The episode ended with the mysterious shooting of J.R. Ewing (Larry Hagman) in his office by an assailant whose identity was not revealed until the following season.
In the episode, nationalization of the Asian fields causes financial ruin that affects the cartel members and J.R. Ewing's banker.
J.R. attempts to run both Kristin Shepard (Mary Crosby) and Alan Beam (Randolph Powell) out of town as they both plot revenge against him.
J.R. Ewing is a fictional character that William K. Stevens of The New York Times described as "the nastiest man on television, the Iago of Texas oilmen, the smiling snake of a star of Friday night TV's Dallas, a man so venal, so low, so mean, so diabolical that he has become an absolute delight to an estimated quarter of a billion viewers around the globe.
"[1] His New York Times colleague John J. O'Connor described him as "the eldest son of the oil-rich Ewing family... [who is] a sadistic bully and a swindler" that "captured the public's imagination".
[5] Vaughn Leland (Dennis Patrick) is J.R.'s banker and business partner in the now-worthless Asian oil leases.
He is the classic sibling rival, who is fed up with J.R.'s handling of family business and slights to Bobby's wife, Pamela Barnes Ewing (Victoria Principal), who happens to be Cliff's sister.
Similarly, Lucy Ewing (Charlene Tilton) had an alibi provided by liaisons with a married college professor.
Cartel member, Jordan Lee hounds the Ewings about their underhandedness and makes sure they know Seth Stone committed suicide as a result of the dealings.
Soon thereafter, Sue Ellen nurses a hangover while watching the local news to see reports that Ewing Oil sold off most of its holdings just before the nationalization.
The report ends with the story of the widowed Marilee Stone, whose husband Seth had bought shares from Ewing Oil.
The Ewings question whether J.R. took advantage of inside information, but J.R. assures his father and brother that such unethical behavior was beneath him.
Shepard has been tape recording secrets of the cartel members from between the sheets and learned how J.R. got them all to buy his oil wells.
Bobby talks with Miss Ellie about Pam, who has flown to Corpus Christi to find her mother, Rebecca.
Sue Ellen apologizes for her drunken behavior the prior night and laments that it gave J.R. fodder for his plans to re-institutionalize her.
Bobby expresses his concern to his wife about her obsession that has caused her to quit her fashion buyer job to search for her mother.
Executive producer Philip Capice says they decided to attempt to work in a ploy to hold interest over the summer.
Capice denied rumors that the shooting was a ploy to make it easy to write Hagman out of the script if his contract negotiations became too difficult.
[10] Although it was not the first TV series to employ season-ending cliffhangers, "A House Divided" popularized the dramatic device and sparked the beginning of an eight-month international media frenzy "Who shot J.R.?".
[11] International oddsmakers created a set of odds for the possible suspects: "Dusty Farlow (J.R.'s wife Sue Ellen's lover, who disappeared after a plane crash) is the 6 to 4 favorite, followed by Vaughn Leland (a banker J.R. swindled) and Kristin Shepard (J.R.'s mistress) at 4 to 1.
[10] The episode earned Fred W. Berger an American Cinema Editors Eddie Award for Best Edited Episode from a Television Series and earned Irving J. Moore a Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directing – Comedy Series nomination.
[21] Schwartz described the episode as "the most promotable television suspense since David Janssen was vindicated after a four-year run on The Fugitive in the mid-1960s".
[15] In 2011, Ken Tucker of Entertainment Weekly named the episode number one of the seven most "Unforgettable Cliff-Hangers" of prime time dramatic television.