30 Rock season 5 episode 15 review: It’s Never Too Late For Now

Liz Lemon is doing a bit of soul searching, in the latest episode of 30 Rock. Here's Louisa's review...

5.15 It’s Never Too Late For Now

How far do you think your work colleagues would go to help you get over a break-up? Cup of tea and a hug, perhaps? A few drinks in Wetherspoons? Photoshopping Sloth from The Goonies face onto your ex’s body in the office Christmas party pics?

How about poisoning someone, stealing your ID, building a you-themed nightclub, spiking your funky juice with some meth-laced Czechoslovakian organ slimming pills and starting a fight before getting you laid by a Swiss prostitute? If not, then your lot clearly aren’t trying.

Liz Lemon is a lucky woman. Not only does she have a lustrous head of grandfather’s shoe-tinted hair, she’s also got work colleagues who are willing to do extraordinary things to get her some. Not that they really had any choice. It was either that or let her descend into a mire of sweat pants, creepy cats and fanny packs (GB viewers:  hah! Fanny pack!).

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Following last week’s split from Carol, Liz had given up on love. In an episode likely to wake the sleeping bear of humourless sociology graduates who’ve accused the show of furthering anti-feminist stereotypes of single women, Liz went full spinster. After adopting a cat, naming her Emily Dickinson, then spending her honeymoon fund on a solo cemetery plot, Liz was set to become a card carrying member of the crazy old lady club, until Jack and co hatched their fiendish plan to get her back in the game.

And it worked. A lengthy Poirot-style exposition of her colleagues’ deception later, and Lemon is back on the search for Future Husband. (Though, judging from her newfound ability to fit an entire cat head in her mouth, she shouldn’t be looking for long.)

While all this malarkey was going on, the fabric of Jack’s existence was unravelling. Preparing for a tough-nuts negotiation with Kabletown about something that was probably bitingly satirical if you work in TV budgeting, Jack was being walked all over by a woman wearing Winnie the Pooh hospital pants.

At first infuriated by his nanny’s poker-faced nonchalance during wage negotiations, Trinidadian Sherry taught Jack a useful lesson about keeping the upper hand. More valuable than all the spankings he’d ever received at Harvard Business School, Jack learned the power of silence, and how to peel an orange very, very slowly. Like most of Baldwin’s plots on 30 Rock, it was all a lot funnier than it sounds.

In other news, Pete and Frank were shredding like righteous axe masters as Sound Mound, a new two-man eighties arena rock group. Inspired by Frank telling him it’s never too late to continue his youthful foray into mullets and optimistic power anthems, Pete donned a neon headband and joined forces with Frank and his ironic trucker hats (which, come to think of it, would actually be a great name for a band).

Whilst laying down boss tracks like It’s Never Too Late For Now and Weekend Woman, the power duo stumbled through an assault course of band rivalry-themed clichés, until they eventually kissed and made up.

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The reason for this sudden flurry from Pete and Frank? Tracy Morgan’s still away on a doctor’s note, so somebody else was required to bring the crazy C plot. It was fun to see them dust the mothballs off Pete and Frank, and even more fun to get some brief glimpses into the dark and violent world of Sue ‘Girl Writer’ LaRoche-Van der Hout (thank you, Wikipedia), whose leather hot pants and dirty nightclub fighting were a high point of the episode.

So, get well soon, Tracy, but don’t worry too much. They’re holding down the fort.

Read our review of episode 14, Double-Edged Sword, here.

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