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The One Where Ross Finds Out

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"The One Where Ross Finds Out" is the seventh episode of the second season of Friends, which aired on November 9, 1995. In it, Ross finds out about Rachel's feelings for him while Monica helps Chandler lose weight and Phoebe dates a guy that doesn't want sex.

Plot[]

Chandler and Monica[]

Chandler is having problems because he's put on weight, so Monica offers to be his personal trainer. Her workout sessions are practically destroying Chandler. He is sticking to the program, but he's mad at Monica for her obsessiveness in the pursuit of her goals. With one pound to go, and not wanting to workout anymore, he employs psychological tricks to picks on Monica's weaknesses - no job, no boyfriend, no confessions of anything to her parents. By using her weaknesses, he made her too depressed to do anything. He then convinced her to lie down on his couch; while he quietly celebrated his victory before going back to bed.

Phoebe and Joey[]

Meanwhile, Phoebe is going out with Scott, a guy she finds great, but is frustrated with him because he won't put out with her. After talking to him, she convinces him to have sex, but when talking it out to Joey, she ends up realising that Scott had manipulated her into getting her to beg him for no strings hook-up. Shocked with herself for being manipulated like this, Joey is in fact amazed by the discussion and states: "This man is my god!"

Ross and Rachel[]

Rachel is finding it hard to forget her feelings for Ross. Monica sets her up on a date with Michael. When Ross and Julie tell the group that they're getting a cat together, Rachel simply freaks out knowing this is a sign the two are serious about their relationship and leaves work in the middle of the day. At the restaurant, Rachel is not listening to a word of Michael's, and instead keeps asking him about cats and how she finds it weird that Ross is getting one while gulping down endless glasses of wine. Michael is understanding, having just gone through a divorce, and tells her what she needs to get over Ross is closure. Now very drunk, Rachel calls Ross there and then, leaving him a message saying that she's over him.

2x07 Big Kiss

Ross and Rachel's first romantic kiss

Ross comes for Monica's old cat toys at Rachel's apartment, checking for phone messages in the process. He happens to hear Rachel's drunken message from the night before. Rachel tries to stop him from hearing it, but fails. Ross finally learns of Rachel's feelings for him, but doesn't know how to respond as Julie is waiting downstairs so they can go and get their cat. Julie rings the doorbell, and he quickly departs, leaving Rachel alone and without an answer. Later that night, as the coffeehouse is closing, Ross comes in and tells Rachel how he didn't get a cat. He's mad at her for revealing her feelings, while Rachel is mad at him for not talking about his crush before. Ross storms out and Rachel locks the door, furious with herself at what she has done. Ross, however, doesn't go far away and returns to the door looking at her. When she gets up, she sees him and unlocks the door. Ross enters, grabs Rachel and they kiss passionately.

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[]

Lauren Tom - Julie
Arye Gross - Michael
Barry Diamond - Phone Guy
Marcus Jacques - Waiter (as Marcus D Jacques)
Fritzi Burr - Woman pet shop owner
James Michael Tyler - Gunther (uncredited)

Crew[]

Directed By:
Peter Bonerz

Written By:
Michael Borkow

Quotes[]

