Wine and Friends Season 1, Episode 4

In this episode of Wine and Friends, the host Katie discusses the wine pairing for episode four of Friends. She talks about the Tiki Death Punch cocktail that Monica makes in the show and shares her own version of the recipe. Katie also updates listeners on what happened on October 13th throughout history, including the first modern World Series, Italy declaring war on Nazi Germany, and the Shroud of Turin being revealed as a fake. She concludes with some fun facts and mentions that October 13th is No Bra Day. Hello, my beautiful friends, and welcome to episode four of Wine and Friends. Happy Memorial Day weekend. I am your host, Katie, and if you've been here with me since episode one, welcome back. Happy one month since the podcast started anniversary. And if this is your first time here, welcome. I am so excited to be back here with you guys to dive deep into the world of wine and deep dive into our favorite friends. This podcast is called Wine and Friends because each week we pair a new wine with an episode of the show Friends. And if you have any recommendations of a wine that you would like to see paired with an episode of the show, please head over to the Instagram page at Wine and Friends pod or the Facebook page at Wine and Friends and leave a comment on this week's wine pairing post with your recommendation of a wine for an upcoming episode. Also feel free to let me know if you would like that wine paired with a specific episode of the show, and I'll make sure to grab your recommendation and give you a shout out on the podcast. Okay, so let's get to the wine pairing for this week's episode. This pairing started out as one thing and turned into something completely different. I realized that Monica actually did me a huge favor in this episode and we will get to it. But suffice to say our wine of the week is actually a cocktail. I also thought it would be pretty cute to make a drink drink to celebrate the one month anniversary of the podcast. It does seem so crazy that it's been four weeks and four episodes already, but I am having such a fucking great time doing this and I really hope that you guys are having just as much fun. Okay, so in this episode of Friends, the gals have a sleepover and Monica makes them all drinks and the drink that she made is called Tiki Death Punch. Now I did some research on this, assuming that it was an actual cocktail before this Friends episode aired, but everything I found led me to believe that it was just a name given to the drink that Monica made, but it wasn't actually an official cocktail prior to the episode. So there have been a few people who have taken the initiative to come up with their own recipes for the Tiki Death Punch and the recipe that I posted Friday on the Instagram and Facebook pages was the most consistent search result when I was looking for Tiki Death Punch. So the recipe for the original Tiki Death Punch is half an ounce of gold rum, half an ounce dark rum, half an ounce white rum, one ounce of strawberry syrup, two ounces of pineapple juice, a half an ounce of fresh lime juice, and eight ounces of ice blended. I'm going to be completely honest, my good old buddy the Fine Wine and Spirits shop did not have strawberry syrup. They did not. And I actually hate pineapple juice, so I decided to go rogue and make my own version of the Tiki Death Punch. So I am going to swap the strawberry syrup for grenadine and I am throwing out that nasty ass pineapple juice and replacing it with passion fruit juice. So I'm hoping that this is going to be a good cocktail because I never drink rum, but I had to do it for this show and for the simple fact that I have a three-day weekend and a little day drink and some friends is absolute perfection. So this means we won't get a pop cheers today, but hang on, hang on one second. Yay! Yay! Fucking cheers guys. I hope that worked. That was just a little sound clip of a Prosecco bottle being opened, which we all know I love the sound of that. So I actually did hit pause and make this cocktail and it is actually really good. It's definitely, definitely you can taste the rum. I mean there's like an ounce and a half of it in there and that's all it is basically just rum and some juice, but it is really good. So let's pause for a little sip and let's get to the fucking show. Oh wait, shit, before we do that, I just wanted to give you guys a little bit of an update. So if you remember last week, we were doing the like little flashback of what happened on or around this time in 1994 and we ended up finding out that Little Giants was the number one movie at that time and I had said that I was going to watch that movie once I finished recording that particular episode of the podcast and I actually did. After I was done recording, I went to, I think it was Amazon Prime and watched Little Giants and I was pleasantly surprised that it did not only hold up really well, but I also completely forgot that Devin Sowell was in it and I had like a biggest crush on him when I was a kid. He was in, I think it was a movie called Wild America with him and like two boys that were his brothers and then he played the ghost in Casper at the end. I was just like, yeah, I loved him so much. But that movie actually was really, it was really cute. It was, again, like I said, that little, you know, quintessential underdog story and I forgot that towards the end, she, Icebox, realized that she liked Devin Sowell, his character, and she was afraid that because she was like this rough and tough little tomboy