Friends Episode Guide

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May May 18, 2000 Truth be told, the episode was not original and the humor was kind of childish, but I'll still award this hour-long season finale 7 Flushes. Chandler sets the perfect night for proposing to Monica. Dinner at Monica's favorite restaurant and a bottle of Monica's favorite champagne, only instead of proposing a toast, Chandler will simply propose. He tells the gang, and they are all excited. The night arrives, and the two head off. The bottle of champagne arrives at their table, and Chandler is about to propose when Richard (played by Tom Selleck) appears. Monica sees him, he comes over, and they all end up eating dinner together. When Monica and Chandler return from dinner, Ross is waiting in their apartment, and he almost asks to see her hand, but Chandler stops him. Then Phoebe enters and asks to see Monica's hand, but Chandler gives Phoebe a signal so Phoebe says that she wants to see the garbage bag in Monica's hand. Due to all of this attention towards the hand, Chandler thinks Monica may suspect his proposal so he decides to badmouth marriage for a few days and then when he proposes, it will come as a total surprise. Unfortunately, Richard shows up at Monica's restaurant the next day and tells her that he loves her, was a fool for leaving her, wants to marry her, and wants to have children with her (this last reason is why they broke up in the first place). She says no, but he says that the invitation will remain open. As Chandler continues to badmouth marriage, Monica is drawn towards Richard. She goes to his apartment and almost accepts his proposal, but she realizes that she does not love him and that she really wants to hear Chandler say some words of love and commitment. Chandler finds out about Richard's proposal and realizes that he has to ask Monica to marry him NOW. He goes to Richard's apartment, but Monica has already left it. He then returns to his apartment building and sees Joey in the hallway. Joey tells Chandler that Monica left and was crying. Joey says that he tried to explain to Monica what Chandler was up to but she wouldn't listen. Chandler then enters his apartment and sees hundreds of candles alit and Monica standing in the apartment. She says that if Chandler wanted a surprise than this is it. She gets down on one knee and starts to cry. She says how much she loves him, but then breaks down and says she understands why girls never propose. Chandler then gets down on his knees (so they are now face-to-face), and he starts to propose and he, too, cries. He finally utters the words and she accepts. This particular scene between them was so sweet and sentimental that I give it 10 Flushes. All of the friends are at the door and they ask to come in and we celebrate the engagement. Second this week is Ross. He went to Elizabeth's dorm room and sees that she is in the middle of a water balloon fight with the guys who live across the hall from her. He realizes that she is too immature for him so he breaks up with her; however, she takes the break-up so well that Ross begins to consider that she is mature. But then, Elizabeth calls for Ross from her apartment window. She throws a water balloon at him, and Ross realizes that he was right about her maturity. With news about engagements brewing, Rachel asks Phoebe if she ever thought about marriage. Phoebe shares that she has a back-up with Joey. If neither one is married by age 40, they will get married. Rachel decides to ask Ross to be her back-up, because they 1) have already seen each other naked, 2)they've had sex so there will be no surprises, and 3) they've already married each other once so why not twice. Ross says he can't, because he has a plan with Phoebe. Apparently, Phoebe has double booked herself. Ross and Joey ask Phoebe to pick one, but she can't choose so Rachel and Phoebe draw names from a hat. Rachel gets Joey and Phoebe gets Ross, but they all realize this is wrong so they switch partners. Finally, Rachel has a charity auction for work. She brings Joey and Phoebe. Joey accidentally bids on and wins a boat. He considers selling the boat which cost him $20,000 but decides to keep it. The boat humor was just not funny. END OF SEASON May 11, 2000 So, what did I think of this week's episode? I heard wedding bells ringing, but I didn't hear any laughter coming from the mouths of people who were unamused by this 6 Flush episode. As is the case with every episode of this no-brainer series, the episode was simple. Chandler has finally decided to pop the question to Monica, but before he does, he needs to pick the perfect engagement ring. He searches high and low with the help of Phoebe to find the ring, but when he finds the ring, he realizes that he does not have his credit card in his wallet. He asks Phoebe to guard the ring and make sure that no one takes it while he gets his credit card. However, we know Phoebe, and we know the predictability of this show. Someone buys the ring while Chandler gets his credit card. He returns and buys another ring, but the new ring doesn't have that, "yes, I will marry you" look t it. Chandler buys a different ring but decides that he has to get