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The burning question that preceded tonight's episode of 30 Rock was will this be as funny as The Victoria's Secret Fashion Show? I don't mind saying it was close, but in the end, I say leave the comedy to the professionals. Sorry Tina Fey.
Actually if it weren't for Gavin Volure this would be the best episode of the season, and tonight's nostalgia for those earlier guest-star free episodes of 30 Rock perhaps made it a more winning experience in the end. Keep in mind I have not been a member of the Greek chorus that knocks the show now for enjoying too many guest appearances. We're supposed to fault entertainment for trying to entertain us now? But (and there always is) the focus on the lives of the key players in tonight's episode, without having to digress for the sake of a showy star turn, which made this a focused and funny episode.
The main thread had to do with Lemon's wonder years. She gets an invite to her high school reunion in the suburbs of Philadelphia but is unenthused. As she remembers, her high school days consisted mainly of looking through a telescope and mumbling while the most popular girl in class laughed at her. Jack insists that she go and show her high school nemesis "that the ugly duckling has turned into a vaguely ethnic swan." He even offers to let her take the GE jet. ["It's got popcorn, how could she resist?" -- Angel] Jack is flying high in his own right thanks to the unexpected news that Don Geiss (Rip Torn, remember him) has awoken from a long coma. What it means to Jack is that he'll finally be offered the CEO position that he's long coveted, but his meeting with Geiss goes differently than expected. Geiss shot out of his coma with a beam of energy and is ready to reclaim authority at GE. Jack is back to where he was before the coma, telling Liz how many times she can use the word cat anus in a script.
He joins Lemon on the jet ride with the plan to drop her off and then head south to enjoy one of Miami's many sex opportunities. White Haven, PA has other ideas. They get there and then get snowed in. Jack has to stay with Liz and her high school reunion classmates. For her part, Lemon struts into the reunion room proud and successful. She confidently approaches the same popular girl who laughed at Liz. The thing is Lemon wasn't just a nerd in high school. She was a mean nerd. Lemon may remember things differently, that she was set upon and embarrassed, but her classmates share a different take. She was an acidic personality and voted Most Likely to Stay an Asshole. Lemon was a nerd bully. She battered everyone with a silver tongue and mean comebacks that belonged in an episode of Six Feet Under.
For the rest of the reunion her classmates repay the misery she inflicted on them in high school. Jack stays in the corner and drinks. He talks about mulch with some Joe the Plumber Americans and has an epiphany about happiness. It isn't guaranteed by a job as CEO for a major wig company. Is it Jack? Through a lucky turn of events he gets mistaken at the party for Larry Braverman a very popular and serendipitously absent former classmate. *Under false pretenses, Jack bonds with old friends and reignites an old high school flame while Lemon is shat upon by every single breathing thing in the room. At the end of the night, they all plot to Carrie her on stage by way of an awaiting bucket but Jack interferes and defends Lemon's character in a public way. Then the torn apart lover introduces Jack to Larry Braverman's bastard child. With that Jack announces he's a fake and he and Lemon get booed off the stage.
In the other storyline, Kenneth is very amusing on the elevator to other people. So much so it offends Tracy. When Tracy enters the elevator and observes to the other passengers “How come they ain't no Puerto Ricans on Star Trek?” no one laughs. When the elevator stops on the floor and Kenneth observes “What is this, the local?,” those same people uncontrollably laugh. Tracy drags Grizz and DotCom onto an elevator ride with the command to laugh at what he says, but even they can't help but laugh at Kenneth's quick quips. Tracy warns Jenna, the other actor around, about Kenneth's attention grabbing, but it takes an elevator ride of her own before she's equally as nervous. The pair team up to exact revenge on Kenneth by fixing him lunch and conducting page tours around 30 Rock. It reduces Kenneth to tears; those chores -- they're all he has and they're all he really wants. Kenneth weeps and apologizes for being funny on the elevator. He and Tracy cry to the satisfaction of Jenna.
The T.I. chimes remix. The End.
Want more? The full recap starts right below!Did anyone read the New Yorker review of 30 Rock in last week's magazine? I think you should have a more up to speed appreciation of comedy than comparing Alec Baldwin's performance on the show to a Sinatra/Bing Crosby number in "High Society." That's not to say that the writer didn't ultimately like the show from the review but I had to wonder exactly why she did in the end. If you find that the Tracy Jordan character is "annoying" how could you possibly like this show?
