"The One With Rachel's New Dress" is the eighteenth episode of the fourth season of Friends, which aired on NBC on April 2, 1998. Rachel takes a provocative pose to get Joshua into a romantic mood - but her plans go awry. Chandler and Joey are at odds to persuade Phoebe to name one of her triplets after them. Ross fears that Emily might turn into a lesbian after a week in London with Susan.
Plot
In preparation for the first night with Joshua, Rachel plans the most romantic date (involving Monica into cooking dinner). Unfortunately, Joshua suffers from a form of ornithophobia - he fears farm birds, which Joey and Chandler's duck and rooster happen to be. This might have not even come up during the date were it not for the fact that the two birds are roaming around in Rachel's apartment (as they still think of it as their home), in full view of Joshua. Because of his fear, Rachel and Joshua end up taking everything at his parents' place, which happens to be empty as his parents are on holiday. The night promises to be a good one for Rachel, except for one thing - Joshua's parents arrive early and catch Rachel in her negligee, which she tries to pass as a new prototype dress from Bloomingdale's. On insistence of Joshua's father, the four of them end up having dinner at a restaurant and Rachel wears nothing but her night-dress.
Rachel pretends her lingerie is a dress.
When Emily offers to accompany Susan on a trip to London, Ross fears the worst and suspects that Susan might try to turn Emily into a lesbian, as she did with Carol. Ross expresses his fears with his friends, and the girls make fun of him because of his lack of trust in Emily. Ross even talks this out with Carol, who cannot believe that Ross actually believes that Susan and Emily might be having "too much fun" together. Ross quickly fantasizes a possible lesbian situation to her, which leads to her admitting the possibility of something happening between the two. When Ross shares his concern with the girls at Central Perk, Monica suggests that he has simply become overly paranoid about his relationships after the way things ended with Carol- Rachel citing his reaction to Mark as a particular example- and encourage him not to let what happened with Carol ruin things with Emily. At the airport (where Ross and Carol lust after an attractive woman at the arrivals), Emily and Susan arrive, with no lesbian connection between them - and Ross is happy about this.
Having named two of the triplets Leslie and Frank Jr. Jr. respectively, Frank and Alice are left with one unnamed triplet. Alice asks Phoebe to name the third boy baby, which Phoebe takes as a personal challenge when Joey and Chandler are the names she has to choose between. The guys argue the validity of their names for the third triplet, when Joey points out how he believes that Chandler is the stupidest name he's ever heard. Chandler is deeply upset about this and rushes into full plans to change his name and surname. Eventually Phoebe can't take it any longer and decides to name the baby Chandler on condition that the adult Chandler keep his name too. When she leaves, he laughs in Joey's face, revealing how everything was a ruse for Phoebe to take his name and not Joey's.
Cast and Crew
Main Cast
Jennifer Aniston - Rachel Green
Courteney Cox - Monica Geller
Lisa Kudrow - Phoebe Buffay
Matt LeBlanc - Joey Tribbiani
Matthew Perry - Chandler Bing
David Schwimmer - Ross Geller
Supporting Cast
Tate Donovan - Joshua Burgin
Jane Sibbett - Carol Willick
Helen Baxendale - Emily Waltham
Jessica Hecht - Susan Bunch
Debra Jo Rupp - Alice Knight Buffay
John Bennett Perry - Mr. Burgin
Charles Thomas Allen - Ben Geller
John Christopher Allen - Ben Geller
Pat Crowley - Mrs. Burgin
Crew
Directed By:
Gail Mancuso
Written By:
Andrew Reich, Ted Cohen, Jill Condon & Amy Toomin
Trivia
- Joshua's father is played by John Bennett Perry, who is Matthew Perry's real-life father. Both John Bennett Perry and Jennifer Aniston's father, John Aniston, have appeared in Days of Our Lives .
- Because she's too pregnant to play the guitar, Phoebe practices Smelly Cat on a snare drum. Her level of skill with the snare drum is even worse than her skill with the guitar, defining the "drum roll" as the actual rolling of the drumsticks over the snare skin.
