July 4 Dallas episode recap: Truth and Consequences

July 4 – The Ewing barbecue ends with a bang after Rebecca confesses to Christopher that Tommy had sent the email that broke up his relationship with Elena in order to pave the way for Rebecca to meet him and marry into the Ewing fortune. An enraged Christopher punches Tommy out and tosses Rebecca off the ranch after Bobby has Tommy booted. Things go from bad to worse when Bobby receives a new deed to Southfork naming J.R. as the owner. J.R. maintains he bought the land from Marta to keep it out of Cliff’s grubby little hands but Bobby’s not buying his excuses and declares war on his brother. Ann realizes that J.R.’s famous reputation is well deserved. Bobby and Christopher race to confront Lobell only to find that the shifty lawyer has skipped town and Marta has been revealed as a phony on the lam. Since Bobby was paid in full, the deal still stands, however fraudulently, and J.R.’s ownership will stick unless they can prove he was involved in the plot. Bobby won’t resort to underhanded means to deal with J.R., but his family thinks otherwise. A protective Ann turns to her ex-husband Harris and asks him to cancel a deal he made to transport J.R.’s oil. What price will she pay for this big favor? John Ross, meanwhile, is tired of being walked on and decides to get the goods on John Ross, bribing the doorman at his cousin’s building to let him in his apartment to snoop around. He just misses Marta, who had left John Ross a copy of the video she secretly made of her sex session with the Ewing bad boy. John Ross had confronted her about conspiring with J.R. to cheat him out of Southfork, threatening her on his way out of her apartment, but she still wants him back. Christopher finds the DVD with her note to John Ross and realizes he may have found a smoking gun that will implicate his crooked cousin. At Dallas Cowboys Stadium, J.R. tells John Ross he’s leaving him in charge of drilling at Southfork while he takes a trip. It’s time John Ross prove his mettle if he’s going to earn his place as J.R.’s heir. John Ross immediately moves back to Southfork and tells Bobby he’s moving full steam ahead with drilling on Southfork and he’s going to let Bobby stay on the ranch out of the goodness of his heart.

Rebecca meets with Ann to plead for understanding and forgiveness for letting Tommy bully her into going along with his scheme. If she hadn’t, she would never have met Christopher, she reasons. Ann thinks it’s Christopher that Rebecca needs to convince. Tommy, meanwhile, swiped some files along with the information he downloaded from Christopher’s computer. He’s not giving up his quest to get his hands on some of the Ewing millions despite being exposed. Elena’s three-way love tango with the Ewing cousins takes a few new steps. Appalled at J.R.’s swiping of Southfork, she hopes John Ross isn’t involved in the scheme but isn’t reassured when John Ross says he wasn’t. When a drunk Christopher shows up at Elena’s house after agonizing over whether to show her the DVD of John Ross and Marta, she lets him stay the night on her couch but is still angry at him for making her feel like an opportunist by giving her the $20,000 check. Despite wanting to unmask John Ross, a gallant Christopher opts not to show her the video to spare her pain. When Elena drops in on John Ross later, she decides not to resume working on his drilling project to avoid getting involved in the new Ewing war but gives him her beautiful body as they pick up their relationship. John Ross’s lucky streak runs out, however, when Christopher shows up with the DVD, in which John Ross refers to Marta by her true name, proving that he knew she was a faker. It may not invalidate Southfork’s sale, but it implicates John Ross in fraud. The tide may just be starting to turn in favor of the good guys.