Florida (30 Rock)
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Episode 10
- Tom Ceraulo
- Matt Hubbard
| "Florida" | |
|---|---|
| 30 Rock episode | |
| Episode no. | Season 7 Episode 10 |
| Directed by | Claire Cowperthwaite |
| Written by |
|
| Featured music | Jeff Richmond |
| Production code | 710 |
| Original air date | January 17, 2013 |
| Guest appearances | |
| |
"Florida" is the tenth episode of the seventh season of the American television comedy series 30 Rock, and the 135th overall episode of the series. It was directed by Claire Cowperthwaite and written by Tom Ceraulo and Matt Hubbard. The episode originally aired on NBC in the United States on January 17, 2013.
The episode received generally positive critical reviews and was watched by 3.44 million viewers.[1]
Liz and Jack are both torturing themselves. Liz because a conversation with Tracy has made her feel like she isn't exciting and spontaneous enough, and Jack over his mother's sarcastic and condescending final words, that she only wanted him to be "happy". The pair travel to Florida to settle his mother's estate, but receive a shock when her live-in nurse Martha (Lynda Gravatt) speaks of what a kind and loving person she was. This is something that contradicts everything Jack knew about her. Jack asks Liz to poke around. She discovers that the pair had shared a bedroom and had the walls adorned with pictures of the two of them together, which indicates that they were in a lesbian relationship. However, when Liz attempts to relay this to Jack, he refuses to believe her. He dismisses their bed-sharing as being perfectly normal between two friends.
Meanwhile, Tracy and Jenna have been left in charge of TGS and quickly run into trouble when a lawyer, Martin Lutherking (Tim Meadows), arrives to tell them that Hazel (Kristen Schaal) has filed a multimillion-dollar lawsuit against the show. The suit cites inappropriate behavior by most of the staff. He explains that Hazel regularly sues shows that she has been sacked from, therefore, all they need to do is get everybody on the crew to sign an affidavit to deny that there has been any inappropriate behavior. The only holdout is Kenneth, who, having already lost his page job and his girlfriend in the past year, doesn't want to also lose his integrity by lying. Tracy and Jenna are uninterested and tell him to sign anyway, which he reluctantly does.
In Florida, Martha makes up a double bed for Liz and Jack, having mistaken them for a married couple. Liz sees an opportunity and challenges Jack to share the bed with her, as he is so determined that it had been perfectly ordinary between his mother and Martha. While the pair lie together, Liz wonders aloud why nothing has ever happened between her and Jack, as they have spent so much time together and there had been occasions in the past when they'd both gotten drunk together. Moreover, there were times where they were both on the rebound. She questions whether it was because she is uninteresting and unspontaneous, but Jack dismisses her, explaining that their half-friendship, half-mentorship is more interesting than a relationship would have been. The pair then get into an argument when Jack criticizes Liz for having made a visit to his late mother's house about herself.
At TGS, Kenneth begins acting strangely as a result of being forced to sell out his soul. Tracy and Jenna soon start to feel guilty. Eventually, they let him tell the truth. Kenneth explains to Lutherking all of the inappropriate things that have gone on at the show. Back in Florida, Jack rescues Liz from the police station at The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, where she gets into trouble trying to be spontaneous. She resigns herself to the fact that she'll never change. Jack counters this, admitting that his mother had been in a lesbian relationship with Martha. He says that if somebody like her could have a complete turnaround at eighty-five, so could Liz. Jack then realizes that his mother's last words, that he should be "happy", were not meant sarcastically, but wonders if he has fulfilled them. Liz reminds him that he has, as he's finally achieved his goal to become CEO, which was what he had always wanted.
Liz arrives back at TGS and receives a phone call from Bev (Megan Mullally) at the adoption agency. She is told that she can have two children right away, a brother and sister. Having wanted only one, Liz is taken aback. Ultimately, she decides to be spontaneous and agrees to adopt both of them. At that moment, Hank Hooper (Ken Howard) arrives at her office door. He informs Liz that as a result of the controversy Hazel's lawsuit has stirred up, his last act as CEO is to cancel TGS.