Watching Studio60

If you’re watching along in my Studio 60 Revisited Monday night marathon, tonight we’re viewing episode seven, “Nevada Day Part I,” which originally aired on November 6, 2006.

Alright, okay, tonight we’re celebrating New Year’s Eve and watching Dick Clark or what’s left of him, making like Jordan McDeere and drinking too much and wandering around asking people to be our friends. But this week, this week, sometime this week, we’re going to watch Nevada Day Part 1, in which Tom’s arrest for improbably hitting someone who attacked Harriet mushrooms into an extradition to Nevada on an old speeding ticket, then mushrooms further into a drug rap because of what was in the pockets of Simon’s jacket when he borrowed it.

This episode is special for a couple of reasons. It’s the first episode with a title that doesn’t start with “The,” for one thing. It’s also the beginning of what will be three multi-part episodes for the series — besides this Part I and II, there’s “The Harriet Dinner” Parts I and II, and “K&R” Parts I through III.

Most especially, though, the two “Nevada Day” episodes won Studio 60 its one and only Emmy, for John Goodman’s performance as a judge who can give Jack Rudolph a run for his money. For that matter, it won John Goodman his one and only Emmy, too.

Later this week, I’ll be posting a review, recap, memorable lines, and five questions about “Nevada Day Part I.” Catch up when you’ve recovered from New Year’s reveling, and read along.

Studio 60, NBC, Nevada Day Part I

Five questions that popped into my head while re-viewing the sixth Studio 60 episode, “The Wrap Party”:

1. Is it really likely that Tom’s mother and father both had never even heard of “Who’s on First?” It seems more like the sort of thing that his dad would hold up as an example of good comedy, as opposed to what Tom does. I guess it works as an example of the fact that Tom and his parents live in severely different worlds, with little common language. It’s a little unsettling to think that this probably gives the Jeters something in common with the three bimbettes Danny rounded up for Matt, though.

2. Speaking of those youngsters, is Danny trying to get Matt and Harriet back together? Because he couldn’t really have chosen worse women to distract Matt with than that trio of airheads. Surely there were pretty women at the party who would actually know who Matt is and be impressed. If he really thinks upwardly mobile groupies are what Matt needs, then Danny’s shallower than I thought; if he just wants to make Harriet look good by comparison, he’s doing a great job. Maybe he set Harry up with Darren Wells, too.

3. And speaking of Darren, do baseball players really travel with a box of baseballs? I guess it comes in handy when you’re trying to pick up women, and it would be lighter than a box of bats.

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As a follow-up to yesterday’s recap, here are some memorable lines from Studio 60’s sixth episode, “The Wrap Party.”

Cal: Suzanne! Tell your guys tarps over everything. The last time we had a wrap party in the studio, we had to shut down for two weeks while we replaced the studio.
Jordan: Cal!
Cal: Jordan.
Jordan: Great show.
Cal: Thanks.
Jordan: You were great.
Cal: Thank you again.
Jordan: I’ve had a couple of glasses of wine.
Cal: No one would ever know.
Jordan: I just bought my first show.
Cal: We heard. Congratulations.
Jordan: It’s a one-hour drama about the United Nations.
Cal: It can’t miss.
Jordan: I’m celebrating.
Cal: Well, enjoy the party.
Jordan: I’m also hiding from Jack Rudolph. I didn’t bid on a reality show he wanted, and then to add injury to …
Cal: Insult to injury …
Jordan: Insult to injury, Wilson White backed me and took Jack’s legs out from under him. So I’m hiding here tonight. This is like, for me, Superman’s Dome of Pleasure.
Cal: Fortress of Solitude?
Jordan: Yes!
Cal: Well, enjoy yourself.
Jordan: I believe I will.
Jack: Guess who’s in the hizzay!
Cal: Suzanne! Tarps over everything!