- Monica is disturbed by choosing other peoples' sex-clothes, but in The One With The Birthing Video she doesn't mind letting other people choose hers (including her own brother, albeit when he pressed the issue before he knew what she was looking for).
the eyes are normal
the eyes glowing red
- At about five minutes into the show, Joey and Chandler rehearse lines from the theme song 'I'll be there for you, cause you're there for me too' when saying 'Joey will be there for you' and 'Chandler will be there for you too'
- Ross begins to reference 'Incredible Hulk 72'. Due to the fact that The Hulk appeared in Tales To Astonish before The Incredible Hulk 101, there wasn't an 'Incredible Hulk 72' published until 2004.
- In Joshua's parents house there is a bust against the wall. In a few shots the mans eyes glow red. It is unknown why this happens. It also seems like the eyes are only red when Joshua and Rachel are both in frame, when its only Rachel the eyes don't glow.
- Monica only appears in two scenes of this episode.
- This is the only episode you see Joshua and Rachel kiss.
- The uncut DVD episode has a rare scene of Ross's bedroom at his first apartment although Rachel and Ross have definitely slept there when they were dating (it wasn't always apparent who's apartment they were in). In fact only Phoebe's bedroom is seen less as it's never seen in the series.
- Chandler states that both Chandler and Bing are "stupid names". In The One With Rachel's Date Chandler accidentally reveals to Ross that his middle name is "Muriel".
Goofs
- When Monica tells Rachel what she is cooking, and Rachel says "I really get crabby when I cook" she crosses her arms and in a flash they are on the counter again.
- Monica mentions that Rachel can cook a baked potato but in a future episode The One With Phoebe's Birthday Dinner (S9E5), Ross tells Rachel she hasn't cooked since 1996. However it's possible Ross was referring to the last time she cooked properly.
- When Rachel shoos the birds into the hall, the chicken turns around and heads away from the guys' door. When Joey opens the door, the chicken is right outside the door. Furthermore the duck can be heard from inside Rachel's apartment but it's across the hall behind two closed doors.
- When Phoebe says "Wow", in this shot, Monica's head is turned to the left. In the next shot, when Phoebe finishes her sentence "Carol really messed you up." Monica's head is turned to the right.
- When Rachel is in Joshua's parent's house, and sits down in a more seductive way, then his parents walk in, her legs are crossed in one scene then its not and then back to crossed again.
- When Ross and Carol were talking about Emily and Susan, the naginata (sword) on the wall is unsheathed. When it goes to Carol then back to Ross, it's sheathed with its scabbard.
- When Alice is talking to Phoebe in Central Perk, the strap of her handbag changes position between shots.
- Joshua's mother mentions that they left him "$500 for groceries." This seems somewhat strange, as Joshua is implied to be quite financially secure, as he can afford a personal shopper and entire new wardrobe from Bloomingdale's, and also invests in a nightclub. He may not be accustomed to grocery shopping on a budget if his ex-wife did all the grocery shopping.
External links
- The One with Rachel's New Dress at the Internet Movie Database
| 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 Free Porn" |
Series Four Episodes | Followed by "The One With All The Haste" |
| << Season 3 | Season 4 | Season 5 >> | |||||||
| #01 | "The One With The Jellyfish" | #09 | "The One Where They're Going To Party" | #17 | "The One With The Free Porn" | ||||
| #02 | "The One With The Cat" | #10 | "The One With The Girl From Poughkeepsie" | #18 | "The One With Rachel's New Dress" | ||||
| #03 | "The One With The Cuffs" | #11 | "The One With Phoebe's Uterus" | #19 | "The One With All The Haste" | ||||
| #04 | "The One With The Ballroom Dancing" | #12 | "The One With The Embryos" | #20 | "The One With All The Wedding Dresses" | ||||
| #05 | "The One With Joey's New Girlfriend" | #13 | "The One With Rachel's Crush" | #21 | "The One With The Invitation" | ||||
| #06 | "The One With The Dirty Girl" | #14 | "The One With Joey's Dirty Day" | #22 | "The One With The Worst Best Man Ever" | ||||
| #07 | "The One Where Chandler Crosses The Line" | #15 | "The One With All The Rugby" | #23 | "The One With Ross' Wedding, Part 1" | ||||
| #08 | "The One With Chandler In A Box" | #16 | "The One With The Fake Party" | #24 | "The One With Ross' Wedding, Part 2" | ||||