The One Where Ross Is Fine

The One Where Ross Is Fine
Ross pretends to be fine.
Episode Information
Air date	October 2, 2003
Written by	Sherry Bilsing & Ellen Plummer
Directed by	Ben Weiss
Episode Guide
Previous	The One After Joey And Rachel Kiss
Next	The One With Ross' Tan

"The One Where Ross Is Fine" is the second episode of the tenth season of Friends, which aired on October 2, 2003.

Plot

Ross being "fine".

Ross deals with finding out about Rachel and Joey's relationship almost as well as when he found out about Monica and Chandler - that is, not well at all - but out of loyalty and embarrassment, maintains that he is totally 'fine'. The only problem is that everyone can see through his ruse: the word “fine” keeps coming out all high-pitched and squeaky.

In an attempt to prove that he is completely 'fine' with the new relationship, Ross invites Rachel and Joey to a dinner party with him and Charlie. Before dinner, however, Ross is obviously tense and anxious, almost on the verge of tears. When Joey suggests a drink to calm Ross' nerves, the latter quickly goes overboard, becoming so drunk that he forgets to use oven mitts to carry a steaming dish of fajitas to the table – not even noticing the pain in his hands until Rachel points out his mistake. After a while of this drunken inappropriateness, Rachel and Charlie go home, while Joey decides to stay in order to keep an eye on Ross. In the morning, the two men talk, and Ross finally admits he is not fine but wants to be. He promises to try and get used to Joey and Rachel being together.

Meanwhile, Frank Jr., Phoebe's half-brother, comes into town with his kids to visit them. He is completely wrung out and exhausted, claiming that he "hasn't slept in four year", and the triplets are running around making complete troublemakers of themselves in the coffeehouse. He wants Phoebe to take one of them to live with her so that he can manage the other two, but upon closer inspection of which one, he realizes that he loves them all too much to let any of them go. Phoebe understands the position he and Alice are in and explains to Frank that she'll always be available for baby-sitting should the need arise.

During this family reunion, Monica and Chandler away from the others meeting Phoebe's friends Bill and Colleen to learn about the particulars of adoption: they adopted their son Owen at birth and know a lot about the process. All goes well, to the point that Monica and Chandler are gaining a lot of knowledge – until Chandler runs into Owen on the way to the bathroom, mentioning Bill and Colleen's help in explaining "how they adopted you", only to find that Owen knew nothing about his adoption. Panicking, Chandler tells Monica what he's done and the two attempt to make a hasty exit – but don't manage to get out before Owen tells his parents about Chandler's 'big reveal'. The boy is completely distraught, but seems even more upset after, in the middle of a rant at Bill and Colleen, Chandler suggests that Santa isn't real. And then, to top it all off, back at the coffeehouse, Chandler manages to tell the triplets Phoebe gave birth to them. At this point, he decides to just go and tell Emma she was an accident.

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

Allisyn Ashley Arm - Leslie Buffay
Sierra Marcoux - Chandler Buffay
Jim Meskimen - Bill
Dante Pastula - Frank Buffay Jr. Jr.
Giovanni Ribisi - Frank Buffay Jr.
John Damien Ryan - Coffee Shop Patron
Daryl Sabara - Owen
Aisha Tyler - Charlie Wheeler
Kellie Waymire - Colleen
Mary Castro - Coffee Patron

