Episode Report Card Lady Lola: A- | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Picket! Picket Good!
By Lady Lola | Season 4 | Episode 1 | Aired on 10.15.2009
Back upstairs, Lenny tells Jack that the protest has gone beyond his control. Jack insists he shut it down, but Lenny says Kenneth is incorruptible. He was even "impervious to the charms of the nympho co-ed Charlene La Rue," i.e. a Southern-accented Lenny in a worse-than-Zolciak blonde wig. Jack despairingly turns away from the still-wigged Lenny, looking at a picture and saying, "Guide me. Tell me what to do." He seems to be looking at a picture of Jesus, then he picks up the picture behind it. The one of Richard Nixon.
Kenneth's apartment. Jack knocks on the door. Kenneth opens it, and Jack invites himself in. Kenneth offers Jack something to eat, but Jack's just fine with a Halloween-decorated glass and a shot of cough syrup. He philosophizes for a while, finally acknowledging that Kenneth has the moral high ground. Jack, however, has the power. He threatens to shut down the Page program forever if Kenneth doesn't order them all back to work the next morning. Kenneth can't believe his ears. Jack only lets out a menacing laugh before exiting the hovel.
The next morning at 30 Rock, Lemon and Pete stress over how to put a show on air without actors. Pete blames Lemon for letting the cat out of the bag and tells her to start praying they end the strike soon. Lemon wonders if she really wants these people, who make her life Hell, back so soon.
Downstairs, Jack gets out of his limo to find Kenneth and his Page posse (plus some Santas, horse whisperers and bucket drummers) still protesting. Kenneth says that he reasoned that, since Jack doesn't even have enough money to pay Pages overtime, then he definitely doesn't have enough money to hire people who would demand fair wages and health insurance. Kenneth, it seems, has the upper hand. Jack caves and concedes to Kenneth's one wish, writing "I'm a big, ol' liar." on a piece of paper. Kenneth calls off the strike. The Pages and other blank union folks cheer for their demands being met. Kenneth squeals that their demands haven't actually been met. Under questioning from another page, Jack tells him to massage the truth a bit. Kenneth proves ill-suited for this task. And that, my friends, is why they pay Jack Donaghy the big bucks.
Later, Lemon and Jack watch Jenna's tennis promo including such lyrics as "Here in Real America, it's tennis night!" as well as "So kiss my ass, New York! It's tennis night!" Jacks advises, "Step into the light, Lemon. There's nothing wrong with being fun and popular and just giving people what they want." Then he looks into the camera, Lemon smiling in the background, and says, "Ladies and gentlemen, Jay Leno." Love it.