30 Rock: Goodbye, My Friend

30 Rock: Goodbye, My Friend
NBC
March 5, 2009
Sitcom
DVD
A-

This episode written by Ron Weiner is my favorite so far, perhaps ever.  You've got two very strong threads and one pretty good one, tied together in sometimes surprising ways.  Liz befriends a pregnant teen named Becca (very well played by 26-year-old Phoebe Strole), in hopes that she can adopt Becca's baby.  Meanwhile, Jack bonds with and then sort of plays father to Frank, encouraging him to go back to law school, until Jack meets Frank's fierce mother Sylvia (Patti LuPone in the first of three appearances).  And even the Jenna & Tracy plot has its moments of heart and belly laughs.  I like how Pete is again playing Liz's conscience, including telling her what it's like to be a very young parent.  And I love Jack's long line about the meaning of Harry and the Hendersons, which had me flailing with laughter even the third or fourth time through.  Another great moment is when Sylvia asks, "Do I have to paint you a picture?" and it turns out she already has, which works like a classic cartoon moment.  Just delightful from beginning to end.

Stefanie Grassley, who's Tracy's Fan, would later be a Grieving Mistress (not of Tracy's).  Frank Anello fulfills your expectations by playing part of the Production Staff.  This is the first of fifteen 30 Rock episodes directed by writer John Riggi.

Ellen: The Puppy Episode

Ellen: The Puppy Episode
ABC
April 30, 1997
Sitcom
DVD
A-

Ellen DeGeneres's story was turned into a teleplay by staff writers Driscoll, Newman, Savel, and Stark.  It would win an Emmy and change television forever.  Forty-two million people tuned in.  For a couple weeks I decided I was a lesbian.  (Then I became deeply infatuated with a man and went back to identifying as bisexual, like I had since I was a preschooler.)

But is it still entertaining?  Heck yeah!  It is sharp, hilarious, joyous, and a little bit heartbreaking.  Even things like Ellen's awkwardness and babbling fit remarkably well, as she struggles through her sexual identity and her feelings for a woman named Susan (Laura Dern, just right).  Here it was, twenty years after Jodie on Soap, and it was a struggle to even get the story on the air, and that comes through even now, in the performances of the cast, including Oprah Winfrey as the wise and dry-humored therapist, and in the obviously thrilled studio audience.  OK, the celebrity cameos aren't all as obvious as they were then, although it's still a delight to hear Melissa Etheridge serenade a blushing Ellen for her bravery, or to watch K. D. Lang play a waitress.

The episode is of course mostly about Ellen, and those friends of hers are featured less, but they all have their moments (yes, even Spence), like Audrey's enthusiastic literal and figurative embrace of Ellen, and of course Peter's joy at Ellen telling him first (not counting Susan, the therapist, and the people at the airport).  It's an hour-long episode so I could go on and on, but I just want to mention three things, two of them related to the photos I've chosen.  The other is a moment where the therapist compares the prejudice that Ellen fears to what blacks underwent before the Civil Rights Movement.  In the hands of lesser writers, or lesser performers, this could be awkward and/or heavy-handed, but the moment makes its point with a light touch.  (One shudders to imagine how this would've gone on Roseanne in the last couple seasons.)

When Ellen finds the courage to first speak the words, "I'm gay," it's accidentally into the airport p.a. system.  This is another moment that might not have worked, but it does, helped partly by the visible relief of Ellen (Morgan and DeGeneres) afterwards, and the hug Susan gives her.  Note that this scene, just as much as some of the airport scenes on Who's the Boss? five or more years earlier, looks surreal after 9/11.  You simply can't go up and hug someone about to board a plane, as Ellen does.  (I haven't mentioned Ellen's date with her old friend Richard, but there are some laughs from that in the first half of the episode.)

Susan has a seemingly throwaway line about failing to "recruit" Ellen and thus losing a chance at a toaster oven.  Then we get the tag scene that pays off from that, with Etheridge enthusiastically stamping Ellen's application (and the clipboard).  "Toaster oven" would become (if it wasn't already) an LGBT (not yet Q or A) semi-in-joke for the next few years, and the scene is funny in of itself.  Just an all around wonderful episode.  (But, no, not an A or A+.  I don't think TV can achieve that like books or movies can.)

