Reception
In its original American broadcast, "Retreat to Move Forward" was watched by 6.4 million households, according to the Nielsen Media Research. This episode earned a 3.2 rating/8 share in the 18 and 49 demographic, meaning that 3.2 percent of all people in that group, and 8 percent of all people from that group watching television at the time, watched the episode. This was a decrease from the previous episode, "Flu Shot", which was watched by 6.6 million American viewers.
Television columnist Alan Sepinwall of The Star-Ledger felt that "Retreat to Move Forward" was one of the best episodes of an uneven season. Sepinwall, however, felt it "petered out" towards the end, and that the Tracy and Kenneth plot did not work until it met the Jenna and Frank story. He noted that without the addition of a guest star, "this one made good use of virtually the entire cast". IGN contributor Robert Canning enjoyed Liz and Jack's relationship in the episode. Canning felt that while the show occasionally hints at a romantic relationship between the two, they should never become linked. In his opinion, the episode demonstrated their non-romantic friendship "perfectly". Bob Sassone of AOL's TV Squad liked the episode, but noted "...it's the second week in a row where one of the plots was way too over the top for me." Sassone wrote that he was not thrilled with the Kenneth and Tracy plot, citing that it was "way too silly and loud". TV Guide's Matt Mitovich said that "Retreat to Move Forward" was "nother very funny, super-huge-guest-star-free episode". Rick Porter of Zap2it reported that he found himself "more attracted" to the second-tier plots than to the Jack and Liz plot, observing that it "had its moments, but the overall story didn't hit too many new notes in their relationship. So yeah, some funny bits here and there with the main story ... But we've seen this kind of dynamic between Liz and Jack before, and so it didn't have the same comedic force as in the past." Kevin D. Thompson for The Palm Beach Post praised 30 Rock for doing a perfect job with its three plots in the episode, and said that Jenna's line, "The academy loves dead singers and the handicapped. And Janis was both!", was "ands-down, the funniest line of the show."
The A.V. Club's Nathan Rabin, who had been favorable to Jenna's story arc of her playing Joplin, was not impressed with her antics in this episode. In regards to the episode itself, Rabin opined, "Tonight's episode was consistently amusing but 30 Rock engenders such sky-high expectations that being good oftentimes just isn't good enough." In conclusion, he gave the episode a B grade rating. "'Retreat to Move Forward' had some amusing moments, but it's a bit unmemorable in retrospect. I'm still waiting for a true classic 30 Rock episode this season", said Jeremy Medina for Paste magazine. Nonetheless, Medina preferred this episode over The Office's "Prince Family Paper", in which its plot focused on whether actress Hilary Swank was attractive or not.
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