. Ugh.