Waiter Patrick Harrigan had previously been Customer No. 1.  Kathy Najimy makes her third and last appearance on the show, in the very small role of a Woman in Gay Bar (technically a coffeehouse).  This time DeGeneres's mother Betty is a Woman at Airport.

The Beatles Anthology: Episode 2

The Beatles Anthology: Episode 2
ABC
November 22, 1995
Documentary
VHS
A-

This takes us into late '67, so it definitely covers a period of the Beatles that is more interesting to me.  Also, I laughed out loud several times, at everything from Ringo praising George's song-writing skills and then asking, "Which of his songs was on Revolver?", to psychedelic-era John doing the Twist.  With both parts (maybe not so much in Part Three I'm guessing, with the break-up and all), I remember that, despite all the drama, this was a four-sided bromance, and part of the charm and joy of the Beatles is that they enjoyed being together and they invited us to watch and listen.  It's fitting that the episode ends with the "Real Love" video, mixing vintage and '95 footage.  Again though, death is omitted, even as important a death as Brian Epstein's.

Roseanne: Promises, Promises

Roseanne: Promises, Promises
ABC
April 6, 1993
Sitcom
DVD
A-

Mike Gandolfi wrote this hilarious yet poignant episode.  It starts with another poker game in the kitchen, this time with two new players: David, and Chuck's friend Roger (Tim Curry in his first of two cameos).  Nancy comes in and Roger flirts outrageously with her, which she enjoys.  Chuck drops hints when Nancy's out of the room that she's a lesbian, but Dan doesn't want to discuss it in front of "the kid," till David announces it himself.  Nonetheless, Nancy does go out with Roger, whom Roseanne had hoped to fix up with her sister.  Jackie is understandably nervous about dating again, although she does show up in that red zippered dress.  In another of my all-time favorite lines, she says, "Now I'm losing men to lesbians!'  Nancy explains her bisexuality as her being "a people person."

Meanwhile, Prom Night is coming up and Roseanne makes Darlene prom-ise to go.  But Darlene has an ulterior motive, booking a motel room so she and David can lose their virginities together.  He's so nervous that he's impotent.  She's surprisingly sympathetic (and not just for her), but it doesn't help.  In the tag, they're back in the motel room, now darkened, and we hear them declare them love.  She asks if they're going to have sex now and, after a pause, he says, "I think I just did."

Doug Fieger makes his third and last appearance as Nick.  Danielle Harris is listed on IMDB, but I didn't notice Molly, although Mara Hobel has a couple scenes as Charlotte.

Roseanne: War and Peace

Roseanne: War and Peace
ABC
January 12, 1993
Sitcom
DVD
A-

This Heline & Heisler conclusion of the two-parter again manages the tonal shifts with skill, as when Gilbert rocks it with her amazing delivery on some of the funniest lines.  But even a scene like Jackie being both grateful to and angry at Dan blends humor and drama.  We find out in this episode that Fisher has beaten Jackie before and they both hid that.  Jackie, despite loving Fisher, finds the courage to leave him.  The scene of Dan explaining his time in jail to DJ is an interesting contrast to the Soap scene, from about fifteen years earlier, of Jessica Tate explaining to her fifteen-year-old son why "Daddy" was in jail for killing cousin Peter.  (Or was it Corinne in jail at that point?)

I would've gone with another B+ but Dan's rendition of "Jailhouse Rock" in the tag brings this closer to perfection.

John "Juke" Logan, who was Man Who Takes Chair, in the first season here is the Prisoner with Harmonica, while Prisoner Alex Cole would be a Male Customer later this year.  Roseanne's 14-year-old son Jake Pentland has his second role on the show, as the Paper Boy.  And Jeremy Roberts, Jay in the previous episode, here has a nameless part.

