The Friday Night Slaughter

Note: Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip airs its final episode, 'What Kind of Day Has It Been', on Thursday, July 28. Those of you who have been following the show may have noticed that my recaps appeared almost as erratically as the episodes did this past winter. My apologies. As some kind of closure, I'm posting recaps for the last six episodes prior to this week's series finale in order. Notice, though, that the recap of "K&R: Part 3" will be absent, as I posted that recap over the weekend. Happy reading!

This episode jumps between the present, where Matt, Danny, and Cal have to cut 28 minutes from the show before that night's broadcast, and the past -- 1999, specifically -- where Matt is struggling to get a sketch on the air. If you were wondering which half I preferred, the past or the present Studio 60, I'd say 1999. Frankly, Studio 60 seemed to be a much more interesting place to be than 2007. The writing staff seemed a lot bigger, full of competitive people who, I hope, would be writing better material than the sketches that we've caught in episodes set in the present. Matt is nervous and, most importantly, is not putting viewers through another boring episode of "Matt Loves Harriet -- Or Does He?" because, thank goodness, he hasn't actually met Harriet yet. That's not true for long, though, as Harriet stumbles into her first writers' meeting, the newest cast member and token Christian.

The more I watch Studio 60, the more I miss Sports Night. But I'll stop short of rhapsodizing about Aaron Sorkin's late lamented sitcom. I've come to bury Studio 60, not to kick it while it's down.

In 1999, the primaries are just coming up, Matt gets space in a proper office -- a step up from the spot on the floor where he'd been writing before -- and tries to get a sketch on the air. A possible source of inspiration arrives in Harriet, the newest and prettiest Studio 60 castmember. Before Matt knows it, he's offended Harriet when he goes off on "values voters" (hello, "Crazy Christians" anyone?), and given Luke a way in. It also doesn't help, of course, that the sketch Matt writes for Harriet, "Being Neve Campbell" doesn't even make it to dress, while Luke's sketch for Harriet, the world's worst singing teacher, is still playing in the present. Though the bickering "chemistry" we've come to expect from the Matt and Harriet hour is fully present, that isn't enough to distract Matt from the other thing bothering him: fellow Studio 60 writer Tim Batale has been fired for pill-taking. Depressed after his girlfriend left him, Tim refuses to go to rehab and slinks out, carton in hand and baseball cap pulled firmly over his brow. Tim doesn't go, though, without one last grasp -- he has Joe submit a sketch to the pile for him, hoping that he could write his way back in...

Back in 2007, Matt can't get anyone to remember Tim, not Cal or Danny or anyone else. He decides to try the music director -- maybe she remembered Tim? Instead, Matt finds Diane Valdes, this week's busy musical guest. Diane doesn't know who Tim Batale was, but she can tell Matt's high. Handing him some eye drops, she extols the virtues of class II narcotics and talks about the wonderful (albeit fucked-up) hallucinations one suffers under the influence. Matt ponders this back in his office, where he finds Cal and Danny still working on the board. Matt tells them to to cut anything Matt wrote for Harriet, which magically makes the show the right length. While Cal runs off to tell everbody in the crew, Matt tells Danny about his latest fight with Harriet at dinner, and that she's back with Luke. Danny is convinced they can get back together, and maybe Matt feels the same, as he gets up to walk to Harriet's dressing room. Finding Luke there, he forgets the "note" he was going to give Harriet, and returns to the office. On his way, he runs into Andy, who doesn't remember Tim, either. Andy gestures to a wall of writing staff photos from years past, asking him to point Tim out in the 1999 snapshot. Matt leans in and is confused -- he can't find Tim either.

Elsewhere in the present, Jordan is trying to get the grandmother of a victim of gang violence, a young man currently in medical school, to appear on reality chief's reality show about reconciliation. Hallie reports that the grandmother refuses. Jordan, figuring it's either because she had a genuine change or heart or wants more money, gets on the phone with grandma. Grandma still refuses, saying that she makes her heartfelt decisions when she prays at church, and her decision is not to allow her grandson to be exploited. Though Hallie presses on, Jordan thanks grandma for her time and hangs up the phone. She busts Hallie for keeping grandma's refusal from Jordan -- grandma made her decision on Sunday, a fact which Hallie kept from Jordan until Friday so they would have to go with Hallie's first choice, a porn star meeting with the swim coach who molested her as a girl.

Matt couldn't find Tim in the picture, and neither Andy, Danny, nor Cal could remember Tim, because Tim never existed. The guy in the baseball cap, blue shirt, and khaki pants was Matt, as confirmed by the staff photograph. Diane wasn't kidding when she said the hallucinations and blackouts were real, a thought Matt considers as he goes back to his office, leans his head back, and pops the pills Diane gave him.

And for those of you who were paying attentin: Tim Batale is an anagram for 'Matt Albie'.