Tonight, Thursday 18, 2006, the sitcom Will & Grace came to an end. It had been on for eight seasons. While the show did have its ups and downs over the years, I was there from start to finish. Over the years I laughed, cried, smiled, frowned, and basically went through a lot of emotions this show brings out. Now it is over, and it’s time to reflect.

Will & Grace was more than just your average sitcom. For the first time, a sitcom had been developed that had a gay character as one of its leads (Ellen doesn’t count because her character only came out in the final seasons). Of course, no one knew how well the show would be received. This was new territory, after all. However, they didn’t back down, they went ahead and the show began in 1998. It was a success and over the years, the show and the stories grew. You got to really care about Will, Grace, Karen, and Jack, they became like friends who would drop by every week to say hello. For the last eight years, we have followed these four special characters through the trials and tribulations of their wacky lives.

Will Truman was a character who was both successful and flawed. He was a good corporate lawyer, but he had trouble finding Mr. Right. Will’s problem was that he tended to get very neurotic at times, and that often doomed his relationships. However, Will did grow as a character as the show progressed and he did begin to have good relationships. The best was Vince, the cop, and I am glad to see the two of them get back together for good at the end of the series.

Grace Adler was a fun but somewhat scatterbrained person. Her problem with finding the right person was that she tended to nitpick everything. This would often drive her current boyfriend crazy, leaving Grace alone once more when he eventually dumped her. Then came Leo (Harry Connick Jr.), who became the man Grace married. Although a lot of fans viewed Leo as an outsider who had trespassed into the sacred foursome, he grew as a character too. Like Will and Vince, who broke up last season, Grace and Leo eventually divorced, because Leo had slept with another woman while in Cambodia (with Doctors Without Borders). It seems they were broken up for all time. Then this year, Grace meet Leo on a plane, they had sex, and Grace became pregnant. In the end, she and Leo ended up back together. It seems that Leo never stopped loving Grace after all and she was willing to give him another chance.

Karen Walker, while appearing to be just a selfish drunk, actually has a heart of gold buried deep inside her. Many times over the years, Karen has come forward to help one of her friends, showing that hidden heart. True that she often tried to laugh it off, but we all knew better. Best of all was her relationship with Jack. For years she supported him, paid his rent, took him to clubs. However, this year was a big step when she finally told Jack that he had to grow up and take responsibility for himself. It was tough love, but it worked. Jack took her advice and resumed his acting career, and Karen couldn’t have been more proud of him. In the end, Karen and Jack ended up living together. I think that Karen and Jack truly do love each other, only as friends of course, but they love they share is just as good, if not better, than any romantic relationship each of them previously had.

Jack McFarland was, in many ways, a child that never grew up. For years he moved from job to job, lover to lover, and never seemed to find any focus in his life. I think that meeting Karen was probably the best thing that ever happened to him. As I mentioned above, she was the one who finally made Jack grow up and realize that acting was his true calling. In the end, he ended up living with her, as many thought they would.

Okay, now on to some discussions about the finale itself. Well, soon after the show starts (with Grace having a funny dream of the future that has her and Will still living together, Karen and Rosario married, and Jack married to Kevin Bacon), we shift two years into the future.

Destiny Comes A Knocking
Will and Vince are living together in the apartment and have adopted a little boy, who they named Ben. Grace and Leo have remarried, and live in their Brooklyn apartment with their two-year-old daughter, Lila. Will and Grace have not spoken to each other for the last two years, because Grace went to Rome with Leo, leaving Will behind. Through a trick engineered by Jack and Karen, Will and Grace finally meet again, and reconcile. They have a fun night together (with Jack and Karen) and although the two of them part as friends, both feel that they no longer have a role in each others lives. Once again, they drift apart.

Another time shift, twenty years later, and the grown up Ben (Will’s son) and Lila (Grace’s daughter) meet at the same college (they end up in rooms across the hall from each other). Of course, neither of them know the history of their parents, the two of them click. At that same time, Will and Grace run into each other as well (both are delivering boxes to their respective children’s rooms). It seems that destiny once again played a hand and got the two friends back into each others lives. Later, we see that Ben and Lila fell in love and are getting married. So it seems that Will & Grace will always be together, no matter if they are living in the same building or not. Destiny has made sure of that.

Reversal Of Fortune
This episode also sees Karen lose her entire fortune. Because everything Stan had was borrowed, Karen’s divorce settlement was worthless. She is flat broke. Although she tells Jack about it, she is too proud to tell Will and Grace. Karen doesn’t know what to do, but rescue comes from an unlikely source, namely Karen’s old nemesis, Beverly Leslie. It seems Beverly has lost his boy toy and wants a new one, and has shown interest in Jack (come on, we all knew that Beverly was gay, despite his protests that he was married). When Karen realizes that Beverly wants to be Jack’s sugar daddy, she encourages Jack to be with Beverly. That way, Beverly gives money to Jack, who in turns gives it to Karen. However, Jack is not happy and he finally tells Karen that he is going to end things with Beverly. Karen realizes that she can’t make Jack stay in a relationship that he is not happy in and agrees that he should end it. However, once again, fortune smiles on Karen and Jack. That same scene, we find out that Beverly has willed his whole fortune to Jack. Before Jack can break up with him, Beverly has a convenient fatal accident. Therefore, Jack inherits Beverly’s entire fortune! Of course, he can now make sure that Karen has enough money to survive on, paying her back for all the years she took care of him in his times of need.

Fast forward twenty years and we find Karen and Jack happily living in Karen’s old penthouse (I guess Jack must have purchased it from Stan at some point). It seems that the two of them are quite content in the current relationship they now enjoy. As Karen herself pointed out, the two of them have been together longer than any of their previous relationships. As I mentioned above, it seems that Karen and Jack are truly soul mates after all.

The Circle Closes
The final scene shows the four old friends at the bar when they had hung out years before. Despite a few wrinkles here and there (except for Karen, who seemingly hasn’t aged in the past twenty years), the four friends are still, in many ways, the same people they always were. That will never change.

Final Farewell
I want to thank Eric McCormack (Will), Debra Messing (Grace), Megan Mullally (Karen), and Sean Hayes (Jack) for bringing these wonderful characters to life. The laughs all of them brought to the screen for the last eight years will be greatly missed.

Will & Grace: 1998-2006. The show is now over, but it will never be forgotten (of course, it will live on in reruns and DVDs). Still, Thursday nights will never be the same again.

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