Will & Grace – Supreme Courtship

By: Kelly Kearney

Love can make us do crazy things and nobody does crazy with as much flair as Grace Adler. After knocking a beloved and prominent woman down in an attempt to steal her cab, Grace becomes a pariah in New York City, a town that’s made knocking people down for cabs a variable sport. Overcoming her shame is a struggle, but she isn’t the only one facing hardships this week. With Jack’s wedding right around the corner, making friends with Estefan isn’t on the top of Will’s to do list and Jack can’t let it go. Meanwhile, Karen discovers a secret about Noah that makes her heart sing and she will fight to the death before she allows him to give it up. It’s Valentine’s day romance and judiciary beat downs in this week’s Will & Grace.

The Secret is out

It’s Valentine’s day and love is in the air! Grace (Debra Messing) interrupts Will’s (Eric McCormack) flirty phone call with McCoy and questions if he’s talking to his mother. After his repulsion, Will’s interest is piqued when Grace announces she has big news. Her boyfriend Noah (David Schwimmer), the Westside Curmudgeon, has a secret and it flies in direct conflict with his sour puss persona. The Curmudgeon is actually famed romance novelist Sylvia Delacroix and against type he’s actually a big romantic at heart! Will cant believe it because Noah “is the least romantic person in the world” and Grace has to agree since she’s his girlfriend and knows her boo would rather spend Valentine’s day, “getting his dog’s anal glands expressed.” Who said romance is dead?

Noah comes up the elevator and Grace makes Will promise not to say anything, but it’s too late. In the three seconds since Grace dropped the Sylvia bomb, Will texted Jack (Sean Hayes) and then he texted Karen (Megan Mullally) with the news. Shockingly, Karen is thrilled. The former Mrs. Walker is a trashy romance novel fan and she is obsessed with Sylvia-Noah’s books. Not being able to contain her excitement, Karen bursts into the apartment quoting lines from her favorite character like some Fabio fangirl. The entire dramatic monologue surprises Will, who assumed she couldn’t read at all. That’s when Noah breaks up the party by announcing he’s written his final book and he’s putting his romance career on the shelf. He’s “done being a part of the ‘romantic industrial complex’” and no longer wants to exploit people’s loneliness for fame and glory, even if he writes under a pseudonym. The Curmudgeon goes a step further, announcing this is the exact reason why he hates Valentines day. Grace agrees, but it’s clear she’s covering up for the fact she loves Valentines day and just wants to seem cool in the eyes of Sylvia-Noah Delicrioux Curmudgeon. Even more tragic than that name, Noah says he’s killing off Karen’s favorite character Arora. She drops her martini glass, two of them actually, in shock (she never leaves home without a martini glass) because she is not ready to say goodbye to her stories.

Will and Estefan’s Playdate

When your best friend gets married, the obvious thing to do is become friends with their betrothed.  Will doesn’t seem interested in being buddies with Estefan (Brian Jordan Alvaraez), even if he’s invited to attend Queer Eye for the Straight Guy’s rendition of The Vagina Monologues with Jack’s other half. Will declines the invite and Jack tries to smooth over their awkward encounter by saying he’s busy attending the funeral of the Aunt he’s named after. Jack quickly ushers Estefan out the door and accuses Will of hurting the feelings of his male fiance’, A.K.A. his, “boyiance.” Jack wants Will to drop his attitude around Estefan and out in some effort to be his friend. Their argument reaches screeching levels and Jack’s gone full drama diva over the two men he loves most on the world not getting along. Will asks Jack to back off and let his relationship with Estefan grow without his meddling and scheming. Unfortunately for Will, meddling and emceeing are Jack’s go-to and he has no plans of dropping this anytime soon.

Meanwhile, Karen tries to stop Noah from killing off her favorite character from his books. After offering him sexual favors, of which she promises Grace will provide, Noah tells her he already finished the book and its about to land on his editor’s desk. Karen is quick to pick up the fact that Noah hasn’t sent his manuscript yet and realizes this is her last chance to save Aurora. She pulls out a handgun and aims it at the writer’s laptop threatening, “Aurora lives, or the laptop gets it!”

Grace is Down With RBG

Love is in the air and so is the fate of America’s democracy after Grace does the unthinkable. With all this talk of romance Grace’s excitement over buying a non-Valentine’s gift for Noah ends in a national tragedy. In her zeal to catch a cab to the store Grace pulls a New York special and knocks an elderly woman to the ground to steal her cab. Without thinking, she jumps into the cab rambling to the driver about her love life and not once does she think about the woman she threw to the curb. That is until Will calls with the awful news. Someone just attacked Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg in an attempt to steal her cab! Grace realizes the description of the attacker is her! Grace Adler unknowingly attacked a personal icon and she is horrified!

