'30 Rock' vs. la viuda negra

Most of "30 Rock" this week was a typically strong episode, with jokes coming from all angles, a solid subplot for Jenna and the return of Salma Hayek as Jack's love, Elisa. But the show also suffered from its occasional tendency of just ... ending without a really satisfying closer.

When that happens -- as it did with the Jack-Elisa story tonight -- I can't help but feel a little let down. Yeah, it's nitpicking a little bit, but it's also an ongoing problem with the show. "It was your English" just doesn't quite cut it for me as a way to end Hayek's guest arc.

However, up until that final scene -- and even during it, as Liz and her Slanket tiptoed back into her living room to grab her night cheese -- the show was as funny as it usually is, so now that I've gotten the part that bugged me out of the way, let's focus on the good stuff.

Liz, Jack and Elisa

I'm not sure why Liz kept exclaiming "Puerto Rican!" upon seeing Elisa in unexpected places, but the looks on Hayek's face sold the bit pretty well. Although Elisa has been away for two meses, Jack still wants to go through with their engagement, as he really considers her to be his true love. He's even coined a phrase for it: "The one." ("Wow -- you should be a writer," Liz deadpans.)

Elisa, however, confides in Liz that she has a terrible secret that she can't share with anyone, although Liz takes a crack: "Are you a man?" "Really?" Elisa responds. "That's your guess? Do you want to see me naked?" Speaking for just about all of us, Liz replies, "Sort of." That's not the secret, of course: We soon learn that Elisa was married before, and that when she caught her husband cheating, she killed him in a fit of rage, thus earning the name "la viuda negra" -- the black widow.

It gives Jack some pause -- what if, for instance, he's trapped in an ice cave with a "stern but comely geologist" and body heat is their only means of survival? Liz isn't any help, so he turns to Tracy for a little help -- or, you know, a night of temptation in a high-end club. But Tracy has a secret of his own -- all the partying he does is for show, and he's never cheated on his wife in 20 years. It's such a revelation, and Jack is so relieved, that has to go tell the closest thing he has to a bro, Liz, even though it's 4 a.m.

Ah, but the jealous Elisa has been following him, and now that he's ended up at Liz's, she's near the boiling point, like "Glenn Close in 'Atraccion Fatal.'" (Elisa's Spanglish was one of the night's better running bits.) But after hearing Jack's explanation, and seeing Liz try to strike a pose ("Oohh"), she realizes that there's nothing between them, she makes a lovely speech about how she sometimes loves too deeply, and it makes her "loco for Choco Puffs." And then Jack doesn't like her English, and that's that, and I said I wasn't going to pick at that anymore. So:

Jenna, Kenneth and the EMT

Wonder of wonders -- after the Pranksmen (Pete, Frank, Twofer et al) send Lutz crashing into a flat-screen monitor, Jenna meets a paramedic who's not only handsome but a huge fan of hers ("We're perfect for each other!"). Alas, a dazed Lutz eats his number while she's off dealing with an Us Weekly story about her animal-rescue shelter selling quesadilla meat to amusement parks and the 911 operator won't patch her through to the celebrity service, so she's bereft.

Pete -- oh, foolish Pete -- recognizes her situation from a psychology text and asks her a question used to identify sociopaths. Needless to say, Jenna provides the exact right answer and then sets about poisoning the strawberry-averse Kenneth in hopes that the EMT will show back up. Again, there wasn't much of an ending to this one, but the shots of Jenna hovering, waiting for Kenneth to walk into her trap, had a good, creepy-funny vibe to them. Plus, it gave us the line, "I'm just a girl standing in front of a boy she poisoned, so this other boy will go to town on her."

Other thoughts from tonight's show:

• The Tracy story -- Angie wants him to get a tattoo of her to mark the 20th anniversary of their meeting -- served mostly to facilitate the A-plot, but there were several good moments woven in, like the diamond-bedazzled "Hot Bitch" jean jacket and a good showcase for both Grizz ("There's no judgment in brainstorming") and Dotcom ("Morocco's national soccer team is the Lions, and Tangiers is in Morocco. So yeah, I guess I'm an idiot").
• Who caught Kenneth's real name as he was going into strawberry shock the first time? I rewound several times but couldn't get it -- sounded something like "Dimwibbin" to me. [Thanks, commenters: He said "Dick Whitman" -- Don Draper's real name on "Mad Men."]
• No idea why Liz was going ring shopping with Jack, but it served as a good excuse for a couple of funny lines in the opening sequence. It was capped by the Cartier salesman seeing Elisa's picture, realizing Liz wasn't the bride-to-be, and telling Jack "My apologies. Please follow me to the real showroom."
• Liz, after being caught wearing the Slanket a second time: "It's not product placement. I just like it." (Apparently the Slanket predates the Snuggie, but the Snuggie must have a bigger marketing budget.)
• I'll echo what Jenna said after she felt "the righteous lash of the Pranksmen": That's a thing?
• Finally, the portion of the "30 Rock" audience that also watches "Battlestar Galactica" surely had a collective nerdgasm at the sight of Salma Hayek in a "What the frak?" T-shirt. It wasn't just me and Ryan, right?

How'd you like "30 Rock" this week? What did you make of Elisa's exit, and where do you come down in the Slanket-Snuggie debate?