Dolly Parton Gets Heavenly Guest Appearance in Final ‘Grace and Frankie’ Season

It took seven seasons, but Grace and Frankie finally gave fans what they’ve been waiting for: Dolly Parton. The country music icon — really just all around icon — appears in the final season of Netflix’s longest-running series, reuniting her with her two co-stars from 9 to 5. Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin, and Dolly Parton together again — it’s like we’ve died and gone to pop culture is heaven!

SPOILERS for the final season of Grace and Frankie ahead!

Okay, so, that’s literally the case here. In the series finale, titled “The Beginning,” Grace (Jane Fonda) and Frankie (Lily Tomlin) find themselves in Heaven — okay, more like Heaven’s waiting room. This comes after Frankie spends the entire back half of Season 7 counting down the days until she dies. And since the date of her demise was given to her by a psychic thus making this one of Frankie’s many, many flights of fancy, no one besides Grace takes it seriously. Oh, no, Grace doesn’t think Frankie is going to really die, but just the thought of Frankie dying is enough to give Grace a panic attack. So when the day of Frankie’s fake funeral arrives, Grace makes sure to have a martini in hand. And that’s when it happens: Grace spills her drink onto a live microphone that Frankie’s holding, and bzzzt — Heaven.

Upon waking up in the bright white room, Grace turns to Frankie and says, “You always drag me to places I don’t want to go.” The two are scheduled to meet with their case manager, who turns out to be a working class angel named Agnes played by Dolly Parton.

Let’s just get the most important thing out of the way: Dolly looks amazing. That powerful, immaculate suit jacket with the pastel rhinestone lapels??? Just being in Dolly’s presence is enough to make the trip to Heaven worth it. But Agnes has work to do. She agrees that Grace is there by mistake and stamps her papers with a big ol’ RETURN, but Frankie is where she’s supposed to be. Agnes tells the two to say goodbye to each other, and you better have the tissues ready because it looks like this is it.

That’s when Agnes sees what fans of this show have seen for the past seven years: these two belong together. Agnes is so moved by this that she lets them know that she would never allow them to take the stamp on her desk and use it on Frankie’s papers, and then she turns around for a minute. “I can’t stare into infinity forever,” she says with her back to Grace and Frankie, just to make sure that these two take the hint and hurry up already.

And that’s how Frankie got her life back. Back in the land of the living, Grace and Frankie’s shock only knocked them out for a few seconds. At least this 9 to 5 reunion lasted for an entire scene. Lord knows we all waited long enough to see it!