Back at the apartment Will tries his best to make small talk with Estefan, but Jack seems to be the only thing they have in common. Even though the conversation is forced, Will lets Estefan know that he has every intention of getting to know the man now that he’s marrying his best friend. His attitude has changed and Estefan starts to think Will has a crush on him. Jack laughs that off, but if the choice is between Will’s crush or Estefan knowing Jack asked Will to be his friend Jack’s going to let his boo think Will’s smitten. A good scheme always contains a few sacrifices and Jack has no problem throwing Will under the bus if it means protecting Estefan from humiliation.

As the day goes on the entire city is talking about the red head who tried to assassinate the Notorious RBG and if it wasn’t for the fact the eye witness thought she was in her sixties, everyone would know it was Grace. Everyone except Mrs. Timmer (Livia Trevino), Grace’s salty neighbor who starts accusing her of a crime the minute the designer thug steps off the apartment’s elevator. Maybe it’s her guilty conscience, but Grace assumes Mrs. Timmer knows she’s RBG’s assailant and starts making excuses about mistaking RBG for an average elderly woman. As if knocking just any old woman down is fine! She obviously would never knowingly hurt the Supreme Court Justice and she feels awful over what happened. Too bad Mrs. Timmer was referring to Grace stealing her food delivery and had no idea she was the one all of over the news. Now the woman knows the truth, and it’s doubtful she will keep it under wraps. Mrs. Timmer does offer Grace some sage advice – admit what you did and beg for RBG’s forgiveness.

Love, Schemes, Hopes and Dreams

Meanwhile, hostage negotiations are underway between Karen, Noah and his laptop. The writer manages to convince the trigger-happy fangirl to give him her gun, adding it to the plethora of guns she secretly stores in her desk. Then, he learns the true reason for her insanity. Losing Stan was hard on Karen and this is her first Valentine’s day alone. Noah’s books got her through the tough times and gave her hope that one day she would find love again, just like Aurora. Noah can’t believe she takes his books seriously and tries convincing Karen that what he writes isn’t real love. “This crap is ridiculous and embarrassing,” Noah says. “Being ridiculous and embarrassing is what love is,’ Karen fires back. For her, love is simple and fun with a touch of public nudity and a healthy dose attempted murder. You know the little things that make love special. This is something Noah obviously doesn’t get or else he would be spending Valentine’s day with Grace and not Karen. That doesn’t sit right with Noah and he defends himself by explaining the reasons he’s not with Grace are Karen’s gun fetish and Grace’s detest for the overhyped and commercialized holiday. Karen scoffs at that and lets him in on Grace’s secret. His girlfriend is as “squishy as a bird in the microwave,” meaning she loves Valentine’s day yet she loves the Curmudgeon more. She only pretended to hate the hearts and flowers to impress him! Karen thinks Noah acts like he hates romance for the same reason he is killing off Aurora. Embracing romance makes him feel ridiculous and goes against his type. Noah’s stunned because for once, the crazy woman is starting to make sense.

Over at Will’s, Jack bursts in the apartment to fill him in on the current scheme. He has a crush on Estefan and Will needs to go with it because finding out Jack’s been forcing him to play nice, is out of the question. Cue Estefan, who walks in behind Jack and is completely understanding towards Will and his crush on him. He even thinks the famous painting in Will’s apartment is a portrait of himself. Will decides to use this opportunity to teach Jack a lesson and plays up his crush on Estefan with some over the top flirting. He tells Jack he won’t get over his fiancé unless the two can make out. Jack freaks because Estefan agrees it’s the best way to put a crush behind you. There is no way Jack’s going to allow Will to kiss his fiance so he finally admits he lied. There is no crush, except for Estefan’s trust in his beloved and Jack asked Will to play nice for his sake.

Never Give up on True Love

Speaking of humiliation, Grace is rambling to her cabbie about the fall of Western democracy, on route to RBG’s hospital bed. Her pity party gets broken up when a news alert plays on the radio. It’s a message from RBG herself and she’s forgiven her assailant for the accident! She knows the person knocked her down on her way to buying a Valentine’s gift and love can make us do crazy things. Grace is elated to hear that her hero understands the whole tragedy was an accident. Feeling relieved, she orders the cabbie to take her to the store so she can finally buy Noah that gift, and this one is for Valentine’s day, whether he likes it or not!

After the two trade barbs over who is younger looking and fatter, Jack asks Will for a friendly favor. Could the eloquent law professor and lifelong BFF secretly write their vows and then act hurt when everyone says Jack’s a tremendous writer? Nothing changes with Jack, scheming is in his blood and he has no plans of giving it up.

At the same time Noah hands Karen the revised ending from his book. The one where Aurora lives, giving people like Karen and even Noah himself, a little hope. He thanks Karen for setting him straight and leaves to celebrate Valentine’s day with his one true love. It’s a happy ending only Sylvia Delacroix could write, and as Karen reads the final lines from the manuscript, we see Grace happier with Noah than she has been for quite some time. Ah, love, aint it grand?