30 Rock: Season 4 Episode 11: Winter Madness
The TGS cast and staff are feeling doom and gloom surround them over the dark and cold winter weather. Feeling trapped with unhappy employees, Liz comes up with an idea to take them to Miami on a road trip to film the show, getting them out of their rut. Jack connects with platonic friend Nancy (guest star Julianne Moore), his secret crush from high school, hoping they can arrange a time to meet in New York or Boston, but ends up feeling frustrated that they can’t find a good time to get together.
Liz presents Jack with her idea of a Miami road trip only to find out Jack wants to go to freezing cold Boston instead so he can see Nancy. The TGS budget is small so the cast and staff must share cheap motel rooms and ride to Boston on a rented bus, which leads staff and cast to make dibs on roomates fast. The cast and staff arrive in Boston and begin setting up shop in the NBC Boston affiliate building. A group of Boston affiliate employees wearing hockey shirts decide to harass Jonathan and Kenneth for fun. Liz is a little freaked that Jack’s NBC Boston affiliate office looks exactly the same as his New York office. Jack tells Liz there are seven things missing from the replica office and challenges Liz to find them.
Nancy arrives at Jack’s temporary Boston office, happy that Jack is visiting Boston. Jack takes Nancy on a tour of the Boston affiliate station, pretending to broadcast the news from the anchor desk. Nancy breaks down and confesses to Jack that her husband left for a job in New Orleans and she and her husband are headed towards divorce. Jack suspected as much and tries to show Nancy support, but is secretly thrilled Nancy may be single soon.
The cast and crew already hate Boston so Liz encourages them to take a tour of the city during their break between rehearsals. Tracy is miserable so Liz talks him into walking the Freedom Trail tour with her. Tracy ends up fighting with the actor portraying John Hancock, calling him “the rich white devil”. Liz and Pete meet with the cast and crew who are disgruntled with Boston. Even Kenneth tells Liz he hates Boston and blames her for winter. Frank demands to know who to blame for this mess. Liz decides to make up someone to blame, an upper management type named Dale Snitterman from TGS who she says is behind all the problems of low budget, bad food and crappy accomodations. The cast and crew support Liz and thank her for letting them know who they can blame for their problems. Liz breathes a sigh of relief that she is not their scapegoat this time.
Jack finds out that if Nancy can sell her house she will have money for the divorce and to re-establish herself with a townhouse and business to start a new life. Jack decides to buy Nancy’s house anonymously, sending Cerie and Kenneth to pose as married couple Silas and Moronica Peppercorn, home buyers who are interested in touring her home. Jack tells Liz her plan for a scapegoat will backfire, showing Liz the office of Dale Snitterman, a staff member of the Boston affiliate. Liz realizes she saw the name when she toured the building. Frank finds the name on an office door and rallies the cast and crew to confront Dale Snitterman. Liz plays along and the group confronts Dale Snitterman. After chewing Dale Snitterman a new one, the cast and crew leave his office feeling satisfied while Snitterman is confused and has no idea what is going on.
Jack meets with Nancy, waiting to hear about her home sale. Nancy tells Jack she refused the offer on her home, she’s not quite ready to dump her 23 year marriage and start her life over. Jack tries to reason with Nancy to no avail. Jack tells Nancy “I’ll wait, not forever,” to which Nancy with Bostonian accent replies, “I’ll try, wicked hard.” Jack and Nancy seal the promise to wait for each other with a kiss.
