Matthew Perry died yesterday. As a “Friends” fan and someone who writes these walkthroughs that makes me sad. I though I’d edit this to say that.
I’m in the mood for writing another “Friends” walkthrough. I’m up to Season Seven Episode One “The One With Monica’s Thunder.” In the last Episode of Season Six Chandler and Monica got engaged so this one is going to continue from there. It first ran (and I first saw it) on October 12, 2000. Let me check my calendar and see what I was doing that day twenty three years ago.
Looks like I spent all day, seven hours, working on a “Mystery in Space” painting. I remember that one well. It was one of the few paintings where I worked with someone else’s image. I painted a comic book cover on stretched canvas, it was around 30×40 inches, and after I finished painting the cover I added my own touches of paint over top. I painted boxes, circles, and shapes of color over the image of the comic book cover. It took a lot of hours to make. I painted three such paintings over the years.
Let’s start the show. We start right where we left off with Chandler and Monica being engaged. Ross walks into the apartment and he is told the good news. The rest of the friends are already there. Monica is out on the balcony yelling that she’s engaged. Yes, the joke is that she’s excited to be getting married. Here comes the theme song.
More engagement celebration as the gang drinks champagne in the apartment. Monica makes it all about her. Phoebe wants to be the band at their wedding and Joey has an audition to play a nineteen year old. I think those are two of our plots. Let’s see. The scene ends with a funny candy bar joke. Simple and amusing.
Everyone has left and Monica is admiring her engagement ring. Chandler wants some action from Monica so he plays the “You’re engaged” angle and Monica is there for it.
Meanwhile we cut to Joey with a mirror trying to look nineteen. Rachel advices him to dress younger. That sure was a quick scene.
Back to Monica and Chandler as Chandler is looking stunned. He couldn’t perform in bed and is all messed up over it. I guess that’s going to be our third plot. He walks out the apartment door and then suddenly Phoebe walks out of one of the rooms with her guitar. I didn’t even know she was still there! She sings a terrible song as an audition for Monica. And a second. The running joke of the series is that Phoebe doesn’t know she’s a terrible singer and songwriter so why would Monica want her to play at the wedding?
Chandler goes over to Joey and Rachel’s and it’s Rachel that’s a bit sad. Chandler is wrapped up in himself as Rachel leaves and meets Ross in the hall. Rachel is sad that she doesn’t have love in her life. She and Ross discuss it. Rachel lets Ross know he was good at “The Stuff” and she especially liked his hands. Of course this will go to Ross’s head but at the same time Rachel is hitting on him.
Cut to Chandler playing a video game at Joey’s. I think it’s Crash Bandicoot. There is a blast from the past. Joey walks out in his “Young” outfit and says, “S’up.” He then works some “Wack” into the conversation. By the way the whole group has been trying to get ready to go out to dinner and celebrate the engagement this whole time. I kind of lost track of that. Now Chandler is consulting Joey about his “Incident” but I don’t think Joey gets it.
Meanwhile Monica is trying to get Phoebe ready but Phoebe is busy writing songs. Monica grabs Phoebe’s guitar. Promises are made, threats are issued, and then Monica opens the door to the hall only to find Ross and Rachel kissing. Monica is not happy about her engagement thunder being stolen by Ross and Rachel getting back together. Monica is terrific in this scene. Big ups!
Next Phoebe walks in and hears that Ross and Rachel were kissing. She makes a big deal of it much to everyone’s chagrin. This episode has more plot lines than the usual three per show. Joey and Chandler walk in and Joey thinks they are all talking about Chandler’s bedroom problem and so he scolds them all for it. Of course they weren’t talking about that and now Chandler is embarrassed.
Thunder is being stolen in an amusing way. Next Joey’s playing a nineteen year old comes up and he realizes that he’s thirty one and not thirty. Always a tough realization.
Now Monica doesn’t want to celebrate.
It’s later on and Phoebe and Joey are talking. Briefly. This episode is moving fast!
Across the hall Ross approaches Rachel to get the romance going again but Rachel is caught up in her dispute with Monica over thunder stealing. Rachel wants to know why Ross isn’t getting his share of the thunder stealing blame.
Back in Monica and Chandler’s bedroom they’re getting changed as Monica is venting about Rachel. Chandler tries to distract her with romance. His bedroom problems are ending but he’s interrupted by an upset Phoebe who wants a deposit to hold the date so she can play the wedding. Chandler says no so she walks away angry.
Here is Joey eating a sandwich! Plus he’s encouraging Phoebe to sing at their wedding no matter what as she is encouraging him to try for the nineteen part.
In the bedroom again and Monica and Chandler are interrupted. This time by Rachel and Ross. Rachel is looking particularly annoyed. Monica just as much. Rachel wants an explanation as to why she was singled out. Monica explains other times that Rachel stole her thunder. Rachel is clueless about them all. All this as Phoebe screams an angry song.
Rachel calls off her fling with Ross as she and Monica continue to work out the thunder stealing. The argument ends with Rachel saying that now she is going to have sex with Ross and so he follows her out the door only to go across the hall and find out that it was all a ploy and he wasn’t going to get any. Poor Roos is such a sucker for Rachel.
Monica and Chandler enter Rachel’s bedroom and it all works out in a funny scene that comes at Ross’s expense.
Here come the credits and the credit scene is Phoebe playing guitar outside of Monica and Chandler’s bedroom. Finally Chandler comes out and gives her a dollar deposit so she’ll stop. Full stop!
Now to check the internet to see what scenes were cut out for syndication. They cut one line from the opening scene. No big deal. They cut the whole scene with Joey looking in the mirror and Rachel telling him to dress young. That was a good scene. They cut one of Phoebe’s songs. I don’t like that cut. They cut a couple of Ross’s flirting lines. No big deal there. They cut Chandler playing Crash Bandicoot. So much for my nostalgia. They cut a Chandler joke in the same scene. They cut the Joey and Phoebe “Wood Cheese” joke. It was a strange joke anyway. They cut the final hug between Monica and Rachel. This is why I always watch the extended cut DVDs. They may not be in hi-def but they have all the material in them.
I liked this episode. Right now I’d rate it a four out of five stars. It was above average. Let’s see what I rated it ten years ago when I watched and rated all the episodes. I only gave it three stars back then. That’s average and I definitely had a better than average time watching it this time around. Sometimes it’s all about my mood. Until next time.