Jeannie: Hey, listen, Lily just told me they had to take 15 seconds from the news to cut Commedia. I am sorry, people laughed, and we were not prepared for that.
Harriet: I just almost kissed Matt.
Jeannie: Really?
Harriet: Yeah.
Jeannie: Where?
Harriet: On the mouth.
Jeannie: Where in the building?
Harriet: Up in his office, during the last Sting number. It was a close call. I nearly had a Matt relapse, but I’m fine. Darren’s coming to the party, and Danny’s trying to fix Matt up with cocktail waitresses, so we’re back to normal.
Jeannie: How do you feel about Darren?
Harriet: I’m crazy about him, and I’ll tell you why.
Jeannie: He’s a professional athlete and has the body of one?
Harriet: No, it’s because he’s the anti-Matt. Darren is the anti-Matt. He’s not snide, he’s not smug, he’s not superior, he goes to church, he works with his hands.
Jeannie: Well, he’s not a rancher, he’s a middle reliever for the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Harriet: I’m saying he is by and large unburdened by … what?
Jeannie: Thought?
Harriet: He thinks.
Jeannie: About what?
Harriet: I’m looking forward to discovering that tonight.
Jeannie: Sure, and in the meantime, you’ve got the muscles.

Simon: You owe me 15 seconds of fame.
Jeannie: That’s all I got on me right now.

Simon: Twenty-seven’s too old to have mommy-and-daddy issues, my brother.
Tom: They don’t know what I do for a living, my brother.
Simon: They alive?
Tom: Well, they live in Columbus, Ohio, so barely.

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We’re taking a second look at “The Wrap Party,” the sixth episode of Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, which originally aired on October 23, 2006. Following up on yesterday’s review, here’s a recap of the episode. Tune in later in the week for memorable lines and five questions.

It’s the end of the Friday-night show that started last episode, “The Long Lead Story,” and guest host Lauren Graham’s saying her goodnights. Meanwhile, Cal’s buzzing around the control room getting ready for a wrap party in the studio, in the hopes that the wrap party won’t destroy the studio. While he’s looking after a hundred different details, a tipsy Jordan follows him around, expositioning that she bought a show on the U.N., she didn’t buy a show Jack wanted, and she’s hiding from him at the party. Too bad: Jack walks in, also tipsy, also at the party. Good luck keeping the studio in one piece there, Cal.

Jordan’s hiding and Jack’s ticked, but Jeannie’s happy as can be, because people actually laughed at her Commedia dell’Arte sketch. Harriet, however, is a little rattled over her near-miss kiss with Matt at the end of last episode, up there on the balcony with Sting serenading them. No matter: She’s meeting her baseball-playing “anti Matt” at the wrap party, and he’s non-bantering and non-sarcastic and church-going, so what could possibly go wrong?

Sarcasm is going to be a curse for Tom tonight, because his parents are visiting, and his father does not appreciate the smart talk. Or anything else about Tom’s job or, maybe, self. Simon admonishes Tom to remember that his dad works for a living and don’t be an ass, but as we’ll see later, he’s got enough issues with his past that he probably shouldn’t be judging Tom. Especially since Tom’s the one who’s going to have to show the old folks around the studio, with the sure knowledge that they will not appreciate his sure knowledge.

Danny and Matt banter a bit with Lauren Graham, who was in two episodes here as a guest host and really had very little to do, though this scene is cute enough. Matt mentions his near-kiss with Harriet to Danny, who tries to distract him with some shiny baubles named Shana, Laci, and Treasure. And they sure do represent the anti-Harriet, with their goal in life to date someone more mature than a rock star and their complete lack of understanding of what Matt does on the show. They do think Darren Wells is hot, though.

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I watched “The Wrap Party” again this week, and felt enormous empathy for Tom and Matt. I can relate to the angry unease that occurs when the people you love have no understanding of, respect for, or interest in the kind of work you do. And as Matt found out, it’s not all that much better when they’re people you have no interest in, like the three bimbettes who couldn’t quite grasp what “writing” and “producing” a show might mean, but were pretty sure it was a step down from being a cast member.

Adding to the insult for Matt is the fact that there is someone who understands, and respects, and is interested in what he does, and inspires him to do it better, but he can’t quite get it together with her. Harriet, for her part, thinks she can find happiness with the “anti-Matt,” the pitcher who gave her the autographed bat with his phone number on it. Yet she’s not even particularly surprised when the bum pulls the same come-on with Jordan. Quick, get Harriet and Matt up on that balcony with Sting singing now — maybe they could finally complete that kiss.

Watching drunk and lonely Jordan and drunk and angry Jack wandering around the party made me think about the fact that in most shows, these two would have hooked up somewhere along the line, Jack’s married status notwithstanding. Isn’t that what always happens to characters who battle this much? I wonder whether there was ever a thought of this, and maybe Peet’s pregnancy necessitated the heating up of the Jordan-Danny romance? No objections from me on that. I don’t think they had any scenes together in this episode, but Jack’s ranting at Danny over his help with getting Jordan the U.N.-set show was pretty funny, including his wife gathering him at the end.