that he wouldn't like her, so she ended up becoming a cheerleader for the first half of the game until she realized that they weren't going to win without her and so she put on her football jersey over her little cheerleading uniform and went out there and helped them win the game. It was just, it was so, so cute because that was like exactly how I was as a kid, like I was just a little tomboy, not afraid to go out there and get, you know, rough and tough with the little boys in the neighborhood. So go watch that movie because it was just, it was really cute. Anyway, so what we came here to discuss, the show Friends, episode four, the one with George Stephanopoulos, is the fourth episode of the first season of the NBC television series Friends. It aired on October 13, 1994, and this is kind of a bummer, but again, nothing really significant happened on the 13th of October back in 1994. A couple of super smart guys won a Nobel Peace Prize, but when I was reading that article, there were words in the article that I didn't even know how to pronounce, so I decided to skip that little tidbit and instead I'm going to give you guys an overview of some, some of the stuff that happened on October 13th through the years. And this is just going to be a hodgepodge of random information. So let's fucking get to it. On October 13th, 1903, the Boston Americans, who later became the Boston Red Sox, defeated the Pittsburgh Pirates to win the first modern World Series in 1903. Like, that was such a long time ago. October 13th, 1943, which was not that long ago, Italy declared war on Nazi Germany. 1943. That is so crazy to me. 1963, the term Beatlemania is coined after the Beatles appeared at the London Palladium. Now obviously, I mean, I've heard a couple Beatles songs, but I can't even imagine being around at that time when they were like such a huge, huge thing. 1966, Jimi Hendrix, well, the Jimi Hendrix Experience rock trio debuts with American guitarist Jimi Hendrix, British bassist Noel Redding, and British drummer Mitch Mitchell in Normandy, France. In 1972, a flight chartered by a Uruguayan rugby team crashed into the Andes Mountains of Argentina, and the wreck was not located for more than two months. The incident garnered international attention, especially after it was revealed that the survivors had resorted to cannibalism, and 16 out of the original 45 passengers were rescued. I know that there have been a bunch of documentaries and movies, like, based on true stories, that type of deal, that came out about this particular story. I haven't watched any in a while, but I know that there was one that came out recently that got a whole bunch of, like, really positive attention. So I may have to go watch that. So let's see what else happened. Oh, October 13, 1980 is Ashanti's birthday. 1983, cellular mobile phone service was made available to the American public for the first time. 1983, that is wild. 1988, the Shroud of Turin, revered by many Christians as Christ's burial cloth, is shown by carbon dating tests to be a fake from the Middle Ages. Like, surprise, not surprise. I mean, I'm pretty sure so many of the things, and this is just my personal information, my personal, what's it called, opinion, again, so don't take this, you know, any further than that. But I think there have just been so many things that Christians have tried to prove as proof of what they choose to believe, and just time and time and time again, it has been disproven. And I mean, this is why, like, science is science, and it is important. Because I get it. If you want to believe what you want to believe, and that's your faith, that's fine, but facts are facts. So, end of story. 2000, okay, so we're going to skip all the way from 1980 all the way to 2010, there was a mining accident in Chile, and I'm pretty sure you guys have all heard of that before. I remember hearing about it, but I didn't know the details. But it did come to a happy ending as all 33 miners arrived at the surface after surviving a record 69 days underground. The accident happened on August 5th of 2010 at the San Jose Copper Gold Mine in the Atacamo Desert. Atacamo? Atacamo? Atacamo. The men were stuck almost 300 feet underneath the surface, and it cost $20 million for the rescue mission. 69 days, that's such a long time, I don't even know how they survived that. 2019, Simone Biles became the most decorated gymnast in history when she won her record 25th medal at the World Championships in Germany. I mean, Simone Biles is such a badass that that's not even surprising, but good for her. And then finally, October 13th is the official no bra day. But let's be real, every day is no bra day for me, or at least it fucking should be. So again, this is episode four, it came out on October 13th, 1994. The episode was directed by James Burroughs and written by Alexa Jung. And this episode is the first of many that splits the gang into two separate stories based on gender. The guys go to a hockey game where Ross gets hit in the face with a hockey puck, and the rest of the evening is spent in the ER where a surly receptionist gets her nose broken when the puck goes flying. Meanwhile, the girls, sparked by celebrations over Rachel's first paycheck, spy on George Stephanopoulos, then President Clinton's top aide, which culminates in them seeing Stephanopoulos nude. So our cold open this week starts with the friends, minus Joey, sitting around drinking coffee and talking about what they would do if they were omnipotent. Fun fact, the official definition of omnipotent means having unlimited