the original. He learns where the man who bough the original engagement ring is going to propse, and Chandler goes there. He begs for the ring, swtiches it with the other ring he got, and is now prepared to propose. Before he can do so, he has to tell Joey and Ross as well as Rachel. So everyone knows about the plans but Monica. In other news this week, Rachel; realizes that she knows nothing about Paul, the man she is dating. She tries to get him to open up but fails until she asks one question about him as a little boy. Paul remembers something and then starts to cry and cry. He then chronicles his entire youth as one sad episode after another. He spends 20 hours crying and by the end of the episode, Rachel is so fed up with Paul's crying that she dumps him. NEXT WEEK: Season-finale, one-hour episode,,,will wedding bells ring? or will a man from Monica's past put an end to Chandler's plans. May 4, 2000 A pretty fair 5 Flush episode that only picked up at the very end. Paul (Elizabeth's father played by Bruce Willis) tells Ross that if Ross continues to see Elizabeth (Ross's girlfriend) that Paul will report Ross's behavior to the University, and Ross will be fired. Ross gets scared and decides that he and Elizabeth should go away for the weekend. They go to a cabin in the country side that belongs to Elizabeth's family. Elizabeth goes to a store for amoment when Paul and Rachel show up at the cabin. Ross hides. During his hiding (which was meant to be funny, but was not), Ross sees Paul make a fool of himself in front of a mirror. When Paul eventually discovers Ross at his place, he almost reports Ross to the University but changes his mind when Ross threatens to reveal Paul's embarrassing acts (the acts were just talking to himself and singing "I'm just a love machine.") Also this week, Monica, Rachel, and Phoebe go to a museum. While at the museum, they learn that people have weddings at the museum. On a whim, all three put their names on a two year waiting list to have their weddings at the museum. Later that day, Chandler is hanging out in his apartment when the phone rings. Chandler lets the answering machine pick up and hears a message for Monica that the museum has had a cancellation and that the Chandler-Bing wedding can be moved up. Chandler runs to the phone and freaks out. Monica returns to the apartment at which point Chandler leaves the apartment. She listens to the answering machine and realizes that Chandler heard about the wedding hall. Due to Chandler's fear of commitment, Monica gets nervous. When Chandler returns later in the day, Monica tells him that she was only kidding when she made the reservation and that Chandler is under no commitment to propose to her. Chandler sighs in relief. Monica leaves the apartment, and Phoebe comes out of a room. Chandler tells Phoebe that he went down to the museum and made the reservation at the wedding hall. He will soon propose to Monica. There is a final story this week in which Joey tries to get his picture up on a wall at a dry cleaners. Joey claims that because he has a new TV show coming out that his face should be on a wall of actors, but the guy at the dry cleaners says no. Joey sleeps with an employee at the store to get his picture on the wall; however, the girl he slept with is the owner's wife. Joey's picture now ends up on the wall with the words "Son of a Bitch" written across them. NEXT WEEK: Chandler and Phoebe shop for Monica's engagement ring. Rachel becomes disenchanted with Paul. April April 27, 2000 A charming 7 Flush episode. Nothing too special...Phoebe is her charming little self and should become the star of her own show should Friends go off the air. Anyway, Joey begins work on his new TV show Mac and C.H.E.E.S.E. Cheese is actually a robot (not a dog like I previously thought), and Joey does not get along with the creator of the robot, Wayne. Wayne almost gets Joey fired until Wayne sees that Joey is a babe magnet. Wayne makes sure that Joey keeps his job as long as Joey teaches Wayne how to attract women. Monica and Chandler have a rocky week, and they fight quite a bit. Phoebe writes down everything that they say. She is writing a book on couples who fight. She says that she has already written fourteen books, but none of them have been published. Phoebe was very cute this week (I mentioned the cute already): she hit on Chandler jokingly, and allowed Joey to jokingly hit on her. Elizabeth, Ross's girlfriend, wants Ross to meet her father, Paul Stevens (played by Bruce Willis). Paul does not like Ross, but Paul does like Rachel. The two become hook up and become a couple. Apparently, Paul's wife died a few years after Elizabeth was born. Rachel tries to talk Paul into liking Ross but fails miserably. Instead, Rachel brings up all three of Ross's weddings as well as many of his other foibles. What I failed to understand is why Elizabeth sat there in silence. I realize that no one wants to steal the limelight from Jennifer Aniston, David Schwimmer, or Bruce Willis, but the show was just lopsided by muting her until the end when she stood up for her boyfriend. Elizabeth stays with Ross, and Rachel stays with Paul. QUOTE OF THE EPISODE: I was just getting him to like