The One With the Fan Page

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F●R●I●E●N●D●S
The One With the Fan Page

Hi, I'm Tricia! I'm 27, I run the front office at a dental practice in Pittsburgh, and every Thursday night my roommate Steph and I order Chinese, turn the ringer off, and watch Friends. It's been that way since the fall we got out of college, when the show was new and nobody knew who Jennifer Aniston was yet. Now half the girls at work have had The Haircut.

This page has two things on it. My episode list, all the "The One Where" and "The One With" titles I love most, season by season. And below, the question that has ruined more dinners in our apartment than anything else:

The Ross and Rachel Question
should they end up together?

UPDATE, Sept. 25: Did everybody see Thursday's premiere, "The One After Vegas"? They woke up MARRIED. Ross agreed to get the annulment. Steph says that's the end of it. I say we have heard Ross Geller agree to things before. I will be watching him very closely.

How we got here (for my mother, who started watching last year):

Season 1. Ross has loved Rachel since high school. Rachel runs out on her wedding and moves in with Monica. Ross spends the whole year trying to tell her. On her birthday Chandler lets it slip, and she goes to meet Ross's plane at the airport...

Season 2. ...and he gets off it with Julie. Agony. Then the list. Then the drunk message on his answering machine. Then the prom video, and she kisses him in front of everybody, and we all cried.

Season 3. The break. The copy girl. I don't want to talk about it.

Season 4. The eighteen-page letter he fell asleep reading. Emily. The wedding in London, where he says the wrong name at the altar, and the wrong name is Rachel's.

Season 5. Emily leaves him. Rachel dates other people. Then Vegas, and neither one of them remembers the chapel.

THE CASE FOR
• They've loved each other since they were kids.
• Every time one of them is happy with someone else, the other one is miserable, and so are we.
• He liked her back when she had the old nose.
• Ben needs a nice stepmom who brings good presents.
• Six seasons. They owe us.

THE CASE AGAINST
• The break.
• He is SO jealous. Remember Mark from Bloomingdale's?
• Two divorces already. Three if you count Vegas.
• She's finally good at her job and doesn't need anybody.
• Steph says if they get together, the show is over.

My verdict: Yes. Eventually. Not now, and not because they got drunk in Vegas. I think the writers know it has to happen, and I think they know the minute it does, a big piece of the show goes with it. So they'll hold out as long as they can. Season eight. Maybe the last episode ever. I'll be old. I'll still be watching.

What you all said (I asked in May, and people have been e-mailing me their votes ever since. Keep them coming!)

Vote	E-mails
Yes, together forever	214
Yes, but not for a long time	96
No, they're better as friends	61
No, Rachel deserves better	38
Rachel should end up with Joey	9
"I just watch for Phoebe"	17

The nine Joey votes all came from the same three people, and you know who you are.

Meanwhile, across the hall... Can we talk about Monica and Chandler? Who saw THAT coming? London, the secret, all those months of them sneaking around, and Phoebe and Chandler's game of chicken in "The One Where Everybody Finds Out." They are the couple on this show that actually works, and they had to hide it from everybody to make it work. I love them.

On to the episode list »

You are guest number

at this apartment since January 1999. Grab a spot on the couch.

Send me your vote, or tell me I'm wrong:
[email protected]

Last updated: Saturday, September 25, 1999
Friends belongs to NBC, Warner Bros. and Bright/Kauffman/Crane, not me. I just talk about it too much. Page by Tricia Szalay, © 1999.