The burning question that preceded tonight's episode of 30 Rock -- will this be as funny as The Victoria's Secret Fashion Show? I don't mind saying it was close but in the end, leave the comedy to the professionals. Sorry Tina Fey.
We begin. The signature opening shot of the atlas statue with the 30 Rock building standing in the background. Inside, Lemon arrives to work to the chorus of several messages read by Kenneth:
Kenneth: Oh, Ms. Lemon. You have several messages. Ah, let's see, that company running the bike tour in South Carolina says no singles.
Liz: Ok.
Kenneth: Uh, your credit card called. They want to make sure you're the one buying crème soda in bulk.
Liz: I sure am.
Kenneth: And your landlord called and he said, "it's not your toilet, it's you."
Liz: That's his opinion.
The last message is from Gene from Liz's high school reunion committee inviting her to attend the event. Lemon wants no part but Kenneth is, as always, eager about the prospect. He flashes back to his class reunion which looks a lot like my college reunions and that doesn't sound very strange until you consider I attended an all black, all male college. Kenneth greets his old classmates: "Hey there, Michael. Oh my god Bill Baer!" and then rather coldly, "Hello Teniqua," who in exchange runs a finger down his chest. Tracy and Jenna are also big high school reunion enthusiasts but it does not do a thing to convince Lemon to attend.
Jack dangles keys in front of a photographer trying to get Kathy Geiss to look at the camera for her CEO picture to be published on the cover of the quarterly reports. She's holding an etch-a-sketch that reads "Kathy=CEO" and is standing to a toy unicorn. Even though Jack does all the work, Kathy is the recognized head of the company and it's been as such ever since Don Geiss fell into a coma at the end of last season. Kathy does something odd... wait, odder. She stares out the window and claws her hands against the glass. Something is brewing and Jack thinks he knows. Just then Don Geiss wakes from his coma and tells the nurse "get me Jack Donaghy."
Tracy joins Kenneth and a crowd of people on the elevator at the last minute. He smiles wryly and cracks "How come they ain't no Puerto Ricans on Star Trek?" No one laughs and when the elevator stops on the floor and Kenneth observes "What is this, the local?" those same people uncontrollably laugh. Tracy's not laughing. Jack at the same time bursts into Lemon's office with the news of Geiss. He's awake and soon Jack will be CEO. They're having a meeting in one hour on the Edison terrace. He braces his hand on Lemon's shoulder and thanks his lucky coin for making this possible. He also pays attention to Lemon's high school reunion invite and insists that she go, but Lemon has not so fond memories of her high school days. Specifically a memory she has of looking like a super nerd as she peered through a telescope. The most popular girl in school, Kelsey Winthrop, asks a question and when Lemon mumbles something indiscernible back all the cool kids behind her start to laugh. Jack insists that she go and show her high school nemesis "that the ugly duckling has turned into a vaguely ethnic swan." He even offers her to take the GE jet. Lemon pulls back initially but when Jack reminds her that they have popcorn on the plane she stiffens her back. "I want to go to there."
Jack and Don Geiss meet later on the Edison terrace. Geiss is sitting in a wheelchair wearing a suit. He congratulates Jack for being the first to know, officially, that he is staying on as the CEO and then Geiss stands up confidently from his wheelchair. He was shaken out of his coma by a beam of energy and it told him to continue working. Jack's still his number two man and it will probably remain that way until Geiss drops dead. Judging from his full recovery from a coma that day may never come.
Tracy sits sulking in his dressing room, in his angry chair (a chair for pre-K students). He yells at Grizz and DotCom for not being around to laugh at his joke in the elevator. "Your job is to save me from embarrassment." DotCom points out that Grizz had to see the optometrist. "Making up words won't save you! We getting in an elevator with Kenneth and you're going to laugh at my jokes!"