you. --Rachel's justification for hooking up with Paul NEXT WEEK: Monica makes wedding plans for her and Chandler. Ross and Elizabeth escape to Liz's family cabin, but Paul and Rachel show up. April 20, 2000 Rerun. April 13, 2000 Vintage clips from past episodes of Friends sold me into enjoying this 6 Flush episode. Joey is auditioning for a new TV show entitled Mac and Cheese. Mac is the name of a cop, and Cheese is his dog partner. If Joey gets this part then he will be a leading man. Well, his first audition goes well, but he misses a callback audition when Chandler fails to communicate a message to Joey about the audition time being moved up in the day. Chandler is so upset about forgetting, and Joey makes Chandler feel guilty, but then Joey gets a second audition time at which point he gets the job. Honestly, nothing else happened this episode except we saw that Chandler misses his ducks. The ducks want to visit Chandler, but they cannot because Monica is "allergic" to them. The rest of the episode was chock full of clips from episodes past. For example, when Joey and Chandler fight we are first reminded of all the fights the friends have ever had then we see everything wrong that Chandler did to Joey then we see everything wrong that Joey did to Chandler and then we see every time that Joey and Chandler reconcile. I had fun watching this episode, but let's not get confused and consider this episode anything but a nostalgic trip. COMING IN MAY: Chandler plans on proposing to Monica, but will Richard (played by Tom Selleck) get in the way? Ross meets his girlfriend's dad (played by Bruce Willis). Rachel starts dating this dad. April 6, 2000 Rerun. March March 30, 2000 Rerun and return to Las Vegas. March 23, 2000 A disappointing 5 Flush episode of Friends. I was so upset by this episode that I'm just going to sketch it out. Rachel still lives with Joey, and Phoebe still lives with Chandler and Monica, but nothing is made of this in the show. Joey needs a new refrigerator but cannot afford one. He constantly accuses people of breaking his fridge so that he can pay for a new one. This joke gets old very quickly. Also, Rachel needs a date for a charity benefit. Monica and Chandler find her one guy, but Phoebe finds her another guy. In the meantime, Rachel finds her own guy. Monica, Chandler, and Phoebe all vie for their guy so much that all three guys are scared off and Rachel ends up going by herself. Finally, Ross continues dating his student. She decides to go to Daytona Beach for Spring Break. Ross become jealous when he learns that she is going down to Daytona with a bunch of frat guys, so he ends up going also. The two appear on MTV together. Maybe this TV footage will result in their affair being revealed to the university's staff, and Ross will get fired for dating a student. By the way, Ross and student trying to hide their relationship is not half as cute as Monica and Chandler hiding their relationship last season. As a matter of fact, it's annoying. I suppose that this summary was concise yet complete. The show had a few laughs, but no more than a few chuckles. NEXT WEEK: Rerun? March 16, 2000 Rerun. March 9, 2000 I'm being generous by giving this episode 4 Flushes. Ross is reading teacher evaluations for his class, and he discovers that one of his students described him as a hotty. The student who filled out this evaluation soon approaches Ross and hits on him. The two decide to go out on a date. Ross believes that his dating a student is not against the rules but that it is frowned upon so when he and the student are out on a date, and they see another professor from the college, Ross pushes his date to the side (because Ross does not want to be frowned upon). She gets upset that Ross does this so the next time that they see a college professor, Ross introduces the girl. The professor tells Ross that it IS against the rules for him to date her. Ross and the girl begin to say their good-byes, but then decide that an illicit affair would be very got, so they start to make out. To be continued in future weeks. There is a fire at Rachel and Phoebe's apartment. The fire did not destroy the entire apartment, but the girls cannot live in their home for a few days. Phoebe thinks the fire is her fault because of her candle-lighting so when they go to stay with friends, Rachel gets to stay in the luxurious Monica's apartment whereas Phoebe is stuck in Joey's sloppy apartment. However, the girls soon discover that Rachel's hair straightener caused the fire. Now, Rachel has to stay with Joey, but Rachel learns that staying with Joey is fun because cleanliness does not matter, and she can just have fun. Phoebe, in a similar manner, hates staying with the obsessively clean Monica so she tries to move out, but Rachel says that they chose their apartments. I doubt this will be continued. Joey wants an audition for a new Al Pacino film. He cannot get the audition but learns that Chandler went to college with the director of the film so Joey asks Chandler to get him the audition. Chandler calls up the director and sets up an appointment for coffee where he plans to asks for the audition, but while drinking with the college friend, Chandler learns that