Swimming from Cambodia

Swimming from Cambodia is the eighth episode of the sixth season and 130th overall.

Grace returns to New York from Cambodia. Jack is terrorized by a new teacher in nursing school.

Synopsis[]

St. Elsewhere and Chicago Hope[]

Jack is adapting well as a nursing student, even becoming good friends with fellow students. However, a new substitute teacher Nurse Carver arrives and gives him a hard time. He shares his problem with Karen, who devices a plan to help Jack.

Karen pays a visit to Nurse Carver and blackmails her into giving Jack an A and allowing him to skip classes. However, after missing more classes, Jack runs into his classmates and starts to feel left out. He realizes that he actually misses his classes and studying, wondering if Nurse Carver being hard on him would actually make him a better nurse.

One-way Joanie and Two-way Tony[]

Grace comes back from Cambodia for her mother's birthday so she and Will take the time to do their favorite things to do around New York before she leaves again. Will tries to surprise Grace by calling her travel agent to upgrade her plane ticket but is surprised to l learn that Grace did not have a return flight. Grace admits that she is actually left Cambodia because her marriage with Leo is having problems, they have decided to the best thing was for her to leave and wait for him to finish his assignment.

Will offers to let her move in with him again, and she happily accepts.

Cast[]

Main[]

Guest[]

Lea DeLaria (Nurse Carver)
Dion Basco (Student Nurse Arpie)
Lela Lee (Student Nurse Ping)
Karen Bankhead (Student Nurse Burnadean)

Notes[]

Title is a play on the 1987 Spalding Gray film Swimming to Cambodia.
Karen mentions doing a prank on Candace Bergen. Their rivalry was first alluded to in Heart Like a Wheelchair. Bergen eventually appears in the next episode.
Dion Basco, who plays Jack's classmate Nurse Arpie is the brother of Derek Basco, who plays Jack's date Mipanko in Fear and Clothing.
Will and Grace's tradition of shopping at the Barney's sale was first mentioned in The Third Wheel Gets the Grace.
Will buys a coat he is planning to wear to The Sound of Music Sing-Along. The sing-along is later the main plot of the season 8 episode Von Trapped.

Cultural references[]

Will mentions model-actress Cameron Diaz "rooting through a half-price bin" during the Barney's Sale. Diaz is one of famous celebrities often photographed by paparazzi shopping at Barney's.
The names of Nurse Carver's dogs are named after medical dramas St. Elsewhere (1982-88) and Chicago Hope (1994-2000).
When telling the story of a teacher she once had, Karen tells the plot of the Sidney Poitier film To Sir, With Love (1967), complete with the theme song of the same name.

Media[]

Quotes[]

Ugh, jellybeans make me mad. They shouldn't even charge you for them. — Grace