Watching Studio60

We’re taking a second look at “K&R Part II,” the twentieth episode of Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. Following up on the review, here’s a recap of the episode. Still to come: memorable lines from the episode, and five questions about it.

We’re right back where we left off after “K&R Part I,” with Jordan in surgery, Tom’s brother in captivity, Tom holed up with an unhelpful military man, Matt and Harriet on friendlier footing, the cast and writers still hanging around the studio, and the action periodically popping into flashbacks of the days after the start of the war when Matt and Danny got into trouble with Jack over how exactly you do “funny” at a time of heightened peril and patriotism.

Since this episode moves around a lot between previously established locations, I’m just going to flag them as we go to save us all a lot of transition time. And so we start with:

Hospital: Danny’s cooling his heels in the waiting room, freaked out and alone, when the young doctor comes in. He makes a few jokes, throws around some technical mumbo-jumbo, reassures Danny that Jordan will be fine while saying things like “risk” and “seizures” that sure make it sound like she’s not, and along the way almost forgetting to mention that, oh, yeah, by the way, the baby’s been born. Danny apologizes for making comments about the doctor’s youth, but it’s more the fact that the doctor’s trying to do comedy that would worry me about his competency.

The doctor has to go back in to do medical stuff, so he passes the comedy torch to Matt and Harriet, who enter at full banter. Danny gives them the update on Jordan’s condition and the baby’s birth, as well as on his and Jordan’s engagement. Harriet’s surprised, but Matt’s mostly disappointed that Danny didn’t wait for the great marriage proposal draft he was working on. So maybe that’s why the ring was in Danny’s pocket for two weeks — another victim of Matt’s writer’s block. Danny acknowledges that “things are moving fast tonight,” although not so fast that it can be covered in fewer than five episodes.

Danny asks about Tom and Matt fills him in about the military man, and the crowds of press outside the theater. Harriet insists that Danny has enough to worry about, what with an internally bleeding fiancee and a new stepdaughter. Matt agrees (with Harriet!) and takes off to handle things at the theater, leaving Harriet to provide comfort or whatever to the new dad.

Studio 60: The news is on a big-screen TV in Matt’s office, and Tom comes back in after visiting his parents to spar some more with Captain Boyle, the military man assigned to him. Boyle can give him no information about a rescue mission, or how Tom’s being treated. But he is absolutely free to be sarcastic and irritating. Speaking of irritating, Tom’s mother and father are at the Studio being cared for by the chaplain, but are not, mercifully, anywhere we can see them.

Down in the writer’s room, Lucy’s looking worried. And annoyed, when Simon says she can’t see Tom yet. She, Andy, and Dylan are killing time surfing the web looking for information on Tom’s brother (Darius is with Tom’s parents, for no apparent reason). Dylan finds something online about conservatives hating the cold open, and against Simon’s advice he shows it to Lucy. The article hatefully makes ties between the anti-war opener and Tom’s brother’s captivity, and Lucy’s editorial comment in return is to throw the laptop against the wall.

That crash coincides, but only accidentally, with Matt’s telling the group that Danny and Jordan are engaged. And also that Jordan has had a sixteen … no, wait, a six-pound baby. And that she’s still in surgery, bleeding internally. After Lucy does her laptop damage and flees, there’s some discussion of what “the pajama people” wrote, and how much Simon would like to give it to them in next week’s show, and how Cal would like for Matt not to get “sucked into this” again, like six years ago. Matt insists he wasn’t sucked in, he walked in.

Flashback: And here he is, walking in, to the writer’s room. Matt relays Jack’s instructions — yes, they have to go on, but nothing political — and of course, the writers immediately start pitching political ideas. Matt is nixing things easily until one of the writers mentions a newspaper story about Karl Rove coming to Hollywood and meeting with producers to ask them to make movies that are more patriotic. See that bait? It’s dangling right in front of Matt and … he takes it!

A news voice-over tells us it’s one month since September 11, and that the war will now be taking “weeks” and not “days” as promised in earlier flashback news voice-overs. Danny and Matt walk and talk about how they’re doing running the show while Wes is out with a heart attack, and whether they’ll ever get a chance to do it for good. Then they discuss the Rove sketch, and whether it’s making fun of America — and thus forbidden by Jack — or making fun of Hollywood — and thus encouraged. Danny gives a tentative go-ahead, but cautions Matt that since the show is all he has, and he doesn’t see that changing, he would sure like for them not to get fired.

Hospital: Now, in the present, Danny has plenty of things besides the show, including most especially a daughter who the nurses will not let him see because he doesn’t have an ID bracelet. He tries strong-arming the nurse into getting him one, Harriet tries sweet-talking the nurse, but the nurse has issues of her own, and that bracelet is not happening. While he stews about that, Danny sends Harriet to get news on Tom.

Studio 60: Tom and the captain are still sequestered in Matt’s office, and though the military man is still not giving out information, he does tell Tom a sweet story about Mark conscientiously doing his job. Simon comes in and tries to get some information out of the guy, but he gets swatted down, too.

