11 Years Later

"11 Years Later" is the first episode of the ninth season of the American sitcom Will & Grace. The episode was first broadcast on September 28, 2017, on NBC, and was watched by 10.2 million people during its original broadcast. It was written by David Kohan and Max Mutchnick, and directed by James Burrows. Airing over 11 years after the original series finale, the episode's intro scene effectively retcons many of the events of the finale out of existence as a daydream Karen experiences. Plot At Will's apartment, Karen awakens from a dream in which Will and Grace married their partners, and had children who married each other. Will and Grace explain that they have no children, that they are both separated from their partners, and that Grace is staying at Will's apartment temporarily while she finalizes her divorce. Will writes an angry letter to Steve Sandoval, a congressman gutting the Environmental Protection Agency, but to whom Will is also secretly attracted. Jack uses his connections to get himself and Will invited to an event held by Sandoval at the White House Rose Garden. Will and Sandoval meet; they flirt with each other, and Sandoval instructs a page to take Will on a tour of the West Wing. Meanwhile, Karen uses her friendship with Melania Trump to get Grace's interior design studio hired to redecorate the Oval Office. Though Grace opposes Trump politically, she accepts the high-paying job. She travels to the White House, where she encounters Will at Sandoval's event. Their hypocritical motivations for being in Washington are exposed, and they have an argument that devolves into a pillow fight in the Oval Office.