'30 Rock' Recap: Gentleman's Intermission

Over breakfast in the Donaghy home, Avery shows Jack a new saddle she had created so their future daughter will be able to ride the maid. It’s embroidered with the letter “C” for Charlotte, but Jack isn’t sure about the name since Liz told him she didn’t like it. Avery has a hormonal freak-out about Liz and Jack’s relationship, and tells Jack that he needs to stop being Liz’s mentor. Jack tries to explain that finding a new mentor is hard because that person must have four very specific characteristics: drive, intelligence, humility, and chaos, abbreviated DIHC. “I’m looking for DIHC, Avery, and I’m going to take it wherever I find it.” Avery refuses to back down, and Jack promises to end things with Liz.

Jack tells Liz that he can no longer be her mentor. He explains that Avery’s pregnancy hormones and sudden boob weight have been causing Avery to tip over and added tension in their relationship. Liz agrees and decides she will solve all her problems on her own from now on.

Jack attempts to find a new mentee in Jonathan, but his assistant fails the test of Drive when he refuses to cut off Jack’s finger in order to seal the deal. “Ambition is the willingness to kill the things you love and eat them in order to stay alive,” Jack tells a dismayed Jonathan.

Later, Liz gets a call from her dad about coming to visit. He tells her that her mom will not be coming with him and makes her promise to keep it a secret. When he shows up at her apartment without his glasses, wearing an “Edward Hardy” shirt, Liz knows something is wrong. Liz’s dad is taking a “Gentleman’s Intermission” from his married life in order to hit on much younger woman. Liz kicks him out, and he decides to stay at his old war buddy’s house so they can hit the bars together.

Liz tries to call Jack to tell him about her problem, but Avery answers and keeps them from speaking.

Meanwhile, Kenneth discovers that NBC News makes obituaries of celebrities in advance in order to be prepared for their deaths. When Kenneth shows Tracy his obituary, Tracy is upset that he will be remembered as an idiot millionaire.

Jack finds Tracy in his sadness spotlight, thinking about his legacy. Jack tries to mentor Tracy by telling him that he needs to find a way to change his headline, and make the work see him differently. Tracy takes Jack’s idea, but refuses to accept that Jack helped him. “I’m Tracy Jordan! When I go to sleep, nothing happens in the world,” Tracy tells Jack. He has failed the mentee test of Humility.

In Jack’s office, Jenna asks why she doesn’t have an NBC News obituary, and Jack tries to tell her that her problem is that she is not as famous or important as Tracy. Jenna rejects Jack’s logic, claiming that NBC News has the problem, not her. Although Jack sees that Jenna’s life has the right amount of chaos, Jenna fails the test of Intelligence and cannot be Jack’s mentee, either.

Desperate for someone to mentor, Jack calls Avery to his office. However, Avery soon realizes that Jack is trying to mentor her and shuts him down. Avery has far too little chaos in her life to be a viable candidate for Jack’s mentorship. Jack must admit that Liz is the only one with enough “DIHC” for him.

That night, Liz attempts to show her dad the error of his ways by tricking him into hitting on her at a singles bar. The plan backfires when her dad, and the rest of the bar, realizes what Liz is doing. Liz’s dad leaves in disgust, taking his war buddy to a different bar “with the cool rainbow flags.”

The next day, Tracy and Kenneth hatch a plan to change his headline. After seeing a news story about a heroic cat that saved its owner’s life, Tracy decides to save that cat’s life in order to become a “double hero.” Kenneth will attack the cat, before Tracy jumps in just in time to save its life. However, when the plan goes into action, Tracy catches a review of his work in the movie Hard to Watch.

The news anchor explains that Tracy will most likely win an Oscar for his performance, which means Tracy’s headline is already on the way to being changed. Tracy soon forgets about the cat-attack scheme. Kenneth, however, has no idea the plan has been abandoned. As he is about to attack the hero cat, Jenna hits him with a fire extinguisher and becomes a “double hero” in her own right. The cat dials 9-1-1 in order to save Kenneth.

The episode ends in Jack’s office, where Avery has finally agreed to let Jack continue to mentor Liz. Jack solves Liz’s problem immediately by calling her father, pretending to be the angry boyfriend of a girl he met at a club. Sufficiently scared, Liz’s dad gives up his Gentleman’s Intermission and heads back to Pennsylvania.