Back in January, when it looked like the writers' strike was ending 30 Rock's season early, the show ended on a goofy, out-of-left-field musical number. So I guess I shouldn't be too surprised that the real season finale ended with Kenneth staring at the barrel of a gun in Beijing.

(There's no leak, but there are spoilers.)

My heart sank a little last week when Jack took the job in Washington, because I've always believed the show is at its best when Alec Baldwin and Tina Fey can play off each other. And Liz really is feeling his absence -- she thinks she's pregnant, and worse, the baby is Dennis Duffy's ("It was before he tried to throw me under the subway train," she explains to Jenna).

We saw most of Liz's situation play out: the pregnancy tests, the flashback to how she and Dennis hooked up (involving margaritas and burned-out light bulbs), the message from the doctor's office that tipped him to her condition -- "I know that message, I know that tone. Every one of my sisters got that message their junior year in high school." And it was all good stuff.

What really killed for me, though, were her voicemail messages to Jack. We'd already seen most of what she was telling him, and we'd even seen her on the phone calling him (i.e., the initial "Things are happenin'!" message). But the messages filled in some things that weren't on screen, giving greater insight into Liz's mindset and, equally important, being really funny: "I spent the last hour looking at cribs online. ... Even with all the Dennis stuff, I'm thinking about baby hair and converting my laundry-and-newspaper pile into a nursery. ... Oh, yes -- and I'm eating Sabor de Soledad, 'cause I can eat whatever I want now."

Ah, Sabor de Soledad, the off-brand cheez curls that, as it turns out, caused all those false-positive pregnancy tests. "Apparently [they] get their special tangy flavor from evaporated bull semen," Liz tells Jack, who's come back to New York to check on her. "Well," he replies, "that explains your hair's thickness and shine."

The little Jack-Liz reunion was kind of touching in its way, with Liz confessing that she's really ready to have a kid and Jack offering to help. What? "With the adoption -- oh good lord, Lemon, with the adoption."

First, though, there's the little manner of Jack getting himself fired from his Washington job -- something made more difficult by his desperately needy new boss, Cooter Burger (Matthew Broderick, essentially playing a male version of Liz). That's not his real name, mind you -- it's the double-nickname the president gave him ("Cooter because I look like a turtle, and Burger because he saw me eat a hamburger once. ... It wasn't even a hamburger. It was a sandwich").

Jack is appalled at the conditions in the waning days of the administration -- the lack of pens, the pile of resignation letters written in ketchup, the roof that officially doesn't leak ("I'll show you the study," Cooter says). Eventually, the two discover a long-buried Pentagon "gay bomb" program and get Jack's old flame C.C. (Edie Falco, who must've enjoyed her previous time on the show enough to come back for a single scene) to push it through Congress. If the whole thing, right down to Broderick playing a nebbishy guy who concocts a ludicrous scheme to get out of a bad situation, reminds you a little bit of The Producers, I'm sure the show wouldn't mind.

Also like The Producers, things don't quite go as planned. In the "three months later" tag at the end of the show, Jack and Cooter tell the Pentagon brass that the bomb wouldn't work unless it was detonated in a small, unventilated space. Cue the chemical spill and Jack telling Cooter, "Let's do this." Frankly, the end to that story was a bit of a clunker, but I'm guessing that once the smoke clears, Jack will find his way back to GE.

While Liz's not-pregnancy and Jack's adventures in D.C. took up most of the episode, the packed half-hour also found time for the completion of Tracy's video game and Kenneth's quest to be an NBC page at the Olympics. The former mostly seemed like an excuse to put Judah Friedlander in a huge fake beard and wig, but Kenneth's story had some very good stuff.

Even if the two cutaways to Pete's past as an Olympic-level archer were all we got out of Kenneth's storyline, it might still have been worth it. But the subplot also gave us the return of evil head page Donny, Jenna's explanation of "back-door bragging" ("It's hard for me to watch American Idol, because I have perfect pitch") and her massively self-indulgent video boosting Kenneth's campaign. And the Olympic-fanfare montage of Kenneth doing lots of athletic-type things to beat the deadline? Fantastic.