Jack seeks out Lemon in the hallway and tells her what happened with Geiss. He's managing to control his anger but just slightly when Lemon retorts, "Jeez, Jack, tough year. First William F. Buckley dies, now this. stop, impotence, right?" Jack wheezes out a barely there laugh and tells her that he'll be accompanying her on the jet ride. After she gets dropped off, Jack will be continuing to Miami for anesthetizing lovemaking. "Let's go have some fun," he says. CUT TO: a snowstorm as Jack and Lemon make room arrangements with a hotel clerk. She apologizes for causing him to be stuck in her hometown of White Haven, but Jack is far away in his mind still contemplating the loss of not getting the CEO job. She tries to talk up White Haven's charm to him. "I know it's not Miami, but you can blow off some steam here. We have a lovely N. C. Wyeth museum." The clerk informs her that it's been burnt down by some meth addicts. Likewise, the excellent restaurants on Cabot Street have been taken over by Vietnamese immigrants and there are no bars as White Haven is a dry country, the one remaining tradition of the area. "But uh, do you like Methodist churches full of Vietnamese?" asks the hotel clerk to Jack.
Tracy is back on the elevator with Kenneth and a crowd of people including Grizz and DotCom. "Hey elevator what's this?" and Tracy lifts his shirt and taps his belly. "A ghetto mating call." Most everyone's disgusted except for Grizz and DotCom who howl with laughter. Two men dressed almost identically step on at the floor and Kenneth remarks, "wow, I didn't get the memo." Everyone chuckles. He accidentally bumps arms with a woman standing beside him. "Gee, by a guy a drink first." People chuckle even more. "This place is bigger than my apartment," says Kenneth and everyone, even Grizz and DotCom, lose it in a fit of laughter. Tracy's not laughing.
Lemon walks into her high school reunion to the sounds of INXS. She's looking quite good and struts to the bar. It's just like Tupac -- all eyes are on her. It turns out to be more like Tupac than she could have guessed because those eyes upon her are murderous. She spots her old high school tormenter Kelsey Winthrop, who now looks like a mom that chain-smokes and is on the verge of a divorce. Lemon says hello adding, at Kelsey's amazement, "Yeah, surprising. But cocoon, then flap flap flap. Butterfly." Kelsey interrupts Liz's self-adulation admonishing her for even coming. "You made life a living hell for everyone here." There's a flashback to the same high school scenario Lemon played out in her head before. She's in front of her telescope only this time Kelsey walks up to ask her "how's the telescope?" "I don't know Kelsey, how's your mom's pill addiction?" smacks back Liz. Back to present day and Lemon doesn't understand. She was the wronged party. She was the nerd. In fact she was the bully and her nickname was "the White Haven witch." A thunderous "Lemon!" rings out off camera and another one of Liz's classmates has to be forcibly stopped from slapping Lemon in the face. The woman points to a dot on her chin. "This is a beauty mark but you thought it was funny to say that God pooped on me." Kelsey's facial tick reemerges and the two angry ladies run off in spite. At the bar sit a group of regular Joe's, bread-winning family men and more than likely Reagan Democrats. One discusses his mulch business. He works hard and doesn't answer to anyone. Jack overhears this and asks quite plainly "are you happy?" He's got a trampoline so the answer is yes. Lemon finds Jack to tell him about her newfound perspective on her high school years. Another classmate, Rob Sussman, walks up to accost her. Rob is, to the point, effeminate in his ways and asks Lemon rhetorically "still think I'm 'gayer than the volleyball scene in Top Gun?'" Lemon insists that they were friends; that her ribbing was just to make it more comfortable for Rob to come out. "Come out of what? I'd like you to meet my wife, with whom I've raised three beautiful dogs!" When Rob gets very angry, he dances, which he does just now by launching into a perfect scissor step jump onto the dance floor. Jack continues to chest thump about the brave ordinary Americans that now surround him. He is in envy; he wishes he were one of them. On cue approaches another classmates of Liz, but not for her, for Jack. Well not exactly for Jack. "Larry? Larry Braverman?" he asks Jack. It's a case of mistaken identity and Jack does not miss a beat. "Yes. I am Larry Braverman."
Liz's classmates hover around Jack, now known simply as Braverman. Apparently this Braverman fellow was Dylan/Brandon cool in high school. He even owned a Camaro but, explains Jack, it broke down from having too much sex in it. Lemon confronts him before he can go outside with the rest of the gang and do donuts in the parking lot. She's more determined than ever to make friends at her reunion and prove herself as a kind, generous woman. "Go away Lemon," says a woman passerby. "No way new friend."
