Thursday, December 13, 2007

"Episode 209" - Season 2

It's Christmas time at TGS and everybody is celebrating. Liz is happy that her parents along with her brother are taking a trip to New York to see her. Jack is relieved that his mother can't make the trip to see him. But, his happiness is short-lived when she shows up.
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Tracy missed his court date because he had to stop for breakfast. For punishment, the judge gave him an ankle monitor to wear for 30 days. That meant no alcohol for Tracy at the TGS holiday party, "Ludachristmas". Liz bans Tracy from "Ludachristmas" to keep him from slipping.

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Liz gets super-excited to see her family at work. Her brother, Mitch suffered a ski accident in 1985 and now has a disorder where he can't remember anything after the accident. Jenna reminded the staff that even though Mitch is stuck in 1985 he has matured very much sexually, a fact Liz would like Jenna to stop talking about.

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Jack is surprised with how normal and close Liz's family is. Later on, Jack tries to get into his own holiday spirit by inviting his highly judgmental mother to stay with him for Christmas.

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Liz's parents invite Jack to go ice-skating with them and he's excited to get away from his own negative mother. Liz is trying to get Jack to admit he wished he was a 'Lemon'. Jack's mother shows up and gets an invitation to the Lemon family dinner and she accepts.

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Kenneth is getting more and more offended with how the staff is treating the meaning of Christmas. He brings in a reverend in hopes that the staff will learn the real meaning of Christmas. Tracy goes crazy and later admits he was drinking before the party.

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Jack's mother wants to make a point that the Lemons are just as screwed up as any other family. At the family dinner, chaos breaks loose when Liz lets it slip that that Mitch is really 40! The Lemons begin loudly fighting and Jack's mom feels satisfied in proving her point to Jack.

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The TGS staff holds their party with Jenna serenading the crowd with Christmas carols. Meanwhile, Jack feels closer to his mother and the two bond over watching the Lemons continuing their fighting at the dinner table.

Thursday, December 6, 2007

"Secrets & Lies" - Season 2

In the office Jack reassures C.C. that no one will catch them in the act since it's too early for "creative types" and he sent his assistant to a non-existent Italian bakery in the Bronx. But Liz walks in just as they are getting hot and heavy, so Jack quickly introduces C.C. as a "business associate" named Leticia... Gutierrez... Arafat. Shocked, Liz does her best to beat a quick retreat.
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Frank and Toofer's simmering feud blows up when Frank starts dressing "Harvard" and professes to have graduated from Toofer's alma mater. Liz finds Jack in her office, who comes clean to her about his romantic involvement with C.C. Liz is shocked that Jack would date a liberal congresswoman who is suing the corporation, but Jack insists that it's serious and invites her to dinner to meet C.C. for real.

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After Jenna supposedly wins an award for "Best Actress in a Movie Based on a Musical Based on a Movie", Tracy freaks out because he never won an award and walks off the set. In order to get him working again, Liz tells him that he won an award for the Pacific Rim Emmys! After an ecstatic Tracy leaves, Liz runs into Jenna who ribs her about everything Liz does to appease Tracy.

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Frank deliberately infuriates Toofer by dressing more and more like a "Harvard man", and wearing Toofer's exclusive Harvard signet pin on his crotch. Meanwhile, Tracy asks Liz when the Pacific Rim Emmy Awards are so he can fly there to accept in person. Liz tells him that it's happening that night, and that it won't air until 4 a.m. Tracy insists on accepting it by live telecast, and Liz promises she'll set it up.

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Liz goes to Jack's for the exclusive dinner, only to find that besides Jack and C.C. the only other guest is Kenneth the page. Jack apologizes, but explains that after thinking about it, he still didn't want anyone to find out, so he could only invite someone with "no influence, or connections, or stature" which pretty much left only Liz. He invited Kenneth so she could have someone to talk to.

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Liz goes through with the staged "award ceremony" for Tracy. Tracy snubs Jenna by not thanking her in his acceptance speech, after which he "sharks" Jenna - pulling down her top on what he thinks is broadcast television. Jenna freaks out - because of the snubbing not the sharking - and tells Liz she's sick of it, and that if Tracy can get away with acting like a child, so can she.

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C.C. approaches Liz, saying she wants to go public with her love for Jack and is sick of sneaking around to get together with him. Liz insists that she's not the person to ask for advice, but that Jack is crazy about C.C.

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Toofer turns the table on Frank, dressing up in Frank's slob chic. They trade mutual insults but neither of them back down and take off the costumes. Meanwhile, C.C. approaches Jack in his office, saying that she settled the lawsuit between the litigants and Jack's corporation so that they can go public with their love. Jack accuses her of doing that just so she can get exposure for her career. C. C. says she should never have taken advice "from a woman who tapes her bra together", which makes Jack think that Liz put the idea in C.C.'s head.

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Jenna refuses to work, holing up in her dressing room with her newly assembled gay entourage. As Liz leaves Jenna, Jack berates her for putting the idea of going public in C.C.'s head. In his office, Jack consults with James Carville about being in a relationship with someone in the enemy political camp. Carville tells him he just needs to get ahead of the news "Cajun-style".

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Having been dismissed as silly by Liz, Toofer and Frank freak out because they suddenly realize that they don't even really care about their feud - not to mention not wanting to dress like each other anymore - but that if they back down they'll look like fools to the rest of the writing staff. James Carville overhears them in the hall and gives them advice, telling them to do like Karl Rove and change the dialogue, Swift Boat-style. He recommends going after Josh's haircut to take the heat off them.

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Liz decides enough is enough and tells Jenna that she's as much work as Tracy, and that she is constantly doing things like pretending to be Jenna's entire fan base and doing things like making fake awards, which she demonstrates by biting a chunk out of Jenna's current award to prove that it's just a cookie. Mollified, Jenna agrees to stop her semi-strike and get back to work. And just as the writers are about to turn on Toofer and Frank for abandoning their "fake feud", they point out Josh's new "frohawk" and suddenly all attention is off of them.

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Jack asks C.C. to join him in the executive dining room for lunch, so that he can profess his love for his "liberal hippy dippy mama" to all of his fellow GE execs. His confession spurs a spate of confessions from the conservative execs in the room, including supporting NPR, having children in public schools, and being black. In the spirit of camaraderie, C.C. admits to having voted for Ronald Reagan in 1984, which sends the room into a frenzy of warm applause. Jack's plan to go public has worked.