SYMPATHY: Of course, viewers can't help but feel sorry for her when her shot at returning to a lead TV role gets zapped.

CONCLUSION: The episode has all three factors, but in skimpy proportions. The money scene isn't a big one. She hides her breaking heart too well, leaving external emotions appearing much like her regular behavior. That restrains the range she might get to show off otherwise. She earns huge sympathy from viewers late in the episode, but too late? Earlier, her role is whiny and bitchy when she tells her hubby she can't join him for an important business social because she's getting her hair done that night, then reveals how flexible her schedule really is by accepting an invite from her sitcom costars. However, she's mostly appealing over all and exudes charm and vulnerability that may offset her character's self-absorption. Bottom line: if Emmy judges are familiar with "Comeback," they'll be utterly won over by Kudrow's performance here. If not, beware. This will be their introduction to the character's angst-ridden, fake chirpiness and nervous twitches, qualities that make Valerie a fascinating and brutally honest Hollywood role, yes, but they're piled on dangerously high here. For the first half of "A Very Special Episode," Valerie is often annoying.

2.) — "Valerie Gets to Hang with the Cool Kids" — When two comic guys who "do this Pakistani jibberish thing" are added to Valerie's sitcom, two other guy characters are furiously jealous. Older cast members pull together and enlist Valerie to join a sick-out in protest, but they lose their nerve and return to work the next day, neglecting to inform their co-conspirator. Valerie freaks when she finds out and producers get angry with her for holding up production. She rushes to the set, yells at her costars for making her look bad and fesses up to her bosses, "You should know that you've got your hands full here with the kids. Sitcoms are like a family and this one needs your attention. The kids have issues, you need to talk to them and I don't want anything!"

RANGE: She runs the gamut from perky positive gal to doting momma (consoling the boys upset about the new guys) to nagging momma (she spends lots of time yelling at her daughter and pals about smoking and drinking) and take-charge adult coping with the crisis at her sitcom.

IMPACT: Best moment comes when she shares her true, private feelings while addressing a TV camera as part of the video diary she keeps for her own reality TV show, which is not yet on the air. Upset, her voice cracks as she confesses, "Against my better judgment, I have decided to support my fellow cast members and it shakes me to the bone!" She also wows viewers when she confronts her bosses about the sitcom's family crisis.

SYMPATHY: Viewers feel terrible for poor Valerie when she gets shafted while trying to support her costars.

CONCLUSION: "Cool Kids" is a good, solid showcase of Kudrow's acting chops. She has several impressive scenes and is always likable and sympathetic, even when nagging the girls. Also, her character's faked chirpiness and nervous twitches are minimal, mere shading, not off-putting. She pops off like a diva, yes, but not for selfish reasons and her acting is 100 percent believable. Drawbacks: her first big scenes don't occur until halfway into the episode and the crisis at the sitcom isn't important to viewers. This would be an excellent Emmy submission if the sitcom's chiefs tried to fire Valerie for the sick-out and we got to witness her terror and desperate pleas to get re-hired. A twist like that would add dramatic weight and context. Without it, the storyline — and thus this episode — seem rather lightweight.

3.) — "Valerie Does Another Classic Leno" — Appearing in her last shoot for her reality TV series, Valerie talks squarely about her feud with sitcom producer Paulie G, which resulted in her hitting him. She'd been dressed up like a giant cupcake at the time and, when she slammed into him, he vomited. Valerie puked, too. Obviously, the pathetic scene will be shown on the reality show, so she sets the scene for viewers, speaking frankly, "I've tried everything I can to be nice to him, but Paulie G has had it out for me. From the minute he saw me, he's been nothing but hurtful. He's abusive, he's threatening, he's a monster! All I know is that after months and months of personal attacks, yes, I hit him. Yes, I'm ashamed of what I did, I am, but after everything he did to me, he had it coming!"

A few weeks later, Valerie hosts a party at home so she can watch the reality series' premiere with friends. What she sees on TV, however, horrifies and humiliates her. Paulie G is shown saying sweet, supportive things about her just before Valerie decries him as "a monster!" and attacks him while dressed as a cupcake.

Valerie flees her party and, furious, zooms across town to the apartment of her field producer, shouting, "You betrayed me! I can't even show my face on the 'Tonight Show' tomorrow!" She quits the reality series on the spot, but the producer continues to track her anyway, following her to the 'Tonight Show' set the next day where Valerie plans to denounce her own reality show publicly.

"I'm going to tell (Jay's viewers) that reality TV is humiliation TV and that people's characters are being destroyed just so other people have something to TIVO!" she fumes. "Then I'm going to quit 'The Comeback'!"

But when Valerie joins Jay on the set, he roars, "I came into work today and everybody, everybody is talking about what happened on your show last night!" The audience cheers as Jay shows the vomiting cupcake scene over and over. Suddenly, it occurs to Valerie: she has a hit show on her hands. Backstage moments later, she gets the news that her network picked up the show for a second season.

"After one episode!" she gasps. "That never happens! Never happens! Oh, my god!"

RANGE: Compared to the other two episodes, the span of raw emotions she displays here is far wider, deeper and more devastating to witness.

IMPACT: She has so many jackpot scenes that this episode could be set in Atlantic City.

SYMPATHY: Her humiliation and disappointment are epic. Viewers feel like rallying to her side with hugs.

CONCLUSION: "Classic Leno" is a classic Emmy reel. It's loaded to the max with all three things that judges want to see when voting. Plus a huge bonus: empathy. We've all been stuck in ugly situations where things worked out just fine simply because we kept our mouths shut. The Empathy Factor can be a huge deciding one in close Emmy contests. It probably triggered upset wins last year for Felicity Huffman ("Desperate Housewives") and Patricia Arquette ("Medium"). In addition to all that, "Classic Leno" also feels important and it ends on a joyous emotional uptick as a TV has-been emerges from Leno's studio suddenly a superstar again while fans besiege Valerie for autographs.

Ultimately, it seems overwhelmingly obvious to me that "Classic Leno" is Kudrow's ideal Emmy submission. Am I wrong? Or do you agree? Click here to join in a discussion in our forums.