Summary of There, but for the Grace of Grace
Grace comes over the Will's apartment in the morning bitching about how they always eat breakfast as his place. He points out that she has nothing to eat, nothing to eat on and her apartment smells bad. She sits down to eat. Will is reading their alumni newsletter, and it mentions that Professor Dudley, an old favorite professor of theirs, is retiring. They decide they should go visit him.
Will and Grace rent a car, and as they're driving up, Grace is upset with Will because he made fun of her lack of knowledge about cars while at the rental place flirting with the guy behind the counter. She tells Will he really upset her and she'd appreciate an apology. Will gives her a bunch of weasely apologies that don't actually accept any responsibility.
When the pair gets to their professor's, they find him old and bitter, bitching about his life. His best friend Sharon comes over, and immediately bitches about how they always eat dinner at his place. He reminds her that she has no food, nothing to eat on and everything in her place is covered in cat hair. Will and Grace are horrified as they see themselves in thirty years.
After dinner Sharon and the professor are just bitching back and forth. Sharon asks Grace why she isn't married, and then more or less answers the question herself because the same failed engagement thing happened to her. Finally, Grace can't take the two elderly people harping on each other anymore, and she asks them why they act that way towards each other. Professor Dudley says he doesn't know, friendships just do that sometimes. Sharon remembers the exact date when Dudley humiliated her in front of his colleagues at a cocktail party and then wouldn't apologize. Grace suggests to Dudley that he apologize. Dudley manages a weasely apology that is really more of another insult. Dudley calls Sharon a hag, and she calls him a queen.
Will and Grace are driving home and Will is apologizing for everything he ever did to Grace, including the incident at the car rental place. He affectionately calls her a hag and she affectionately calls him a queen.
Meanwhile, Jack has agreed to teach Karen how to cook so that she can cook dinner for Stan on his birthday so she doesn't have to sleep with him. Jack decides Will's apartment would be a good place to teach her while Will's out of town. Jack completely ignores the note on Will's door addressed to Jack telling him to keep out because the floors are being re-done. When they walk into the apartment it is furniture-free and has very shiny floors.
Jack starts to incompetently teach Karen to cook while she sips on a martini. Ben, Will's boss, comes in saying that Will asked him to come by and pick up some papers. Jack and Ben have words about how Ben trounced Jack in 12 games of raquetball the other day. Jack is still bitter and Ben is still gloating. Ben mentions, on his way out, that he used to be a cook in Provence, and makes an award-winning Coq-au-vin (spelling?). Karen recruits him as her new cooking teacher.
Ben is sensually showing Karen how to toss a salad, and she's getting turned on. She starts mercilessly flirting with him, even though he's not really responding. Finally, dinner is done, and even Jack has to admit that it was good (he licked his plate clean). Jack is still feeling competitive, however, so he does some tricks that he think Ben can't do: flipping food into his mouth and hanging a spoon off his nose. Ben can totally do them too. So Jack announces that there's definitely one thing he can do better than Ben: tap-dance. Jack gets up, and Karen counts him off to start, and he does a fair humorous imitation of tap-dancing, gracefully pulling his groin at the end. Ben tells Jack he finally won, and Ben folds. Jack hobbles off to the bathroom, triumphant. Karen asks Ben who he's kidding, and counts him off. Ben, of course being played by tap-dancer extraordinaire Gregory Hines, immediately goes into an incredible routine. When he's done, he toasts wine glasses with Karen. Jack comes out of the bathroom and asks them what they're toasting. Karen says they're toasting Jack's winning.
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