Roseanne: Terms of Estrangement, Part 2

Roseanne: Terms of Estrangement, Part 2
ABC
September 22, 1992
Sitcom
DVD
A-

Rob Ulin's first of ten Roseanne stories is this heartbreaking yet hilarious episode where the family deals with the fallout of Becky & Mark's elopement.  Everyone reacts characteristically:

• Nancy is self-absorbed about whether her sympathy is well-expressed.
• DJ is still an uncomplicated (if weird) kid and he's happy to see Becky again but doesn't give her elopement much thought;
• Darlene is uproariously dry about it all, with her "Look, it's Joanie and Chachi" and "Did I ever tell you you're my hero?" lines putting me on the floor (Becky grins and calls Darlene the wind beneath her wings for her reply to the latter);
• David, whom we finally see with Mark, tells his big brother that he's fine "except thanks to you I'm now related to my girlfriend";
• Mark tries to talk with Dan and avoid talking with Roseanne;
• Becky believes in her love with Mark and thinks that it was right to do what she wanted since her parents would've stopped her if they'd known, and yet she does want their approval;
• Jackie tries to be an accepting aunt and secretly gives Becky "Great-Grandmother Harris's wedding ring" (as does Roseanne later);
• Dan acts coldly towards Becky, as he did when she took his motorcycle without asking;
• and Roseanne tries to hold the family together, while dealing with her own feelings of shock and disappointment, and while warning Mark that she is going to be a scary mother-in-law.

Note that Becky will be turning 18 in two months, although I recall her birthday as being in March in the first season or two.

Roseanne: Breakin' Up Is Hard to Do

Another crazy Jackie outfit

Roseanne: Breakin' Up Is Hard to Do
ABC
February 18, 1992
Sitcom
DVD
A-

Jennifer Heath wrote the first Roseanne episode I fell in love with.  And it's about love and relationships, of all sorts.  The break-up of the title is Becky's with Mark, after 73 weeks.  Roseanne is happy but also sad, since Becky is so upset.  Dan continues to employ Mark, who's a good mechanic, but Becky is angry about this.  And then she brings home a football player named Dean (David Donah, who would return in the role, with a last name, a couple years later), and Dan is so fond of him he says, "I want to date him!"  He's very disappointed to hear that Dean is only the transition boyfriend.  Mark shows up while Becky's gone and Roseanne tells him off, which backfires on her later when Mark sends flowers to Becky for Valentine's Day.  And in the tag, Donah makes a plea that Dean become a recurring character, but he makes the mistake of mouthing off to Barr, so we get a memorial montage for "Dean, 1992 to 1992."

Not only is this episode hilarious, but it's humor that comes out of the characters, with an undercurrent of seriousness and reality, even in Becky and Darlene's exchange that goes something like this--
Darlene: Are you going to have sex with Dean?
Becky: Of course, Darlene.  I'm going to have sex with every guy I meet from now on.
Darlene:  And Dean is OK with this?
The other sister-pair is great here, too, from them mocking Crystal in her absence to them mocking Dan when he tries to understand how dating works from the female point of view.  We can see even "Old Stupid's" (Darlene's nickname of course) viewpoint, in Mark's arguments with Becky and Roseanne.  He may be a "jerk" sometimes (Becky's word), but he has his own feelings.  I especially appreciate that the episode ricochets off other episodes, like the Thanksgiving one and the Pill one.

Anyway, fantastic, near perfect, definitely a show at its best.

Squeeze: Hourglass

Squeeze: Hourglass
Song released July 1987
Music Video
VHS
A-

Probably my favorite video ever, this has surrealism, optical illusions, philosophy (as in the Shakespearean "ages of man" sequence), playfulness, and a tune that is sometimes frantic and sometimes soothing but always danceable, with some super sax work, and the whole thing is just majestic.  (Not perfect, nothing is.)

Who's the Boss?: Jonathan Plays Cupid

Who's the Boss?: Jonathan Plays Cupid
ABC
February 11, 1986
Sitcom
DVD
A-

Paul Robinson Hunter, who also wrote "Requiem" and a couple others in between, contributes his last WtB story, one that builds on what's come before and also sets up the next five and a half years of the series.  Jonathan and his friend Steven (Christopher Burton, in a role he played at Jonathan's summer camp) both want to enter the junior-senior golf tournament at the country club.  But the other boys will be teaming up with their fathers, while Jonathan's father, as Angela reminds him, is married and living in California.  Tony offers to play with him, although Tony has never actually played golf.  Jonathan is happy but Steven tells him that housekeepers can leave, so the two of them come up with a scheme where Jonathan will set up his mom and Tony on a blind date for Valentine's Day, and then they'll fall in love and get married, so Tony will never leave.  (Never mind that Michael left.)