Kind of amusing to think of what Jack’s reaction would have been to the news that Matt and Simon visited a comedy club, and hired the one guy who bombed.

Come back again throughout the week for a recap of the episode, memorable lines, and five questions.

Studio 60, NBC, The Wrap Party, review

Three things I remember most about “The Christmas Show,” Studio 60’s one and only shot at a holiday episode: Danny informing an eating-for-two Jordan that he’s coming for her. Cal trying to make snow from coconuts. And New Orleans musicians performing “O Holy Night.”

The YouTube clip below was listed in a TV Squad blog entry as one of eight classic Christmas songs on TV, and any part of Studio 60 getting mentioned as the best of anything is something to celebrate, given how little its greatness was recognized. The clip has the musicians, and it has some snow. What it doesn’t have is dialog, just music where the words should be, but the facial expressions speak volumes, don’t they?

Still, if you’re as fond of that scene with Danny’s “say it” speech as I am, here are the words so you can “say it” for him:

“I’ve been married twice before, and I’m a recovering cocaine addict, and I know that’s no woman’s dream of a man or of a father. Nonetheless, I believe I’m falling in love with you. If you wanna run, I understand. But you better get a good head start, because I’m coming for you, Jordan. … You should go ahead and chew that sandwich.”

If the music moves you, you can move it onto your iPod by downloading it from the Tipitina’s Foundation site — and while you’re there, why not see about spreading some cheer and donations to the musicians the foundation helps?

Think of it as a little gift in honor of Rebecca Tripp’s first Christmas.

It’s a mixed-up, messed-up holiday week, but I’m going to forge right on ahead with my Studio 60 Revisited Monday night marathon, with a few delays here and there (cause tomorrow? we have to recall the great Christmas episode). Tonight we’re viewing episode six, “The Wrap Party,” which originally aired on October 23, 2006. It continues straight on from “The Long Lead Story,” as we follow the cast from the show to the after-party, where Jordan gets drunk, Danny tries to fix Matt up with anybody other than Harriet, and Simon has an addition to the writing staff on his mind. Meanwhile, Cal is dealing with an elderly gentleman who provides a link to the studio’s past. Eli Wallach got an Emmy nomination for the part.

In other Sorkin news, his new film Charlie Wilson’s War is getting some good reviews. A few of the accolades:

“Nichols and Sorkin turn the wonkish jargon of politics into light comedy by staying absolutely true to it. There’s so much lying going on that each time someone actually comes out with something he believes, it’s like the jabbiest of punchlines.” — Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly

“‘Charlie Wilson’s War’ is that rare Hollywood commodity these days: a smart, sophisticated entertainment for grownups.” — Todd McCarthy, Variety

“Fun is this movie’s unlikely and persuasive motto. If it’s the best politically themed movie to come around in a while, that may be because the director, Mike Nichols, and the screenwriter, Aaron Sorkin, grasp that politics, for all its seriousness, is an essentially comic undertaking. Their film is never glib or flippant, but instead shows a lightness of touch and a swiftness of attack — 96 minutes to drink some cocktails, make some deals and send the Russians packing — that stand in welcome contrast to the plodding, somber earnestness of some recent movies I will tactfully refrain from naming.” — A.O. Scott, New York Times

“What is remarkable about the collaboration of Nichols and Sorkin is that they make this labyrinthine scheme not only comprehensible but wickedly funny, as Charlie Wilson uses his own flaws and those of others to do a noble deed.” — Roger Ebert

The film made $9.62 million at the box office on its opening weekend, putting it in fourth place behind National Treasure: Book of Secrets, I Am Legend, and Alvin and the Chipmunks. Wouldn’t you just love to hear some Sorkin character rant about Alvin and the Chipmunks coming in ahead of a smart film about politics and war?

Five questions that popped into my head while re-viewing the fifth Studio 60 episode, “The Long Lead Story”:

1. Didn’t Jack hire Jordan? I think I’ve wondered about this before, but surely she didn’t interview as a subservient lackey and then turn out to be a firebrand. Her brashness would probably have been what got her the job. Shoudn’t Jack expect and tolerate it a little more, instead of looking peeved? Wilson White seems to be at least amused by her, so maybe he hired her.