power or being able to do anything. And like, hashtag dreams. That is my dream. That is my dream. So Phoebe says that she would want world peace, no more hunger, and good things for the rainforest. And right when we think that's the end of her answer, she also includes, oh, bigger boobs. And Ross says, well, see, you took mine. And this is the first time we see Ross actually engaging with Phoebe's little quirkiness by replying with his own humor. Up until this scene over the last three episodes, he's kind of just brushed over her silly ideas or thoughts without actually acknowledging them. So that is kind of cute to see, you know, that he's sort of acknowledging her and her little silliness. So Ross asks Chandler what about him, and he says if he were omnipotent for a day, he'd make himself omnipotent forever, which is such the stereotypical response. Like, if you had three wishes, you would wish for unlimited wishes. And the gang seems not too surprised but a little annoyed by his response. And Rachel says, well, kind of what I just said. She says, there's always one guy. If I had a wish, I'd wish for three more wishes. Which actually isn't the way that goes at all. It's actually kind of funny. I wonder why they didn't use the line, if I had a wish, I'd wish for unlimited wishes. Like, why would you wish for three more wishes? But that doesn't matter at all. So we see Joey walk into the coffeehouse, and Monica asks him what he would do if he were omnipotent, and he says, probably kill myself. And Monica says, excuse me? And he says, hey, if little Joey's dead, then I got no reason to live. And it is pretty hilarious that omnipotent and impotent sound so similar. I can understand why he would get those two confused. But the friends are just shaking their heads at him, and Ross tries to clarify by saying, Joey, omnipotent, to which Joey replies all concerned, you are? And Ross shakes his head, tosses his newspaper on the coffee table, and walks away. And Joey calls after him, Ross, I'm sorry. And we cut to the theme song. And of course, you all know how that goes. So when we come back, we're back in Central Perk, Monica and Ross are sitting on either side of Phoebe on the couch, and she is completely asleep. They're talking back and forth about how she can do that, just fall asleep in, you know, the middle of a public place, and how she looks so peaceful. They both lean in a little closer to her, and as they're looking at her asleep, she jump scares them by shouting out in her sleep, which simultaneously wakes her up as well. And if you look at Lisa Kudrow in this moment, it looks like she almost breaks character and actually starts to laugh as Lisa, which happens so much like over the series, and I just I love it. She is able to hold it in. And Ross tells Phoebe that she nodded off again. And it's here that we find out she lives with her grandmother, and she hasn't been able to sleep at all. She tells Monica and Ross that her grandmother has a new boyfriend, and they're both really insecure in bed and deaf. And I mean, like, I can relate to that, because I have some hearing problems. And sometimes I'm a little louder than I should be, so, like, you know, it's okay. Monica tells her that she can stay with her and Rachel that night, and the stage is set for the first half of our storyline, which again separates the guys and the girls, and we're having a sleepover. Yay! So, Joey and Chandler come into Central Perk, and Joey is counting as they walk through the door. He tells Chandler, see, I told you, less than a hundred steps from our place to here. And Chandler tells him, you got way too much free time. So, Chandler and Joey then wish Ross a happy birthday. They tell him that they have three tickets to the Rangers penguin theme, and they're taking him. Ross replies with, that's funny, my birthday was seven months ago. So, I'm guessing you had an extra ticket and couldn't decide which one of you got to bring a date, which is so funny, because that means that Ross is both Chandler and Joey's date to the hockey game. Also, if you guys remember, in the very first episode, we established that Ross's birthday seemed to be October 18th, and if that were the case, his birthday would have been five days after this episode aired, not seven months ago, which actually would have totally made sense for this scene and the storyline, with the guys taking him to a hockey game for his birthday, but if we're going with what Ross told them, then his birthday would have been in March, which is, like, how fucking weird, and again, where was the fact sheet for each of these characters, so that you were just like, oh, okay, Ross's birthday is going to be in March, or Ross's birthday is going to be in October, and we're going to make sure that however we're, you know, threading this little story, that there's no inconsistencies there, and also, it seems that the date in the show is actually October 20th, so if you remember, the show aired October 13th, but it seems like, based on what we're about to find out, that it was actually October 20th, when this, you know, like, in their, in the sitcom world, that was their actual day, it was October 20th, which would have meant that Ross's birthday was two days ago, if October 18th was his actual birthday, so that is just so fucking wild to me, but again, we establish here that October 20th is that day, and it is a significant day for Ross, because it's the anniversary of the first time he and Carol had sex. He says he better pass on the game, and you can see that he is pretty