Matt is in the writer’s room with the assembled cast and crew, filling them in on all the events of the evening, both in Afghanistan and at the hospital, with Cal again serving as prompter. After that, Matt thinks that a good way to keep busy would be to do the “Sunday post mortem” now, which is early Saturday morning. Nothing better for a bunch of tired, worried people than to pick apart all the things they did wrong, right? The announcer kicks things off by admitting to having said “Studio City” instead of “Studio 60,” but Andy’s still thinking about Jordan, and mentions that she’s been in the O.R. way too long for what Danny’s saying is wrong. Cal continues on with technical screw-ups, but now Matt can’t concentrate and finally runs off to call Danny.

Hospital: Danny gets that call just as the doctor comes out to say, well, yeah, there’s more we’re not telling you. Specifically, they can’t get Jordan to stop bleeding. Mostly, he just scares the heck out of Danny, but at least he yells at the nurse about getting Danny a bracelet, or at least letting him stand outside the NICU. Danny calls Matt back and they discuss Jordan’s condition and the mob outside the studio. Matt wants to come back to the hospital, but Danny wants him at the studio, and they agree to keep in telephone touch.

Studio 60: Back in the writer’s room, the gang is about to move off the opening sketch when Simon asks to keep discussing it. He thought it was wrong, not because it depicted the press secretary painting a rosy picture of the war — which is, after all, what he gets paid for — but because it should have been aimed at the people who are buying that line, or more specifically, who bought it but have now jumped off the bandwagon as the cause became less popular. Andy takes the note and they’re ready to move on, but Dylan asks what Matt meant a while back when he said he “walked into it.”

Flashback: We’re at a read-through, with Harriet doing Holly Hunter and nuzzling with Luke while Matt glares daggers at them. Then he’s glaring daggers at Jerry, the same S&P guy who’ll cause Wes’s meltdown in the future. This time, he’s been sent to check over the sketches and make sure that Jack Rudolph’s will is done: That is, nothing even vaguely unpatriotic. This guy’s read ahead in the packet and found the Karl Rove sketch, and Is Not Amused. Danny and Matt defend the sketch and tell the guy they’ll kick him out just like Wes would, but Jerry responds that if they ever really do want Wes’s job, they shouldn’t do things stupidly now.

Studio 60: Matt’s staring at a picture with his and Danny’s names on it as executive producers. Then he’s talking to Mary about her contacts with people who do things. She then asks about Jordan, and the post-op complications, and of course Mary knows all about DIC, because she’s, like, a genius, has she mentioned? She’s surprised but happy to hear about Jordan and Danny’s engagement, but concerned to hear that Danny’s going to go see the baby, because if Jordan is not as fine as the doctor says she’s going to be, Danny will not have any rights to that child. That sends Matt scurrying off with his cell phone.

Hospital: Too late for a warning, though, ’cause Danny’s in front of the NICU, and there’s the baby, wheeled up for him to look at. And he says, “Hi. It’s okay now. I got your back.”

Studio 60: Tom and the military guy, round … what, four now? five? And Tom’s still asking questions, and his opponent is still only giving the most official and unsatisfying of answers. Simon and Tom’s attention is distracted by the presence on TV of someone who used to be a talent coordinator or segment producer on the show, and is now getting a few minutes of fame by claiming to have been Tom’s boss and pretending to know about Tom and his brother — saying that they were estranged, and that the show’s anti-war views had something to do with it. This upsets Tom even more than military stonewalling, and he’s all set to charge past his one-man military blockade and set the press straight on the matter. Simon steps in and says he’ll go out and do it instead, which seems like a good idea at the time.

Simon asks George, the security guard, to send one of his guys to bring a particular reporter to the loading dock. He then sticks his head into the writer’s room to summon Jeannie, who he wants with him because this particular reporter wants to sleep with her. But Jeannie’s not sure anyone should be talking to the press, ’cause she doesn’t want a rerun of six years ago.

Flashback: More news voice-overs to let us know where we’re at, this time talking about how Bin Laden is still in Afghanistan and not so easy to catch. Jerry comes to Danny and Matt with what he refers to as a fig leaf, and meant as an olive branch, though the prop department slipped him some poison ivy as a joke. He still wants the sketch cut, of course. Wes has given it the okay, and that’s good enough for Danny, but not for Jack, who wants them to talk to Wes and cut the sketch already. Jerry thinks if they want to be topical, they should use Luke’s anti-Muslim sketch — and assumes, when he hears it’s been cut, that it’s because Matt is jealous of Luke and Harriet. Which Matt is, for sure, but that’s not the reason. Danny remembers that he wants to keep his job, and so he finally makes a deal: Jerry will bring some ad reps to the dress rehearsal, and if they’re offended, he’ll pull the sketch. That satisfies the stooge, but not so much the friend.

Studio 60: At the loading dock, Simon asks the reporter to straighten out the story about Tom’s estrangement from his brother. And things are going pretty well, until a horde of other reporters comes streaming up, and start calling out to Simon. He and Jeannie are fleeing for the door when one bad question catches his ear: Is Tom’s connection with Mark being publicized to boost ratings for the show? And then Simon goes off on a rant that pretty much guarantees that the face on the news for the next several hours will no longer be Tom’s, or Mark’s, but Simon’s own. As Matt says as he watches Simon melt down on TV, “We’ve got a whole new story.”

Studio 60, NBC, K&R Part II, recap