2. Did Sting get paid for this, or did he pay for the product placement? I can’t think of any other musical guests throughout the season that got such … play in the episode. There was a nice pitch for his lute CD, references to him being a rock god, two performances, a cute bit of bantering with Cal, and the way the mention of his name turned a tough reporter into a giddy schoolgirl. And while we didn’t actually see much of that second performance, his rendition of “Fields of Gold” was a major element in that Matt-Harriet scene, weighting it with romance and melancholy. Compared to all that, guest host Lauren Graham was kind of chopped liver.

3. How long was the lead on that story? Martha went back to the world of politics for two weeks … and never came back again, that I can remember. I don’t recall any mention of her story coming out, either, so maybe the lead time was more than 22 episodes’ worth. She could have had some fun with Danny and Jordan had she made it back.

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According to the More4 site, “What Kind of Day Has It Been” was the episode shown on Thursday in the U.K.; it originally aired in June in the U.S. For those who want to read what was written about this episode when it was first broadcast, here are links to reviews, recaps and forum discussions on:

• Entertainment Weekly
• TV Squad
• Television Without Pity (recap)
• Television Without Pity (forum - R/O)
• Studio 60 Guide

For those of us who saw “What Kind of Day Has It Been” six months ago, it was the final episode of the series, and the end of a very long five-episode night, concluding the arc that started with “Breaking News” and encompassed the three-part “K&R.”

If the title “What Kind of Day Has It Been” sounds familiar to you, you must be a Sorkin fan — that was the title of the last episode of the first season of Sports Night and The West Wing as well, right down to the lack of question mark at the end.

In this case, it’s the kind of day in which, against the longest odds, everything turns out OK. Tom’s brother is rescued by the military, no ransom needed. Jordan recovers from her medical ordeal, and has adoption papers all ready for Danny to sign. Matt and Harriet decide that nobody but them really cares if they date, and they do care to. Jack talks himself out of forcing Simon to apologize, and realizes he was wrong to insist that Matt apologize five years ago, too. And everybody heads into the future with a sense of luck and optimism.

That’s a pretty amazing gift that Sorkin gave us right there — tying up the show’s loose ends in a gratifying way as it took its final curtain call. Personally, I’m a sucker for a happy ending, and not ashamed of it. For those who loved the show and emotionally invested in the characters, it’s as satisfying an ending as there could be, since the fact it was ending at all is always going to be unsatisfying.

But as long as there are DVDs, we can still keep watching the 22 episodes we did get, as often as we like. I’m doing one a week now — check the recap index for the more thorough write-ups I’m doing along the way, and then keep watching on Mondays with me.

Studio 60, NBC, What Kind of Day Has It Been, season finale

As a follow-up to yesterday’s recap, here are some memorable lines from Studio 60’s fifth episode, “The Long Lead Story.”

Martha: It’s a 10,000 word piece. They’re not all going to be winners.

Matt: You’ve covered presidential campaigns. You’ve covered presidents. You’ve covered wars. What are you writing about a TV show for?
Martha: What are you writing a TV show for?
Matt: I’m not. I’m watching you dust my office for prints.
Martha: I’m writing about it because what’s happened here is important. I think what’s happening here is important. I think popular culture in general and this show in particular are important. (And … Tom walks in wearing a lobster costume.)

Martha: Matt, you know, we don’t know each other very well, but …
Matt: You’ve spent every hour with me for five days in a row. At this point, you know me better than my parents.
Martha: I don’t know your parents at all.
Matt: I meant …
Martha: I know what you meant. I was doing a dangling modifier joke.
Matt: Yeah, I stopped doing that to people in high school after the fourth time I got stuffed in my locker.

Martha: Is the fear of failure on such a massive scale a helpful motivation?

Danny: I’m coming from a meeting, I’m going to work.
Jordan: A meeting with who?
Danny: I can’t tell you.
Jordan: Why not?
Danny: Because the second A stands for “Anonymous.”

Danny: I agree with everything you said, but if I’d have said it I’d have used more sophisticated adjectives.

Danny: I don’t think his show is quite right for your network.
Jordan: Why?
Danny: It’s good.
Jordan: You’re right. I can’t imagine why I’d think you don’t respect me.

Danny: I should get back to the theater. Matt should be melting down right about now.

Martha: I’ll be covering some of the House races.
Harriet: Which ones?
Martha: A couple where there are stories. A couple where there are just good jokes.

Martha: How would I be referred to in your parents’ house?
Harriet: The devil’s whore from Washington.
Martha: Yeah. I’m actually the devil’s whore from Bethesda.