bummed about remembering this date, because obviously, he's just coming out of that divorce with Carol, so he gets up to walk out, but Chandler and Joey run after him, rally around him, and convince him that he should come out with them to get his mind off things, instead of going home and wallowing, so he says he'll go, as long as they promise to buy him one of those giant foam fingers, so they all agree, and we establish the second half of the girls slash guys storyline, with a guys night out at the hockey game, so just before the boys leave the coffee house, Rachel comes running out from the back, announcing to everyone that she just got her first paycheck from Central Perk, and she is so happy, and she's opening the envelope, she says, isn't this exciting? I earned this. I wiped tables for it. I steamed milk for it, and it was totally not worth it. Who is FICA, and why is he getting all my money? And I still, to this day, have no idea who or what FICA is, so of course I Googled it, and as per the great Google, FICA is a U.S. Federal Payroll Tax. It stands for the Federal Insurance Contributions Act, and is deducted from each paycheck. As you work and pay FICA taxes, you earn credits for Social Security benefits, which seems like a bunch of bullshit to me, especially knowing how shitty Social Security benefits tend to be, but this is supposed to be a fun, lighthearted show, so I won't bring us all down with any of that mess. So Rachel continues to protest about the amount or lack thereof in her paycheck, and she passes around the check to everybody, and they're all telling her, hey, it's your first job. It's not so bad. You can totally live off this, and then Ross adds, hey, by the way, great service today, and they all chip in some extra tip money to help out their woefully unpaid friend. So Rachel walks off to go back to work. All three boys yell, hockey, and go to leave. As they open the door to walk out, three fancy looking ladies walk in carrying a shit ton of shopping bags, and as we find out, they are looking for Rachel. The first woman calls out her name, and Rachel turns around and says, oh my God, and they all start screaming in the most irritating, stereotypical, bougie bitch way her friends. Yes, that's right. All three of them, in turn, start screaming, and Monica says, I swear, I've seen birds do this on the wild kingdom, and that is an accurate depiction of what is happening here, like rich birds in the wild. So Rachel asks the three girls what they're doing there, and we find out that Rachel's mom told them she worked there, and her one friend says, it's true, and I low-key hate birds, and I hate what Rachel's friends are doing to her in this interaction. They're all giving her these little backhand compliments, but she just brushes it off and tries to engage with each of her friends, asking about them. With each new announcement, the four women scream, and I mean, if you've seen the episode, you know they are ear-piercing, brain-shattering screams, and Phoebe and Monica are sitting on the couch while all this is happening, and Phoebe says to Monica, look, I've got elbows, and they both mimic the shrieks of excitement, which produces icy glares from all four of our scream queens. So the scene ends, and I've still got my hearing, somewhat, and we crossfade to the boys walking down the sidewalk, kicking a piece of trash back and forth, and based on what Joey is announcing, it looks like they're acting like hockey players, who kick stuff, I guess. So it's like hockey meets soccer. What would that be? Hocker? Soccy? Oh, you guys, I need help. So as they come around the corner, Ross is so forlorn-looking, and it would appear his chipper mood from the coffeehouse has faded, and faded hard. So he starts telling the guys about all these things that are reminding him of Carol. He sees boots that look like the ones she was wearing that fateful night. He sees a peach pit on the ground, because I guess they were eating peaches, or I believe he said tangerines, but that's close enough, which he announces to the boys by saying, ah, peach pit, and Chandler replies, yes, bunny. But Ross explains to them that this also reminds him of that night with the peach pit. He then mentions that he walked Carol to the bus stop, and of course, being NYC, there's a sign for the bus stop right there. Then Joey says, hey, look, that woman's got an ass like Carol's. And after unapproving looks from Chandler and Ross, he says, what? I thought we were trying to find stuff. Now, it is so hard sometimes to ignore all the cringeworthy things Joey says, especially about women, and I do understand they were probably trying to present this character as that typical sexist, pig-headed man, especially in the early 90s, but it is, unfortunately, far too common in our reality, and so easily excused as, oh, he's just being a man. So I may not be able to always hold back my critiques on this, but I will try. So we fade out of that scene, and we're back in the coffeehouse with Rachel asking her three friends to dish all the dirt. We find out that the biggest news is still Rachel leaving Barry at the altar, and her friends start to ask her when she's coming home. They don't seem to believe her when she tells them she's not coming home, and this is what she's doing now. They're all, I mean, they are shocked that she's going to basically just be a waitress, and as they're making these comments, we see Rachel with a sad, dejected face as our scene fades out. So when we come back in, we are with the girls at their sleepover in Monica and