30 Rock: Sandwich Day
By fred | May 2, 2008
(S02E14) Last week something big happened on 30 Rock, something with important consequences for the future of the show : the one & only Jack Donaghy got evicted out of his office. After Liz accidentally put Don Geiss in a coma, Jack’s worst enemy found its way to the top and now Jack isn’t really Jack anymore. And I have to say that when this happened, I was surprised a bit, yet pretty sure it wouldn’t last.
Simply because this is a sitcom, and the first rule is that nothing ever changes or evolves, things have to remain constant so that it’s still the same funny things weeks after weeks. There’s that, and also the very obvious fact that 30 Rock needs Jack Donaghy at NBC, you can’t have another boss for Liz and her crew that Jack, there’s just no way.
Still, Jack isn’t back at NBC, in fact while he hadn’t actually been fired, only send all the way to the 12th floor, a very odd-looking and scary floor no one wants to be seen, ever, by the end of this episode it looks like Jack might have actually left NBC and GE. Despite refuting the idea at first – “Bush!!? Has it gotten that bad ? Good God I’d rather work for an American car company than jump on that sinking ship !” – it seems that after receiving signs that he had to “leave GE” (which actually stood for the Geriatric Extended care at the time), Jack did quit and joined the Bush administration after all, and is now the new director of Homeland Security Crisis And Weather Management !
Although to be fair, he’s not it yet, it was just announced that he would soon be named as such, so there’s still a possibility that it doesn’t actually happen. But I find myself actually linking the idea that, after initiating such a thing (Geiss in a coma, Jack sent away), things don’t just get restored back to their original state in one just episode, I like it that it takes time and sinuous ways to get there, even though we all know that in the end Jack will be back at NBC, he just has to, we need him there! I don’t know how they’re gonna get out of this one, but I trust them it’ll be hilarious !
In other news, I thought this episode was really good, and actually felt a little more like what the first episodes used to be. What I mean by this is that lately, in the past episodes, we were treated with a darker side, a meaner side, especially when it comes to Liz Lemon. Not so long ago, after she made a mistake she was willing to let her entire crew take the hit or Kenneth be personally blamed for it, rather than admitting it was her.
Last week, she proudly announced to everyone that she didn’t care about them, “Suck it monkeys! I’m going corporate!” It wasn’t really the Liz Lemon we used to know so far, and this week I felt she was back to her original self, trying to deal with everything going on in her life, and happy to be using that Treadmill – even though, pure Liz Lemon style, it was to eat ice cream !
Of course, she still has a meaner side in her, and don’t even try to steal her sandwich from her or you’ll suffer the consequences : “You’re gonna get me another sandwich, or I’m gonna cut your face up so bad you’ll have a chin… you’ll all have chins!” But the way she eventually ran after Floyd at the airport, and how when given a choice she decided to choose the sandwich over the man, and only after she ate it could she pursue to try and catch him, that was more the Liz Lemon we know.
This episode had some Liz & Jack of course, it also involved the writers, Kenneth and Tracy, and Jenna was back as well so she could get drunk. The only one were missing now would be eye-candy Cerie, who – obviously – I wouldn’t mind seeing more often. Another really funny episode filled with hilarious one-liners, simply put another perfect installment of 30 Rock !
A couple more things :
- “Hilary Clinton is President, Sir! — I thought I’d just try to scare you out of it…“, Jack, to Geiss still in a coma.
- Loved the reaction of Pete and Jenna, when Liz strongly said “I am doing great!”
- Jonathan first showing some collage he did celebrating his love for Jack, “I made you this. – Uh no, no no, you didn’t!“, and then singing him a song…
- Liz, using her set & crew to appear especially sexy in that red dress, her hair in the (fake) wind… “Somebody get me out of this dress, I can’t breathe!”
- “Wake up!!!! WAKE UP!!!!!”
- “Wow, snow in May… Thank you global warming for extreme unpredictable weather patterns!”
- Floyd tried to catch his flight, but found out the airline was canceled ! Don’t worry though, they’ll still make popcorn, just no more airplanes.
- Tracy, still wearing his ankle bracelet, or as he calls it : the Hollywood sock !
- I have to say I was waiting for, and am still waiting to find out more about Tracy’s great porn video game…
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