she hates her old friends to ask her favors. The two go out a second time, and she wrongly thinks Chandler is hitting on her. She turns him down and says that she'll do anything to make it up to him. He asks that she get his friend an audition. She asks if getting his friend an audition will help him get over her, and Chandler says that she should not question love and then leaves. Joey gets the audition, but forgets to go to it. This episode relied on dumb jokes like Thursday being the "thirdday" of the week and Monica being compulsive. Boo, friends. THINGS AGAINST THE RULES: Dating students and having hot pots in the office. NEXT WEEK: Rerun. March 2, 2000 Thanksgiving rerun. February February 24, 2000 Ech! a not good episode of Friends that barely deserves 3 Flushes. Rachel takes a self-defense course in karate which reminds Ross of his good old days of karaTE. He tells Rachel and Phoebe that to be a true karaTE expert that one must master the Japanese art of unagi (Rachel remembers that unagi is eel sushi). Ross attacks Rachel and Phoebe so they realize that they lack unagi and then they attack him and the fight goes on. Ross tries to get help in teaching Rachel and Phoebe a lesson about unagi from a professional karate instructor, but the instructor refuses to help attack two women. Dumb story. Joey needs some money so that he can get some new head shots (head shots are the pictures you give at auditions). To get money, he tries to enter a medical experiment. What will he do? He finds a guy who looks like him and claims that they are identical twins so that they can make $2000 in this medical experiment. Too bad for Joey that the doctor realizes that identical twins look exactly alike. Chandler and Monica celebrate Valentine's Day two weeks late, because Monica had to work on Valentine's Day. The two decide to make each other presents. Neither one remembers to make a gift. Chandler sees a mix tape lying around and decides to give it to Monica. He tells her that the tape has all of her favorite love songs. She is so touched by this gift. She then gives him a sock puppet that Phoebe made. She is so upset that her gift sucks that she makes Chandler a special dinner and performs some sexual favors for him. The next night, the two dance to the tape. As it turns out, there are some great love songs on the tape. BUT all of a sudden, we hear Janice's voice on the tape. She exclaims, "Happy Birthday Chandler...I made this tape just for you." Monica is horrified that Chandler gave her this. She refuses to forgive him. I do not know if this anger will carry into the next episode, but it might. Why was this episode so bad? First, it lacked originality. Second, the acting was horrible. Third, the story moved nowhere. Fourth, David Schwimmer was trying to act like Kramer when he is not. NEXT WEEK: Rerun. February 17, 2000 The Friends fantasy episode that was enjoyable, but not fantastic. About 7 flushes. Rachel finds out that Barry is getting divorced after he catches his wife cheating on him. This discovery makes Rachel wonder what would have happened if she had married Barry. Everybody else begins to wonder. What would have happened to Phoebe if she had taken a job offer working for Merrill Lynch? What if Carol had suppressed her sexuality and stayed married to Ross? What if Joey had not been fired from his stint as Dr. Drake Romorey on Days of Our Lives What if Chandler had become a writer? And what if Monica had never lost her weight? Phoebe becomes a cold-hearted, black-clothed, and high-pressured wall street broker. In such a high-powered position, Phoebe loses $13 million in a sinsgle trade. This loss causes her a heart attack at 31 years of age. She also gets fired for losing all that money. What does Phoebe do now that she has no other talents? She becomes a singer! Rachel is walking through the streets of NYC one day when she sees Ross. The two haven't seen each other in years...Ross can count the days since he last saw her. He takes her over to his gang of friends. One of these friends includes Joey Tribiani, the famous actor. Rachel is enamored by Joey. She comes over to his place one night and prepares to have an affair with him. Unfortunately, she had too much alcohol and vomits. She goes home to her house afterwards and finds her husband cheating on her. She returns to the coffee house where she sees Ross. Ross has been living his own misery. He has not had sex with wife Carol in months. He suggests a number of different ways that the two can spice up their sex life...they could tie each other up, role play, or maybe have a threesome. Carol jumps at this suggestion. Too bad for Ross, that the threesome turns out to be a twosome between Carol and female friend. Ross does not realize that his wife is gay, until he shares this story with Rachel. Rachel complains that there are no good husbands, and Ross complains that there are no good wives. Sort of in misery together. Chandler is a poor, unpublished writer who is a geek and sexually inexperienced. To make money, he becomes Joey's assistant, but Joey is all too demanding of a boss. He yells at Chandler when Joey's fresh-squeezed orange juice has pulp in it. Chandler gets fed-up doing Joey's