Liz (Tina Fey) begins to notice that Jack (Alec Baldwin) is green-lighting an exceptionally terrible lineup of new NBC shows like Homonym (a game show where a contestant must define the homophone of a given word) and God Cop (in which Jack himself plays God).
In the end, Liz agrees to work with Jack on "tanking" NBC so that Hank will sell the network.
She wanted to get close to Tracy, hoping he would cast her in a movie and in effect, launch her career in show business.
Club, Pilot Viruet gave "The Beginning of the End" an "A−" and praised the "rapid-fire jokes, the great callbacks [..., and] the biting-the-hand-that-feeds-you approach to NBC.
"[5] Eric Goldman of IGN also gave the episode an overall positive review and highly praised the Liz/Jack dynamic, but described the different storylines as "a mixed bag.
"[7] Bonnie Stiernberg of Paste magazine gave the episode an 8.8 out of 10 highly praising the "tanking" plot as "30 Rock‘s way of going out with a bang" and described the show's eminent conclusion as "... leaving us at the perfect moment: Liz Lemon and friends have been around the block long enough to show us all they’re capable of, but they’re bowing out while still on top of their game, as evidenced by this season’s premiere.