The Finale (Will & Grace)

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Will & Grace season 8 September 2005 - May 2006 List of Will & Grace episodes
Episodes: Alive and Schticking I Second That Emotion The Old Man and the Sea Steams Like Old Times The Hole Truth Love is in the Airplane Birds of a Feather Boa A Little Christmas Queer Von Trapped Bathroom Humor Forbidden Fruit Cop To It I Love L. Gay The Definition of Marriage Grace Expectations Cowboys and Iranians Buy Buy Baby Blanket Apology The Mourning Son Partners 'n' Crime Whatever Happened to Baby Gin? The Finale Season 1 – Season 2 – Season 3 – Season 4 Season 5 – Season 6 – Season 7 – Season 8

The Finale is the series finale of NBC's Will & Grace, and the 23rd and 24th episodes of season eight. It aired on May 18, 2006.

The original airing was preceded by a clip show entitled, Say Goodnight, Gracie.

The finale starred Eric McCormack, Debra Messing, Megan Mullally, Sean Hayes, Shelley Morrison, Harry Connick, Jr., Leslie Jordan, Bobby Cannavale and Kevin Bacon.

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Grace, heavily pregnant, is having bizarre dreams of the future in which she and Will are an old couple, raising their child. In her dreams, Jack is married to Kevin Bacon, and Karen - who hasn't aged - is now in a relationship with Rosario.

In real life, however, Will and Grace's relationship is complicated. Will is now seeing Vince again, and Grace isn't sure if she wants to spend the rest of her life living with Will. So, when Leo shows up and proposes to her - not even aware that she is pregnant - she immediately accepts.

We flash to two years later, where we learn what happened between them. Grace moved with Leo to Rome, and then subsequently back to New York City. While they raise their daughter Lyla (a variant on "Lily", Grace's grandmother's name, which we learnt in season three); Will and Vince are raising a son, Ben (named for Will's former boss, Ben, who was played by the late Gregory Hines).

Karen and Jack, meanwhile, are tired of the fact that their friends aren't speaking. They lure Will and Grace to the same place, and force them to make up. However, as the years go by, the old friends grow apart and don't see each other very often.

Meanwhile, Karen learns that in her divorce from Stan, she will have no money as Stan's money was all loaned, and he is now bankrupt. Beverley Leslie's "business associate" Benji breaks up with him, so Karen plots to have Jack take his place, and subsequently Leslie's fortune. Jack gets cold feet on the day he is supposed to consummate the relationship but all is saved - Leslie is blown away by a gust of wind, and Jack inherits all of his money.

Twenty years later, Grace's daughter Lyla meets Will's son Ben as they both move into college, much as Will and Grace did in the 1980s. Will and Grace are reunited under these circumstances, and their children eventually marry.

Jack and Karen, meanwhile, are now living comfortably with each other, and a wheelchair-bound Rosario. While everyone else is older, Karen - just like in Grace's dream - hasn't aged. She and Jack perform a duet of Unforgettable.

The show ends with two scenes reminiscent of the show's pilot episode. Will and Grace watch ER together (which, in the future, now stars George Clooney again), and then the four friends gather at the same bar they went to in The Pilot to toast to their friendship.

Say Goodnight, Gracie was the one-hour retrospective special was broadcast the hour preceding the series finale. The special featured the cast talking about their favorite moments, as well as exclusive behind-the-scenes footage from the final weeks, and never-before-seen clips and bloopers.