Tracy goes to Jenna in her dressing room. He warns her about Kenneth's play for power but Jenna is not alarmed. "Kenneth's harmless. You know, we're the big dogs around here. Hey, let's go throw a big tantrum about the air conditioning." Tracy chokes up. "That sounds really nice."
Back at the reunion Jack (as Larry) is approached by a kind faced woman by the name of Jessica (FYI, that kind faced woman happening to be Donna from The West Wing). He never answered her letters. Jack plays along. He alludes to the most intimate details between the two with a shrug and a "you know ... the things." "Say what you said to me that night on the lake," asks Jessica and then Jack leans in and cinches another Emmy nom for Baldwin. He raises his hand to her cheek. "No."
There can be no story about a high school reunion without an awkward dance scene, but to 30 Rock's credit they don't oversell it. Lemon joins the dance floor with her old classmates rocking out to Animotion's "You're My Obsession," a song that describes perfectly my relationship to Alan Rickman. Lemon apologizes but gets cut off by Kelsey and birthmark face. They want her to scram but Lemon tries to prove she's a good time by dancing awkwardly like her classmate Diane, also on the dance floor. Lemon fails to notice that Diane only dances awkwardly because of a leg brace. "What is wrong with you?" asks Kelsey in a fit of disbelief.
Jenna steps on the crowded elevator with another woman who asks for Kenneth to hit floor four. "stop Kansas City," he retorts and the elevator crowd looses its stuff. "They should put you on the show," responds the woman between a fit of laughter. Jenna's face tightens instantly and she starts singing "Wind Beneath My Wings," spelling out every note. Kenneth then begins a sing-a-long of "99 Bottles of Beer" and all the other passengers join in the fun. Jenna doesn't think it's fun. She finds Tracy. "Kenneth is a monster." "We have to stop him!" yells back Tracy.
Jack sways to Simple Minds with the high school click that's now formed at the reunion. Jessica grabs an empty beer bottle then suggests a game of "seven minutes in heaven." Then to Jack, "you always got the bottle to land on me. Think you still got the touch?" Jack aims to prove it and so they all stand around a table and he spins it. It ... lands ...on ... Jessic- Lemon. It lands on Lemon. She just popped her head into the circle and now she and Jack have to go together into an empty closet. Once inside Jack warns Liz "just to be clear we're not making out. That would be social suicide." They always tempt the romantic connection between these two but they always artfully back away in the breath. Lemon has had enough. She damns her classmate's collective attitude toward her but Jack steps in. "You really haven't changed Lemon." He reminds her that when he told her the news about being passed over for the CEO job by Geiss she could have comforted him but instead told him it could only get worse if he went impotent. She insists she was just cutting the tension, "or were you hiding behind your sense of humor instead of engaging in a real way" comes back Jack. I think Jack is my ex-girlfriend(s). Jack is convinced that when Lemon feels attacked she lashes out, but Lemon proves him wrong by pointing out that he's 50 years old and has business cards printed out for a job he's never going to get. "Your bags were delivered to my room by accident. Look what I found. You went to a printer, didn't you? You picked out a font. You paid extra for a rush order. It was your happy little secret." Jack erupts from the closet sobbing. "Why is she so mean?" Her classmates all sink their teeth in, calling her mean and "the gay one."
Jenna, in a cheery mood, delivers Kenneth his lunch in a brown bag, just the way he likes. "But that's my job," says a confused Kenneth. Tracy walks past, talking about the history of the building to a large group of tourists. Kenneth asks him why he's giving a tour. "It doesn't feel good when someone does your job does it?" On the verge of tears, Tracy explains that jokes on the elevator are his job and now Kenneth is crying. He would never do anything to hurt Mr. Jordan. Kenneth composes himself just long enough to apologize to Jenna with a straight face and then Jenna offers perhaps the funniest moment of the episode. Cold as ice her response is "No. Keep crying. I want you to feel this so you never make this mistake again." Kenneth obliges.
