Watching Studio60

We’re taking a second look at “The Quality of Mercy at 29K,” the ninth episode of Sports Night. Following up on the review and memorable lines, here’s a recap of the episode.

We once again come in at the end of a show. There’s a joke about a gymnast who has achieved her lifelong dream at fifteen, then an announcement that the show will be covering an ascent on Mount Everest with live footage. In the control room, Jeremy is trying to come up with the best way to describe 29,000 feet. What would you have to put end to end to get that? Elliot suggests 29,000 rulers, but that’s not showing what Jeremy describes as “the spirit of the hill.”

Dan’s experiencing the spirit of the shill, as his mailbox is full of come-ons from charities all looking for his donation. Casey tries to help him narrow down the selections, but there’s a reason he’s on all those lists: He’s a soft touch. He can’t even say no to the Montgomery, Alabama, symphony orchestra. Culture shouldn’t just be for New York and Vienna! But then the heart association wants money to cure disease. Casey gives up, noting that while they’ve been discussing all this, someone probably died from a disease Dan could have cured.

At a staff meeting, Natalie reads a memo from security saying that homeless people are wandering into the building, and if there’s any trouble they should call. The discussion turns to Corey and the Everest assent, and Casey makes some comments that lead to him to reveal himself as a climber. Of course, what he climbs is the wall at his gym, where, as Natalie says, the air gets thin around the juice bar. He claims to have the spirit of the hill, but when asked to expound on it, he’s got nothin’.

Dana wants to make sure everyone knows the drill for the 2 a.m. Everest broadcast, and they do, but she tells them anyway, because, hey, we need to hear it. And also, because she’s going to be gone during the afternoon. Isaac asks her where she’s taking her niece, and she mentions The Lion King without much enthusiasm. She doesn’t have tickets yet, but figures it can’t be too hard since it’s just some kid show. Isaac has her call the box office and get laughed at, then hands her two tickets he’s guessed she’s going to need. Dana’s not a musical theater believer, a hater of hoedowns, but she says she’ll try to enjoy it for her niece.

Later that evening, there’s no food delivery because a water main broke in front of the building, and Dan and Casey are starving. Dan mentions his philanthropic dilemma to Natalie, who admits that she has most of her money tied up in food and shelter, but when she has a little extra, she gives it to AIDS charities. Dan thinks that’s fine, but what about breast cancer and diabetes and heart disease and leukemia. Natalie points out that the Everest ascent they’re covering demonstrates that there are no limits on what humans can do; the important thing is to get in the game.

Jeremy and Casey are discussing Everest, too. Jeremy mentions that 700 people have made the summit, but that one in four who tries it dies. Casey asks Jeremy if he’d ever consider the climb, and Jeremy allows that if he could get in shape he might, but he’d have to do it before he really had something to live for.

Almost on cue, Natalie comes in, and she and Jeremy are left alone when Casey steps out for a moment. They talk about how they like each other, they should just start going out, but keep their work relationship professional, no flirting, no touching. They agree, and then they kiss. They reassert the need for professionalism, and then they kiss. After which Jeremy admits that any flicker of hope that he’d ever get to Everest is over.

Dan, still looking for charitable inspiration, asks Isaac where he gives his money. Isaac says that as he goes from his expensive house to his expensive office, he has to step over dozens of homeless people in the streets. He gives them whatever’s in his pockets. Dan wonders whether they’re just spending it on booze, and Isaac hopes they are — these are people without hope of turning their lives around, they might as well get a little novocaine to see them through to the end.

Dana, the theater skeptic, bursts into Isaac’s office transformed, rhapsodizing about the way a woman singing at the start of the show summoned the animals with her voice, and the animals came. She’s been struck by the magic of the theater, and is determined to tell everyone about it. Casey is more concerned about summoning a roast beef sandwich, but when he realizes that Dana’s had an experience that was “quite something,” he listens benevolently to her description of how the power of theater left her in tears, and felt like church. She didn’t know we could do that.

As that night’s Sports Night finishes up and Casey begs on air for someone to bring them a pizza, Jeremy and Natalie keep up their flirting, and Dana keeps up her theater evangelizing, advising the importance of finding the musicals without hoedowns. Casey and Jeremy continue their conversation about Everest, with Jeremy describing a ceremony in which the sherpas request permission to climb so close to the gods. Casey’s starting to think that maybe the gods should say no, so dangerous is the ascent; but Jeremy’s bursting with the determination that humans can do anything they feel like, including, in his case, being in love with Natalie.

Back on the air at 2 a.m., Casey and Dan are talking to their correspondents near the summit when word comes in of another delay. Dan remembers he has half a turkey sandwich back in the office, but when he goes to get it, he finds something else in the office, too — a homeless man. Dan offers him the sandwich, and has a tense moment when the man takes out a knife … but it’s just to cut the sandwich in two and give a piece back to Dan. The two of them sit together in the office, watching the final Everest ascent, and marveling about what we can do.

_{Photo by Terri Mauro}

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