‘Will & Grace’: Fans Celebrate Return of Molly Shannon’s Val

Will & Grace’s Jack and Karen literally ran into a fan favorite character during Thursday’s episode.

On his first ride as a Lyft driver, Jack (Sean Hayes) is driving Karen around when they hit fan favorite character Val Bassett (Molly Shannon) with their car. The rest of their story during the episode revolves on them trying to make sure she’s okay, and that she won’t press charges.

Shannon originated the role in a 1999 episode of the series. According to Variety, Val was a neighbor of the titular Will (Eric McCormack) and Grace (Debra Messing) who memorably acted as a replacement best friend for Will when Grace was too busy with work and later went on to stalk Jack after seeing his one-man show. Shannon appeared in five episodes from 1999 to 2004.

Twitter users celebrated Shannon’s return to the show.

“Will & Grace” is currently averaging 2.1 rating in adults 18-49 and 7.5 million viewers per episode, making it currently NBC‘s second highest-rated show behind “This Is Us.”

The show airs Thursdays at 9 p.m. ET on NBC and has already been renewed for a 13-episode second season.