Recap: 1-12 “Monday”
We’re taking a second look at “Monday,” the twelfth episode of Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, which originally aired on January 22, 2007. Following up on yesterday’s review, here’s a recap of the episode. Tune in later this week for memorable lines and questions.
The title card tells us it’s Monday, and there’s a phone ringing in the dark. We see from the screen on the cell phone that it’s Danny Tripp, even before we see who he’s calling: Jordan. He’s wondering why she’s not at the wrap party, which must mean this is Friday, and the title card referred to the name of the episode, not the day of the week. Disorienting, a bit.
But there’s the wrap party going on, presumably the one after the Christmas show, after Danny declared his love while Jordan enjoyed a sandwich. And now, she’s going away, to her family’s for Christmas and to St. Lucia for a well-deserved break. Their faces both reflect that they’re no longer in the land of “say it, say it, say it,” but are indeed leaving much unsaid.
And unheard, apparently, ’cause here’s Danny calling her again about getting together on Christmas Eve, forgetting she’s at her parents. If she could see the look on his face when he hears she’s gone for another week, she’d know the guy’s sincere. But she’s busy scarfing peanuts, and traveling, and by the time he calls her again, she’s in the islands, getting a manicure and pedicure by the pool. He’s hanging out in the studio with Matt, pathetically, but he’s been sharp enough to change his number so that she can’t screen his calls.
She doesn’t like him in the theater alone over the holidays, but she doesn’t think it’s a good idea for them to go out, either. So next time, with Caller ID wise to his new number, she doesn’t answer, though the look she gives that phone with his name on it says more about her feelings than anything. He’s left talking to her answering machine, and she’s listening, and looking at a crumpled photo of the two of them, the same photo we see Danny staring at later, as Cal calls everybody back to the stage. “At least I’m back in television,” Danny says.
Jordan’s back in television, too, though she probably wishes she wasn’t when she meets the new head of illiterate, no wait, alternative programming, a smug little shark named Hallie. You gotta worry when right away, somebody says, “Can we be upfront with each other?” Not to mention, announces after a couple of minutes that you obviously don’t like them. It took the reporter longer than that, and Jordan was being really flippant with him. Jordan’s so caught up with telling her assistant what to bring her for breakfast — and maybe, so unsuspecting that a young woman, and a woman who digs reality programming, would be looking to stick a knife in her back — that she doesn’t realize how dangerous Hallie is until they’re well into their discussion, and well on the wrong foot.
And as if to explain the workplace violence we just saw, we cut to the writer’s room, where Matt’s asking if anyone’s heard of a book called The 48 Laws of Power. Only Darius has. Matt starts reading the laws out loud, and is pretty sure that within this book on how to be the leader of a crime organization, or maybe the leader of illiterate alternative programming, is the raw material for a sketch, or 48 sketches. Simon thinks he’s got the raw material for a sketch in an idea about a militant Fruit of the Loom guy, and wants Darius to help him out with it. Darius isn’t so into it, and passes it off to Lucy. Somehow, I don’t think Simon’s going to value her contribution on this one.
Suzanne comes in to get Matt to sign some scripts to contribute to a Women United Through Faith auction, and he’s about as enthusiastic about doing that as you’d expect. Those Women are going to get scripts signed by everybody but him … but when he hears that Harriet is auctioning off a date with herself to a dinner in her honor on Thursday, he’s plenty interested. Interested enough, anyway, to make a fool of himself bidding up an anonymous rival he’s sure is Luke.
Just as we saw Jordan get knifed earlier in the episode, Jack is now getting beaten up pretty good by the parent company’s board of directors over the FCC fine. The leader of the pack is a jackass named Ted who thinks that time-delaying the news is no big whoop, especially with the Macau deal on the line. Jack, who’s there at Wilson White’s behest, begs to differ, and winds up calling Ted a moron, an appellation he richly deserves. Wilson, wondrously, seconds that opinion, but Ted strikes back with a quick vote of confidence showing that more people around the table agree with him than Wilson, leaving our fearless leader on the verge of being fired. He requests a recess and sequesters himself with Jack, to admit that he doesn’t have a plan. Jack, though, sees something in the paper that might help: The Juillard Symphony Orchestra’s in town. And with it, no doubt, a certain Tom Jeter-obsessed violist and her Macau bigwig papa. If they can get him to say “no deal!” if NBS pays the fine, they may have a chance. A plan, it is starting to form.
Back at Studio 60, Lucy’s reporting to work with Simon on the Fruit of the Loom sketch, but he’s not all flirty like he was in the last episode. He’s clearly silently miffed that Darius dumped it. Tom and Harriet, meanwhile, are going to Matt’s office to show off a voice that Harriet’s developed — “Dolphin Girl.” The three of them play around with it and decide there’s a sketch there. And Matt’s still, crazily, in the bidding for that auctioned-off date with Dolphin Girl — and, since that auction money goes to fund teen abstinence education, he has Suzanne find an organization that promotes sex so he can give money to cancel it out. On a much simpler relationship level, Tom gets Matt’s permission to do some intramural dating and ask Lucy out. No bidding required.
