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While 30 Rock’s humor tends to trend toward the broad, as characters like Jenna and Kenneth have often been rendered caricatures of crazy celebrities and farm boys, respectively, its marketing tends to skew toward a niche audience. A week ago, little fanfare greeted the show’s lead character’s wedding, a plot that’s been advancing and backtracking since the very first episode. The show brilliantly handled Liz and Criss tying the knot, and presented it as low-key as possible, getting even the most heartless of viewers (me) to smile in the process.

How do you follow that up? With another wedding, putting a period on Jenna’s beautifully absurd arc.

“My Whole Life is Thunder” picks up immediately after last week’s episode; Liz is married, and is cheerfully telling her employees. No one seems to care, except for Jenna – but for the wrong reasons. Jenna’s long been her best friend, and she wasn’t at her side at the altar. To make matters worse, Liz has just received an award for her work on TGS, and Jenna can barely handle all this good news bestowed on the showrunner. The two head to the awards ceremony, which makes for some of the most biting satire you’ll ever see on TV.

The ceremony is a reflection of fans’ thoughts on the show; some have complained that 30 Rock has regressed in its feminine ideals. Liz is her own brand of feminist – as a female boss, she’s mocked for her despotic role in the writers room, her outfits are critiqued like Frank’s t-shirts never are, she’s always sticking up for women’s rights, even as her mentor represents the good old-fashioned conservative view of women’s place in society – and the show has allowed her happiness by tying her to a man. Her independence, some have argued, is tossed, in favor of a more traditional view of women’s true role in life, to be swept off their feet when a strong man chooses.

30 Rock, as it does so well, responds by broadening the subject; it airs the criticism it’s received in the form of the award’s show, and women are depicted as the neediest and most helpless of all creatures. Each joke hits home, not least of which the name of the awards: “Celebrating Women in the Media.”

When one woman goes to the bathroom, a swarm of them do. No one can work the projector. Hell, it’s broadcast on lifetime.com. It’s a rollicking scene, and among the better satiric ones that the show’s pulled off. But, it does have a grander purpose; Jenna’s revenge on Liz takes the form of a surprise wedding at her big awards ceremony. Unfortunately for Jenna, Liz sniffs out the surprise, and rigs the lights so she’s lit in all her wrinkly glory. She hunches away, and the episode takes a morbid turn.

Colleen, Jack’s mother, portrayed as the most frightening of all Irish Catholic mothers by the incomparable Elaine Stritch, passes, right after uttering, “I just want you to be happy.” It’s the parting shot from Colleen, Jack believes; you only say those condescending words when a person cannot attain greatness, and must only settle for happiness. So he must scramble to give the best eulogy of all time, proving an upward looking Colleen (from hell) wrong in doubting his abilities.

And he delivers. He recites the family history in Gaelic, rips off a “Danny Boy” flute solo, even wrangles an appearance by the University of Maryland’s own Kermit the frog. It’s so perfectly subversive to have perhaps the most uplifting moment on the show be at a funeral. But Jenna would quickly top it.

With a quick shudder of her jacket, Jenna unveils a white dress, and a silver-faced Paul (is that racist?), disguised as an angelic statue, leaps onto the floor. Seconds after the beautiful mourning Jack ushered in, the two share their bizarre vows right there. In two weeks, 30 Rock’s wed off its two female stars in as under-the-radar fashion as I can remember a sitcom doing. Normally these things have Jim-and-Pam-esque hype; they become the reason to watch, and the other subplots become afterthoughts. 30 Rock doesn’t take the romanticized approach, and it’s all the better for it.

The season, and series, is winding down, so it’s no wonder these arcs are reaching their end points. I’m just surprised – and delighted – at how little hype the show allows; we live in a world of constant updates and news break, reviews and critiques; genuine sitcom surprise is rare, and it’s a beautiful thing.

Tidbits:

–The Kenneth/Tracy/Florence Henderson plot wasn’t doing it for me this week, but it only garnered a few minutes of attention in the episode, anyway. Plus, Mrs. Brady saying “turd” is redemptive enough for me.

–I didn’t even mention Gayle’s appearance on the show, which speaks volumes to how strong this episode was. The episodes chockablock with guest stars are rarely among my favorites, but they’re used so adeptly here. They actually further the plot; they’re not just there to turn viewers’ heads.

–“I’m 42.” “I don’t know what that is.” We’ve missed you, Cerie.

–“I don’t mean to bother you, but I’m a nymphomaniac virgin widow, and I just completed my year of mourning, and I’ve got a hotel room and a latex allergy, and, well, I was just wondering what you were doing for the next 12 to 14 hours.”

–After rare heart-felt words to Liz, Jenna automates, “Pill wearing off; you have long arms.”

–“My father did not kill dozens of Germans so his daughter could die in a van.” “He wasn’t even in the war!”

–“We almost killed Florence Henderson!” “Yes. Almost.”

–Official 30 Rock EpisodeCountDownOMeter: Five more. What the what?!

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