Will & Grace & Kevin & Tara

Since the last two straight guys Grace hooked up with sparked angry explosions from Will, is it any wonder that she's keeping the fact of her next date from him? Of course, that's not the only reason she's hiding the identity of this swain: it's Danny, the guy she almost married in the season premiere. Will is gearing up to become the wedge between them when Jack points out Will's propensity to meddle. However, when Will backs off and refuses to tell Grace what to do -- a new experience for her and for the viewer -- she struggles to make her own decisions, and the spat that ensues has them both facing the realization that living together might not be what's best for them. Karen is in the middle of her own crisis of cohabitation: her live-in maid, Rosario (Shelley Morrison) -- who we finally meet! -- is facing deportation. Cue the hare-brained green-card marriage scheme, with Jack as her totally believable groom! We take you through "Object Of My Rejection" in Season 1's last Will & Grace & Kevin & Tara podcastLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As far as we've seen, Rob and Ellen have long been Will and Grace's go-to game night opponents. But this arrangement may need to be revised, because Grace is extremely competitive, and Ellen's not having fun. Rob and Ellen meet privately with Will to try to get him to rein in his roommate, and when the next group outing is to a bowling alley, Grace actually demonstrates an admirable ability to forget the stakes -- to such a degree, in fact, that she forces Will to admit he's actually just as competitive as she is. Karen finds herself shaken by a near-death experience -- literally, in that she was near Stan when he choked on his dinner -- and lets Jack talk her into letting him teach her first aid, which she soon has occasion to use. We take you through Grace's most relatable moments -- for one of your co-hosts, anyway -- in our Will & Grace & Kevin & Tara podcast on "Alley Cats"Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

One things we've learned about Grace over the course of Season 1 is that she has a hard time managing work-related stress, requiring her to get overly dependent on the ministrations of a cleaner in "My Fair Maid-y" and shutting down her social life so completely while busy on a job that Val could replace her in...well, "Grace Replaced." So no one should be that shocked when Grace has no confidence going in to pitch for brusque publicist Nathan (Miguel Ferrer!), and readily agrees to let him delay his decision until after he's seen her own home. Fortunately for Grace, Nathan likes what he sees there, because what he sees there is Will, and tells Grace that if she arranges for Will to date him, she'll get the job. We discuss this gayola scheme (sorry) in our Will & Grace & Kevin & Tara podcast on "Saving Grace"!Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We learn a little more about how the mysterious Jack economy works: of course he goes to a gym, but on a stolen ID, for which he's just been busted. Over Will's protests, Grace volunteers to get Jack in to their gym on a guest pass, not knowing that Will regards it as a safe space for him to butch out straightly with all his heterosexual lawyer contacts who also belong there; as such, he's extremely anxious about being associated with all of Jack's...Jackness. Will's internalized homophobia is so intense that he actually uses a terrible slur behind Jack's back -- or so he thinks, because Jack overhears, and forces Will to acknowledge what he did. At Grace Adler Designs, Grace must also deal with the effects of Karen's faltering marriage, and the two uneasily agree to try getting Karen's mind off things with a girls' game night that quickly turns into a girls' drunk night. We discuss "Will Works Out" in our latest Will & Grace & Kevin & Tara podcast!Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Grace gets buried under another huge project, but unlike last time, she's not the one who gets hurt. In her absence, Will must find another straight woman to perform emotional labour for him, and one appears in the form of Val (Molly Shannon!), a neighbour with whom he can duet in the elevator, goof around in the laundry room, and take to lunch when Grace is too busy. When Will gets sick, Val even puts her own life on hold (not that we ever find out what "her own life" actually involves) to nurse Will in his time of need. Finding out Will has replaced her relieves one source of Grace's stress and lets her focus on her project, jkjkjk she gets jealous and nuts. Jack is forced to face the consequences of slapping a parking enforcement officer and gets sentenced to community service, where he discovers there can sometimes be treasures in the trash...in the form of an acclaimed director's discarded phone books. We assess "Grace, Replaced" in our latest podcast!Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

One of the first things we ever learned about Will was that he is still traumatized after breaking up with his very serious boyfriend, Michael. In fact, we've heard a lot more about Will's ongoing heartbreak over the end of that relationship than we've seen him express any interest in any otherguy. And in "Secrets & Lays," the trend continues! It's what would have been Will's anniversary if not for his big breakup with Michael, and Grace wants to make sure Will's not brooding about it, so she arranges for Karen to bring the two of them, plus Jack, to her winter cabin. Grace's plan is almost immediately derailed, however, by the arrival of Karen's caretaker, Campbell, who also just happens to be an old high-school flame of Grace's. The two resume being hot for each other, but does Grace dare get a leg over Campbell when Will might need her for something? We talk it out on the podcast!Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dating can be hard -- except when a prospect presents himself to you in the elevator of the building where you actually live, as happens to both Grace and Will. Since neither has been out on a date for a while, they're excited to tell one another about their hot new dudes...but that excitement dissipates when they discover that it's just one guy, his name is Peter, he invited them both to his place at the same time, and when it comes to what his deal is, romantically, he is cagey AF. Karen is also having man problems, though of a slightly different kind: her driver can't stop hitting pedestrians, and Karen must overcome her sweet, accommodating nature and let him go. We take you all the way through "Yours, Mine, Or Ours" in our latest podcast!Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Grace's attempt to reunite Will and his estranged brother Sam in the last episode has an unpredictable consequence when Will has to leave to soothe new thirty-year-old Jack: left alone, Sam and Grace totally have sex. Karen quickly figures out what's happened; Will takes longer, what with Grace's attempts to soften him up with Jewish baked goods and all. But Will's rage stirs up a bunch of old business about Sam messing with Will's "toys," one of which he apparently considers Grace to be (which comes as no shock to anyone who's watched the previous fourteen episodes). Karen and Jack have insights as to what's actually going on. Maybe Grace is attracted to Sam because he's a straight Will? Maybe Will is jealous of Sam because he now has a connection to Grace that Will can never share? How will Grace and the Trumans make peace? We discuss in the latest podcast!Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shopping for gifts to bestow upon Jack at his "surprise" birthday party, Grace has an actual surprise: a chance meeting with Sam -- guest star John Slattery! -- a contractor who worked on a house she decorated and, oh yeah, Will's estranged brother. See, Will and Sam have been estranged since Sam asked Will's opinion of Sam's girlfriend and Will told him, truthfully, that she was terrible...and then Sam said he was going to marry her. But now Sam is getting divorced, so Grace thinks the time is right to get the Truman boys back together, and that Jack's birthday party will be the perfect setting! She is wrong on both counts. Speaking of wrong: Jack is excited to celebrate his birthday until it turns out he hasn't quite nailed the simple math and didn't realize he was celebrating a bigger milestone than he thought. We discuss which Truman we'd like to keep around!Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When Grace's mother Bobbie -- guest star Debbie Reynolds! -- plans a visit to The Grand Apple, Grace thinks she's ready to deflect any wild thing she might say, from criticism of her career to brags about Bobbie's own legendary work in Schenectady community theater. Nothing, however, can prepare her either for Bobbie's suggestion that Grace just marry Will, nor for Will's reaction to the (indecent) proposal. Karen can't focus on everything she and Bobbie have in common, unfortunately, because she has reason to believe she might be "in a family way." We break it down in our latest Will & Grace & Kevin & Tara podcast!Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Will having, in the last episode, impetuously invited Grace's father Martin to escape his isolation in Schenectady and stay with Grace and Will for a while, Grace lands on the perfect revenge: she invites Grace's mother Marilyn (returning guest star/Gwyneth Paltrow's mother Blythe Danner) to come stay with them as well! Grace and Will think they've survived the worst possible torture after getting through a game of Celebrity with them, but there is a lower low, as both kids walk in on their respective parents having sex. It seems as though Martin and Marilyn are so horrified by Grace and Will's enduring singlehood that they're willing to give each other a shot. And Will and Grace are also affecting other relationships in their orbit: Estefan (Brian Jordan Alvarez) becomes much more than a souvenir of Jack's breakup trip to Ibiza; and Karen carefully weighs the question of whether her attraction to Malcolm is worth giving up her marriage to Stan. We ponder everyone's romances in our latest Will & Grace & Kevin & Tara podcast!SHOW NOTESThat photo of Ryan Reynolds and Bradley CooperLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Will starts the episode thrilled that he and Grace are embarking upon a spur-of-the-moment ski trip to Vermont, which of course means they're not going there at all: she's tricked him into accompanying her to Schenectady to fulfill her mother's dying wish of celebrating her birthday with the rest of the Adlers. Longtime viewers will not recognize Grace's father Martin (formerly Alan Arkin; now Robert Klein) or older sister Janet (formerly Geena Davis; now Mary McCormack), and if producers cared so little about continuity not to bring back the roles' originators (and/or these two Oscar winners decided they had better things to do), then why should we expect that the kitchen in which Grace is besieged by memories of her late mother should look at all like the one we saw in "Lows In The Mid Eighties"? It don't. Anyway: the celebration becomes strained when it turns out Janet and Grace's younger sister Joyce (returning guest Sara Rue) want to convince Martin to sell the house, but Grace strenuously objects. Downstate, Jack is so inspired by Karen's happy, enduring marriage that he's ready to make a similar commitment to Drew...but maybe Drew isn't as eager to be locked down, and maybe Karen's marriage isn't so happy or enduring if there's room in it for her to get together once a year with Malcolm (returning guest star Alec Baldwin) for an illicit tryst. We take you through the highs and lows in our latest Will & Grace & Kevin & Tara podcast!Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's time again for the Divine Design Expo, site of many past washouts over the course of Grace's career -- which is why she's tensed up into a debilitating, stressed-out creative paralysis. Will attempts to snap her out of it by hiring a cleaner to straighten up the apartment (even though that sounds a lot more like something that would soothe Will than that Grace would even notice), but as it happens, April the cleaner is a veteran of the Coast Guard and has absolutely no patience for Grace's negative self-talk. Grace lets herself be motivated by April's bracing screams -- but then maybe motivation crosses a line into dependency. Jack meets a cute graduate student at a bookstore (of all places!), and decides his only chance at getting anywhere with a smarty is to pose as one himself -- which is how he ends up sitting at Will's desk and passing himself off as a successful attorney. How long can Jack keep it up if he's not actually familiar with such tricky jargon as "practicing law"?Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Remember how the last episode had Will seeking the advice of a couple of very wise teenaged girls to navigate the baffling world of social media ex-stalking and learning that he had shamefully "deep-liked" a post from his long-ago, very serious boyfriend Michael? Well: there was apparently a lot of offscreen action because now they're back together, but Jack isn't entirely on board with this reunion...and Michael thinks he knows why. Across town, Karen needs to order a Make America Great Again cake for a party that will be attended by the president; when the baker refuses on principle, Grace decides she must intervene on behalf of Karen and her inalienable right to be terrible. We go through it all in the latest episode of the Will & Grace & Kevin & Tara podcast!Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The latest Will & Grace is telling universal truths all over the place: that no one wants to attend a baby shower; that a childless woman may find such an event especially fraught with judgment from moms her age; that it's generally safer to eat your feelings than to write them down. Unfortunately for Grace, this last lesson arrives just a bit too late. Fortunately for Will, however, he's being thrown into the path of a couple of teen girls just when he needs their counsel the most: he's trying to stalk his ex on social media and has no idea how to do that undetected, or at least while trying to seem cool. Jack books a gig on the NBC drama Shades Of Blue -- a real show! look it up! -- and is excited to work with his old friend Jennifer Lopez again; she may not feel exactly the same. The job requires Jack to ditch his after-school drama class again, but surely Karen is perfectly capable of covering for him without corrupting any minors jk jk jk. We get into all of it in our latest Will & Grace & Kevin & Tara podcast!Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Grace is sure there's no way dating James, who lives in her building, could possibly get too complicated...until he dumps her. She then decides to follow Jack's advice for how to get over him, locating a suitable rebound guy -- but even he turns out to bring more complications to their acquaintance than she could have foreseen. Left alone at the office with Karen, Will discovers something anyone could have probably predicted: not only does she compulsively monitor her staff via web cam; she also "produces" their "show" with well-timed sound effects. And when Will learns that one of the kitchen storylines involves a simmering attraction between two of Karen's chefs, he decides he should start manipulating the action too. We discuss it all on the latest Will & Grace & Kevin & Tara podcast!Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Like so many other TV characters, Will claims he "never" has a great time on his birthday, nor does he ever get what he really wants. Unfortunately, the occasion coincides with Grace and Jack in a phase of mutual irritation, so when Will tells them he wants them to get along, and they find common ground in their shared love of figure skating, Will decides he can't overrule them when they want to go see Champions On Ice before his big birthday dinner. Speaking of: it's a dinner he also has to share with Karen after she gets them a table at Balthazar. Can Will exhibit the emotional maturity to tell his dearest friends he doesn't want to spend his birthday at their big event? Or will he just get more and more passive-aggressively furious? You've known him for ten episodes; you can probably guess. We discuss the birthday boy, and more, in our latest Will & Grace & Kevin & Tara podcast!Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Will & Grace (and Jack and Karen) return to NBC to make a lot of Trump jokes and ignore the events of the series non-finale. Also: there's Grindr now!Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A personal tragedy forces Karen to deal with her feelings; Lorraine doesn't help much, unless you count helping herself to various marks' jewellery. When Grace isn't making Karen's crisis about her, she's bitching out Will for failing to consult her on his every business decision -- but hey, at least Tony makes it through the episode unmolested!Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

After Will bribes the super to fix the heat to their apartment, Grace and Will are treated to more than just blasts of hot air: they also get blasts of drama from the couple downstairs. Oo-ie is cheating on her husband! While he's out saving lives or whatever! The real-life soap opera is so compelling that Grace ends up with her ear pressed to the vent all day, instead of going to work or making shepherd's pie (which is probably just as well, given that she thinks it may contain shepherds). The problem is that this week Jack is a playwright, and when Will also gets addicted to Oo-ie's unraveling marriage, he and Grace are conflicted about whether to attend Jack's show or stay for...the season finale. We discuss it all on the latest Will & Grace & Kevin & Tara podcast!Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices