...and just like the episode proper started with a close-up on a TV monitor, so does the flashback. Though instead of a busty raven-haired singer, we get a faux-Headline News report about the "Countdown to Y2K." So, okay, we're in 1999. A little ham-fisted as far as period detail goes, but it did the job. We continue to mirror the opening scene of the episode, only this time it's a shaky hand-held camera that tracks out outside the writers' room and through the bowels of the studio, both of which are far more congested and hectic than they ever have been in 2007. So we've got a kind of upstairs/downstairs thing going -- in 2007, Matt's in a suit, in his big office upstairs, looking over the show from above as smooth, clean tracking shots guide us along the balcony. In 1999, downstairs with the writers, it's crowded and crazy and unstable, and Matt's dressed like the very sloppy college student he railed against in "The Cold Open." He's got the backwards baseball cap to deal with any receding hairline issues, plus a t-shirt, black jeans, and...are those Converse shoes? Of course they are. As Matt, true to his word, sits on the floor with a legal pad in hand, someone walks by carrying a box, and a few stray videotapes fall out and land at Matt's feet. He addresses this guy, "Tim" -- who's wearing an Oxford shirt, khakis, and has a backpack slung over his shoulder -- and asks him what's up. What's up is that this "Tim" person just got fired by Wes. "They caught me taking pills," he says, as Matt chases him down the hallway. HA! Yeah, those late-night comedy shows, they're such sticklers for the substance abusers. It's almost as if this plot point is so ridiculous that it could never have happened. But that's a bit metal, isn't it? Tim nonspecifics about the wheres and whys of his firing, and at the end of the hallway, we see a shot of Matt and Tim reflected in a picture frame. Tim mentions that Wes said he could have his job back if he went to rehab, but that he's "not begging" for his job back. Matt's like, "Why not? And you kind of maybe need rehab anyway." Tim tells Matt to go to hell, and walks out the door, no doubt to go find some B-team tail.