Will & Grace Season 3, Episode 17
“New Crib”
Posted by Sarah
Kids, we’ve all but reached the end. Soon, we’ll have to say goodbye to our Fab Four once again, and I’d be lying if I told you I’m even the slightest bit ready for this. But if they have to leave again, I just want them to have a good ending. And in this set-up to the series finale, that seems to be the case…for three of them. Everybody’s looking towards their future here, and I’m honestly thrilled for what it has in store for Will, Grace, and Jack. Part of me feels like this show will be making me yell about Karen until the bitter end, and while her set up in this episode admittedly doesn’t feel promising, I would love nothing more than for her to get everything she deserves. I would love to give the series finale nothing but praise. Will I get that chance? Only time will tell.
But for now, we have to take a little road trip Blattsville.
For Jack, Blattsville means celebrity icon status thanks to being the guy with bad breath in an old ad hanging in the local dentist’s office. He’s a huge deal upstate, and he is absolutely living it up, setting his handprints in the walk of fame and basking in the adoration of the town. It’s enough to make him wonder if he shouldn’t just pack up and move here with Estefan. There are valid points for each side of the argument; one one hand, they would be leaving the rat race of NYC behind, but on the other hand, Jack is finally starting to see some success with taking over Coco’s bar and nailing that Broadway audition. But will he actually move and start a new suburban life with his husband? That’s a question for the series finale.
Here’s the thing: for the life of me, I can’t picture Jack in the suburbs. It’s not like it couldn’t ever work, it’s just that it feels…different. Or maybe definitive? Obviously I know the show is ending, but seeing something like Jack moving out of the city makes the end painfully real for someone like me, who isn’t ready for farewell. Regardless, I just want Jack to end this series happy. It’s clear that Estefan makes him happy; and if moving to Blattsville and being the bad breath guy will make him happy too, then I’m all for it.
For Karen, Blattsville means the potential to go down a path she absolutely does not deserve to go down. What should be a great day being honored for leading the Millstones to victory actually consists of Karen obsessing over when Stan is going to get there, and making sure everything is the right level of extravagant so that she can really stick it to him. She scrambles to find an alternative to the vibrator-sized statue the town made of her (and really, renaming the town Karen-Walkerland is enough to make me want to move there, too), she locks down the perfect entrance to the festivities, she makes sure Danley fulfills his end of the bet to the most humiliating extent of it. But after she realizes that Stanley never showed up to the ceremony, she’s devastated, because she only ever wanted Stan to be proud of her. Danley lets it slip that Stan didn’t come because he’s been a wreck ever since he lost Karen, and that he’s still in love with her. And Karen’s looking suspiciously like she’s considering a reconciliation.
If I could channel OG Karen Walker for a second…
Will was wrong: Grace didn’t ruin Karen Walker Day, this did. Why? WHY?! WHY ARE WE EVEN THINKING ABOUT DOING THIS? After everything this asshole put her through–not just last season, but for a good portion of the original run–why does it feel like getting back with Stan is going to be Karen’s inevitable unhappy ending? Listen, I know that there’s going to be a lot of residual feelings to work through when a 30-plus year relationship ends. But we spent so much of this revival watching Karen come into her own in a way she wasn’t able to when she was married to Stan that to completely revert back to this insanely terrible relationship would be such a slap in the face to her. Not to mention, it would be a slap in the face to the audience who loves Karen. It’s not like this show has ever been great at pairing her up with people; the one time they started to get it right, they completely destroyed it before it even had a chance to truly begin (Alexa, play “Rolling in the Deep” while I cry about Nikki for the millionth time). But AT THE VERY LEAST, they could just…you know…not throw her back into the deep end of toxicity. I’ve said it so many times before, but I’ll say it again: how hard is it to give this woman a relationship she actually deserves? How hard is it to let her be happy in a healthy environment?!
Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe they’re throwing me for a loop. Maybe in the finale, Karen just gets closure and moves on to something far better than this. Good lord, I hope that’s the case. Because I really, REALLY don’t want to spend my last recap ever yelling about how they did my girl dirty. But I have a sinking feeling that I’ll have to.
