"Will & Grace" only loses my interest when the central characters are whittled down to narcissistic dummies who never seem to work and/or never have anything good to say to one another. Debra Messing's Grace nearly always brings Eric McCormack's Will down to Earth with a funny jibe that isn't too mean-spirited (or caustic); and when the director evens out the verbal nuttiness, the people on-screen are able to act like human beings and the show maintains a cheerful rhythm. In this colorful eighth season episode, Will and Grace are invited to an Appleby's-type restaurant by their college friends Rob and Ellen, fairly dreading the evening to come but learning instead the couple intends to call it quits. In the second story, Jack (Sean Hayes) and Karen (Megan Mullally) wind up in a bowling alley in Ohio so Jack can help a fan come out of the closet. Some of the best lines here are delivered by the guest players, though Hayes does a wicked rendition of "the Oprah hug" and Messing is allowed to dig deeper than usual when she tells Will (upon learning Will's ex is now a waiter), "OK, so you wanna leave, it looks like this is getting to be a pattern with you." Tom Gallop and Leigh Allyn Baker (as Rob and Ellen) share some very fast, very funny quibbles about their lives (Baker says, "I want to wear a belly-shirt and...eat Angel Dust!"), while Robert Michael Morris is incredibly sweet as the (middle-aged) man who writes Jack a fan letter. Lightly satirical episode plays delicately with truths and edgy humor, returning faithfully in the end to its cuddly, eager-to-please roots. This was a highlight of the strong eighth season.