All of Lemon's high school foils approach Jack. They have a plan to give Lemon an award on stage and then "Carrie" her. A woman announces that Lemon has won the award for most school spirit and when Lemon resists going on-stage she waves a $50 gift certificate to Outback Steakhouse. "I want to go to there." Music plays and Lemon walks on stage in slow motion. Jack is suddenly moved by it all but then he notices a bucket of something teetering above Lemon's head with Diane the bad dancer clutching the rope in anticipation. Jack leaps onstage to prevent it from going any further. He defends Liz. "We can not Carrie Liz Lemon." "Not okay guys!" yells Lemon noticing the bucket above her. Jack tells them that Lemon is not perfect but that neither is he. The crowd yells back its disapproval. "No, no it's true. We all have ways of coping. I use sex and awesomeness." And Lemon hides behind her insults. He says he's proud to call Lemon his friend. The crowd applauds and Lemon thanks "Larry" onstage. "You will need those cards some day." Amid the spirit of forgiveness for past sins, Jessica walks up to the stage. She thanks Larry (Jack) for coming back into their lives, hers especially. A young man steps forward from behind her. "Larry this is your son." Jack steps in front of the microphone. "I am not Larry Braverman. I repeat, I am not Larry Braverman. I am Liz Lemon's platonic friend Jack Donaghy. Lemon let's go." Everyone starts booing. They are all in a state of shock. Lemon grabs the gift certificate to Outback and once again apologizes to the crowd. They boo her and drop the bucket of oil from above, but it misses Lemon. "You know what? Suck it, you whittling IHOP monkeys." Jack tells her that their jet is waiting and she doesn't miss the opportunity. "That's right -- a jet, to New York Citaaaay! Lemon out!" It's an ending that I can only adorn with my Grandpa telling a mystical story to his young nephew and chuckling: "Lemon out. Indeed. Lemon out indeed."
PS: If "Lemon out" sounded familiar she said it at the beginning of "Secrets and Lies" to Edie Falco. Now. Jokes.
A Charter School in Unchartered Waters
Jenna: "I would have gone to my reunion but the boat I was educated on sank."
Catty Jack
Jack: "I wish I had a Princeton reunion right now. Wipe that smug smile off of Michelle Obama's face."
Apropos to nothing, can you believe that there's a Donkey Punch movie?
Jack: "The standards department is saying you can only say cat anus twice in one show but I'm going to fight for you. You can say it three times. 'Cat anus, cat anus, cat anus.'"
Visiting Grandmothers Also Ranks
Lemon: "Why are you going to Miami?"
Jack: "Why does anybody go to Miami? ASS, and the burgeoning art scene."
Lemon's Last Words
Lemon: "Boy it was something landing in this storm, huh? Listen about some of the stuff I said..."
[Flashback]
Liz: "One time I laughed at a blind guy eating spaghetti! Sometime I pee in the shower if I'm really tired! I saw my grandparents making love once and I didn't leave right away!"
Big Trouble in Little White Haven
Hotel clerk: "I wouldn't recommend going to Little Hanoi after dark unless you're wearing a 'kon-dong'."
Martini Please, Hold the Tequila
Lemon: "A Manhattan please."
Bartender: "Sure, what kind of bourbon?"
Lemon: "A white wine spritzer please."
Flirting at Farm Aid
Jack: "I'm getting drunk. Lemon would you buy my mulch?"
Let's drill down even more for this one: Gayer than Tom Cruise checking his watch in the volleyball scene in Top Gun.
Rob Sussman: ""Still think I'm 'gayer than the volleyball scene in Top Gun?'"
Once You Go Lemon...
Lemon: "Even Rob Sussman hated me. He was the first gay guy I ever kissed."
Math
Jack: "Rich 50 is middle-class 38."
You're Either With Me or Against Me
Lemon: "If these jagweeds don't want to get to know the nice new me then screw them and their rapidly yellowing teeth."
Don't Push It, Kenneth
Kenneth: "Oh lord, I didn't know. I wouldn't do anything to hurt you. You're my best friend!"
Tracy: "We're not really best friends, we're just good friends."
Silent Comedy Award
David Messenger accepts his award for traveling the farthest distance for a high school reunion dressed in traditional African garb.
No-prize Award Winner
It's Jack. The only thing that New Yorker piece last week got right about the show is that Alec Baldwin is its resident genius. He was flawless in this episode.
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