FRIENDS’ 25th Anniversary: A Closer Look at ‘The One Where Ross Finds Out’

[On Thursday, September 22, 1994, NBC debuted the pilot of FRIENDS. The sitcom, about a group of six 20-something friends, went on to become a pop culture touchstone. In honor of the milestone, we’re doing 25 Days of FRIENDS, looking back at the show in big and small ways.]

“You’re over me? When were you…under me?”

With those words, the Ross and Rachel relationship permanently shifted. Sure, Ross had been crazy about Rachel since he was a teen. And she found out about his feelings—second-hand—in the first season finale and started to look at him a different way. But when he returned from a work trip to China with a new girlfriend, Rachel thought she had lost her chance for a relationship with him.

But Rachel wasn’t quite ready to get over her feelings (or her frustration over the situation), and the news that Ross and Julie were going to get a pet cat together pushed her over the edge. So, she did the logical thing: got drunk on a blind date and left a voicemail for Ross explaining that she was over him.

Unfortunately for Rachel, he was at Julie’s…and only thought to check his answering machine while he dropped by Monica and Rachel’s place to pick up cat supplies. And with that, after a season and a half, the two were finally on the same page.

Of course, it wasn’t smooth; nothing about Ross and Rachel’s eventual romantic relationship was. But David Schwimmer and Jennifer Aniston were fantastic as their characters went through basically every emotion possible, finally facing the reality of their dynamic after so many misreads and close calls beforehand. Rachel got to be frustrated Ross never explicitly made a move earlier; Ross got to be frustrated he had been crazy about her for years, but she only now realized it/reciprocated when he was happy with someone else. Neither was right, neither was wrong. It was just human.

And, yes, there was the comedy element of Rachel getting drunk to tell off Ross, or jumping on him to prevent him from hearing her message, but it was grounded in reality. It was a cathartic moment in their relationship, and the end, after the duo fought again, they finally shared their first romantic kiss. (Technically, their first kiss was when they did laundry together, but…Rachel definitely didn’t mean it the way Ross took it.) Things immediately blew up the next episode (and it would take another seven for them to actually get together), but it was a good way for the show to release some of the tension and set the table for them eventually getting together.

RELATED:

• FRIENDS’ 25th Anniversary: Please Stop Asking for a Reunion
• FRIENDS’ 25th Anniversary: TOW They Appeared on Each Other’s Shows
• FRIENDS’ 25th Anniversary: How Did Monica Afford Her Apartment?
• A FRIENDS Mini-Marathon is Hitting Theaters This Fall
• Warner Bros. Stages FRIENDS Pop-Up for 25th Anniversary
• FRIENDS, Rita Moreno Honored by the TCA Awards
• Which Current TV Stars Appeared on FRIENDS?

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