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We’re taking a second look at “The Long Lead Story,” the fifth episode of Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, which originally aired on October 16, 2006. Following up on yesterday’s review, here’s a recap of the episode. Tune in later in the week for memorable lines and five questions.

Matt’s trying to write, and he’s eating it. The fact that Martha O’Dell is watching him, reporter’s pad at the ready, does not help. She knows it, too, and is perfectly willing to encourage him in procrastination by bantering. And if he wanted to spill about his relationship with Harriet (the bat she gave him is still right there on his desk, by the way), Martha’d be happy to hear about that, too. Matt bets $100 she won’t get him to discuss his love life, but I think we all know that money’s good as gone.

As Matt’s inevitably thinking of Harriet, Danny’s meeting with Jordan at … a bar, probably not the optimum place for a recovering addict to be hanging out. He’s on his way from an AA meeting to the office, and she’s waylaid him to ask a favor: Talk a playwright who’ll listen to him into selling a show to NBS. The playwright, being no dummy, thinks pay cable’s the place for something smart and literate, but Jordan’s dreaming a big dream of making her network all classy again. Danny’s not buying it, though.

Back at the theater, they’re running through a sketch in which Harriet plays Nancy Grace getting to the bottom of the story of a lost cell phone. Cal is working out the technical demands of the sketch, including filling the screen with CNN clutter and doing green-screen in an area where other sets are located. Afterwards, Harriet has technical difficulties with escaping Martha O’Dell’s scrutiny, since Martha is determined to get an interview with her.

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I watched “The Long Lead Story” again last night, and you know what was depressing about it? That horrible, toxic reality show pitch that Jordan managed to reject against high odds? That’s what we’re going to have to watch through the next however-many months it takes for the writer’s strike to settle down. In fact, we’ll probably get reality programming that makes this one sound good. (No. Not possible.)

Seeing all that backstage wrangling between Jordan as the Voice of Good Programming and Jack as the Voice of Making a Buck also made me think about what a wonderful storyline a writer’s strike would have been for this show, and the fact that it will never get a chance to tackle that is depressing, too.

Maybe Sorkin should have pitched the show as a reality battle between a Jewish liberal and a Southern baptist who thinks he’s going to burn in hell. Can they work together without their relationship getting in the way? Can they have a relationship without their warring ideologies getting in the way? Will the support of their friends help or hurt them? And will their long battle end with them kissing each other or killing each other? Staying apart while Sting performs a love song right in front of you is a pretty good challenge.

And then, of course, there could be a reporter turning up embarrassing stories about them each week. Martha O’Dell was pretty much reduced to Exposition Fairy for the Matt ‘n’ Harriet story this episode, but she did it with such amiable snarkiness that I didn’t much mind. I thought we got some nice glimpses of Harriet as a complicated human being and not just a romantic foil. The way in which her relationship with Matt is all tangled up in their individual career successes adds a nice layer to the mess. In rewatching the series, I thought I’d be more annoyed by the freqent Matt-Harriet focus, since it became such a target for derision by critics of the show, but so far I’m finding them kind of compelling.

I’m also continuing to enjoy the Danny-Jordan interplay, with the hindsight knowledge that they wind up together. The fact that they’re testy with each other, but still sort of want to impress and support each other, is a nice way of keeping their attraction as subtext. I like that Jordan’s taking the programming high road impressed Danny enough to get him to give the go-ahead to the playwright. She keeps proving to him that she is, indeed, for real.

Tom and Simon were cute, if completely worthless as interference-runners. Although many who wrote about the show the first time through were annoyed at not getting to see full sketches, I’ve always felt that the showing of pieces of sketches from a behind-the-scenes point-of-view worked fine, and I thought it did in this episode, too. I saw enough to make it feel like a show’s going on, but I want the relationship and the business plotlines to take up most of my time and dialog, not sketch comedy. And the episode delivered that nicely.

Come back again throughout the week for a recap of the episode, memorable lines, and five questions.

Studio 60, NBC, The Long Lead Story, review

If you’re watching along in my Studio 60 Revisited Monday night marathon, tonight we’re viewing episode five, “The Long Lead Story,” which originally aired on October 16, 2006. It’s the one in which live-in journalist Martha O’Dell tries to get to the bottom of the Matt-Harriet situation, as if there was a bottom to get to. The staff is, predictably, spectacularly unhelpful in keeping any secrets about the twosome.