Jonathan has them each receive anonymous notes to meet at the French restaurant Chez Rene at eight that evening.  They find out that their "host" is "Monsieur Bower," so they assume Michael is paying for everything.  At first, they're surprised and disappointed to discover who their blind dates are, but they decide to stay, have a good time, and run up a bill that Michael will have to pay for.  Little do they know that Jonathan borrowed his mother's credit card.

Back at home, Mona and Sam learn about the blind date, although not the motivation for it.  They and Jonathan eagerly await for Angela and Tony's return.  To avoid suspicion, Angela enters through the front door and Tony from the kitchen door a couple minutes later.  But Jonathan is disappointed when they claim they had dates with other people.  He confesses his scheme, as Mona and Sam listen in, until their remarks get them sent away.  Then Tony and Angela have a heart to heart talk with Jonathan.  In the tag, the two of them bond over a shared Alka-Seltzer or similar.

There's a lot going on here, both as a stand-alone and this episode's place in the series as a whole, the former including moments like Mona's many Valentine's cards and the matching "father & son" golf outfits.  Of the most significant of the latter, we have...

• While the show hadn't exactly gone through a mid-season slump, it is notable that the episodes between Thanksgiving and Valentine's Day are less interesting, so this comeback is extra welcome.
• This holiday is used well, not just for its main plot but also for touches like the chocolate, and how the various characters act characteristically, including Sam's joy at getting a Valentine from Chad McCann.
• This episode would be referenced almost exactly three years later, on the ironically titled "First Date" episode.  The verdict there is that this date doesn't count as it was a blind date under deceptive circumstances.
• Tony and Angela try not to treat it as a "real date," but they do flirt a little, and of course they have to react to the family's reactions.
• The penultimate scene, from around the time that Tony and Angela find out who their host is to the end, is full of little comedic gems, like Mona's "And the way you love your housekeeper," and the kids' attitudes towards their parents having "S-E-X."  The studio audience in particular loves Jonathan's "Is that all?  Then why don't you just have that and get it over with" and Sam's "Goodnight, Dad.  Goodnight, Mom."
• There are also some touching moments, especially Tony's vow to always be there for his "pal" and "buddy" Jonathan, which if anything is more moving decades later, when you know of the tight bond among the main cast, and how supportive Light and Danza have been of Pintauro's coming out and eventual marriage.
• Michael, even offscreen, is unreliable, while Tony is in a sense Jonathan's true father.
• Tony and Angela can't take as cavalier attitude towards having sex as the innocent 8-year-old can have for them, but with "First Kiss" and "It Happened One Summer" in the background of this episode, we know that they have certainly considered the possibility of sex, although not yet marriage.
• This is, not counting the episode where Sam lies to her new friends, the first time that marriage between Tony and Angela has been put on the table, and I get the feeling that Mona and Sam like the idea, even if they know it's not as simple as Jonathan thinks.
• While this is one of the best Jonathan episodes, with Pintauro playing up the innocence and fears as well as manipulation, it's also one of my favorite Sam episodes, as the wisecracking but sweet tomboy of the first season returns in a more grown-up (13-year-old) incarnation.
• Helmond as Mona is delightful as well, with that dry delivery of killer lines that is, perhaps, showcased best on the next season's episode where Tony and Angela do think about marrying each other.
• Danza and Light are great, both reacting and moving the plot forward.
• It's another Angela in Her Bathrobe episode, the pink one this time.
• And Tony and Angela's golf-playing is a thread that had begun earlier (she played mini golf with Wally) and will have an interesting pay-off down the road.

Who's the Boss?: Angela's Ex, Part 1

Who's the Boss?: Angela's Ex, Part 1
ABC
February 5, 1985
Sitcom
DVD
A-

Sternin & Fraser wrote this story, which is one of the best of the series.  Angela's "ex," Michael, well cast and well played by James Naughton, returns and we discover that when, in the pilot, she referred to her husband leaving her, she didn't mean she was divorced.  She tried to have him served with papers, but he was in the jungle, working on one of his documentaries, for six months.  Obviously, she and even more so the Micellis are surprised to see him.  Mona is annoyed but Jonathan is ecstatic, especially since his daddy brought a boa constrictor.

