"The One With The List" is the eighth episode of the second season of Friends, which aired on November 16, 1995. In this episode, Rachel makes a painful discovery concerning Ross. Monica's new boss gives her an impossible task.
Plot
Rachel and Ross tell the girls and the guys respectively of their kiss. Rachel thinks it was absolutely amazing, while Ross is still torn between her and Julie. Chandler tries to help him out with choosing one of Rachel and Julie by printing a list of flaws each of them have from his new computer. Ross lists every flaw he could think of Rachel - describing her as "spoiled, ditzy, too into her looks, and just a waitress" - but when he comes to Julie, all he can manage is: "She's not Rachel". Chandler doesn't manage to print the list and phones the computer company to complain.
Monica has a job interview, for which she has to produce a number of recipes using Mockolate, a synthetic chocolate substitute which they hope to capitalize for Thanksgiving. Monica finds difficulty integrating the disgusting ingredient in good recipes, but she tries anyway. This fails as Rachel and Phoebe are disgusted from eating the Mockolate, and Phoebe describes it as "what evil must taste like." Monica presents her recipes to the interviewer, who sadly informs her that the FDA approval for Mockolate didn't arrive, but gives her a check for her efforts anyway. He does, however, ask her if she experienced any side effects from eating Mockolate, including any burning sensation during peeing.
Ross manages to break up with Julie, having set his heart on Rachel. Rachel enters and asks Ross what's happening. With Joey's help, Ross finally gets with Rachel. He goes to grab her coat, but Rachel sees the list on the computer, but does not know what it was. Even worse, after several useless attempts, the printer manages to spit out the list. Rachel manages to obtain the list from the guys and reads her flaws out. Devastated and hurt, she demands an explanation from Ross, who can't seem to put words together to explain everything to her, and when she reads Julie's flaws ("She's not Rachem" - a typographical error by Chandler), she thinks Ross is making fun of her for being just a waitress.
Ross tries several more times to try and apologize to Rachel, climbing up the fire escape in the pouring rain to read her pros list, but she doesn't want to hear a word. Ross tells her that if it were her who made the list, nothing she could write would stop him from wanting to be with her. She replies that she would have never been so cruel as to make such a list, which she guesses is the difference between her and him. Ross dedicates a song to Rachel over the radio in a last desperate attempt at apologizing, but Rachel calls the radio station to tell the DJ what Ross did. This causes the DJ to stop playing Ross' song halfway, describing Ross' action "pretty appalling."
Monica meets her interviewer again, this time to be introduced to Fishtachios - pistachios of reconstituted fish bits. The interviewer asks if she's allergic to anything, and when Monica mentions her allergy to cat hair he decides she shouldn't try any.
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
Michael McKean - Mr. Rastatter
James Michael Tyler - Gunther (uncredited)
Lauren Tom - Julie
Crew
Directed By:
Mary Kay Place
Written By:
David Crane & Marta Kauffman
Trivia
General
- This episode serves as the Thanksgiving episode of the year, but deviates from the tradition of the bottle episode focused on the six main characters.
- NBC told the show producers they wanted all the Thursday shows to have a Thanksgiving episode. The writers added the Mockolate storyline to meet the Thanksgiving guidelines, where Monica tries to incorporate Mockolate in Thanksgiving recipes.
- The commentary for the episode explains that the Mockolate was in reality just ordinary chocolate.
- Ironically, this is the only Friends season not to feature a dedicated Thanksgiving episode.
- A break up scene was written for Ross and Julie. The writers decided not to use it because they feared the audience would side with Ross and Julie rather than with Ross and Rachel.
- When playing a song after Ross' desperate song dedication, the radio DJ says: "Avery, Michelle's sorry she hit you with her car." Avery Michelle is Marta Kauffman's goddaughter. Allegedly, her parents are the source of inspiration for the characters of Carol and Susan.
- This episode marks the first time that Ross breaks up with his (current) girlfriend, in order to be with Rachel (In this case it's Julie). In "The One With The Jellyfish", he breaks up with Bonnie. However in both instances, Ross and Rachel end up arguing and they don't get together anyway.
- Many years later Joey would write a list of cons for dating Rachel but unlike in this episode, Rachel doesn't find out about it. That list only contained a single "con", switching to light mayo, which Joey actually liked.
- The song Ross requests the DJ plays is With or Without You by U2. This is also the song played when Ross cheats on Rachel (or not) with Chloe in The One Where Ross & Rachel Take A Break. Rachel also includes it in the list of songs she was going to include in a mixed tape for Ross in The One With All The Kissing.
- The producers wanted to use U2's "With or Without You" as the background clip for Ross and Rachel's kiss in The One Where Ross Finds Out, 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.
- Chandler's laptop computer, with a color screen, 12 megabytes of RAM, 500-megabyte hard drive and a 28K modem was very high end in 1995 when the episode was aired. 20 years later, mid- to high-end laptops have routinely 1000 times more RAM and disk space, and 2000 to 20000 faster data connections. (The laptop would be stolen later in The One With The Cat.)
- As Monica cannot find work as a chef, Joey asks her if she would cook naked. As we learned in The One With The Evil Orthodontist, Joey cooks naked but nothing that spatters.
Goofs
- Ross asks Rachel to read Julie's flaw from the other side ("Look at the other side, look at Julie's column"). However, in previous shots, the back of the paper is clearly shown to be blank. Though the line is ambiguous and he could be referring to another column on the front of the page.
- Phoebe tells Monica to grab some wine and unplug the phone but she doesn't unplug the phone.
Images
External links
- The One with the List 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 Where Ross Finds Out" |
"The One With The List" | Followed by "The One With Phoebe's Dad" |
| << Season 1 | Season 2 | Season 3 >> | |||||||
| #01 | "The One With Ross' New Girlfriend" | #09 | "The One With Phoebe's Dad" | #17 | "The One Where Eddie Moves In" | ||||
| #02 | "The One With The Breast Milk" | #10 | "The One With Russ" | #18 | "The One Where Dr. Ramoray Dies" | ||||
| #03 | "The One Where Heckles Dies" | #11 | "The One With The Lesbian Wedding" | #19 | "The One Where Eddie Won't Go" | ||||
| #04 | "The One With Phoebe's Husband" | #12 | "The One After The Superbowl, Part 1" | #20 | "The One Where Old Yeller Dies" | ||||
| #05 | "The One With Five Steaks And An Eggplant" | #13 | "The One After The Superbowl, Part 2" | #21 | "The One With The Bullies" | ||||
| #06 | "The One With The Baby On The Bus" | #14 | "The One With The Prom Video" | #22 | "The One With The Two Parties" | ||||
| #07 | "The One Where Ross Finds Out" | #15 | "The One Where Ross And Rachel... You Know" | #23 | "The One With The Chicken Pox" | ||||
| #08 | "The One With The List" | #16 | "The One Where Joey Moves Out" | #24 | "The One With Barry And Mindy's Wedding" | ||||