I haven’t written a Friends walkthrough in a while and I feel like doing one. Let’s see where I am with the series. I haven’t watched any in weeks. It’s Season 5 Episode 17 “The One With Rachel’s Inadvertent Kiss.” It first aired on March 18, 1999. I watched it as it was broadcast way back then. Let me check my calendar to see what else I did that day.
Looks like I was at home and I finished working on photo called “Picnic Photo.” I don’t remember exactly which one that was so I’m going to have to look it up. I think that was before I was doing my my photo collages digitally so I’m going to have to go back and look at the dates on them. I may have that photo scanned in. I think I scanned most of my paper one in. I did my taxes the day before. I bet that was fun.
Let’s get started with the show. Coffee shop scene. Rachel is going to have a job interview at Ralph Lauren. This is the beginning of her having a good job. It takes until season five but I don’t think she’s ever hurting for money or job fulfillment after this. Joey underwear joke. Phoebe penis joke. Good stuff. Good start.
Now we’re back at the girl’s apartment and Ross is doing his shark attack bit across the street in his new apartment. That leads to our second plot line as Joey sees a hot girl across the street and tries to no avail to find her apartment. He keeps counting the windows wrong. It’s a zany sitcom plot line but it works okay.
Third plot line is Phoebe and her new boyfriend who is a police officer (Michael Rapaport) and how their love is all new and fresh compared to Monica and Chandlers’ romance. Monica is all upset that Phoebe thinks her and Chandler aren’t hot and fiery anymore. So, of course, now Monica has to prove it. I’m less amused with this plot line. It’s okay but not especially funny.
Here comes Rachel. She thinks she blew the job interview. This is where we get the show’s title from. She blew it by accidentally giving the male interviewer a casual goodbye kiss. A pretty funny scene. Monica’s dancing is funny too. Rachel is showing off her toned arms in this scene too. Hot girl interrupts the scene by appearing at her window across the street and Joey is off again to find her. He counts the windows and floors wrong again. I can somehow relate to his frustration even though I’ve never done anything remotely like that.
Now it’s time for Rachel’s second interview that she got despite the kiss. It’s time for her to double down on the embarrassment as she has ink from her pen on her lip that the interviewer tries to point out. Rachel flips out as she thinks it’s a pass. She storms out back to her apartment where everyone point out the ink. It’s one of those sitcom just being a sitcom moments that amuse me.
We’re back at Central Perk with Phoebe and Gary being hot and Monica being competitive. Chandler has no idea what’s going on and as Monica explains it he is happy to get some action.
Ross runs into the hot girl at his apartment mailbox and gets a date with her. Goofy scene but I like goofy Ross.
Here is another short scene with post-coital Monica and Chandler congratulating each other on being so passionate. Joey walks in with a grin. He then continues his search for the hot girl but now we know that it will put him in conflict with Ross. The show is upping the stakes on that plot line.
Joey finally gets the correct apartment but the payoff is that Ross is already there picking the hot girl up for their date. Joey thinks he has the wrong apartment again. Thus Ross wins.
Rachel is back for a third interview and she apologizes to the man interviewing her. She makes a pretty good case for herself and somehow gets the job. She almost blows it on the way out the door. I like this scene. I think since Rachel isn’t my favorite character on this show, she tend to be spoiled and annoying, I like it when she’s humble and embarrasses herself.
Double date time as we finally get the payoff to the Monica being competitive story. She tries to have sex with Chandler in the restaurant’s men’s room and that is a bridge too far for Chandler. Monica wants it to be all new again but Chandler is okay with getting past the beginning stages of romance. Chandler is a little too happy about being right.
The final scene gives us closure on Ross’s new apartment across the street window bits. Now let’s see what was cut out of this episode for HD and syndication.
A few jokes in the beginning about Monica and Chandler’s hotness and Joey’s bad job interviews. They cut out Monica’s dance that I noted before. I wouldn’t be happy about that. They also cut a good joke with a woman outside of the job interview as Rachel stormed out. That was probably that actresses claim to fame and she ended up on the cutting room floor except for the extended DVD cut.
They also cut a joke from the bathroom. Overall not a lot was cut from this episode but there was still a couple of things I’m miss. Especially the dance.
Let me check my ratings for this episode. Back in 2013 I only gave this one 2 out of 5 stars. I think I enjoyed it a little more this time around. Maybe 3 out of 5 stars worth. The Hot Girl plot line was fun, the Rachel interview plot line had some good parts, and the competitive Monica one was uneven. That’s not too bad. Maybe 2.5 stars.