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"The One Where Rachel Tells..." (also known as "The One Where Rachel Tells Ross") is the third episode of the eighth season of Friends, which aired on October 11, 2001.

Plot[]

Monica and Chandler are about to embark on their honeymoon. Rachel announces she is ready to tell the father of her baby she is pregnant with his child today, only to learn the others already know it's Ross, and they later inform Chandler, who is so shocked that his voice goes a bit squeaky.

As Monica and Chandler are about to leave, another couple on their honeymoon is always ahead of them in line, getting bumped up to first class, the honeymoon suite, etc. The latter causes them to snap, so Monica and Chandler confront them. The couple insists they don't need the free stuff and they just want to celebrate their love for each other, so Chandler and Monica are welcome to all that stuff as far as they are concerned; despite the free stuff being at odds with their own love, Chandler and Monica accept and get the honeymoon suite.

Joey and Phoebe find that Monica and Chandler have taken away the keys to their apartment. They want to get in, so Joey tells the superintendent Mr. Treeger that there's a gas leak. Treeger gets a fireman to chop down the door with an axe, so to cover for the mistake Joey and Phoebe have to call Monica and Chandler and pretend that they are the ones breaking down the door because they smell gas; however, this results in Joey breaking one of Chandler and Monica's chairs.

Joey and Phoebe tell Ross that Rachel needs to talk to him about something important, and Ross is convinced Rachel wants to sleep with him again. When Ross gets home and finds Rachel waiting for him, he makes a big speech about how they shouldn't get back together, leaving Rachel confused. Rachel finally tells him she's pregnant, causing Ross to go blank for a bit. Once he recovers (after Rachel skims through a magazine), Ross expresses confusion about the pregnancy since they used a condom, so Rachel says that condoms only work 97% of the time. Ross freaks out when he learns this, leading him to call the complaint department of the condom company instead of talking with Rachel. Once he hangs up off-screen, however, he discovers Rachel has left because of his behavior and realizes his overreaction.

After he goes to Chandler and Monica's apartment looking for her (learning about the door and receiving backup from Joey about the condom), Ross eventually goes to Rachel's doctor appointment and says he wants to be there through everything, while assuming they'll be getting married. Rachel says that they are not in love so she does not want to get married and that she can do this alone, which Ross disagrees with. They manage to calm down when they see the ultrasound, but Rachel freaks out when she can't see her own baby on the ultrasound picture, forcing Ross to point it out to her and Joey repeatedly.

TOWRachelTells..

Ross and Rachel see their baby at the hospital.

Cast and Crew[]

Main Cast[]

Jennifer Aniston - Rachel Greene
Courteney Cox - Monica Geller
Lisa Kudrow - Phoebe Buffay
Matt LeBlanc - Joey Tribbiani
Matthew Perry - Chandler Bing
David Schwimmer - Ross Geller

Supporting Cast[]

Mike Hagerty - Mr. Treeger
Amanda Carlin - Dr. Long
Lynn A. Henderson - The ticket agent
Evie Peck - The nurse
John O'Brien - The airline employee
Anita Dashiell - The front desk clerk
Shane Nickerson - The man
Laurie Naughton - The woman

Crew[]

Directed By:
Sheldon Epps

Written By:
Sherry Bilsing & Ellen Plummer

Quotes[]

Ross: I grew up with Monica! If you didn't eat fast, you didn't eat!

Trivia[]

  • This episode's original script contained scenes where Chandler made fun of airport security and Monica seemed to issue terrorist commands to Joey and Phoebe over the phone. In the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, this already recorded sub-plot was then changed to the one with Monica and Chandler losing newlywed privileges to the couple at the airport. The original sub-plot is included as a DVD extra.
    • Said scene can also be found on YouTube.
  • This is Treeger's last appearance in the show. However, the friends last mention him in "The Last One, Part 2".
  • Treeger asks Ross to tell their Yoga teacher, Jasmine, that he won't be able to make it to class. This is probably the same Jasmine who is Phoebe's former coworker (and Gunther's roommate)
  • The joke about condoms being only 97% effective is similar to how Julianne Moore's and Hugh Grant's characters explain the pregnancy to their friend in the romcom Nine Months (1995).
  • The magna doodle shows King Kong climbing up The Empire State Building.
  • The original script had the intention of a running gag that Ross, the one with a PhD, doesn't know much about many things, as he was intended to freak out about both the condom ineffectiveness and not seeing the baby on the ultrasound. However, the writers later decided that it would make more sense for Rachel, being the inexperienced mother, to freak out about the ultrasound, so the script was changed and the episode was shown that way.
  • In this episode, Phoebe wears a red sweater that looks similar to Ross' red sweater from the previous episode, "The One With The Red Sweater".
  • Ross claims that Rachel cannot be a single mother because she cannot even eat alone at a restaurant, even though in "The One Where Chandler Crosses The Line", Rachel eats alone at a restaurant just fine. Nevertheless, this was a subplot only included in the uncut DVD version, and not in any other releases or syndicated reruns.
  • Ross tells Rachel he will be there for her through everything, including baby proofing the apartment. Ironically, when Rachel baby proof's Joey's apartment in "The One With The Boob Job", (S9E16) Ross is not there to help her although he may have meant his own apartment as he assumed they will get married.
  • The time that Ross blanks out after learning of Rachel's pregnancy varies between the original broadcast and widescreen versions and the uncut DVD version of this episode. In the broadcast version, Ross is implied to have blanked out for several minutes during the commercial break while Rachel reads through a magazine. Before the commercial break, Rachel reads at the beginning of the magazine, however after the break she has reached the end and closes it while Ross is still blanked out. However, in the uncut version, the scene plays out without any fades or transition music; Ross blanks out for only 32 seconds and Rachel merely skims through the magazine for about 10 seconds.
    • This may explain why an additional shot of Ross being blanked out was included in the broadcast version following the commercial break. It does not line up with the other shots of him being blanked out as in the extra shot is head is tilted slightly to his right.

Goofs[]

  • During the opening scene of the episode, Chandler walks into a room. When he comes out of that room in the same scene, his hair is significantly shorter. This is a mistake as his hair is how it was before he came out of the room for the rest of the episode. This stems from the fact that the episode was partly re-shot to amend the subplot after the 9/11 attacks. Chandler's hair was also significantly shorter during the deleted scenes, and due to an editing goof, the earlier take for that scene was used for the second half of the opening intro.
  • When Joey and Phoebe call Monica about the supposed gas leak in her apartment, they are pretending that they need to break down the door to enter it. But it looks like they are calling from the apartment's phone and Monica could have seen her home phone number when she answered her cell phone and known they weren't telling the truth.
  • The way in which Rachel holds her magazine when she enters Ross' apartment changes between shots. In some shots the image on the cover is facing outwards while in others it's facing inwards.
  • When Ross finds Rachel sat outside his apartment, he comes from her left. However in previous episodes the hallway ended there.
  • Ross and Rachel see a sonogram of their baby even though Rachel's not hooked up to anything and Dr. Long doesn't place anything on her belly.

External links[]

Episode Navigation[]

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24
Preceded by
"The One With The Red Sweater"
Season Eight Episodes Followed by
"The One With The Videotape"
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