Will and Grace – How to Succeed in Business Without Really Crying

By: Kelly Kearney

Change is coming and for Will and Grace it comes in the form of a new career path and it’s all thanks to Grace’s hot new client. Throw in a pint size coffee machine and a pint size homosexual and there aren’t enough morphine drips in the world that could dull the comedy of this week’s episode!

Big Clients, Big Promotions and Big Money

It’s early morning and Will (Eric McCormack) and Grace (Debra Messing) are getting ready for their big day. Will is about to make senior partner and Grace is interviewing a big client so the fashion choices must be on point. In the middle of the BFF’s pep talk, Jack (Sean Hayes) comes in squealing with a question about who’s gay, rich and beautiful. Will responds with Jared Kushner and while all of that might be true, Jack reveals he’s won the lottery! He explains that he and his coworker Theodore (Derek Gaines) won two thousand dollars on a scratch off, making “Just Jack” a thousandaire.

Speaking of the filthy rich, Karen Walker (Megan Mullally) rents a room at the country club for a little rest and relaxation. The millionaire usually goes on drug induced vacations and is elated when she finds her room comes equipped with a complimentary morphine drip! Searching for a clue as to who sent the gift, Karen learns her room has been double booked by none other than BEVERLY LESLIE (Leslie Jordan) who’s alive and never took that nose dive out a penthouse window! Karen’s pint sized arch nemesis is back and he’s carried into the room by his new playmate, Benji #2 (Justin Shaw).  She is shocked that Beverly had the audacity to steal her room, but when he says he’s recovering from surgery and the morphine drip was his that is one step too far for Karen and her insult claws come out. She assumes his surgery was a labia reconstruction and immediately the two start throwing insults around like two old friends that love a good Mexican plastic surgeon but despise each another.

Over at Grace Adler Designs, the dashing Eli Wolfe (Max Greenfield) is interviewing Grace about designing a chain of boutique hotels. As usual, Grace is awkward and desperate to land the deal. When Tony (Anthony Ramos), Grace’s new assistant, drops by its obvious Eli is interested in more than home furnishings. The very straight Tony lets Eli know he’s not his type and it’s apparent Wolfe’s interest in Grace as a designer is waning. That’s when Will calls and immediately Eli spots the cute lawyer’s photo and asks if he’s gay. Seeing where this is headed Grace says yes and offers up her best friend for the boutique deal. All pimping aside, Eli is a hot entrepreneur and Will is a hot soon to be senior partner so getting these two together wouldn’t be the worst thing Grace has done.

The Great Mini Coffee Machine Swindle of 2017

At the Boy’s and Girl’s Club, Jack and his coworker Theodore have a disagreement over splitting the scratch off money. Jack only gave Theodore a dollar, but he wants half the winnings and Theodore disagrees with that skewed math. In true Jack fashion, he already spent the money on a jean jacket adorned with Karen’s face. And, as stone washed jean jackets go, this one is fabulous. The two bicker back and forth about who owes what to whom while hitting every social and political talking point in between the lines of their banter. I mean, Theodore has never heard the saying, “Hell hath no fury like a woman scored over her scratch off winnings?” He should’ve seen this “Conflama” (Shonda Rhimes’ style of conflict and drama) coming as Jack calls. Besides, Theodore already spent two hundred dollars on a mini coffee machine. Who doesn’t love tiny cups of coffee? Jack, the guy who’s one thousand in the hole and battled caffeine addiction like a scene from Trainspotting, that’s who.

Back at Will’s apartment, Grace comes clean and admits she pimped out Will but when he realizes who Grace’s client is, he’s not even that mad. Eli Wolf is just the power gay Will needs, so it’s a win, win for Will and Grace.

Meanwhile, at the country club Karen notices Beverly is nervous and says, “You look like Jeff Sessions watching a black man vote,” and it’s true. Beverly looks shaken and about to lose it. After some prodding he comes clean and admits the unimaginable, Beverly Leslie is a homosexual. Of course, Karen (and twenty million fans of the show) bursts into laughter and reminds Beverly that he’s already come out, when he danced with Benji the night he buried his wife. I guess that was another figment of Karen’s drugged out dreamscape because Crystal came to life when the dirt hit her coffin and she is most definitely alive. Now that Beverly’s realized he’s gay, he wants his dear old friend Karen to help him break the news to his wife. Besides, she’s 90 years old so if the shock kills her then he gets the money and Benji #2. Not a bad coming out party for a guy named Beverly.

Crying is Never Sexy

At Will’s apartment, Eli comes over for his date, but Will turns him off when he starts crying about his job. It turns out the lawyer doesn’t really want to be a lawyer anymore and certainly isn’t looking forward to taking the senior partner gig. The work is killing him, but his emotional pity party is also killing Eli’s mood. Eli leaves unsatisfied and when Grace shows up she’s livid that Will dropped the ball. Will tries explaining, but Grace’s drama overshadows his so he keeps his worries to himself…kind of. Throughout the episode Will keeps getting phone calls from a wrong number and he winds up confiding in the faceless friend instead of his bestie whose run off to beg Eli for the job.

Back to the Boy’s and Girl’s Club, Jack and Theodore are engaging in some politically correct verbal warfare over splitting the money. The scene truly highlights Sean Hayes comedic timing and like a tennis match, Derek Gaines serves it right back to him. Back and forth and around in circles they argue without ever getting anywhere. That’s when a young girl named Tasha (Jordan Julian) interrupts asking Jack to walk her to the subway. When Jack asks what happened to her dad’s car he drives for Lyft Tasha says it needs eighteen hundred dollars in repairs. That’s one lottery ticket minus a tiny coffee machine so Theodore allows Jack to give their winnings to the girl. Jack might be a selfish, lazy, fabulous, diva yet his heart is pure gold and a part of Theodore recognizes that.

Over at the country club, Beverly has no recollection of admitting he’s gay. It’s like it was erased from his memory completely. Karen drags him down memory lane by dropping clues about him preferring ding dongs to hoe hoes and having the skills to beat a Japanese competitive hot dog eater. Still Beverly can’t remember and blames it on the morphine drip haze. Of course, it wouldn’t be Karen if she didn’t stick it to her arch nemesis in some way so she texts Crystal to say her husband is there and wants to celebrate her birthday. Cruel, Walker, so cruel. Beverly freaks because his wife might want birthday sex, from the front, something no morphine induced straight (definitely gay) man should have to endure. The Walker/Leslie feud is back on and everything is right in the world when these two are at each other’s throats.

Grace and Will Has a Nice Ring to it

In the end, Grace finally tracks down Eli just as he’s about to board his helicopter to gay, rich and beautiful land telling she deserves the job based on her work not Will. Eli agrees and, besides, he already chose her for the job. There’s just one stipulation, she has to dedicate her entire workflow to him as he must be her only client. Grace is ecstatic and thanks him for her epic dream job. Eli boards the helicopter and mentions that it’s too bad Will hasn’t found his dream job. Immediately, Grace assumes Will didn’t make senior partner and feels awful for not asking him why he was so upset earlier. She heads home and finds out the truth, Will made senior partner but he didn’t take the job. Grace makes a split-second decision and asks him to join her at the design company. Now that all her time will be dedicated to the Eli Wolfe project, she could use and extra pair of hands. Knowing this is probably a terrible mistake, Will excitingly accepts Grace’s offer. “Will and Grace,” he says. Grace scraps that idea for the better sounding “Grace and Will.” Whatever the title of the company will be, can this gay/straight/best friend/roommate/work partnership survive meshing their lives in every way? Time will tell so stay tuned for the next “Will and Grace.”