(S04E14) "How could a company from Philly buy a company from New York? That would be like Vietnam defeating the United States in a ground war." - Jack, about Kabletown

A week without '30 Rock' is like a week without happiness, and we've gone through a few weeks without my favorite Thursday night comedy so it's really fantastic to have the show back in all of it's laugh-out-loud loopiness. The Olympics interrupted it for a while, and I truly laughed out loud when Liz just moved her mouth, saying nothing, and then Tina Fey said something about Lindsey Vonn winning a gold medal over it because they didn't know what the results were when it was filmed. That will be remembered as one of the funniest bits of the season I'm sure.

But wait ... what happened to Don Geiss??

Holy crap, Don Geiss is dead? And he's been dead for weeks? Well, at least his death pushes the plot along, as we find out that NBC is being bought by Kabletown (*cough* Comcast *cough*). That's one of the strongest parts of this show. It could easily be another 'Police Squad' or something, episodes that have nothing to do with each other and are just a string of wacky jokes and visual humor gags. But this show actually has continuing plots and references to things that have happened in previous episodes.

And we actually have a continuation of the "Liz having root canal surgery" plot from the last pre-Olympics episode. That could have simply been a plot that they forgot about, a one episode thing that didn't matter at all. But now we found out that Liz met a guy there and put his phone number in her cell phone under "Future Husband" (and he put hers under "Future Wife"). I'm not sure why Liz would want to go on another date with Michael Sheen's character, since her disaster get-togethers usually end at one date (except for Dennis, of course), but maybe we'll see Sheen in future episodes. That's something I didn't know was happening. Maybe this will be a little bit of a switcheroo: the person Liz thinks she has no chemistry/future with will actually be the one.

I can't say I want to see Elizabeth Banks come back though. When she and Jack had the little spat at CNBC I thought that was the last we saw of her, but then she had to go and name Jack as the probable successor to Geiss on national TV, which means she could come back so Jack can braid her hair. There's just something about her character that doesn't click with me.

As for the wink she gave the camera, well, that's not the most unprofessional thing I've seen on CNBC.

More thoughts:

- I'd like to see more subplots where Jenna isn't involved with Tracy, trying to either help him with something or trying to sabotage something. How about some other character match-ups? This episode was rather light on supporting players and I didn't find the Jenna/Tracy antics too funny this time.

- We learn something new and bizarre every week about Kenneth, eh? Now we find out that he has to take medication or he goes into weird donkey-ish seizures. What a strange character Kenneth is.

- Nice bit by Brian Williams (again). Glad that it was just a ten second thing and not some extended scene. He's funny in everything he does, but it could get to be overkill if he's on every other week.

- Good to see Liz go to a doctor other than Dr. Spaceman (and good to see 'White Collar's' James Rebhorn as the dentist). But that doesn't mean Leo wasn't around tonight, if you saw the Dr. Pepper commercial. Dr. Spaceman for Dr. Pepper!

- Liz has Frank's mom in her cell phone address book.

- I wonder if you can cook a waffle in a DVD player, I mean if you leave it in there for a really long time. Maybe a Blu-ray player?

Quotes:

"You watched it for an hour, said Nicole Kidman should get an Oscar for it then shut it off." - Jack, about Liz's waffle

"You kept trying to order home massages off of Craigslist." - Jack, about Liz's drugged state after oral surgery

"You're too late, I already killed her!" - Liz, impersonating another masseuse

"It means the book is full of cubes of knowledge. It's a good title." - Jack, on Don Geiss' book "Geiss Cubes"

"Oh, your dentist gets drunk with you, too?" - Jenna, to Liz

"It's so romantic, like that movie I only saw the first first moments of, 'Fatal Attraction.' - Kenneth

"He could be a serial killer. He could wear a thumb ring." - Liz, about the mystery guy

"Is it Senior Executive Skip Day? Because that's usually in the spring so we can go to an amusement park." - Jack, about the lack of executives around the office

"Maybe we're the last people on Earth. Maybe we are legend. You're Will Smith and I'm the dog!" - Jonathan

"I'll tell him it's the guy I'm having sex with. It's a 24 hour news cycle around here Jack, we really don't have time to do it right here anymore." - Avery, about CNBC

"Is that a Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade pun? In March?" - Kenneth, about the newspaper headline "Tracy's Claps-Giving Yay Ha-Rade!"

"Honey, I'm home! Pac-Man, I'm Jewish!" - Tracy, never doing a scene the same way twice

"Lost: One Wallet. Will Turn Up If It's Meant To Be." - Kenneth's sign

"That's wonderful. Even if he does come from a country that's nothing more than the dried husk America came out of." - Kenneth, about Liz's mystery guy

"Cool Runnings! Bobsled!" - Liz, impersonating the Jamaican secretary

"If I wanted to see a black man make a fool of himself I'd have sex with K-Fed again." - Jenna

"Sign in, we're running a little behind, he'll be with you as soon as he can, bobsled." - Jamaican secretary

"Sometimes everything is just the worst, Kenneth." - Liz

"Guardwell. Guard your well. Well." - commercial Jenna did as a kid