Rachel's apartment, and Monica is making her and Phoebe drinks. Rachel hasn't walked in quite yet, but you can see Monica with a blender, and this is where we find out that she is making tiki death punch, and I am drinking tiki death punch, and it is pretty fucking fantastic. So as Monica and Phoebe are in the apartment, Rachel walks in, and Monica asks her how it went with her friends, and Rachel is still just looking really unhappy. So Monica then asks her if she wants some tiki death punch, which we find out is rum, and before she gets the chance to finish, Rachel says, okay, and takes the entire blender out of Monica's hand and puts a straw in it and starts drinking. So it is clear that things are still not really great for poor Rachel, and what a perfect time to take a sip of my own version of tiki death punch. Still delicious. So we continue with the scene, and we see that they're having a real honest to goodness sleepover. They've got, I mean, like a high school girl's sleepover. They've got trashy magazines. They've got cookie dough. They've got the game Twister. The phone rings, and Monica answers, and we find out that it is the Visa card people, and they've called because there has been unusual activity on Rachel's card, and she says that she hasn't used her card in weeks. So Monica tells her, yeah, that is the unusual activity. So Monica assures her they just want to see if she's okay, to which Rachel replies, they want to know if I'm okay. Okay, let's see. Well, the FICA guys took all my money. Everyone I know is either getting married, getting pregnant, or getting promoted, and I'm getting coffee, and it's not even for me. So if that sounds like I'm okay, you can tell them I'm okay. Monica puts her ear back to the phone and says, Rachel has left the building. So she hangs up. Rachel continues to spiral out a little more, and we end the scene. When we fade back in, we are back with the guys at the Rangers game. Ross is still being his little whiny, whiny self about Carol, and not a lot else happens in the scene. So we flash cut back to the girls in the apartment, and Monica and Phoebe are trying so hard to comfort Rachel. Monica tells her that she should be proud of herself. She's doing this amazing independent thing, and Rachel asks her, what is so amazing? She is feeling, Rachel is feeling, what seems to me to be some type of homesickness. She's sad because she gave up everything she was used to and all the things that made her comfortable, which I mean, like, I can understand and appreciate that. But Phoebe compares Rachel to Jack and the Beanstalk because he also gave up something, and in return, he got magic beans that turned into a plant that was full of possibilities. And Rachel is quick to remind Phoebe that Jack gave up a cow, and she gave up an orthodontist. Now, in this moment, she does clarify that, yes, she didn't love the orthodontist, and then Phoebe says, oh, but Jack did love the cow. So it seems that Rachel is feeling pretty terrified because her life with Barry was all planned out. But now everything is just, as Phoebe said, floopy, floopy. That's a pretty good word to describe it. But Monica assures her that most of the time, they don't even have any idea what's going to happen either. They're just trying to figure it out and hope that at some point, everything will become un-floopy. So they're going back and forth, talking about what happens if it doesn't all come together. And Rachel asks, what if they don't get magic beans? What if all they get are just beans? And the scene fades out with all three girls looking pretty startled by this question slash recognition that maybe, maybe we don't get magic beans. Maybe we just get beans. So we fade back in, and we're back at the game. We see that Ross finally has his big foam finger, and he must be feeling somewhat better because all the boys are yelling at the game. As they're yelling for one of the players to shoot it, he does indeed shoot the puck, and it ricochets off the goal and flies right into Ross' face, hitting him in the nose. Our next scene is Chandler and Joey helping a broken-nosed Ross into the waiting room of the ER. The nurse at the front desk is on the phone and completely dismisses Chandler when he walks up to her. He tries to use his humor to get her attention, but she is not having it. Also, she is on the phone making a complaint about a candy bar. Like, so, girl, know your role. Like, you're in a hospital, hon. You could save that. So she tells the boys to fill these out as she tosses a clipboard at them and tells them to go sit over there. So Ross and Joey come up to the counter and try to get her to realize that they want to be seen sooner rather than later, but she shows them that she is the one in charge, and they are scared off away from the desk by just one, like, desk glare coming right from her. So our scene fades out, and we drop back in. We're back at the sleepover, and the girls are laying around the living room, drinking and just being completely sad. It looks like Rachel's question about the magic beans versus plain beans has got them all just really, really bummed out. So we hear a knock on the door, and it's the pizza guy. As Rachel gets up to answer the door, Monica asks Phoebe if she has a plan, and she replies, I don't even have a plan. And also, can we take a moment to recognize that Phoebe has a straw in her cup that is long enough that she can drink from the cup while she's laying on her back with her head on a pillow. Like, I need this straw in my life ASAP. It is a hugely long