Will & Grace Review: Lies and Whispers (Season 11 Episode 8)

I recently wrote about my desire for Will & Grace to recenter itself around Grace and Will’s respective pregnancy journeys. This entire last season has been shaky at best, with odd detours that have little to do with the big momentous changes happening in the Core Four’s life.

Fortunately, Will & Grace Season 11 Episode 8 “Lies and Whispers” shows some promise that the season may be turning around. It’s not perfect, but it is progress.

The first point of good news is Demi Lovato’s return. Lovato’s Jenny isn’t the focus of the episode, but she does energize the proceedings.

Her character provides a logical entry point for the show to explore ASMR (autonomous sensory meridian response), a phenomenon that seemingly out of nowhere became part of the zeitgeist. I don’t actually really get ASMR, but this feels like a good primer for a novice for someone like me.

While Jenny shares a funny scene with Jack, teaching him how to record ASMR content for profit, the funnier moment involving ASMR — and truly, the funniest part of the episode — comes when Karen and Jack engage in a furious, intense, whisper-fight on air.

Frustrated that Jack has poisoned Luke’s mind, asserting he is merely Karen’s “booty buddy,” Karen erupts on air and the two have the calmest sounding fight, juxtaposed with the putrid anger spewing from their mouths. (Things really do get heated: at one point, Karen tells Jack to “pull his balls through his ear”).

The result is hilarious…and also yes, weirdly calming. Wait, do I actually get ASMR now?

Also, lucky for us, Mullally is back (and so is Jenny’s brother Luke; I swear this entire episode was just wish fulfillment for me).

It’s interesting watching Karen be exposed as fragile. This season hasn’t really touched on that much, sending her down inane baseball storylines, but this episode serves as a reminder that after the last several years, dalliances included, she’s still reeling and trying to piece herself back together.

Mullally is still set to be absent from at least one more episode this season but I hope that when she’s fully back, the show picks this story up. Whether Karen reunites with Luke or not, she deserves to end this series with a life that’s fulfilling and a heart that feels whole.

Over the years, she’s lost a lot — namely Rosario, Stanley, Malcolm — and shown even more of the depth and softness she’s capable of; I’m not sure what happiness looks like for Karen Walker, but I hope these final episodes follow her as she figures it out.

In a rarity these days, the other main storyline running through a Will & Grace episode is also funny as Grace and Will vie for the lone open spot at an elite elementary school. Yes, their children are both still gestating. No, they’re not applying too early.

Besides the fact that this gives Messing and McCormack an opportunity to have a playful spat, which they do so well, the story is a hilariously apt sendup of the intense culture in so many parent circles — New York or otherwise — that is laser focused on giving children every advantage to pave their way to an elite collegiate institution.

There are a lot of other coy references to what it means to parent and grow up in today world: your classmates may have absurd names like Wheat; rather than being put in time-out, you’re put in Contrition Corner to consider your choices; you introduce yourself with your name and your pronouns before going back to class to work on your robot.

It’s progress but it’s hard not to feel inferior and overwhelmed amidst that environment. Will & Grace manages to laugh at parenting, while also touching on the very real fear so many have of not measuring up and failing their child.

Taking something real and honest and looking at it through a slightly absurd lense is exactly what this show does best.

Plus, it’s encouraging to see that the revival doesn’t appear to be taking the route of the original and splitting up Will and Grace. They’ll have their babies together.

Something tells me this isn’t just in the metaphorical sense either. These babies are somehow due only a month apart, which only really works timing wise in Sitcom Land, so I think we’ll ultimately see both children born at the same time. Will and Grace: always together. 

Overall, it’s a more satisfying episode than we’ve had in some time, and a perfect showcase for the great chemistry amongst different pairs of actors and guest stars. Here’s hoping this is just the beginning of an upwards swing!

What did you think of this episode of Will & Grace? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

 

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Will & Grace airs Thursdays at 9:00/8:00c on NBC.

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