I haven’t done a Friends walkthrough in a while so I think I’ll do one. I haven’t watched an episode in months so let’s see where I’m at. I’m on Season Eight Episode Five “The One With Rachel’s Date”. This first ran on October 25, 2001. Let me check my calendar and see what I was doing that day.
The only notation I have for that day is “Print Stuff.” That means that I was probably working on some digital prints. I’d draw stuff by hand on paper, scan it in, and then color it digitally. This was probably the very beginning of me making digital prints. I still make them today but not as often as I once did.
I also notice that I was working on my website earlier in the week. This was probably when I first got www.jaredosborn.com online. It has been a while.
On the Saturday following this Thursday I read that I played some touch football. I used to play some pickup games in New Jersey. Everybody who played was generally a person who worked at either Marvel Comics or Wizard Magazine. I think our last game was in January 2005.
Let’s get on with the show. We start with Monica working as a chef as Phoebe stops by. Phoebe takes a liking to the new sous chef, Tim, and flirts with him so Monica quickly hooks them up because she’s in a hurry. Monica is not yelling!
Here comes the theme song. I haven’t heard it in a while. It’s filled with nostalgia for me.
Next scene is at Chandler’s office. He starts with a joke and then Ross stops by. They’re heading out to lunch. A co-worker calls Chandler “Toby” and he just rolls with it. That’s Chandler’s plot for this episode. The guy thinks his name is Toby and it’s too embarrassing for Chandler to correct him because he’s been calling him that for five years.
Ross finds out after all these years that Chandler’s middle name is Muriel. “Your parents never even gave you a chance” is his reaction. Ha!
New scene. We’re on set with Joey on “Days of Our Lives” and Rachel is with him watching the monitor as Joey acts. Rachel gets an intro to one of the actors, Cash. This must be the date that the title refers to. If I remember correctly Rachel is pregnant (it’s early on) with Ross’s baby but they’re not together. So this sets up a jealousy angle.
Now we’re at Central Perk with Monica and Phoebe. Phoebe had a great date with Tim but Monica wants to fire him because he’s bad at his job. Some solid jokes and then Monica is convinced to give him another chance.
And we’re at Joey and Rachel’s apartment and it’s time for Rachel to find out that Cash wants to ask her out. Joey said he didn’t think she’d be dating anyone because she’s pregnant. Rachel says she wants the date. This is a solidly funny scene.
Back to Chandler’s office and a continuation of the Toby plot line. This is a mildly funny plot but there is really not much to say about it. It’s discomfort humor. Not my favorite type.
More Phoebe and Monica. Tim has got to be fired. But the twist is now that Phoebe wants to break up with him. He’s too clingy but she doesn’t want him to get dumped and fired on the same day.
More uncomfortable Chandler in the office humor.
That was a quick scene and now we’re back to Rachel and Joey as she’s about to go on her date. She’s not going to tell hime she’s pregnant. Ross walks in as Rachel is getting ready and it’s the first he hears about the date. It’s not weird for him. It’s regular. We get uncomfortable Ross. And then he gets upset.
The scene is Central Perk. Tim arrives and we know that Phoebe is about to break up with him. He’s really too wimpy for her. Before the breakup can happen Monica pages him 911 from the restaurant. Imagine that. A pager makes an appearance. This was before the age of the cell phone.
Meanwhile Ross and Joey are at his apartment. Ross is worried about the date. It’s a lot for him. His vision of him, a wife, and child all living together is moving further away form reality. A lot of sadness in this scene. Plus a couple of jokes.
Back to Chandler’s office. We didn’t get a lot of scenes of Chandler’s work place until these later seasons.
Now it’s time for Monica to fire Tim but Phoebe shows up. He gets fired and dumped at the same time. Funny scene but brutal for Tim. He’s a nice guy and takes the high road. He’s so nice that Monica decides to give him a second chance. Phoebe does not.
A newsstand scene as Ross and Rachel meet out on the street. The date didn’t go well. She told Cash that she was pregnant. He cheers her up by telling her about Chandler’s middle name. It’s a sweet scene as Rachel realizes that dating is over for her for a long time and Ross tells her how much she’ll love her baby.
Immediately Ross walks into Central Perk and Runs into Mona. A woman he met at Chandler and Monica’s wedding and liked. Rachel walks in and then walks out again to sad music.
The credits scene is one final Joke about Chandler being called Toby at the office.
Now it’s time to check out what was cut out of this script for syndication. A Monica yelling joke in the beginning. Then nothing until a “I’m not telling him I’m pregnant” joke later on. Finally a bit of the Chandler office stuff. Not a lot of stuff in this one but I still prefer it in.
I’m going to check my ratings from back when I rated all of these episodes on iTunes years ago. But first I think I’d rate it a three stars out of five right now. That means it’s an average episode. That’s still good but not special.
I gave it two stars back in the day! That means below average. That could also be because the one before this one, “The One With The Videotape” is a five star episode (the best). If I watched them back to back I could see how this one would pale in comparison. But after not having watched an episode in months this one seemed more near an average episode to me.
Until next episode.