The hints in preceding shows of Miss Ellie having breast cancer culminate in what was originally broadcast as a two-hour special episode. Or should I say a "very special episode"? As anyone who watched television in the late 1970s/early '80s can testify, "very special episodes" were marked by characters mouthing public service announcements, and such moments are abundant here. They seemed less obvious coming from the mouth of family doctor Harlan Danvers, but awkwardly obvious when Miss Ellie comforts a fearful Lucy with an encouragement to regularly self check. But what was worse than the random PSAs was the intermittently mean and maudlin Miss Ellie
The episode opens with Miss Ellie phoning Dr. Harlan Danvers at home on his day off asking if he'd meet her at his office because she's "worried." If I tried that with my doctor I'd soon be talking to a dial tone, but then I'm not a Ewing. Easy to overlook is Miss Ellie not sharing her worry or this development with Jock, despite his asking in genuine concern. It's important to note because a lack of transparency/honesty is the very pretense Miss Ellie later uses to make Jock's life a living hell for two weeks.
I was reminded of the STAR TREK episode "The Enemy Within" in which Captain Kirk is split into two men--the meek and mild Kirk and the mean and wild Kirk. Was Miss Ellie similarly split? Because once Jock musters the courage to share with Miss Ellie the truth about his long ago marriage to Amanda she reams Jock a new one in an eruption of anger and passive-aggression unprecedented in their marriage. From that moment through the surgery and recovery she greets with a cold heart and turns a cold cheek to Jock's every attempt at bridging the chasm she created between them.
And it's not just Jock on the receiving end of evil Miss Ellie's meanness. Pam gets ripped up one side and down the other after kindly driving her mother-in-law to the hospital and serving as her confidant until it no longer suits her majesty Miss Ellie. The Ewing matriarch tells Pam she doesn't care what she thinks, to butt out, and to begone all in a span of a minute or two. (Pam serves her revenge cold, however, by wearing a bosom-revealing dress when welcoming home a post-mastectomy Miss Ellie.)
Fortunately, Miss Ellie's mastectomy--and no spoiler there to anyone who read the episode title!--doesn't crowd off the stage all the other simmering subplots. And the heat is turned up on them all in these 98 minutes. J.R.'s underhanded plot to run Cliff Barnes for Congress and out of the OLM gets underway and even gets a green light from Jock (much to Bobby's chagrin). A smitten Sue Ellen takes to eating breakfast at Mitzi's greasy spoon each morning just to get a glimpse of saddle tramp Dusty Farlow. She does and he does and their affair is set squarely and steaming on the launching pad readying for liftoff. Sue Ellen's shrink, answering questions with questions, refuses to weigh in on this latest illicit romance, wanting only for "Sue Ellen to be Sue Ellen" (and he gets paid for uttering such faux-profundities while refusing even to pour a glass of water for his high-profile client).
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Ray gets a single scene to set up a future episode by reminding the audience that he and Donna are back together but on death watch for her dying husband (an inconvenient hurdle to their burgeoning romance). J.R.'s affair with Kristin hits a bump when she puts him in a compromising position by letting him sleep all night in her bed, but worse is her inability to brew a decent cup of coffee!
But this is Miss Ellie's show, and in it she runs the gamut from tears and fears to emotional collapse to cold-heartedness to wrathful rudeness to--shockingly!--a momentary lapse where I contend she seriously considered an affair with Digger Barnes. She was wooed by Willard's wildflowers and flattering words, but as he began banging the drum of his discontent, blaming Jock for stealing his oil and his woman, she was reminded yet again that hitching her cart to Digger's wagon would have landed her in a ditch. She had an epiphany on that park bench, in a tableau evoking of all things Ruth Buzzi next to Arte Johnson, and it led to the realization and reconciliation that ended the show on a high note.
