30 Rock Watch: Cobweb of Rainbows

NBC

Brief spoilers for last night's 30 Rock after the jump:

I think someone needs to invent a term for the species of 30 Rock episode in which Liz experiences a searing but understandable temptation, overcomes her good-girl nature to hatch a deceitful plot, but turns out to be bad at it and ends up regretting it. ("MILF Island," "And then I will put my mouth on his mouth!" etc.)

Whatever we call it—an Evil Liz episode?—"Good-bye, My Friend" was a standard and average enough example that it doesn't bear much reviewing beyond repeating the funny bits. Liz's desire to adopt (remember that?) is affecting enough that her bonding with, then manipulating of, Becca was both funny and sympathetic, but we saw this in the early adoption episode with Megan Mullally this season too. What briefly elevated the episode at the end was bringing together the Jack and Liz plots with the unifying wisdom of John Lithgow and Harry and the Hendersons. Beyond that, we may as well go straight to the hail of bullets: 

* I liked how the writers made Liz struggle to connect with Becca, but didn't make her totally inept at it. On the one hand, we saw her looking up "washed" on an Internet slang dictionary; on the other, she got the generation-gap-bridging, "Man, there are just so many more devices for guys to not call you on these days!"

* Loved Frank's reaction to Jack's saying he's too old to have a desk with fake vomit on it. "Right. Fake." (Incidentally, I wish there were more episodes that gave Judah Friedlander more to do.)

* Likewise Jack's coaching rank on the most important seven words in the law: "I woud also have accepted, 'You can't prove that's the governor's semen.'"

* "I know you only make cheese friends when you're upset."  

...feel free to add your own. Oh, and who besides me did not miss Salma Hayek?