straw, but I mean, if you don't have to lift your head to drink, then I am not here for that. So the delivery guy says, hi, one mushroom, green pepper, and onion. And I know we all have different tastes, and we all like different things, but this sounds like the grossest pizza ever. I don't like mushrooms. I don't like green peppers. So, yeah. But, you know, okay. But Rachel says, no, no, no, that's not what we ordered. And my poor girl, she is riding the struggle bus hard right now. But it looks like instead of their fat-free with extra cheese pizza, sorry, fat-free crust with extra cheese pizza, the girls have gotten a pizza that was ordered by their across-the-street neighbor, G. Stephanopoulos. Ta-da! Episode title. Which means George Stephanopoulos must have gotten their pizza. So Monica over here is the pizza guy, and she begins to pepper him with questions. She says, this George Stephanopoulos, was this a small Mediterranean guy with curiously intelligent good looks? And the pizza guy does confirm that that description is about right. So, and then Monica asks, was he wearing a stunning blue suit and a power tie? But we learned that he was not wearing a stunning blue suit and a power tie. He was, quote unquote, pretty much just in a towel. Okay. So, for those of us who didn't, or still don't know, George Stephanopoulos was the advisor to President Clinton in 1994. George Robert Stephanopoulos is currently an American television host, political commentator, and former Democratic advisor. But before his career as a journalist, Stephanopoulos was an advisor to the Democratic Party. He rose to early prominence as a communications director for the 1992 presidential campaign of Bill Clinton, and subsequently became White House communications director. He was later senior advisor for policy and strategy before departing in December of 1996. So, I don't really know a whole lot about politics. I had never heard the name George Stephanopoulos before. I started watching Friends because, you know, as a kid, how I was raised, we weren't really given that much of, like, that much information. We weren't really proactively taught about politics, which is kind of a little bit disappointing because as you're growing up, I think it's, especially in today's climate, it's very important as kids, as you're starting to form your perspective about the world and figure out what type of adult you want to be and the things you want to support. I think it's definitely worth mentioning that politics are, on a certain level, it can be important for you to sort of just have a general understanding of what's going on in voting versus not voting and, you know, policy and who aligns with what you align with. But, all of that being said, like I said, I did not know who George Stephanopoulos was outside of what I learned in this show until I became much, much older. So, Monica freaks out because they do have George Stephanopoulos pizza, and as she runs over to the window to, I guess, look for him across the street, Rachel asks Phoebe who George Stephanopoulos is. And Phoebe says, he's Big Bird's friend, which is so fucking funny because Stephanopoulos does actually sound a lot like Snuffleupagus, which if you remember in Sesame Street, Snuffleupagus was that, I believe, that big brown puffy animal that was best friends with Big Bird. So, I really appreciate my girl Phoebe bringing it back to Sesame Street. So, in the next few minutes, Monica explains who George Stephanopoulos actually is to the girls and we find out that Rachel also loves him. And within seconds, all three girls are at the picture window spying across the street trying to find the apartment that George Stephanopoulos is in. They end up finding his apartment and the spying ensues. So, we cut scenes and we're back in the ER with the guys and Joey is imitating what happened to Ross with the puck that if you see in the scene right after Ross gets hit, Joey actually reaches down and grabs it off the ground. So, they grabbed the puck after Ross got hit and now we're in the ER and Joey is imitating what happened to Ross. And Ross looks so pissed off. And, I mean, rightfully so because as we find out, they've been waiting in that ER for over an hour. So, Chandler is back at the front desk trying to make nice with our nurse Grumpy and she closes the window on him immediately as soon as he tries to engage with her. So, it does look like that maybe she was absent on the how to deal with inpatient patients day. So, we're back with the girls and they've set up camp out on the patio. They've got drinks and blankets and pillows and candles and Rachel's got the binoculars giving them a play by play of what she's seeing. Apparently, there was a woman in the apartment with Mr. Stephanopoulos and the lights were turned out. So, the girls assume obviously that they're having sex and they start going around one by one giving their guesses on what George is like. So, we flash cut back to the hospital. Ross is reliving yet again memories from his first night with Carol and Chandler has had enough. He yells out, can I get some painkillers over here, please? And Joey agrees. He says, so what? You slept with her. You slept with her for seven years after that. And we find out that his first time with Carol, Ross's first time with Carol was his first time ever and that he's only been with one person and that person is obviously Carol. So, now I guess we can understand why it might be a little harder for him letting go of this moment because there were obviously a lot of firsts that happened for