Will & Grace Review: New Crib (Season 11 Episode 17)

After getting sidetracked during the last episode, Will & Grace returns to its core plot, using a celebration for Karen as the impetus for major revelations and life choices.

Will & Grace Season 11 Episode 17 “New Crib” packs a lot of plot into its thirty minute run-time, and given how little has happened on other episodes this season, it feels like everything is moving at a breakneck speed (seriously though, holy-time jump, they’ve fast forwarded at least six weeks!)

This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it does beg the question: why hasn’t the rest of the farewell season felt like this? There’s just been so much wasted time.

This episode won’t win any awards for originality — nearly every plot turn is easy to spot miles away — but it’s nonetheless a pleasurable viewing experience and a strong set up for the series finale (for real, this time!)

The Karen/baseball storyline has been rather irksome all season but finally lends itself to a satisfying payoff. The success of Karen’s minor league baseball team leads the town where it’s based to honor Karen with a celebration and statue, luring all the friends to Blattsville for a ceremony.  

What a disappointment, however, that Vanessa Bayer isn’t among them.

There’s a somewhat ludicrous plot involving Danley (Patton Oswalt) but the biggest moments for Karen involve her confession that she’s still in love with Stan and her discovery that the misses her as well.

Stanley hasn’t been mentioned much this season but as soon as Karen and Jack returned to her old home on Will & Grace Season 11 Episode 14 “The Favourite”, I suspected that this is where this was going. 

Because we’ve never met Stan over the course of the series, he’s always remained a bit of mystery and his allure has never been fully understood. Karen’s journey to get over him has been a significant part of the revival though and I was hopeful that Karen would find new purpose, or new great love.

However, the writers seems intent on ending this series in ways almost entirely opposite to the original series finale. On that episode, Karen divorced Stan, so it stands to reason that she’ll reunite with him on this finale.

It’s not quite what I hoped for her, but I am willing to be open to the possibility depending on how they write it. One thing this revival has succeeded in is pushing its characters to develop and evolve so if Karen can approach her relationship with Stan in a way that’s different than she used to, I’m willing to accept it.

Of all the stories this episode, Jack’s is probably the one that feels the most like filler, but it doesn’t matter. It’s still light and fun.

Of everyone during this series, Jack is the one who’s grown up and changed the most and while his life is filled with a series of failures and mishaps, his confidence has rarely waivered.

Lauded as the star of a tongue scraper commercial and invited to cement his hands in Blattsville’s Walk of Fame, it’s nice to see him finally treated like the star he’s always believed himself to be.

While he briefly contemplates a move to Blattsville, I think it’s unlikely he’ll leave Manhattan. Part of his next chapter needs to be standing on his own two feet without Will and Grace to prop him up. 

As soon as Grace mentions wanting to go to an Open House, it’s abundantly clear that she’s going to fall in love with the house. After all, with a house comes a yard, and with a yard comes a dog, and Grace would really love “for [her] Instagram to have a kid and a dog.”

While Grace initially makes an offer on the house with the intention of living there alone, it’s not the least bit surprising that Will ends up wanting to live there with her. No points for surprise twists and turns, Will & Grace.

The biggest flaw of the original series finale is how it split Will and Grace apart. These two, best friends for decades, were torn apart  by their desire for family, but this iteration wisely avoids that same mistake.

This time around, the show realizes —  and allows Will and Grace to realize — that they’ve always had a family: each other. It may look a little different than other families, but it’s no less important.

Two friends forgoing more traditional families to raise their children together might have been a bolder statement to make back in 2006 when the original series finale aired. Nevertheless, there’s been a resurgence of hatred and proselytizing about “family values” so maybe it’s still a message we need to hear.

Happy endings look different for everyone, as do families. And a single, 40+ gassy woman and her gay best friend raising their two separate kids together can actually be the happiest of endings.

Overall, this episode feels like a fitting lead up to the finale: it was full of sentimentality and fortunately, plenty of funny one-liners. I’m surprised and disappointed we didn’t get another opportunity to see Demi Lovato on this episode though, but here’s hoping she appears on the finale.

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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