  • Monica: Chandler, I'm unemployed and in dire need of a project. You wanna work out? I can remake you.
    Chandler: Oh, you know, I would, but that might get in the way of my lying-around time.
  • (Chandler comes out to the hallway between the apartments wearing spandex, jogging in place. Monica is there.)
    Chandler: OK, let's do it. (Monica looks at him funny) What?
    Monica: Nothing, just never seen you in little stretchy pants before.
    Chandler: And we're changing. (jogs back in his apartment)
  • Monica (coaching Chandler doing sit-ups): Give me five more and I'll flash you.
    Chandler: One... two... ...two and a half. Okay, just show me one of them.
  • Monica: Yo, Bing, racquetball in 20 minutes.
    Chandler: Joey, be a pal. Lift up my hand a smack her with it.
  • Phoebe: So I figured it out.
    Joey: What?
    Phoebe: Why Scott doesn't want to sleep with me. It's 'cause I'm not sexy enough.
    Joey: Phoebe, that's crazy. When I first met you, you know what I said to Chandler. I said, "Excellent butt, great rack."
    Phoebe: Really, that's so sweet. I mean, I'm officially offended, but sweet.
  • Rachel: (on phone) Ross, hi, it's Rachel. I'm just calling to say that um, everything's fine and I'm really happy for you and your cat who, by the way, I think you should name Michael. And, you know, ya see, there I'm thinking of names, so obviously, I am over you. I am over you and that, my friend, is what they call closure. (hangs up and tosses phone in the ice bucket)
  • Chandler: (answering the door in his robe) No, no, no, no, no, no. (opens the door to Monica) No. Monica, it's Sunday morning. I'm not running on a Sunday.
    Monica: Why not?
    Chandler: Because it's Sunday. It's God's day.
  • (Rachel jumps on Ross to prevent him from hearing her phone message to him, but fails and he hears it)
    Ross: You're over me?
    Rachel: Ohhhhhhhh, God. (climbs off his back)
    Ross: What? You're, uh, you're, you're over me?
    Rachel: Ohh, ohh.
    Ross: When, when were you... under me?
  • Joey (to Phoebe): He got you to beg to sleep with him. He got you to say he never has to call you again. And he got you thinking this is a great idea? This man is my god!
  • (Ross confronts Rachel at Central Perk just as she is closing the cafe)
    Ross: I didn't get a cat!
    Rachel: Oh... that's, um, interesting.
    Ross: No, no, it's not 'interesting'! It's very not interesting! In fact, it's actually 100% completely opposite of interesting!
    Rachel: Alright, I got it Ross!
    Ross: You had no right to tell me you ever had feelings for me!
    Rachel: What?
    Ross: I was doing great with Julie before I found out about you!
    Rachel: Hey, I was doing great before I found out about you! You think it's easy for me to see you with Julie?!
    Ross: Then you should have said something before I met her!
    Rachel: I didn't know then! And how come you never said anything to me?!
    Ross: There was never a good time!
    Rachel: Right, you, you only had a year! We only hung out every night!
    Ross: Not, not, not... every night! And it's not like I didn't try, Rachel, but things got in the way, y'know?! Like Italian guys, or ex-fiancees, or, or, or... Italian guys!
    Rachel: Hey, there was one Italian guy, okay?! And do you even have a point?!
    Ross: The point is, I... I don't need this right now, okay?! It's too late! I'm with somebody else! I'm happy! This ship has sailed!
    Rachel: Yeah, what're you saying, you just just sort of put away feelings or whatever the hell it was you felt for me?!
    Ross: Hey, I've been doing it since the 9th Grade, I've gotten pretty damn good at it!
    Rachel: Alright, fine, you go ahead and you do that, alright, Ross?!
    Ross: Fine!
    Rachel: 'Cause I don't need your stupid ship!
    Ross: Good!
    Rachel: Good! (Ross leaves, and she walks up to the door to shut it) And you know what? Now I've got closure!!
    (Rachel sits on the couch and sobs. Ross comes back as Rachel is standing up. Rachel smiles and goes to open the doors, but struggles)
    Ross: Try the bottom one.
    (Rachel does so and opens the doors. They grab each other and start to kiss passionately)

Trivia[]

General[]

