Episode Report Card Michael Neal: B+ | 1 USERS: B+ YOU GRADE IT The Uncanny Valley
By Michael Neal | Season 2 | Episode 13 | Aired on 04.24.2008
CUT TO: an operatic introduction to the return of Dr. Spaceman! Chris Parnell wearing a cape that flows dramatically in the air is running through the 30 Rock hallways with great haste. Tracy lays on the couch reciting notes to Frank who feverishly tries to keep up with him. Lemon and Jack sneak the stiff body of Don Geiss out of the strip club portion of the studio. A stripper gives Banks a come hither look from behind a Venetian mask. Banks is scared. Kenneth is holding a candle. Spaceman arrives ... to a vending machine where he purchases pretzels. And Frank tears apart his office forsaking porn for having forsaken him.
Dr. Leo diagnoses Geiss as having slipped into a diabetic coma from lack of eating. He injects a needle. A placebo. Nope, he's not faking it. The other upper management types fill the room wanting to know what's wrong with Geiss. Jack explains the situation and that he was already named successor by Don but when the room fails to believe him he has to turn to Banks to help prove it's true. "Jack ... Jack I don't know what you're talking about."
The next day Lemon shares with Jack that she may not be corporate material. Jack is not offended. He's got an important meeting with the board of directors to who he will state his case for being appointed Don's successor. But in his office awaits Banks. Banks called an emergency board meeting the night before unawares to Jack and convinced them that the only proper successor to Geiss while he's in his coma is ... wait for it. Kathy. Banks' future wife will assume to position under, of course, the guidance of Banks steady hand. The whole scene ramps up in drama as she turns around in a chair to reveal herself to the board members, including the hunting dogs. Kudos to the director Gail Mancuso for this sequence. I thought I was watching a Coen brother's movie for a second. Banks commands Jack, "get out of our office." Horrifying and more compelling than absolutely everything in Studio 60.
Jokes!
So then I look like Gene Simmons? Right now.
"You look like Gene Simmons had sex with a basset hound."
Still the smartest one in the room
Tracy: "Tracy junior left his music stick at home."
Dot Com: (to Kenneth) "His flute."
Papal wisdom
Kenneth: "Everyone knows the only thing we should be ashamed of is our bodies."