Will & Grace Review: The Pursuit of Happiness (Season 10 Episode 12)
Will and Grace Season 10 Episode 12, “The Pursuit of Happiness,” is not a bad episode by any means. It features two great guest star performances, but it moves forward some storylines that I think the show could have milked for longer.
Alec Baldwin is back again this season as Karen’s paramour, Malcolm, who you may recall is the reason she is no longer with Stan. Not only were Karen and Malcolm having an affair, but Malcolm ultimately spilled the beans about their dalliance to Stan, leading to Karen’s divorce.
I am not always a fan of Malcolm — or Alec Baldwin to be quite honest — and I was not thrilled to see him hurling out of an overnight FedEx box, landing in Grace’s studio set on a quest to win Karen back.
However, I will admit that the bizarre sexual energy he and Megan Mullally share is used to great effect here and his work on this episode is stronger than in his earlier appearance on Will and Grace Season 10 Episode 2 “Where in the World is Karen Walker?”
With that said, it’s curious why the writers chose to reunite Karen and Malcolm so quickly in light of her recent divorce. It feels as though there was more comedy that could have been wrung out of a single Karen back on the dating scene (though the phone call between her and Melania Trump discussing potential setups is a nice touch).
It could have been interesting to watch Karen work through a variety of failed romantic entanglements; she could have dated someone boring, she could have been a sugar baby, or she could have been a sugar mama. That journey would have been hilarious, even if it led her back to Malcolm, who “gives [her] feelings in the heart area.”
One of the strongest scenes on this episode is a twisted game of “telephone,” with Grace acting as a messenger for increasingly sexual come-ons and declarations between Karen and Malcolm.
As they explain it, they have not always been able to express their feelings directly, and they fondly recall having sex as orks in a game of World of Warcraft years ago.
The salaciousness of their comments escalates and it’s hard to decide what is the funniest aspect of this scene: the lines themselves, the exaggerated gestures that Karen and Malcolm use as they whisper their messages into Grace’s ear, or Debra Messing’s divine delivery of such a spectrum of facial expressions. Truly, the face acting here is exceptional.
Jack’s storyline, involving a welcome guest appearance by Andrea Martin, who is one of the few guest stars who can actually go toe to toe with the likes of Sean Hayes in a scene and make it work, is also quite good.
Just as Alec Baldwin and Megan Mullally’s bizarre chemistry fuels that storyline, Andrea Martin and Sean Hayes are a nice complement for one another; her character Zusanna, seems so “lived-in,” as though she has always been part of Jack’s theatrical life.
Plus, there are not many people who could make the simple pronunciation of lover or birds funny; in Martin’s case, she makes it genius.
Please, please have her back for another episode; I propose an epic reunion where Jack and Zusanna co-direct a show together (bonus points if it’s an original show based on our Core Four. Imagine the mayhem and the guest star possibilities).
Will once again seems to draw the short end of the proverbial storyline stick, something that has happened far too much over the course of the season.
Over the last string of episodes, the show seems to have remembered he is a law professor, so once again his storyline is set at school, only this time instead of focusing on his class, the action focuses on Will’s flirtation with one of his colleagues.
There’s not a lot to be said about the object of Will’s affection in this episode; the show doesn’t bother to do more than barely sketch him out as a character who is charming, attractive, gay (and married!) but he does help set up a meaningful moment for Will.
While it’s not fair, there is an unfortunate stereotype that gay men are overly promiscuous and that gay relationships are bound to have a fair amount of cheating, which is deemed completely socially acceptable. “It’s different with two guys; we make the rules.”
Will shoots down that line of thinking, countering that heterosexual or homosexual, cheating is cheating. Realizing that his wannabe lover is a husband and a father, he simply can’t engage in any kind of entanglement.
It’s to McCormack’s credit that this moment doesn’t come off preachy or as a teaching moment; it really is just a reflection of Will’s ethics and moral fiber. He may do some silly or questionable things, but he takes the sanctity of relationships seriously.
However, this moment could have had more impact if perhaps Felix, the colleague, was a character we were more attached to or had grown to love over time so we could feel some sense of loss when it doesn’t work out.
Hopefully, the show writers have plans to give Will a complex, long-term romantic relationship sometime soon. There have been a lot of one-off detours, which are a natural and important part of shows — and life — but that has grown somewhat tiring.
Stray observations:
- Interestingly, the thing that stood out to me the most in this episode was the lingering shot of Will holding Felix’s baby. It made me weirdly wistful for the Will and Grace ending we’ve decided to forget — or ignore — depending on how you decide to look at it. I don’t know if the camera stayed so long on the two of them for the comedy of the scene or for a deeper reason as though Will was contemplating what he missed out on…or what he wanted for the future. I suppose we will have to wait and see!
- Shout out to whichever staff writer wanted to call out Fergie’s painful national anthem rendition or namedrop Nelly Furtado’s “Promiscuous.” That Nelly reference in particular was a deep cut.
What did you think of this episode of Will and Grace? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
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Will and Grace airs Thursdays at 9:30/8:30c on NBC.
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Cristina Iskander
Cristina is a Broadway enthusiast, book lover, and pop-culture fanatic living in New York City. She once won a Fantasy Bachelor contest (yes, like Fantasy Football, but for The Bachelor), and can banter about old school WB (Pacey + Joey FTW) just as well as Stranger Things and Pen15. She's still upset Benson and Stabler never got together and is worried Rollins and Carisi are headed down the same road, wants justice for Shangela, and hopes to one day walk-and-talk down a hallway with Aaron Sorkin.