A feminist blog entitled Joan of Snark accuses The Girlie Show with Tracy Jordan (TGS) of being misogynistic due to their lack of female writers and detracting, stereotypical portrayal of female characters. Liz Lemon (Tina Fey) takes the accusation to heart, and begins to wonder if it is true, when she remembers that the last show, in the absence of Tracy Jordan (Tracy Morgan), had focused entirely on Jenna Maroney (Jane Krakowski) getting her period in different guises, including those of Amelia Earhart and Hillary Clinton. In order to address the criticism, Liz decides to hire an up and coming comedienne named Abby Flynn, but becomes frustrated when she turns out to be an embarrassing female stereotype, and so seeks to uncover her real personality.
Meanwhile, Jack Donaghy (Alec Baldwin) plots to someday become the CEO of Kabletown, but in order to do that he must first eliminate the competition, the current CEO’s granddaughter, Kaylee Hooper (Chloë Moretz). He decides to meet Kaylee, whereupon he discovers that she has little interest in following in her Grandfather’s footsteps and instead wants to become a marine biologist. Jack further encourages her along this career path, even introducing her to Robert Ballard, the man who discovered the wreck of the Titanic. However, his efforts begin to work against him, as he yearns for his own childhood dreams, which were also that of marine biology.
Both Liz and Jack’s respective plans backfire. Liz discovers that Abby Flynn’s real name is Abby Grossman, and that the real reason she is hiding her identity is because her psychopathic ex-boyfriend is hunting her down. This revelation causes a panicked Abby to rush out of the TGS writers room, screaming that Liz is a Judas to women everywhere. Meanwhile, Jack discovers that Kaylee has no interest in marine biology. She had, in fact, found out about his own interest by reading his book, Jack Attack, and was attempting to use it against him in the same way he was her.
“TGS Hates Women” is the sixteenth episode of the fifth season of the American television comedy series 30 Rock, and the 96th overall episode of the series. It was written by co-executive producer Ron Weiner and directed by Beth McCarthy-Miller. The episode originally aired on the National Broadcasting Company (NBC) network in the United States on February 24, 2011. Guest stars in this episode include Cristin Milioti and Chloë Moretz.
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