him and then they were married for seven years after that. So, like, I guess I get it. So, we're back on the patio and apparently the girls are now sharing secrets. And we find out here that Phoebe is a vegetarian and at one point Monica made a quote unquote vegetarian pâté that Phoebe just loved. But unless goose is a vegetable, which as someone who was a vegan and then a vegetarian for a little bit, that is just awful to try to give someone something they think is vegetarian and have it not be. Like, shit, Monica, that's fucked up. And Phoebe is shocked, but she says that now she doesn't feel so bad about sleeping with Jason Hurley. Monica is shocked, but Phoebe says, you were already broken up. And Rachel asks, how long? And Phoebe says, just a couple of hours. It's so funny because I think sometimes Phoebe seems to do things that would track with the things that Joey might think or say or do. And I mean, I've definitely shared in this from time to time doing some things or thinking some things that are a little questionable. So, I guess I shouldn't take too hard on Joey. So, Rachel sits up really quickly and says, okay, okay, I've got one. And in this moment, her pillow falls off the balcony ledge. And I found out that this wasn't actually supposed to happen. But for whatever reason, instead of cutting and reshooting the scene, they decided to leave it in. So, I guess someone on the streets of New York City, I don't know, New York City got a throw pillow from Monica's apartment. So, Rachel continues by telling the girls that there was a valentine left in Monica's locker by Tommy Rolerson in high school. But it was actually Rachel who left it there. And Rachel says a really shitty comment, which again, as the show progresses, this will come up, this topic will come up about Monica being a big girl in high school. But sometimes it's just really not well handled. Because Rachel looks at Phoebe when she's admitting to leaving this locker, this valentine in the locker. And she's, you know, saying, oh, Tommy Rolerson would have never left her a valentine because Monica was a really big girl. And again, Tommy would never actually have left her a valentine. But Monica, I mean, good for her. Monica bites back by telling Phoebe, at least big girls don't pee their pants in the seventh grade. And Rachel starts to object about, I guess, apparently her peeing her pants in the seventh grade. But Phoebe brings them back to the task at hand, when she sees George Stephanopoulos moving around his apartment. And it would appear that he hasn't put clothes on yet, because they all start wishing that he would, oh, drop the towel. Come on, George. Drop the towel. And apparently he does, because they all pause for a split second and breathe out a, wow. So we end that scene. And we're back with Chandler and Joey in the ER talking about Ross and how he's only been with one woman. And this is another kind of shitty thing, because they're low key talking shit about their friend behind his back, because he's not there. So they're talking about how he's only been with one woman. And Chandler says, oh, you know, I think it's sweet. And then Joey's like, really? And Chandler's like, yeah, no, that guy's a freak. But as we come to find out, Chandler isn't the most experienced with women anyway. So I'm like, why are you talking shit about your friend, my dude? So, um, yeah, anyway, so Ross comes out from, from his, from his visit with the doctor. And they all, the boys both ask him how he's doing. And he's got a brace and bandage on his nose. And when he drops off his papers at the front desk, Miss, Miss Dang Nurse says, oh, that's attractive. And Chandler chimes in with, oh, but I thought you were great in Silence of the Lambs. And if you again, if you've seen this episode, I can totally see it. Now, I've only seen Silence of the Lambs like one or two times, but I know exactly what he's talking about. So if you picture Anthony Hopkins in Silence of the Lambs in that wild face mask thing, they have him in, but instead of it being around his mouth, it's in between his eyes covering his nose. I mean, that is, it's pretty spot on. Like, I can totally see it. So they're getting ready to leave. And Ross asks the boys where his hockey puck is. And Joey tells him that a kid in the waiting room has it. So Ross tries to get it back, to which the kid replies, I found it. Finders keepers, losers weepers. And this is where I'm like, yes, yes, yes, what a fucking comeback. Finders keepers, losers weepers. And that is very much a 90s thing because then Ross starts to say, oh, I am rubber and you are glue. But he can't even finish it because he's like, no, I'm an adult. This is a child. I will not engage. So Ross reaches over and tries to take the puck and a struggle results. We hear Nurse Sizemore, which we find out that is her name. Nurse Sizemore says, hey, no roughhousing in my ER. And at that exact moment, the puck ends up flying out of both of their hands and smashes poor Nurse Sizemore right in the head. She falls over. Ross says, now that was fun. And we roll end credits. Okay, so our tag scene is all the friends in the apartment with Monica, Rachel, Phoebe, and Joey playing Twister. And there's a knock at the door. Chandler answers, and an unidentified man hands him the pillow that Rachel dropped when the girls were all on the balcony. And I'm like, who is this man? How did he know that's where the pillow came from? Like, apartment-wise. He must have lived in the building because how did he get up into the building? Like, I've got so many