dry cleaning and other chores. Eventually, Chandler's comic strip gets published, and the income from this strip allows Chandler to quit working for Joey. Monica is a fat blob dating a boring doctor and is a virgin. Chandler and Monica still live across the hall from each other and hang out all the time. The two talk and wind up having sex and living happily ever after. As the show promised, a fantasy...for better or for worse. NEXT WEEK: Janice gives a gift to Chandler that ruins his anniversary with Monica. Joey finds someone who looks like his identical twin in hopes that they both can make some money in a get-rich-quick scheme. February 10, 2000 Ohmygosh the Ross and Rachel never-ending romance intensifies in this 7 flush (out of ten) episode of Friends when Rachel asks Ross to call off his relationship with Rachel's sister, Jill. The episode begins hours after last week's ended. It is now many hours after Ross shut the blinds to his apartment. Rachel is still standing in Monica and Chandler's living room looking at Ross's closed window. The next morning Rachel asks Ross what happens. He tells her that he was showing Jill a slide show. Rachel is quite relieved that the two did not have sex, but realizes that she does not want Ross to be with Jill. So she asks Ross to call off his dating Jill. Ross follows Rachel's request, but when Jill finds out why Ross dumped her, she becomes all the more determined to snag Ross. She goes to his apartment knowing that Rachel is watching Ross's apartment, and then Jill shuts the blinds. What does she do? She asks Ross to show her more slides. Later on, we see Rachel at Monica's. Ross walks in. Rachel asks what happened with him and Jill. He says that he showed her more slides, but did not hit on her even though she hit on him. Ross said that if he had sex with Jill then he would never be able to get back with Rachel. Of course, nothing happens between these two jokers, but we are touched. A guy comes up to Phoebe at Central Perk and asks her for her autograph. Phoebe figures that her musical talents are finally being recognized. However, Joey asks the guy why he wanted Phoebe's autograph. He says that Phoebe Booffay is a famous porn star who has been in hits like "Booffay, the Vampire Layer." Without telling Phoebe, Joey buys some of these videos and discovers that the actress is not Phoebe but Ursula, Phoebe's twin sister. Phoebe then confronts Ursula who really does not care if Phoebe's life has been affected. What does Phoebe do? She picks up the pay checks for "Phoebe Booffay" so that she can make money, and she embarrasses all men who recognize her. Phoebe's porno problems are solved. Monica accuses Chandler of having no heart this week when he does not cry at the end of some movie. Chandler is troubled by this suggestion, but is relieved when he finally cries at the Ross-Rachel saga. NEXT WEEK: A special one-hour episode that explores life's "what-ifs." What if Rachel married Barry? What if Joey achieved stardom as Dr. Drake on Days of Our Lives? What if Monica was an obese virgin who pursued Chandler? What if Chandler was Joey's lackee? What if Ross were a stockbroker? What if Ross was still with his lesbian wife? February 3, 2000 Three things happen this week, and I'll work my way up. In a very unfunny manner, Joey gives food away to pretty girls at the cafe. Gunther gets upset. Joey has to stop giving away free food. Second, Monica gets sick, but she refuses to admit that she is sick. She tries to convince Chandler that she is not sick and that she should have sex with him. He says that he won't have sex with someone who is sick. Monica then tells Chandler that she is sick and needs to be cared for by Chandler, but Chandler says that Monica is faking being sick so that he will have feel pity for her and have sex with her. Monica then decides to rub some vapo-rub on her, so she takes off her shirt and starts rubbing. She does this in such a sex manner that Chandler now has no problem having sex with Monica. Rachel's sister Jill, played by Reese Witherspoon, shows up. Jill is upset b/c her father just financially cut her off after she bought a boat. Rachel says that she will help Jill get a job and an apartment. Jill is happy. She starts hanging out with the gang and really connects with Ross. Phoebe tells Rachel that she thinks Jill and Ross will hook up. Rachel then tells Jill that she and Ross have been seen flirting. Jill says that Ross is not her type, maybe she is Rachel's type, but Ross is a dork. Rachel gets defensive and starts saying what a great guy Ross is. Jill says that maybe she should give Ross a chance. The two agree to go out on a date. Rachel follows the date back to Ross's apartment. She begins to spy on the date from Monica's window when Ross draws his curtains so that Rachel can no longer see through the window. Chandler says that Ross is about to get some. To be continued next week... NEXT WEEK: Rachel tells Jill that the Ross-Jill thing sickens her. Ross agrees to end the relationship, but Jill will hear none of that. Phoebe is constantly being asked for her autograph. Why? Twin sister Ursula is starring in porn films using Phoebe's name. Chandler is dead inside b/c he cannot cry.