I wish someone would ask this Hallie creature out — out the door, out of the building, out of this world. But no, here she is again to have her weaselly way with poor Jordan. Jack calls in, and due to the type of phone malfunction so necessary for the furtherance of certain plotlines, can only be heard on speakerphone. Jordan has to break it to him that a show they’d planned for sweeps, Dracula, has shut down production, leaving them with a hole. When he hears that Hallie’s in the room, on that speakerphone, he suggests using Hallie’s show, and that’s how Jordan learns that the weasel had presented a (loathed) idea to Jack before presenting it to her. Jordan’s ticked, but Hallie’s way ahead of her, bringing the woman-on-woman violence out in the open with, “Uh-oh, there’s another pretty girl at the dance, and she’s not pregnant.” She’s a moron, though.
Going over the bizarre conversation later with Harriet, Jordan realizes that maybe calling someone’s work illiterate and announcing that you expect bad pitches might cause someone to become antagonistic, so she determines to apologize to Hallie. Man, those pregnancy hormones are messing her up.
What’s going to mess her up more is Danny’s latest plan to get her attention, inspired by Matt’s request for a letter of recommendation for his nephew: He’ll send Jordan letters of recommendation! From famous people! From his doctor and dentist! From the interns, whatever their names are! Clearly, he’s been learning a lot about romance from Matt.
Lucy and Simon are working on the sketch, but it’s not working for Simon, who excuses himself to go yell at Darius, who’s enjoying Dylan’s pitch for a sketch about a “Husky Gymnast” along with Andy, who thinks it could be a recurring character. Simon pulls Darius out of the room and tells him that when he gives him a sketch idea, he’s giving him a sketch idea, and why is he so high and mighty now refusing to work with him. There’s a nasty little confrontation, and Simon storms away, but their confrontation is far from over.
However, Simon’s absence from his meeting with Lucy gives Tom time to sidle over and have a lovely little exchange of adorableness. It ends with him asking her out — not bidding on her, not faxing her, not kissing her when she’s seeing some other guy, but plain old, “Would you like to go on a date with me?” Clearly, he hasn’t been learning a lot about romance from Matt, and a good thing. Lucy says yes, so he must be doing something right.
Having a little more trouble communicating is Jack, who is spending the Juillard Symphony performance time in the courtyard and lobby with a Chinese phrase book, studying up on what to say to Kim’s dad. When Zhang Tao comes out of the concert — with a woman who, happily, speaks English — Jack explains the situation with the FCC to him. Zhang was in the army, so can appreciate that an obscenity is pretty much what you say when a grenade explodes above your head. But he doesn’t seem too sure when Jack asks him, man-to-man, to break off the deal.
Jordan tries to have a conversation with Hallie, woman-to-woman, while the latter is working out at the gym. And while they have a pleasant enough conversation, and Jordan is a grown-up and apologizes and gives Hallie’s show a go-ahead, it’s hard not to notice that Jordan is smiling in a sincere and disarming way, and Hallie is smiling like a shark. Can’t we throw that treadmill into reverse or something so she goes sailing through a window?
Back to Jack, the reformed shark, pleading his case. Zhang Tao is reluctant to go back on a deal when he’s given his word. Before they can come to an agreement, Kim comes out and a whole new minidrama arises. She has decided to abandon the viola for improvisational comedy, and her father is, shall we say, not wild about that idea. Jack hits on a plan: He will have Tom take Kim to the dinner in Harriet’s honor so that Tom can talk her out of her crazy plan. And in return, Zhang will go along with Jack’s crazy plan.
Harriet’s got a crazy idea that Matt’s going to want to go to the Catholics in Media dinner honoring her, but he says he’s got too much work. They banter a bit about abstinence and her dating Luke and the way Matt kissed her at the Christmas show and then did absolutely nothing about it. She leaves, and Matt scurries to find out from Suzanne where the bidding’s at. That pro-sex group is going to be getting a lot more money.
Matt’s office is a busy place. Matt sees Simon go by and asks if there’s a problem between him and Darius, but Simon says he’s about to go fix that right now. Then Lucy stops in to ask for Thursday night off to go out with Tom — who comes in shortly afterward to do exactly the same thing. “Thursday night” is repeated a lot, so that when Suzanne comes in with a message for Tom that Jack Rudolph wants to talk to him — about, as we know and Tom doesn’t, taking Kim to the Harriet dinner and dissuading her from a life of comedy — we’ll appreciate that disaster is soon to take place.
Speaking of disasters in the making, Jordan’s come to Studio 60 looking none too happy. Matt asks if she got his letter of recommendation, and she did, along with those of many other famous people. As they’re walking toward Danny’s office, Matt asks her if she’s heard of that book, The 48 Laws of Power, and reads her some of them: one of which is exactly, word for word, something Hallie said in their second conversation. And indeed, most of the rules we heard apply pretty well to the way Ms. Land Shark has been dealing with her boss. So now Jordan knows, there’s not going to be any making nice. The girl really is on a power play. As if Jordan didn’t have enough to worry about.
Like Danny. In a really sad little scene, Jordan explains, quite sincerely, that his letters of recommendation have embarrassed her and made her look silly at the worst possible time. She points out that the both of them are sort of a mess, plus she’s his boss. She reminds him that he asked her out three times, and three times she said no. He apologizes for embarrassing her, but when she asks him to please stop, he gives the answer she’s been giving: “No.” And walks away, leaving her standing alone on the stage, defeated again.
Leave a Reply