fucking questions. How did he know? Okay, it's okay. I'll let it go. Otherwise, I will spiral out. So while they're continuing to play Twister, the phone rings and Chandler answers. And it's the Visa card people again calling for Rachel. So she gets on the phone and she tells them that she knows she hasn't been using her card much. She's okay, really. And she doesn't need the card. She's got magic beans. And as she hangs up, the gang that's all playing Twister, they all fall to the ground. And she says to herself out loud, I'm fine. And that, my friends, is season one, episode four. So this is another one of those episodes with a lot of back and forth between the storylines. And you know, it was not that deep of an episode. But I definitely think that there are a few important takeaways that we can grab from the episode. So first, most of us know what it's like to go through the ending of a relationship. And it can definitely be hard to relive the memories of what happened in those relationships, especially when the anniversary of something important comes around. And I do really love that Ross's friends were trying to get him out of the house and out of his own head. Because that is really always a great way to avoid hyper-focusing on things that may not be the most advantageous things to focus on, especially if you're in the process of trying to get over the ending of a relationship. So I do think that there can be a lot of value in remembering past experiences and the emotions that they cultivate, just as long as you don't live there. You know, you don't need to continue to rehash and rehash because nothing can be done to fix the situation outside of you realizing this is the reality and now I need to process and focus on moving forward. So it really is almost like respecting the memories, like saying, hey, I appreciate this experience that I've had, but really understanding that that is a part of the past and just staying sad about it isn't going to help you move forward to the future. And we can also see this with Rachel. I mean, she literally had three friends from her past revisit her in her present and this caused a whole spiral for her. You know, questioning her decisions to leave that life and her potential marriage with Barry for the possibilities that she was looking for in a life that wasn't already pre-planned. But once you start to see that things aren't as planned as they have been, it is really easy to start to freak out about the what ifs. And it's almost like nearly everything is a compromise. So for Ross, he is trying to learn how to process the feelings and emotions that he's facing with his divorce from Carol because he assumed that that was going to last. So compromising by realizing, you know, sometimes plans change. Sometimes things change. And, you know, we're really not guaranteed the things that we assume are going to be there for the long haul. And then with Rachel, I mean, she is having to compromise having her entire life planned out, but being with someone she didn't love to standing on her own, living life on her own terms alone, and facing the fear of the unknown. So I guess if we were to have to simplify this episode down to one theme or takeaway, for me, it would be trying to learn how to be comfortable in the unknown. You know, like, it's okay to not know what may or may not happen. Because, like, you can't predict the future. And even if you could, there are so many invariables that may end up changing. Yeah. And I also think the second thing that we can take from this is learning not to second guess yourself when you're met with challenges as a result of following your heart or your intuition. Like Rachel. Rachel followed her heart and she left her potentially pre-planned life, and now she's being met with these challenges of not knowing what might come or not knowing what's going to happen. And being met with these, you know, everyone's getting either married or pregnant or promoted, and I'm just sort of here trying to figure shit out. And it's like, yeah, I can understand that that can be pretty challenging, because it seems like everybody else is making these, like, advances and doing all these amazing things, and you're kind of just trying to, you know, put your head down and just make it through the next day to figure out where you truly belong. So, like, I really respect that as well. You know, it's like, taking the time to just realize that everything that happens is happening exactly as it's meant to happen. Otherwise, what I feel is that it really, it wouldn't be happening. You know, like, people say what they say about things being predestined and, you know, whatever that may translate into. But I really think on some level, like, because everybody is still like, oh, focus on the present, live in the now, like, don't worry about the past or the future. Then it's like, okay, then what is happening right now must be exactly what is meant to be happening. Otherwise, it wouldn't be happening. It would be a different situation. It would be a different set of scenarios, and you would be having to learn how to adjust to those, you know, in that moment as well. So, all that being said, thank you so much for joining me for Season 1, Episode 4 of Friends. As always, I love you guys so much, and I am grateful for this space that I get to share with all of you. I can't wait to meet you back here again next week for Episode 5, and don't forget... I'll be there for you, because you're there for me, too. Bye, guys. Love you so much. Have a great week. Cheers, friends!