Recap: 1-21 “K&R Part III”
We’re taking a second look at “K&R Part III,” the twenty-first 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 II,” with Jordan unable to stop bleeding, Tom’s brother in captivity, Tom holed up with an unhelpful military man, Simon in trouble for mouthing off to the press, 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 an allegedly unpatriotic sketch.
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:
Studio 60: It’s 2:45 a.m., and Jack Rudolph is in the house. Jack’s there to have a … well, let’s just call it a discussion with Simon about how he’s going to apologize for the things he said. Well, specifically for saying, “No wonder those guys wanna kill us. I live here, and I wanna kill us.” That’s the kind of thing that’s going to get sound-byted to death, and indeed, already is — even in the very early Saturday morning. Jack’s pretty sure that if it’s still alive by Monday, it will take over TV, and he wants an apology from Simon to circumvent that. Simon, however, is receptive neither to Jack’s suggestion that he say sorry or commit suicide. So it’s going to be a long fight on a long night.
Fortunately, Jack manages to locate some booze in Simon’s dressing room, and they’re in business. In the course of their discussion, Jack winds up betting Simon, paycheck for paycheck, that he’ll get him to apologize; Jack admits he agrees with Simon, but it doesn’t matter; Jack points out that if Simon doesn’t apologize, his career is through; and Simon accuses Jack of going back on his word back in flashback days, when Matt lost his job and Danny’s for not making a similar apology.
Flashback: Back there now, Simon is warming up the audience before the fateful performance. Backstage, Harriet is bonking Matt on the head and arguing with him to please, please, please not do the Karl Rove sketch. She mentions that he got “roughed up” recently when he supported Bill Maher. She also posits that perhaps he’s doing the sketch to get back at her. Along the way, their argument includes Matt yelling the line, “I’m Jewish, I wanted to kill Arabs before any of you,” which of course happens just as the background noise quiets down so that everybody in the audience can hear him. Bad omen, Matt. Take heed.
Hospital: Harriet’s in the waiting room with Danny, trying to cheer him up with the same Holly Hunter impression she was set to do in the flashback. She leaves to take a phone call and Danny sees the doctor … who is still saying scary, scary things and claiming “it sounds worse than it is.” Still, he has to admit that Jordan’s classification is critical. Which sounds about exactly as bad as it is. Harriet notices Danny looking stricken and comes back from her phone call. He says everything’s okay, so she mentions that Jack is trying to beat a confession out of Simon, but Danny’s not listening. She then says she’ll cheer him up with some Juliette Lewis. Hasn’t this man suffered enough?
Studio 60: Mary comes to find Matt to let him know that the rescue people have “a way of moving forward,” which is all they say. Matt goes to get Jack, who of course is still in with Simon, now going over the videotape of his rant. Jack appears to have been drinking plenty, and he’s rambling on about how the U.S. government apologized to Hawaii, so Simon should apologize, too. Simon agrees only to apologize to the people of Hawaii. Then Matt comes, and Jack leaves Simon with the words, “You’re gonna apologize.”
Tom’s military escort is taking a call in the outer office and notices Mary stopping by to get her bag. He asks Tom who’s the blonde roaming the halls, but it’s pretty likely that he knows, especially after Matt asks to talk to Tom out in the hallway. Mary and Jack are there, and Matt explains that they may have a way to buy Tom’s brother out of captivity. Tom listens, as the captain views them through the blinds. Tom says thanks, but he wants to cooperate with the military. That’s just what the captain advises when Tom comes back in the room. He tells a story about the repercussions of dealing with terrorists, then jokes a little about Simon’s outburst, which is playing again and again on TV. Boyle says Simon should apologize, but Tom says it won’t happen, because it’s history repeating itself.
Flashback: And here’s that history now. The sketch gets the go-ahead from the ad guys, but still not from Harriet, who continues begging Matt to cut it. She still thinks what he really wants to do is mock her (though it seems that what he’s mostly trying to do is kiss her) and when he finally, exasperated, says that he’s tired of being afraid to do political commentary, she says she’s going to Danny.
Hospital: Which she does, but now it’s in the present, in the waiting room. Danny’s looking at the doctor coming out of a room covered in blood and freaks out, but the doctor quickly explains it’s not Jordan’s blood, just a motorcycle accident. The good news is they stopped Jordan’s bleeding. The bad news is that she has a serious post-op infection, and could die from that. Harriet gives Danny a choice: Listen to more Holly Hunter impressions, or go to the chapel and learn how to pray. He picks the chapel, if only to avoid the Holly.
Studio 60: Jack finds Matt in the theater and asks him to talk to Simon. Jack is worried about the upfronts coming in the next week, the ad money changing hands, and the repercussions of having someone in NBS employ perceived as a terrorist sympathizer. As they argue, the discussion eventually turns to five years ago, when an apology from Matt would have solved the problem. As he did with Simon earlier, Jack shouts that he never broke his promise.
Flashback: Matt and Danny are called into Jack’s office to hear some right-wing radio ranters — the type who would write a treason jingle to brand the people they disagree with — are calling for a boycott of sponsors who advertise on Studio 60. The show is syndicated in enough markets that NBS ad reps are concerned (yeah, the same ones who said it was okay on Friday. Score one for Harriet.) Jack wants an apology, and Matt doesn’t want to give it. But rather than firing Matt if he doesn’t get one, Jack says he’ll fire Danny. Which makes things more complicated.
Studio 60: Back in the present, Boyle’s in with Tom when he gets a call. He tells Tom that the terrorists are going to claim that they’ve killed one of the hostages, but they’ll be lying, and showing a body of someone they killed earlier. Tom doesn’t want to wait for verification, though. He wants to get Mary back, and he wants to move the rescue forward. Boyle calls to him not to do it, but all Tom can think of now is getting his brother out, even if it takes paying terrorists to do it.
Hospital: In the chapel, Harriet’s finally getting to give some praying lessons, but she hits a snag with Danny right at the beginning, with the “down on your knees” thing. They have the sort of debate that Matt and Harriet are always having about religion, except less angry, and more heartfelt and melancholy, and at the end, after Danny flees the chapel, Harriet has to admit to God that Danny made some good points.
Jack’s trying to make some good points to Simon, helpfully writing an apology. Simon challenges him to apologize, too, by explaining all the things in his life that don’t go according to the patriotism script. Simon wonders whether this is the way it went with Matt and Danny, and Jack …
Flashback: … remembers how it went. Matt refuses to apologize, and thinks maybe the radio guys should apologize for suggesting that California should fall into the ocean. Jack now says he’s going to fire the both of them, and when Matt points out that only Wes can fire them, Jack gets Wes on the phone.
Studio 60: Jack tells Simon no, that’s not how it went. But before he can get into it more, Matt comes to fetch him to talk with Tom, leaving Simon to think things over. They join Tom and Mary, who’s changed into sweats and had been sleeping. Matt and Jack tell Tom not to worry about the money needed, which will be in the millions, and Tom makes sure he’s not committing to anything in getting this started. He goes to talk to his parents, and Jack goes to find a bank that’s open in the middle of the night. Mary then confronts Matt about Danny’s situation, urging him to get Danny to bring papers for Jordan to sign making him the baby’s guardian. Matt thinks it’s ghoulish, but Mary persuades him to take her seriously, because Danny could lose his fiancee and his daughter in one night.
Hospital: And as if he hears them, Danny, looking at Jordan’s baby in the ICU, finally gets down on his knees.
Studio 60, NBC, K&R Part III, recap
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