More tidbits from the season finale:

• I'd just like to say a few words of praise for Marceline Hugot, who plays Kathy Geiss. I'm not sure she's said more than five words in all of her appearances on 30 Rock, but her perpetually frightened expression and affinity for physical comedy crack me up just about every time she's on screen.
• Jenna and Griz recording voices for Tracy's porn video game, especially Jenna's string of "Touch my butt ... touch my knees ... touch my knee's butt ... touch my feet with your knee!"
• The subtitled Chinese conversation between Donny, Kenneth and Jenna. Donny: "You should just give up." Kenneth: "I will not fail, Chief Errand Boy Donny Lawson!" Jenna: "I was told there would be no nudity." [in English] "That's the only thing I know how to say in Chinese."
• Dennis' choice of baby names -- Morpheus ("after that guy in The Matrix") for a boy, and if it's a girl, "I used to boff this chick named Judy and I'd really like to honor her."
• Liz: "I guess I'm getting to that age where I don't care what anybody thinks of me." Jack: "You're going to want to get a very short haircut -- resist that urge."

And then there was that cliffhanger. Just what did Kenneth get himself mixed up in during the Olympics? And will he survive? Oh, the tension.

What did you think of the 30 Rock finale? Will Jack reclaim his rightful spot atop GE, will Kenneth make it back to the States in one piece, and will Liz ever stop eating Sabor de Soledad?

Comments

The episode made me laugh a lot, but still it was evident that they crammed like three episodes in one. Darn strike! Oh, well... now to endure the long wait until the fall season.

Pablo | May 9, 2008 5:53:56 AM | #

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Best comedy on TV. Period.

John F. | May 9, 2008 6:13:45 AM | #

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I hope Kenneth is okay. I don't want Kenneth missing one of his kidney.

Patrick | May 9, 2008 6:16:44 AM | #

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Some funny stuff, but it was so different from earlier and better episodes. It was a bunch of skits strung together. For a season finale to an Emmy winning show, it was sort of a let down. Definitely, the parts were funnier than the whole.

Still love the show, but I hope this is not the direction the show goes in the future, very Family Guyish.

scott | May 9, 2008 6:48:40 AM | #

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what happened to the sub titles during the last scene with kenneth? i had no idea what was being said.

friday | May 9, 2008 9:17:25 AM | #

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Since it was the season finale, I have to say that I am somewhat disappointed that the show never picked up on the "Black Crusaders" storyline from last year. Did they ever resolve what they were doing with Tracy. I've been waiting all year to see that and wonder if somehow I blinked and missed it.

sac | May 9, 2008 9:32:09 AM | #

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Not a great finale, but 100x better than the Scrubs finale. What a dud . . . way to go, NBC!

Frank | May 9, 2008 9:50:14 AM | #

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Really? I thought it was a great finale. Laughed pretty solidly the whole way through, especially at the homeland security stuff and the beautifully desperate Matthew Broderick. Jack's line to convince the Edie Falco character to help them almost made me pee myself.

I will admit that the Scrubs finale was lacking though. Too bad.

K | May 9, 2008 10:43:18 AM | #

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I thought it was a great SEASON finale :)!!!!!!

Ryan | May 9, 2008 12:49:42 PM | #

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In the final scene, she said, "I like you, I have my eye on your two healthy kidneys," and Kenneth said, "What!?"

EE | May 10, 2008 1:26:34 PM | #

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May favorite part of the last scene was seeing Kenneth with his NBC buttons pinned to his robe. Great throw-away bit.

My other favorite part was when Kenneth was getting ready to do his acrobatics to get his application in and he called the NBC peacock the "rainbow chicken"!

Blue Sean | May 12, 2008 7:43:58 AM | #

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I liked the scene where Kathy Geiss had the Hot Wheels car in her mouth...she took it out and then put it back in.

Tim | May 12, 2008 8:48:37 AM | #

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