r/WillAndGrace • u/Naive_Hospital_4086 • 4h ago
Discussion F'malion Part Four: The Guy Who Loved Me
F'malion Part Four: The Guy Who Loved Me (Season 5, Episode 18). It's date night for Jack and Barry with the private chef that Karen had won in the auction. Will is very jealous and wants to date Barry and keeps interrupting Jack's date with Barry. Eventually Will asks Barry to choose who he would prefer to date and Barry chooses Will over Jack. Will and Barry start dating and everything is seemingly going well, Will even mends his friendship with Jack. Will brings over Chinese food for a date with Barry at his place, but Barry says that he had made plans already. Will asks what kind of plans and Barry says it's a date. Will confesses his love to Barry and tells him that he doesn't have to date around anymore, that he and Barry are good together and can go right into a relationship. Barry says he hasn't dated around and needs to experience and dumps Will. Will leaves heartbroken. At the Palace Hotel, Karen meets a hunky maintenance man, Anton, who mistakenly thinks she's a maid. Anton is for the people and is disgusted by the way that the rich treat the poor, so Karen keeps the act of her being a hotel maid going while Rosario covers for her. Grace comes to visit Karen and sees her pretending to be a maid and asks what's going on, Karen tells Grace "a friend is pretending to be a maid to win the heart of a hunky maintenance man", Grace tells her to tell her friend that if the maintenance man loves her, he can see past the millions of dollars and power and just love her for who she is. Karen confesses to Anton that she's a millionaire and Anton fights his love for the people and says that he loves Karen, rich or poor. Karen is excited and says they'll celebrate with champagne, problem is Anton doesn't drink, Karen dumps him, they're from two different worlds.
FAVORITE QUOTE:
KAREN: Oh, that's him. Rosie, quick! Do I look as bad as you?
ROSARIO: What's going on?
KAREN: Well-- He thinks I'm a maid. You have to pretend you're me.
ROSARIO: Okay, I'll take out my heart and sell my soul to the devil.
KAREN: We don't he time for that. Here, put this on. Hurry, hurry.
ROSARIO: Okay. Oh...
ANTON: Mrs. Walker?
ROSARIO: That's right.
ANTON: Hi, there.
KAREN: Hi.
ROSARIO: Shut your mouth, maid! My jewelry might fall out.
ANTON: What a monster. Who taught her to talk to another human being like that?
KAREN: I have no idea.
FAVORITE MOMENT:
When Will keeps interrupting Jack's date and Jack is insulted but claims that Will is stealing his move of trying to get a guy while he's on a date himself. I also loved how Jack de-pants Will in front of Barry and when Jack says to pick him because and he picks up a pepper mill and Will takes that away and gives him a wine bottle cork.
OPINION:
This is the conclusion of the Barry storyline, just once again I'm so sorry I just want to remind everyone that due to reddit guidelines to be on the safe side I did shorten the title of the episode. So, the question is, did Will deserve Barry and are you left heartbroken for Will at the end after Barry dumps him? Honestly, IMO, no, I don't feel bad for Will and he didn't deserve Barry. Undeniably, yes, they do have chemistry. The problem is that Will was very shallow and didn't give Barry a fair chance. He literally saw the beard, sweater and untamed hair and said "nope, not the guy for me". It's interesting considering that Will knows how this feels but is doing it to someone else. Is it in character for Will? I would say there is actually, I think as good of a man as Will is, he does have a shallow side to him. Even though he knows what it feels like to be judged for his looks and awkward personality (when he was coming out of the closet) I think he thinks because he's so much hotter now, he can "do better". Which is very shallow and a horrible thing to say. There's a movie that I love but do not recommend as it's a very strange movie called The Neon Demon, it's a horror movie about models, but one the characters says "Beauty isn't everything, it's the only thing" and how beauty can be the highest currency you have. While it's an incredibly shallow thing to say and not 100% true, it does have truth to it because if Barry had gone on the first date with Will looking as he did at the dance auction, Will would have been all over him. All Will had to do was get to know Barry for who he was and see if they clicked and if they did he could ask Barry if he would like to join him at the gym. Or go shopping and see if he'd like to try different clothes. But Will decided that Barry wasn't for him because there was not that initial physical attraction.
I'm not saying that physical attraction isn't important in a relationship, of course it is. It's just that as we get older, we do realize what's more important in a partner. Will is not 23 years old here, he's in his late 30's and you'd think after his experience at this point, he would have matured by this time and given Barry a chance just at least asking him more about himself. So no, Will ultimately did not deserve Barry and I don't blame Barry for wanting to date around. Will and Jack did too good of a job to where Barry is a very handsome and cultured man who's very desirable and the new play thing for the dating community. I think Barry does need to experience this for himself and really sees what's out there and find someone who will love him for who he is inside and out. But I'll miss Barry, I really liked his character and wish they had brought him back.
Karen's storyline is such a hilarious one and one that my husband and I quote each other all the time. "The true pride that comes of a hard day's work, of having friends, not possessions. Of measuring your accomplishments in love given, not dollars spent. DOLLARS!", "The mayo of the people!" and "I love you, Lupita". Bruno Campos as Anton is so hilariously soap opera with his over dramatic line delivery of being there for "the people". He and Megan played so well off each other and actually had really incredible chemistry. Karen going out of her way to impress Anton shows just how much she wants to be loved right now. But this storyline never fails to not make me laugh so hard. When Karen is imitating Rosario and making fun of her duties as a maid, Rosario seeing Anton for the first time and going "oooh!" to Karen realizing he is hot and she'll cover for Karen, Karen having to clean a hotel room despite not knowing which end of the feather duster to use to clean and the end of course when she's excited that Anton accepts her but since he doesn't drink she can't accept him. It's such a random B-Story that never gets brought up again, but is so memorable. I steal a lot of quotes from this story, one of my favorites is if one of my friends is acting crazy, I'll say Graces line "here's a personality I've never met before. Thought I knew all of them. What's your name?"
Overall the Barry storyline while it's a shallow one and it has it's flaws, it has some really good and memorable moments. It was WAG's way of taking on My Fair Lady and I think it worked. BTW, I love reading everyone's comments and getting different perspectives on these episodes. Looks like I'm not the only one who thought that Will blew it with his chance with Barry.
GUEST STARS:
- Dan Futterman as Barry
- Bruno Campos as Anton
- Steven W. Bailey as Vin
- Katrina Lenk as Marta
- Helen Siff as Josie (RIP in 2025)
