Will & Grace went all “very special episode” on us Thursday night that dove deep into the long history between the titular characters and the reemergence of an old one… through the body of someone else.
Sometimes the storylines in these past two seasons can be very rushed as all four of them can individually have something going on over the course of 22 minutes. Luckily there was only two major stories that occurred last night, with both having a tremendous impact on the character’s lives.
The rain that was going on outside in New York City played a pivotal part in the episode overall, as Karen decided to move a lot of her stuff into Grace’s office as she plans on selling “the mans”. It inspired Grace to go into her own storage and find old letters that she and Will sent to one another over 30 years ago. Oh, and Jack becomes a “certified” psychic, which is hilarious of course but helps Karen out in a very interesting way.
While Jack and Karen are looking through a ton of her personal items, she declares that she will never find love again as her relationship with Stan has ended. When Jack finds a perfume that Rosie (Shelley Morrison) got her, it brought back sweet memories for Karen as she has brought her up in a very kind way several times since her passing last season. When Jack sprays it, something magically happens where Rosie’s spirit gets transported inside of him and he becomes her (in a very eerie and realistic way).
Karen has disbelief that it is her at first, but she comes through at some point and tells her point blank that you will find love again. Amid the humor of this (the long kiss that comes with jokes about how her breath tastes), Karen does a 180 and starts to believe that love will happen for her again. It ends with her spraying the perfume and dancing around the office.
As for Will & Grace, the episode starts with the latter refusing to say I’m sorry about a situation, so much so that she does reverse psychology and puts it back on him. When they find the letters that they wrote the day after Thanksgiving 1985 (when he came out to her during their relationship), she once again makes it about herself which makes Will furious. They then get into it and she does her best to pry his letter that he wrote away from her to no avail. The serious moments between W&G are crucial for them as it showcases what a gay man and straight woman go through in a very long relationship between one another.
She eventually gets the letter back from one of her neighbors after he throws it over the balcony, which makes Grace cry hysterically after reading the contents of it. She never saw things from his point of view, and he mentions hurting himself due to the pain of coming out and feeling like no one will love him. Grace finally says that she’s sorry for her part in all of this (although that takes a little while to say as well), and the episode ends with them embracing and the audience loudly applauding.
Overall, this has been the best episode of the series. The emotional parts tug at you when you least expect it, and as funny as these four are individually and as a group its good to see that there is character development that reminds us of why this show was so special in the first place.
This post was created by one of our Contributing Writers and does not reflect the opinion of Instinct Magazine or the other Contributing Writers when it comes to this subject.