Crew

Directed By:
Ben Weiss

Written By:
Sherry Bilsing-Graham & Ellen Plummer

Trivia

• This is the final appearance of Giovanni Ribisi as Frank Buffay Jr.
  • This is the first appearance of Frank Jr. since "The One Hundredth" (S5E3), a span of 120 episodes.
  • Alice is mentioned but does not appear.
• This episode features no scenes in Monica's apartment.
• As of this episode, five of the six friends are shown drunk at least twice:
  • Monica is shown drunk more than once, such as in "The One With The Fake Monica" (S1E21) and "The One Where They All Turn Thirty" (S7E14);
  • Rachel is drunk in "The One Where Ross Finds Out" (S2E7), "The One In Vegas, Part 2" (S5E24), "The One After Vegas" (S6E1) and "The One With The Soap Opera Party" (S9E20). She may also have been drunk in The One With George Stephanopoulos.
  • Phoebe is drunk in "The One After Vegas" (S6E1), "The One Where They All Turn Thirty"  and "The One With The Proposal" (S6E24);
  • Ross is drunk in The One Where Ross And Rachel Take A Break, "The One In Vegas, Part 2" (S5E24), "The One After Vegas" (S6E1), The One Where They All Turn Thirty (at Monica's 30th), The One Where No One's Ready (after his speech) and in this episode;
  • Chandler is drunk in "The One Where Chandler Can't Remember Which Sister" (S3E11) and "The One With Rachel's Crush" (S4E13);
  • Joey is never shown drunk in this series. However, he may have been drunk in "The One With The Two Parties" (S2E22).
• Frank Jr wants to give Phoebe one of his kids, which is a reversal of roles from "The One Hundredth", where when the triplets are born, she wants to keep one of them.
• Ross says "I'm fine" nine times over the course of the episode.
• The DVD version of the episode features some additional content. It shows Chandler telling Owen that he said he was a doctor, rather than adopted. It also shows Monica defending Chandler saying they should have told him since he was 12, but find out he's in fact 8 which Monica remarks how tall he is and asks what country they got him from. In the final scene Phoebe makes the same mistake of his age and Monica then predicts he's from Russia. During the double date Joey also reveals that he sold his boat as Ross says they should take a trip on Joey's 'amazing' boat. Joey says he sold it two years ago and Ross calls him an idiot but Joey says he can get it back. When Rachel leaves Ross comes back out with more food but without oven mitts again. And finally, Ross quotes that he's fine again to which Joey replies 'are we still doing this' and Ross replies 'no'. Also Rachel tells Ross he's not wearing oven mitts.
• In addition, during the scene that Frank Jr brings the triplets in, the triplets hug Phoebe and she chases the kids around the table, while Frank Jr. Jr. tries to pull Frank Jr.'s arm out of it's socket.
• Ross tells Joey that Rachel "is a keeper". This is a callback to when Phoebe first announced her surrogacy in The One With Phoebe's Uterus and Rachel stated "when I have a child, it would be with someone I love and it would be a keeper". Her subsequent concern for Ross in this episode hints that she still loves Ross, the father of her child.
• The way Ross reacts to Rachel and Joey dating is reminiscent of how Rachel reacted when Ross briefly dated her sister Jill.
• Ross states that Joey and Rachel dating is "an unexpected turn of events". This is essentially a callback to Rachel telling Ross that "sometimes things don't work out the way you expected" before he left for his wedding to Emily in London. In both cases the speaker is on the verge of tears.

Goofs and Continuity

• When Colleen directs Chandler to the bathroom, she says it is "down the hall, to the left" but she points to the right with her thumb. This may not be a goof, as she may have meant that once Chandler went down the hall (in the direction she pointed) he would find the bathroom door on his left. When Chandler spots Owen in the hall, both visible doors are on Chandler's left.
• In the scene where Ross suggests, "We should take a trip!" to Charlie, Rachel, and Joey, after the camera pans to Rachel, Ross's next line can be audibly heard, even though you can visibly see his mouth not moving.
• This episode starts where the last episode ends, but with some differences. At the end of the previous episode, Rachel is the first to break the silence saying "I'm so sorry". At the start of this episode, Joey is the one to break the silence.
• When Ross is bringing the hot plate from the kitchen, and shuts the doors, the wall and mirror can be seen moving.
• In the scene where Chandler, Monica and Phoebe are in Central Perk and talk about adoption you can see Phoebe fold the brochure twice before putting it down.
• In the same scene, Chandler takes a sip from his coffee but in the next shot he repeats the next shot he's repeating the same thing from a different angle.
• In the scene where Owen comes into the living room and says that Chandler told him he was adopted and paid him not to tell, Chandler says that he owes him his money back. When the camera cuts to a different angle, Chandler is facing the other way even though he had no time to turn around and do so.
• Holding a metal pan straight from the oven or stove top would cause serious burn damage and pain to a person's hands, regardless of their level of intoxication. The fact that Ross is able to simply keep holding it, and also shows no visible signs of burns the next morning, is completely unrealistic, even for a sitcom. In reality, Ross would have dropped the pan almost immediately after having picked it up. And his burn injuries would have certainly needed attended to at the local ER. However, the fact that Joey, Rachel show more concern for Ross doing this than he does himself proves that he may have been too drunk and delirious to even realise he is holding such a scalding hot object.
• When Ross is standing in the doorway speechless, Rachel asks Joey "should we close the door?" This would be impossible because Ross is standing right by the door.

Screenshots

External links

• The One Where Ross Is Fine at the Internet Movie Database

Episode Navigation

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Preceded by "The One After Joey And Rachel Kiss"

Series Ten Episodes

Followed by "The One With Ross' Tan"

<< Season 9		Season 10
#01	"The One After Joey And Rachel Kiss"		#07	"The One With The Home Study"		#13	"The One Where Joey Speaks French"
#02	"The One Where Ross Is Fine"		#08	"The One With The Late Thanksgiving"		#14	"The One With Princess Consuela"
#03	"The One With Ross' Tan"		#09	"The One With The Birth Mother"		#15	"The One Where Estelle Dies"
#04	"The One With The Cake"		#10	"The One Where Chandler Gets Caught"		#16	"The One With Rachel's Going Away Party"
#05	"The One Where Rachel's Sister Babysits"		#11	"The One Where The Stripper Cries"		#17	"The Last One, Part 1"
#06	"The One With Ross' Grant"		#12	"The One With Phoebe's Wedding"		#18	"The Last One, Part 2"