  • The song playing when Ross and Rachel kiss at the end of this episode is the same song that played in the beginning of "The One With The Morning After". It also played in "The Last One, Part 2" when Ross and Rachel have their final on-screen kiss when they get back together.
  • Ross and Rachel have their first physical passionate kiss at the end of the episode.
  • Barry Diamond, the guy on the phone, is a stand-up comedian from The Bronx, New York.
    • He also played Pat Buckles in the Seinfeld episode "The Movie".
  • During the 2008 Prime-time Emmy Awards, the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences honored TV's Most Memorable Moments, determined by an online vote. The kiss between Ross and Rachel was rated #1.
  • David Schwimmer is allergic to cats.
  • This episode is rated #2 in "NBC's 6 Favorite Friends Episodes Countdown".
  • In this episode, Gunther's name is finally revealed. This is evident when Rachel says, "goodnight, Gunther" to him while he leaves the coffeehouse.
    • Some closed captions don't have this line, however.
  • The restaurant Michael and Rachel go to is called The Saloon. This isn't spoken, but the exterior is shown as a transition shot. This restaurant closed in 2019.
  • The producers wanted to use U2's "With or Without You" as the background clip for Ross and Rachel's kiss; however, there wasn't enough time for them to arrange for the necessary rights. Instead of the song, a studio clip similar to the band's playing style was used.
    • The song "With or Without You" is actually played the next episode.
  • The DVD episode features an extra scene where Ross and Julie are picking their cat at the cat shop.
  • The I Didn't Do It episode, "Logan Finds Out" was similar to this one, because Logan (Ross) found out Jasmine (Rachel) liked him, but he had a girlfriend and she ended up heartbroken. Ironically, both episodes were focused on Jasmine and Logan's and Ross and Rachel's relationship, and both titles had "finds out" in them with the male character's name also in the title. The only differences were that Logan didn't kiss Jasmine at the end of the episode like Ross did with Rachel and the next episode wasn't a continuation to this one like it was with Friends.
  • The full name of Monica's cat was "Fluffy Meowington", and it was male.
    • The fact that Monica had a cat might be seen as a continuity error, as in Season 2 Episode 8, "The One With The List" , Monica goes to a job interview where she reveals that she is allergic to cats. But it is also possible that she wasn't always allergic to cats.
  • Ross says "When did he, when did he, when did he?" Then he repeats the line to himself.
  • The snatch of music Chandler dances to is from "Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy" from Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker.
  • This is the first time when Rachel was shown drunk on the show. The second time was in "The One In Vegas, Part 2" when both Rachel and Ross become drunk and end up getting married and wake up in bed together. The third was in a flashback from "The One Where The Stripper Cries", when she and Monica visits Ross and Chandler at college, set seven years prior to The Pilot.
  • Michael asks Rachel if Ross is an old boyfriend. Ross becomes her actual boyfriend in a few episodes time in "The One With The Prom Video".
  • This is the second episode to end with the title "The One Where ... Finds Out". The first was Season 1's "The One Where Rachel Finds Out".
  • It was confirmed by writer Scott Silveri that it was during the filming of this episode that the chemistry between Monica and Chandler was first properly recognized among writers and producers. It took just over a season to notice as Monica being Chandler's personal trainer was only the second subplot the two characters had together after Season 1's "The One With The Birth". Silveri said "they were special together" and there was the agreement that if they ever wanted to pair up another couple in the group, Chandler and Monica would be the way to go. There was a talk of bringing the two together romantically in Season 3, but the writers decided against it as they were worried the Ross and Rachel drama of that season would overshadow it. So, Monica and Chandler were brought romantically together in the Season 4 finale, instead.
  • This episode was used as "R is for Ross and Rachel" in the Nick at Nite Friends A-Z Event (January 2023).

Goofs/Continuity[]

  • As Monica possesses old cat toys, it can be assumed that she previously owned a cat. However, in "The One With The List", Monica tells her interviewer she's allergic to cat hair, while in "The One With The Ball" she freaks out about Rachel's cat and is allergic to it even though the cat is hairless. (Though it is possible she had a cat previously but had to give it up due to allergies, or it may have been the cat owned by Ross and Monica's grandmother who originally rented the apartment.)
  • When Rachel finds out that Ross and Julie are getting a cat, watch Rachel's neck. When she says "together?" she's not wearing a necklace; cut to Ross and Julie for a fraction of a second, then when it cuts back to Rachel saying "both of you?" she's suddenly wearing a necklace. It then disappears again when she says "isn't that just lovely?" You can see it hanging from the tray. She then leaves the coffee house without the necklace. Also the position of the yellow mug on her tray changes several times during the conversation. In the same scene the tea towel starts off flat, then it's crumpled before returning to flat.
  • Ross leaves the apartment without the cat toy although he's probably thinking about Rachel telling him she's fallen in love with him.
  • When Rachel tosses the empty wine bottle into the ice bucket, it's facing to the right (towards Michael). However a couple of shots show it facing to the left (towards Rachel). It switches direction twice during the scene.
  • While Rachel is with Michael, her legs go from crossed to straight out and back to crossed during the scene.
  • When Rachel first asks for the phone, her serviette is between her legs and over her right leg but in the next shot after he asks his dinner companion about it, the serviette is over her left leg and not between her legs even though Rachel hasn't changed position.
  • When Rachel tries to open the door at Central Perk, she initially leaves the bottom bolt in place. However in a clip of this scene later in the series, she opens all the bolts and locks straight away.
  • On the Nick @ Nite version[and presumably some others], the line" Try the bottom one" is cut out.
  • When Phoebe picks up a cookie, in 1 cut she goes to break the cookie but in the next cut her right hand is on the couch.
  • The position of Ross' cookies changes from him getting up from the couch to Monica getting up without anyone having touched it. In fact, they change whenever camera angle changes.
  • During the scene where Rachel tells the gang that she has a date, she wraps the towel cloth around her had but when camera angles shifts, she's doing it again. Also after she says Monica set her up, the tray with cups in suddenly in her hands.

Gallery[]

Stills[]

Screenshots[]

External links[]

Navigation[]

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Preceded by
"The One With The Baby On The Bus" 		"The One Where Ross Finds Out" Followed by
"The One With The List"
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