Quick Take: 30 Rock, "Gentleman's Intermission"
"I'm looking for D.I.C.K., Avery" - Jack
Review: 30 Rock, "Gentleman's Intermission"
(S0506) The relationship between Jack (Alec Baldwin) and Liz (Tina Fey -- a very judgmental name) is pretty well-defined from a viewer's perspective, but has only been briefly described by the characters themselves. Early in the game, there were vague attempts to build a quasi-romantic tension, though luckily that was squashed quickly because of extreme feelings of ick. As they point out near the end of the episode, Jack and Liz think of each other as almost siblings and they both gain something out of their mutual understanding of each other. And as with any family, when you break up the siblings, there's bound to be some separation anxiety.
Avery is the one doing the separating when she becomes concerned that Jack is too attached to Liz. Jack agrees to push Liz away and our heroes respond in different ways. Jack, feeling that he must be a mentor to someone, begins attempting to recruit a new protege. He cycles through Jonathan, Tracy, Jenna, and even Avery, but none have the same combination of ambition, intelligence, and insanity that makes Liz so mentor-able.
Liz, without her automatic advice machine, is forced to deal with her "Dilemma-of-the-Week" on her own terms. Her father, Dick Lemon (played by Buck Henry who once reminded us that you can't have a Lemon party without old Dick), shows up for a visit, but not to catch up with wittle Wizzy. He's there for one reason: ass. He's looking for a gentleman's intermission from his current marriage and goes after his goal by hitting up singles bars and wearing Edward Hardy shirts. Liz's one self-advised plan is to attempt to "hit on" her nearly blind father at the bar to make him realize that he's hitting on girls his own daughters age, but that backfires as bar patrons really think she's hitting on her own father.
Eventually, Avery realizes that she has to accept Jack and Liz's relationship and reunites them. Jack quickly solves Liz's problem by explaining that her plan to thwart her father's cheating attempts didn't work because she used rationality with a man who was thinking irrationally. Alec Baldwin is an accent master and busts out his best Staten Island tough guy voice to threaten Dick into heading back to Philadelphia.
Tracy and Jenna, meanwhile, have two very different reactions to the revelation that NBC produces obituary footage for important celebrities before they die. Tracy is concerned that his reputation will cause people to assume his whole life was fool of buffoonery and unexplained shirtless-ness. He schemes to save a heroic cat from a "murderous" Kenneth, but is interrupted by a news report which claims a recent performance he gave in a gritty indie movie is getting Oscar buzz (which is something we probably could have been told about an episode ago). Satisfied with what an Academy Award would add to his obituary headline, Tracy leaves 30 Rock when he remembers he left Tracy Jr. in Atlantic City(!!).
Jenna, on the other hand, is upset that while a death segment was made for Tracy, she wasn't deemed important enough. Luckily, when Tracy left to rescue his son from the deadly clutches of Nucky Thompson, Kenneth continued to chase the hero cat with a hammer. Jenna, having no idea what is going on, stops Kenneth by knocking him out with a fire extinguisher and thus gaining enough attention to apparently warrant a post-death video montage about her various sexual encounters with Tony Shalhoub. Which, just like thoughts of a romantic relationship between Liz and Jack, makes me have extreme feelings of ick. (No offense, Monk.)
Lingering thoughts on "Gentleman's Intermission":
