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"The One With The Red Sweater" is the second episode of the eighth season of Friends, which aired on October 4, 2001. This is one of the 10 episodes directed by actor David Schwimmer.

Plot[]

Checking out of the wedding suite from the hotel is no happy thing for Monica, who is actually depressed that her wedding day is over. Her and Chandler's honeymoon is in three days, and the photographer's pictures will take weeks to get developed. Chandler, however, reminds her that they have the pictures from the disposable cameras at the tables to look at. Unfortunately, Chandler can't find the cameras, so he asks Ross to help him out. Ross, who checks out after the others, points out to his brother-in-law that another wedding reception is about to take place in the same hall he and Monica had theirs last night. The two buy new disposable cameras and dress up for a wedding reception they're not even invited to, hoping that Monica will never know about this.

TheOneWithTheRedSweater

Phoebe, Joey and Monica find the red sweater.

Monica, meanwhile, is flipping out because she promised Chandler they would open their wedding gifts together, but can't as he's still not home. When her curiosity gets the best of her, she opens a tiny one which contains a salt shaker. Hoping to complete the set, she opens the second one, which is roughly the size of a beach ball. She continues opening presents with uncommon ecstasy. Phoebe scares Rachel from telling the father when she remarks how her confession will change the father's life completely, something which Rachel doesn't want as she believes she's ready to raise her child by herself.

Rachel is still intent not to tell who the father is, but when Joey suspects something, Phoebe sticks with her story from the wedding that she is pregnant. Joey is incredibly happy for Phoebe but equally sad that she'll be raising her kid without a father, so he proposes to fix things - by proposing to Phoebe, who accepts. Monica tells Joey that it's Rachel who's pregnant, and how she and Phoebe know about this but don't know anything about the father. This sparks something in Joey's mind, who at his apartment, finds a red sweater which he has had for a month and believes is the father's. This, in turn, is a revelation for Phoebe, who exclaims how she knows who the father is.

At the reception, Ross and Chandler take tons of pictures where they try to integrate in the wedding, including one with Ross making a toast on stage (ending up warning a guest that his '95 blue-green LeSabre to move his car before it gets towed) and Chandler kissing a totally unknown bride, a picture after which Ross and Chandler run for their lives. Phoebe drags Rachel to Central Perk, where she has arranged for the father to be. Rachel, still unsure about telling the father, enters, and finds Tag in front of her. Phoebe pulls out the red sweater Joey found at his apartment, but it turns out it's not Tag's, who unzips his jacket to reveal his red sweater. Deeply embarrassed, Phoebe leaves the two alone, and Tag takes the opportunity to hold her hand try and get back together with Rachel, who loses no time in telling him that she's bearing child. Tag drops her hand and remains speechless until she gives him permission to leave.

At the apartment, Monica has finished opening all of the gifts (including Joey's parents', which according to Joey, "does something to salami"). Joey, who now knows that Rachel is pregnant, proposes to her in front of Phoebe, who does not take kindly to this. Unlike Phoebe, however, Rachel refuses to marry Joey. The group is joined by Chandler and Ross, who show the pictures to Monica. Surprisingly, Monica pulls the real disposable cameras out of one of her bags. Although she's not amused to see Chandler kissing another woman, he's quite annoyed to find all the presents opened. Determined to start the marriage on the right foot, however, the two call it even. Ross is about to leave, when he spots the red sweater. He then claims that it's his, much to Monica and Phoebe's shock. He then leaves as Monica and Phoebe realize that he is the father of Rachel's baby. Joey, slow as ever, takes a minute to work this out, and is just as shocked as the others.

Ross later runs into Tag on the street, both of them wearing their red sweaters. Tag indirectly references Rachel's pregnancy and asks whose baby it is, but Ross believes he is talking about the sweater and leaves thinking Tag is weird.

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[]

Eddie Cahill - Tag Jones
Phil Abrams - The anxious wedding guest
Harry S. Murphy - The man at wedding
Teresa Parente - The woman at wedding
Reggie Jordan - The front desk clerk
George Alan - Groom
James Michael Tyler - Gunther

Crew[]

Directed By:
David Schwimmer

Written By:
Dana Klein Borkow

Trivia[]

  • This is Tag's last appearance on the show.
  • Ironically, the season ends with Joey accidentally proposing to Rachel.
  • When Phoebe and Rachel are outside the coffee house, a man in a red sweater can be seen in the background behind them.
  • Believing that Phoebe is pregnant, Joey says that he will track down the father of her baby and kick his ass. This is a callback to Ross' warning to Chandler from a few episodes ago ("The One With Monica And Chandler's Wedding, Part 1").
  • After "The One With Joey's New Brain" and the very previous episode ("The One After 'I Do'"), this is the third time in a short span Phoebe expresses her taste for older men (when she mentions Ed McMahon).
  • Although it's not revealed that Ross is the father until the end of the episode, after he and Rachel had slept together he clearly left early in the morning to return to his apartment before Joey got up. In "The Last One, Part 1", Rachel leaves Ross early in the morning to return to her apartment after they'd slept together.
  • The shot of Joey's belated surprise to Ross claiming his sweater became a popular reaction meme online, representing a sudden realization of something the user hadn't previously considered.

Goofs[]

  • In the ballroom, when Chandler and Ross are contemplating taking pictures of themselves at the next wedding, Chandler is not wearing his wedding ring.
  • In the ballroom, when Chandler and Ross are originally looking for the cameras, and they can't find any, there is a camera on the table behind them.
  • When Chandler mentions about the disposable cameras to Monica to cheer her up, Joey's hands are together. Next shot they are apart.
  • When Monica asks, "What do you think it is?", regarding a present, it suddenly switches hand depending on the shot.
  • Monica is sitting in the living room with all her wedding presents, waiting for Chandler to return. She begins to open a large parcel and reveals a brown cardboard box. Then the camera moves to Joey, and when it moves back, the parcel is wrapped up again. This happens about three times.
  • When Ross is explaining about buying more cameras, the way he holds the camera he picked up off the table changes. Follow the lens.
  • All through the season there is a yellow Kitchenaid in Monica's kitchen, but in the start of this episode it is not there. Later on in the episode, Monica opens a present that happens to be a yellow Kitchenaid. It then returns to its original place in Monica's kitchen.
  • Monica opens presents from the wedding, but when she opens the big one, suddenly it is wrapped up, torn up, wrapped up again.
  • When Phoebe and Rachel are in the coffee house, Phoebe rips off the band-aid from her arm. Later, when Joey proposes to Phoebe, the Band-Aid is on her arm again.
  • In "The One With The Videotape", it is revealed that Joey was with Ross the night Rachel got pregnant and thus would have known the red sweater was Ross'. However him not realizing might be due to him not remembering or his overall lack of intelligence. Joey could also have thought the sweater belonged to someone else other than Ross or Tag, given that Rachel wasn't dating either at the time.
  • After offering to take back Joey, Phoebe, a vegetarian, reacts excitedly upon seeing a "Salami Buddy".

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 After 'I Do'"
Season Eight Episodes Followed by
"The One Where Rachel Tells..."
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