30 Rock: Stone Mountain

Posted by: Jeff Anseeuw  •  October 30, 2009 @ 2:48pm

Filed under: Recaps & Reviews

An exhausted Liz arrives back to 30 Rock after travelling around the country looking for the new cast member Jack wants her to hire for TGS. She has just returned from San Francisco and is about to head up to Toronto to continue to look for new talent. Jack says that she should be looking for someone in "middle America" instead. A Talk with Kenneth has Jack thinking that he should go to his home town of Stone Mountain, Georgia to find someone and he drags Liz with him on the trip.

Two obscure celebrities have recently died and Kenneth tells Tracy that due to the "Rule of 3's", celebrities always die in groups of 3. Tracy becomes convinced that he is next and refuses to do anything or go anywhere to minimize risk. Jenna thinks that she has to be bitchy and demanding to bully the writers into looking after her after the new cast member is hired, but Kenneth gets her to think that being nice to them might have better results.

Jack and Liz drive to Stone Mountain and stop at a southern sandwich shop for lunch. Liz explains her world view that "all every American wants in life is to sit and enjoy a good sandwich" to explain to Jack how she thinks that people are the same anywhere in America. Jack sticks to his belief that the "simple" people in a southern small town are somehow purer and less corrupt than New Yorkers. Liz has a sandwich which may or may not contain pork products approved for human consumption and by the time they get to their hotel , it has thrown her stomach for a loop and she has to stay behind while Jack goes to the local comedy club alone. He sees a popular local ventriloquist act (Jeff Dunham) and hires him on the spot for TGS.

No more celebrity deaths have occurred, so Tracy tries to take matters into his own hands by first calling Betty white to try and scare her into having a heart attack, and then attempting to murder Jimmy fallon when he wanders by the studio asking for directions. Jenna's unexpected attempts to befriend the writers have them confused but they decide to go with it in order to get invited to her Halloween party at which there are sure to be hot girls drinking to excess in skimpy costumes. With the help of her ultra blasé gay friends, Jenna figures out what the writers want, so she makes a deal with them that they can come to the party as long as they continue to write good sketches for her.

Liz recovers from her bout of swine-chuckle flu, and goes to see the act that Jack has hired. She is determined to heckle him into not wanting to come to New York. She quickly finds that this "hick" comic can give as good as he gets, however, as he starts viciously insulting her back. He then attacks Jack when he steps in and tries to defend her. Jack is outraged when he realizes that these good, southern people can be just as rude and offensive as those anywhere in the country. He cancels the deal that he made with the ventriloquist and he attacks the dummy and tosses its head into the crowd as he and Liz sprint to their rental car and out of Stone Mountain, Georgia.

Back in New York, a downcast Kenneth reports the tragic news of the demise of Stone Mountains' most beloved puppet to the Halloween partiers. Tracy immediately tears off his shirt and joins the party full force, secure in the knowledge that the "rule of 3's" has now been satisfied.

Tags: Tina Fey, Alec baldwin, 30 Rock, Tracy Morgan, Jimmy Fallon, Betty White, Jeff Dunham, Georgia

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