Michael in turn is surprised to find out about Tony's live-in job and Angela's promotion to president of her company.  He doesn't want a divorce and when she tells him it's over, he kisses her.  Then the next morning, the audience and Tony find out that Mr. and Mrs. Bower spent the night together in her room.  Michael gets a desk job in Manhattan and he's moving back in.  He even fires Tony, because Tony is "Jonathan's father and Angela's friend," and those should be Michael's roles.  Angela objects when Tony tells her, but he, probably thinking of how he can never have a second chance with his late wife Marie, that she needs to put her marriage first.  So Tony and Angela share a close hug goodbye.

Part of what's wonderful about this episode is that it's interesting to see how all six characters, even Sam, have their own takes on the events.  For instance, Mona thinks Michael is a jerk and she lets out a wail when, watching from outside the kitchen, she spies Angela kissing him.  Naughton and Light are completely plausible as a long-term mismatched but attracted couple.  Angela's conflict is very believable.

As is Tony's.  There are some moments early on where the T/A ship is teased, as when she tells Jonathan, who's been hit with a snowball by 6th-grader Richard Welling (the unseen kid Sam fought with in "Angela's First Fight"), to go upstairs and take off his clothes.  Tony jokes as if she's talking to him.  And when Michael assumes that Angela is involved with Tony, Tony says nothing is going on, but Angela says they could do something if they wanted.  Tony utters a surprised, "We could?", as if he's never seriously considered the possibility but would like to.

Yet I don't think it's just jealousy that makes him worried about Angela getting involved with Michael.  Mona knows Michael and clearly doesn't approve of him.  (Nor he of her, as with his reaction to her Spring Break outfit.)  But Tony has to base his opinion on what's in front of him.  He seems amused by Michael when Angela isn't, but he does think she's rushing into things, legally married or not.  Still, he does step aside when Michael fires him.

As for Michael, he admits he's jealous of Tony, although not really romantically.  He seems to see Angela in a new way, now that he might lose her.  It's telling that he says that he never knew she had it in her, to become president, and she says he never looked.  He says he is now.

Jonathan's feelings are more straightforward.  He's seven and he adores his father.  Sam at 12 (we know this is set after her birthday, because she wears the robe Angela bought for her) is starting to perceive adult relationships.  But she's too outspoken to keep quiet, as when she points out that Mr. Bower is wearing his clothes from yesterday, as he's pretending to have dropped by for breakfast.  (Tony tells Jonathan this and Michael plays along.)

This is the first of two two-parters with Michael.  I wish there had been more.  He actually helps the fivesome feel more like a family.  And there's a scene where he issues dinner invitations and then has to explain he doesn't mean the Micellis.  Jonathan says that Sam and Tony are family, but Tony pretends they already have plans.

M*A*S*H: Goodbye, Farewell, and Amen

M*A*S*H: Goodbye, Farewell, and Amen
CBS
February 28, 1983
Dramedy
DVD
A-

About the "too many writers" rule?  I guess there are exceptions.  I don't know who was responsible for which strand, but together Alda, Davis, Hall, Metcalfe, Mumford, Pollock, Rappaport, and Wilcox managed a two-hour episode (2 1/2 hours with commercials) that somehow holds together and moved me at least as much as it did over a third of a century ago.  Alda also directed, and he has the heaviest subplot, but he lets the others shine, from his six main co-stars to some of the familiar faces listed here at the bottom.

I don't think it's simply nostalgia that makes me give one of my rare A-s.  This is a series that I once loved yet have been reliving through more cynical eyes.  But the finale really did move me.  Yes, I like that there are references to past characters and episodes (especially during one of Charles and Margaret's arguments), but on its own terms, this is amazing.  It's definitely on the "drama" side of dramedy, but there are also moments of joy and silliness.  And, really, all I remembered was something about Hawkeye and a "chicken," something about Charles and Korean musicians, and the goodbye message in rocks.

My favorite parts were when people stand up and say what they're doing after the war, and the goodbyes.  I like that each two-person relationship is unique, and the goodbyes match them.  But I would be remiss if I didn't talk about the Hawkeye/Margaret kiss.  While Hawkeye finds it easy to say the words to tell BJ how much his best friend means to him, it's not so easy with the longer-lasting and arguably more complex relationship with the former Hot Lips.  And, yes, Henry Blake gave her a big kiss goodbye, but it wasn't like this.  It's not even simply a matter of romance.  It's that these characters know they would never work as a couple, and yet they do in a sense love each other.  Also, as Hawkeye pointed out on the previous episode, they've been there as long as each other (the only ones from the first episode still here in the last).  Believe me, this packs more of a wallop in middle age, having had some "opposites attract" relationships, than it did when I was a starry-eyed 15-year-old who'd never been kissed.