Finally, for Will and Grace, Blattsville is their future. After initially going to an open house for the free brownies and the bathroom (which, let’s be real, is classic Grace even if she wasn’t pregnant), Grace starts to take a serious look at the place and, thinking of life with her son, puts in an offer without letting Will know. It isn’t until Grace drops her phone and Will sees the text from the realtor saying that her offer is in that he realizes what her plans are, and he is rightfully upset. After all of these months thinking that they will be raising their children together, Will is feeling left out and a little betrayed, unable to believe that Grace wouldn’t at least talk to him about it first. Not to mention, the reality that Grace would be in a completely different zip code if she bought the house is sinking in. And while Grace apologizes for not saying something, she’s not apologizing for making an offer on the house; she’s doing this for her future, and for the life her child deserves.
I don’t know about you, but I definitely got first final season vibes with this storyline. It reminded me so much of a pregnant Grace finding out that Leo didn’t go through with his wedding in the second to last episode, rushing to catch a flight to Rome and tell him she’s still in love with him, inadvertently leaving Will in the dust and abandoning that long-established plan to raise her kid together. But even without knowing how this half hour was going to end, this time felt different. And it wasn’t because Leo is (thankfully) nowhere near the picture, or because that storyline ended on a pre-finale cliffhanger where this one didn’t. There was just this inherent knowledge that everything was going to be okay. At the beginning of this season, I kept joking about how it felt like they were just redoing the last final season, but this episode really felt like they were trying to give us a version of the original finale that didn’t split these two up for the better part of twenty years. There was no way this show was going to allow that in any capacity this time. And honestly, since this redo is what we have to work with, thank god. Because this was what we deserved the first time.
Knowing that she never meant to leave Will behind, Grace races back to the house to rescind her offer. Of course, Will’s not far behind, ready to tell her to take the leap and buy the place. And while she’s surely motivated by the potential of a sale, the realtor makes the inevitable suggestion: Will and Grace should go in on the house together. Initially, Will and Grace think it’s crazy, because they’re not a family. But if this show has taught us anything in the near 22 years since its original pilot, it’s that these two are the definition of family. It doesn’t matter that there’s no blood relation. They have always been each other’s constant, have always been there for each other in the best and worst times, and have always had this endless well of love for each other. Any kid would be lucky to grow up around that. Any adult would be lucky to have that support system around them all the time while they raise their children. And they finally realize what everyone has been saying about their living situation for years has been true all along: “It’s odd, but it works.” Thus, Blattsville becomes home as they decide to raise their kids in what admittedly looks like a kick-ass house.
I knew from the photos that have been released over the last few weeks that Will and Grace would be moving out of 9C. I’ve been trying to mentally prepare myself for that image of the empty apartment, and I don’t think I’ll ever be ready for it. But seeing the way Will envisions their kids reading together by the fireplace warmed my heart in a way that not much else could. This is in no way how I expected to see my show end again. I may not be thrilled with how Karen’s end could go. But when it comes to Will and Grace’s end, it makes me so happy to know that this image is where they’re headed. It makes me so happy to know that they are so excited and hopeful about their future.
Now, if this could be the vibe for Jack and Karen, too, I can take this upcoming series finale as a win.
Honey…What’s This? What’s Happening? What’s Going On?
- “Those are just facts.”
- Say what you will, but Baby’s First Martini Set is a solid gift.
- All my love to Jack McFarland for being that proud of his microwaving skills.
- “Is that a fifth bathroom?” “It is now.”
- I didn’t really have the space to do this in the recap proper, but we need to give it up to Yvette Nicole Brown for her role as Ru the realtor this week. My Community-loving heart absolutely appreciates the representation this season (even though Joel McHale ended up playing a psycho and mistreated my girl), and watching her do her thing this week was a delight.
- “I’m the size of a vibrator! I could pleasure myself with myself.”
- Can we take a moment to discuss how Jack is some suburban wife’s hall pass?
- Danley Walker is trash, but Patton Oswalt is a pretty great sport:
- If you’re not already describing Karen Walker as “Your hero, your goddess, and the inspiration for Jessica Rabbit,” then what are you even doing?
- You guys…did we ever find out what a Blatt is?
What did you think of “New Crib?” What do you think will happen in the series finale? Let’s chat in the comments!
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