30 Rock: Larry King

Posted by: Jeff Anseeuw  •  March 5, 2009 @ 1:00am

Filed under: Recaps & Reviews

This episode begins with Jack telling Liz that Elisa wants him to make a firm commitment to her before she will take their relationship to the next physical level. Liz gloats that she has had more sex than Jack has in 2009, and also tells him that it is normal for women to need to have those kinds of assurances in order to feel comfortable moving forward. Jack cares about Elisa but is not sure he is ready to commit to anything more at this point, so he is almost dreading Elisa's visits because he knows she will want to talk about their relationship. Meanwhile, Tracy is preparing to be a guest on Larry King Live. Liz wants him to make sure to plug TGS at least once while he is there, and just as importantly, not to make any outrageous statements which would embarrass himself, the show, or NBC.

Liz accidentally leaves her cell phone in a taxi cab, and people on her contact list start to get phone calls from the cabbie who found it. TGS producer Pete gets such a call and passes the phone to Liz, and she gets told that she needs to bring $800 to the taxi dispatch yard to get her phone back. The cab driver is holding it for ransom! She refuses but then reconsiders when the cab driver phones back and tells her that he found an "adult" picture on her phone that he will e-mail to everyone on her list if she doesn't bring him $2000. She prepares to go to the cab dispatch yard in Jersey City to get her phone back, and Kenneth volunteers to help her as a friendly gesture. Elisa comes to 30 Rock and tells Jack that she is going back to Puerto Rico for her annual Winter vacation. She also lets him know that she might be persuaded to stay if he tells her that he loves her and agrees to spend the week alone with her, clearing off his work schedule. He doesn't want her to leave, so he does just that. They are both happy and looking forward to some romantic time together.

Tracy is on Larry King Live, summing up the plot of the movie Teen Wolf for some inexplicable reason, when the news breaks that the Asian financial markets have opened to sharp losses. Larry cuts to this breaking story, but Tracy is still there, so starts to give his opinions as well. While the legitimate financial analysts preach calmness and patience, Tracy has the exact opposite advice. He tells everyone that New York will most likely be transformed overnight to the turmoil of the 1970s and that everyone should withdraw all their money, panic, and prepare for life in the "Thunderdome" as he thinks will be the new world order. At this point Tracy mentions that he has hidden money in various places, including at work. The writers of TGS, who are all huddled around a tv set watching, immediately start searching high and low for it but can't find it anywhere. Then, Peter gets the idea to phone in to the Larry King show to see if he can get Tracy to reveal where he may have hidden it. Tracy somehow mistakes him for Peter Frampton (truly difficult to understand how, for many reasons-the most blatantly obvious of which is that Peter Frampton is British). Nevertheless, apparently believing Peter is the famous musician, Tracy gives him clues to the money's location in the form of a cryptic riddle, which none of the writers understand but which causes them to begin a fresh round of frantic searching.

The Asian economic sell off intensifies which, combined with Tracy Jordan's borderline insane remarks, causes speculation that the NYSE market will open with a huge loss as well and expose GE and its executives to financial peril. Jack is called back to the office to ride out the storm, so he has to abandon his plans to spend time alone with Elisa as he had promised her. She storms off, bound for Puerto Rico, convinced that he doesn't really love her. A videotaped message from GE's absentee CEO, Don Geiss changes his mind, though. In the tape, Don says that in the event of an unavoidable financial catastrophe, time spent with family and loved ones is what the executives should value rather than stressing about things beyond their control. Jack chases after Elisa and catches her just outside the building where he proposes to her and she quickly accepts. The next day, however, she Sends Jack a tape in which she explains that she has gone back to Puerto Rico after all. She needs time to think about his proposal for herself, and she also thinks he may have done it without fully thinking it through.

Liz finally arrives at the dispatch yard and meets the cabbie who is holding her phone hostage. She has lost her wallet along the way navigating the suddenly mean streets of New York. She has also lost Kenneth along the way as she had to reveal that the true reason she needs to get her phone back is not for sentimental reasons, but rather to save her the embarrassment of a racy picture being sent to everyone on her contact list. Just as it seems she might have travelled all the way to Jersey City for nothing, Kenneth re-appears, proving that he really does think of Liz as a friend worth saving. At this point, the meaning of Tracy's confusing riddle about hiding his money in the "safest place at 30 Rock" suddenly becomes clear to Kenneth. He realizes that he is the place Tracy hid the money! He then reaches into the lining of his NBC page blazer and pulls out the $2000 Liz needs to buy her phone back.

Tags: 30 Rock, Alec Baldwin, Tina Fey, Tracy Morgan

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