Join me, too, in congratulating Studio 60 creator Aaron Sorkin on his Golden Globe nomination for the screenplay of Charlie Wilson’s War, which finally hits theaters this Friday. Competing with Sorkin for Best Screenplay are Christopher Hampton for Atonement, Ronald Harwood for The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, Diablo Cody for Juno, and Ethan and Joel Coen for No Country for Old Men.

Also nominated for Charlie Wilson’s War are:

+ Tom Hanks for Best Actor - Musical or Comedy (competing against Johnny Depp, Sweeney Todd; Ryan Gosling, Lars and the Real Girl; Philip Seymour Hoffman, The Savages; and John C. Reilly, Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story

+ Julia Roberts for Best Supporting Actress (competing against Cate Blanchett, I’m Not There; Saoirse Ronan, Atonement; Amy Ryan, Gone Baby Gone; and Tilda Swinton, Michael Clayton

+ Philip Seymour Hoffman for Best Supporting Actor (competing against Casey Affleck, The Assassination Of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford; Javier Bardem, No Country For Old Men; John Travolta, Hairspray; Tom Wilkinson, Michael Clayton

+ The movie itself as Best Picture - Musical or Comedy (competing against Across the Universe, Hairspray, Juno and Sweeney Todd).

You can get more information on the movie from its website.

Studio 60, NBC, Charlie Wilson’s War, Aaron Sorkin

Five questions that popped into my head while re-viewing the fourth Studio 60 episode, “The West Coast Delay”:

1. What did the writers do with “Hal’s” idea? Ricky told everybody to work on it, but what Simon read was pretty much word for word, and apparently word for word what the earlier user used. Perhaps whatever time the writers devoted would have been better spent sneaking around, trying to prove their colleague was a dirty plagiarizer.

2. Speaking of plagiarism, do shows like this do any copyright checks at all on sketches? I suppose there’s simply no time, with lines being written right up until showtime. But it seems likely there’d be some legal drone somewhere plugging key words into a search engine to make sure that, say, nobody else has ever done “Peripheral Vision Man.” OK, bad example — why would anybody do that?

3. How passive aggressive was Harriet’s gift? Bad enough it was a bat given to her by a guy she’s dating, and it has his phone number on it, but it’s also from the Dodger game at which she sang, an event that was widely believed to be involved in her breakup with Matt. Honest mistake? Not likely. For that kind of game-playing, I’m thinking she deserved to get a signed stiletto boot, possibly upside the head.

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According to the More4 site, “K&R Part 3″ was the episode shown on Thursday in the U.K.; it originally aired in June in the U.S. For those who want to read what was written about this episode when it was first broadcast, here are links to reviews, recaps and forum discussions on:

• TV Squad
• Television Without Pity (recap)
• Television Without Pity (forum - R/O)
• Studio 60 Guide

For those of us who saw “K&R Part 3″ six months ago, it was the last of three “K&R” episodes — “K&R” meaning “kidnap and rescue,” and referring to the abduction of Tom’s brother by terrorists in Afghanistan and the possibility of NBS paying ransom to get him back, abetted by the blonde lawyer who’s been hanging around flirting with Matt. But despite being the 3 of K&Rs 1 through 3, this was actually the fourth in a five-episode arc that started with “Breaking News” and ended with the series finale, “What Kind of Day Has It Been.”

And yes, I did pick up the preceding paragraph pretty much verbatim from the last two weeks’ looks back at Parts 1 and 2. This whole blob of episodes really flow into each other, both in plot and in my memory. So that story description above keeps on working pretty much through the very end of the series, and I’m going to stick with it.

The biggest development differentiating this episode from its fellow plot puzzle pieces is the aftermath of Simon’s stupendous PR implosion from Part 2, in which he was sound-byted blaming the American public for the war and allying himself with the Taliban. For that, Jack thinks he should issue an apology. Simon respectfully disagrees, and they spar throughout the night, as flashbacks to a similar stand-off four years ago between Jack and Matt inform and eventually transform Jack’s demands of Simon. Meanwhile, Tom’s about ready to give the OK to the secret plan to rescue his brother, and Danny’s got to find a way to get a critically ill Jordan to sign papers giving him custody of her baby, lest he lose both his girls.

It’s all leading up to next week’s final episode, of the season and of the series. Come back next Friday for one more of these little looks back. And check the recap index for the more thorough write-ups I’m doing now on episodes starting from the beginning, by the grace of DVDs.

Studio 60, NBC, K&R Part 3