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Last Lunch was the series finale of 30 Rock, airing on January 31, 2013 to 4.88 million viewers. As she prepares for the final episode of TGS, Liz is faced with numerous problems: Jack has quit his job and looks to be on the verge of suicide; Tracy is doing everything in his power to stop the episode going into production, because he is due a payout from the network if it does not, and it's Lutz's turn to choose the writers' lunch, and he has seized upon it as an opportunity to pay them back for their years of picking on him. Meanwhile, network president Kenneth attempts to instil some genuine emotion in Jenna, as she prepares to perform her final song to close out the show.

Synopsis[]

Liz Lemon (Tina Fey) returns for the final episode of TGS and is immediately faced with two problems: Tracy Jordan (Tracy Morgan), who she expects will do anything in his power to stop production going ahead, so that he will get his $30 million payout from the network, and Lutz (John Lutz), whose turn it is alphabetically to pick the last lunch the TGS writers will share together. Meanwhile, Jack Donaghy (Alec Baldwin) is preparing to leave and regrets the way things ended with Liz, but his attempts to make it up to her are rejected. Tearfully, he appeals to Jenna Maroney (Jane Krakowski) for advice on how to repair the pair's broken friendship, but she warns him that she has never known Liz to let a grudge go. Finally, network president Kenneth Parcell (Jack McBrayer) wants Jenna to pick an emotional musical number that she can perform at the close of the final show.

Both Liz's problems escalate as Tracy bribes Al Roker to run a news report that a snowicane is headed for the city, and Lutz decides to order lunch from Blimpie, much to the annoyance of the other writers. Meanwhile, Jack begins to act more and more strangely, giving away his personal possessions and walking around the TGS studio declaring his love and appreciation for everyone. Pete (Scott Adsit) theorises that he could be planning to commit suicide, before suggesting that a real man would opt instead to fake his own death, an idea he becomes suspiciously enamored with. Liz initially dismisses this, but grows concerned when Jack suggests he'll be at the final show "in spirit". Elsewhere, Jenna decides that, following her unsuccessful attempts to make it in dramatic television and movies, she will return to her first love, Broadway, and picks the song from her upcoming musical The Rural Juror as her final performance for TGS. However, upon hearing it, Kenneth is concerned that Jenna's performance lacks real emotion, and that she does not genuinely care that the show is ending.

In the writers' room, Lutz remains five steps ahead of everybody as they attempt to overthrow him and choose another lunch picker, proclaiming that ordering Blimpie is his revenge on them for having constantly picked on him, unprovoked, for the last seven years. Liz overcomes him and locks him in her office, but he escapes through the ceiling panels and lands right on top of their new lunch choice, finally getting his triumphant victory as they concede to order from Blimpie. Kenneth returns to Jenna's dressing room with two removal men in tow and informs her that he needs to take her mirror, because Brian Williams wants it for his bathroom. Suddenly, she breaks down in tears as she realises that TGS is over for good, and that she will miss something after all, if only her mirror. As the final broadcast approaches, Tracy disappears and Grizz (Grizz Chapman) and Dot Com (Kevin Brown) reveal that he is hiding out at Dark Sensations, the strip club to which he had taken Liz when they'd first met. She confronts him and he explains that he is not disrupting the show because of the money, but because he has feared saying goodbye to people ever since he was young, and his father went out for cigarettes and never returned. Liz confesses that it is possible that they won't remain friends after TGS, because people naturally drift apart, but that she loves him despite everything he has put her through. Tracy appreciates her honesty and agrees to return.

At the final recording, Jenna tells Tracy that she will miss him, and the pair embrace. However, Jack is suspiciously absent, and another conversation with Pete about faking his own death leads Liz to believe that Jack is indeed planning to commit suicide. Her fears are confirmed when she discovers a video suicide note in his office, and she tracks his phone to the waterfront, where he is preparing to leave on a boat. He explains that he plans to go away to find what makes him happy, and that he only led her to believe he wanted to kill himself because he was afraid that they'd never make up, and she'd forever hold her grudge. He goes on to confess that over the last seven years, she was one thing that consistently made him happy, and the pair acknowledge that they love each other as friends. Jack makes off on his boat, but turns around almost immediately and declares that he's found the answer; the best idea he's ever had: dishwashers you can see into. At TGS, Tracy thanks the audience for tuning in for the past seven years, as Jenna emotionally performs her final song.

Epilogue One year later, Pete has faked his own death and started a new life, but is found by his wife; Liz is producing Grizz's new sitcom Grizz & Herz, and has taken her children to work; she has also stayed in touch with Tracy, whose father has finally returned from getting cigarettes; Jenna is attempting to steal a Tony Award from Alice Ripley; Jack's creation of the see-through dishwasher has led him to his lifelong dream job: CEO of GE, and he is still friends with Liz. In homage to the St. Elsewhere finale, an immortal Kenneth holds a snow globe containing the Rockefeller Center, as he hears Liz's great-granddaughter's pitch for a show based on the stories Liz had told her about working at TGS.

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