Will & Grace – Family Trip

By: Kelly Kearney

Karen extinguishes her torch for Stan in a surprising goodbye ballad that left fans weak in the knees. Elsewhere, Will and Jack trip the light fantastic and manage to redefine their relationship all while Grace battles her older and newly outed sister after she finds her hooking up with one of her clients. It’s big changes, new beginnings and empty closets on this week’s “Will & Grace.”

Karen Walker Does Not Do Feelings

When we last saw Karen (Megan Mullally), she was in the middle of a high-profile divorce from her husband Stan, who wanted out of their marriage the second he learned about her affair with Malcolm (Alec Baldwin). We pick up months later where Karen’s divorce is almost final and she seems to be taking it in stride, to the utter shock of her friends. Before she leaves for her final meeting with the divorce lawyer, Grace (Debra Messing) checks in with her to see how she’s holding up. In typical Karen snark, the woman responds with, “Honey, feelings are for poor people and the liberals who love them.” So, it’s fairly obvious, Karen’s not going to break down anytime soon. Grace doesn’t really buy Karen’s stiff upper lip and reminds the woman that she’s there for her if she needs her. Karen, who is way too distracted with Grace’s fashion choices to answer, staggers out of the office just as a sleepy Janet (Mary McCormack) meanders out of the stock room. Apparently, Grace’s wild child older sister has been camping out there ever since her boyfriend’s wife came home from active duty and Karen’s been so busy she forgets (on purpose) to mention it. Besides the fact Janet and her baby sister “Smudge” never really got along, Janet is basically squatting in Grace’s office and the busy designer is concerned that this won’t fly with her new and impressively rich client.

Over at Chateau Truman-Adler, Will’s (Eric McCormack) wrapping things up with his student’s study group as Jack (Sean Hayes) enters with news about his upcoming nuptials. He bought the wedding rings and, yes, he used Will’s AMEX card to do it. After all, what are BFFS for? After joking about his engagement ring, “This is the first ring I’ll ever wear…on my finger,” Will notices the inscription on the band reads “to my soulmate” and the term seems to rub him the wrong way. Enter Jack’s other soulmate, Karen, who has her divorce papers in hand and wants Will to go over them before she signs. The new divorcee spots a container of “chocky-milks” left behind by one of Will’s students and she admits the delicious beverage is her one and only vice. She takes a few sips while ignoring Will and Jack’s confusion over her no-feels attitude about Stan. She denies their request to sing her blues as the three take turns sipping from the milk jug. Little do the three know that the sweet treat their chugging contains a very special ingredient. They soon figure it out when the night turns into a soul searching, trip down life changing lane that’s chocked full of hallucinations and powerhouse laundromat ballads.

“I’m a lesbian now. Deal with it.”

Back at the office, Grace is working overtime to impress her new client Donna (Chelsea Handler) who, if her comment about paint samples giving her “eye herpes” is any indication, she’s one tough woman to please. While Grace heads to the stock room to find a less contagious color option, Janet wanders in mumbling about the proper color of urine and immediately catches Donna’s eye. Maybe it’s the unbrushed hair and pajamas, but something about Janet makes power suit lesbian Donna swoon. Being the kind of woman who is used to hearing the word “yes,” Donna practically orders Janet to go out with her, not that it would have taken much convincing. Janet always seems up for a good time, as long as the good time is paying the bill.

Later, Grace stumbles upon the new lovers when she stops by Donna’s to discuss some design ideas. Janet immediately tells her sister she’s a lesbian now and Grace, who knows her sister is an opportunist, argues that the Adler sisters are way too lazy to put in the work it requires to be lesbians. The more Janet, and now Donna, insist they are together the more Grace is disturbed by the details of her sister’s sex life. It’s not that Grace has an issue with Janet being gay, it’s that nobody wants to think of their siblings having sex, except according to Grace, “Angelina Jolie’s brother.”

Vow to be Besties for Life

Over at the apartment, the chocky-milks starts to kick in and Will and Jack realize they’ve been drugged. Will assumes the students planned to pregame their post-study group clubbing with the spiked milk and now he and Jack are about to rave the night away. What’s their loss is Will and Jack’s gain! After some impromptu flossing and vogueing, the two men start seeing butterflies and begin to delve into a conversation about their friendship. The soulmate inscription really bothers Will who has always loved/hated the fact Jack needed him so much, almost like he thinks the position of soulmate has already been filled. As they fall deeper down the rabbit hole of hallucinations, the men literally witness a talking rabbit on the house phone and you know that’s a delusion because who has land lines these days? Soon enough they’re peaking on the milks and land on the topic of what makes a soulmate and whether or not Will fits that definition better than Jack’s betrothed, Estefan (Brian Jordan Alvarez). Whatever the reason is, Will’s struggling to support Jack’s decision to call Estefan his soulmate and thanks to the drugs Jack’s starting to question his choices, too. With a little help from the chocolate milk, Will and Jack start to think they are each other’s soulmates. I mean if the ring fits (it doesn’t) then Will must be made for Jack (he’s not)! Everything seems to be coming up roses with the two best friends and they’re ecstatic over their new status, but unfortunately the undying love totally wears off the minute the drugs do. Instead of finishing each other’s sentences, Jack and Will are at each other’s throats and they begin to realize they aren’t meant to be. Eventually, they calm down when Will admits he’s afraid of losing his one constant in his life, his friendship with Jack. They both decide to male their friendship official and as the two hold hands to say their best friend vows, they promise to always be there for each other, through thick weight gain and thinning hair, and all the botched plastic surgery fails in between. The bond that has been formed will never be broken, Will and Jack are best friends for life!

Speaking of life bonds, the Adler sisters have a heart to heart that starts off with Grace explaining how Janet always manages to throw a wrench in her plans. Sleeping with her client is just another way to ruin Grace’s life and Janet never misses a chance to take down Smudge. In turn, Janet admits that she’s always felt guilty for not being a good big sister and, honestly, she never really knew how. The sisters decide, for their late mother’s sake, to finally make peace. Bobbie always wanted her girls to look out for each other and now that she’s gone, Grace and Janet agree it is time to bury the hatchet, and for once, not in each other’s backs. It seems, both Grace and Will got the closure they needed but what about Karen and her feels?

Mrs. Stanley Walker’s Final Performance

While Will and Jack were chasing butterflies and soulmate dreams, Karen’s milk kicked in at a hot dog stand which happens to be her other “only vice.” With sausage in hand, she spots a theater billboard announcing her final performance as Mrs. Walker, only the theater is a grubby laundromat and Karen’s singing into a steaming wiener and bun. From on top of a washer running the spin cycle the laundromat morphs into a sold-out theater where Megan Mullally proves that she is more than TV’s  snarky sloshed socialite, but an actress with a singing voice that could make Judy Garland weep. On stage Karen finally finds her feels as she belts out her rendition of “The Man That Got Away” and instantly a star is born. The performance is hauntingly full of emotion as Mrs. Walker says her goodbyes to not only her husband, but to the woman she’s been for decades. She found the heart of her despair in that chocolate milk, the very thing that Grace, Jack and Will knew she had to let out, and boy did she ever let it out. She poured every bit of herself into Stanley’s torch song, one final goodbye to her old self and a hello to the new Karen (name to be determined), who I am sure will be just as drunk and loathsomely fabulous as the old one. Well…we can only hope.