It was also the part that made me laugh the most out loud.  And that is because Farrell, Morgan, and Stiers have to stand around awkwardly, adding little touches like Charles skimming through the book he's returning to Margaret.  And you know that BJ knows about the one-night stand, and the other two have probably guessed by now.  So there's resonance, and I can only wonder what the 121.6 million people watching the last six minutes thought.

GW Bailey (Rizzo), Natasha Bauman (Nurse), Brigitte Chandler (Nurse), Jennifer Davis (Nurse), Gwen Farrell (Nurse Gwen), Judy Farrell (Able), Dennis Flood (this time as a Corpsman), Roy Goldman (as Roy Goldman), Jan Jorden (Baker), Enid Kent (Bigelow), June Kim (this time the Woman with Shawl), Jeff Maxwell (Straminsky), Kellye Nakahara (Yamato), David Orr (this time a Soldier), John Otrin (Ambulance Driver), Frank Pettinger (Corpsman), Shari Saba (Nurse Shari), Frank Slaten (Corpsman Frank), Bill Snider (Corpsman), Arthur Song (Korean Man), Jo Ann Thompson (Nurse Jo Ann), and Dennis Troy (Corpsman) all return, one last time.

So how do I average this episode in?  Does it count five times?  After all, I never counted the one-hour episodes twice.  But let's count this as two episodes.  With the rest of the season averaging C to B, this comes out to a B-.  I still believe M*A*S*H didn't need to run this long without Radar and, yes, I know about and in fact watched some of After MASH.  But this is as good a place as any, and better than most, to end it.

The Bob Newhart Show: Death of a Fruitman

The Bob Newhart Show: Death of a Fruitman
CBS
September 27, 1975
Sitcom
DVD
A-

Patchett & Tarses wrote this hilarious episode about the off-screen death of Mr. Gianelli and its effects on the group and Bob.  It's great to see Mrs. Bakerman by the way, although as always Mr. Carlin can steal a scene just with a disdainful look.  Bonerz does a fine job of directing, including not just the comedic timing but the relatively serious scene where he and Newhart talk about death.  Season Four is on a streak, although I doubt they can maintain it.  And, yes, as with M*A*S*H, this is the 75th episode and aired in '75.

The Bob Newhart Show: Big Brother Is Watching

The Bob Newhart Show: Big Brother Is Watching
CBS
September 14, 1974
Sitcom
DVD
A-

When I saw Charlotte Brown's name in the credits, I knew this would be very good, but it's in fact the most fantastic program I've watched in a long while.  That may sound over the top for what is just the basic five characters, plus Ellen, playing off each other, but there are some wonderfully funny and believably human moments.  (Bob's "Do you have all his albums?" had me on the floor!)  And a couple other characters have established enough personalities that we can imagine Bob's mother's end of the conversation, or Mr. Carlin's with Carol.  Also, there's some fun coming out of two new sets: the Hartleys' den and Carol's funky apartment, with chairs made out of hippos and swings.  (That Bob has to retreat to the beanbag chair says a lot about the '70s.)

The subject of living together had come up for Carol in the first season, but it was one of her short-term boyfriends.  With its being Howard, a character we've grown fond of for two years, and Bob's sister, the stakes are much higher.  (And, yes, we are two and a half years away from the platonic trio of Three's Company.)  I am definitely looking forward to the rest of the season.

Gilligan's Island: The Producer

Gilligan's Island: The Producer
CBS
October 3, 1966
Sitcom
DVD
A-

This is many people's favorite GI episode, mine included, and it's easy to see why.  You've got Phil Silvers's marvelous performance as the title character, and all the castaways reacting to him.  And you've got the fantastic musical version of Hamlet.  You've even got Gilligan driving around a little pedal-operated car!  And on an ordinary episode, Ginger's impressions of Sophia Loren and Marilyn Monroe would be worth tuning in of themselves.  There's little I can add to all that has been said by others, but I will note that the script is full of sharp little lines, like the throwaway reference to Steve Reeves and Hamlet's advice to Ophelia, "Hide anywhere but don't go near the water."  Note, there are two directors this time because Lupino had an injury on set but the episode is nonetheless seamless.