The One With the Ring

Thursday, 11 May 2000

Chandler secretly shops for an engagement ring with Phoebe's help, loses the ring he wants to another buyer, and gets it back by conning that man out of it at his own proposal dinner.

What happens

• Chandler asks Phoebe to help him choose an engagement ring for Monica and keeps the plan from everyone else, since she only knows because she walked in on him.
• To explain why she and Chandler slipped away, Phoebe tells Ross that Chandler is angry about being left out of a Knicks game.
• Rachel pushes Paul to talk about his feelings, and he unloads childhood misery until he is too upset to go to dinner.
• Chandler picks a 1920s ring, settles on eight thousand dollars, and leaves Phoebe to guard it while he goes to get his credit card from Joey.
• Ross and Joey decide to patch things up by getting Chandler a ticket to another game, and Joey pays the coffeehouse bill with Chandler's card.
• Phoebe tries on the store's jewelry instead of watching the ring, another customer buys it, and she is caught in the security gate chasing him.
• Phoebe admits the ring is gone and talks Chandler into buying a different one, which he agrees to only reluctantly.
• When Chandler refuses the Knicks ticket, Ross and Joey decide to stop speaking to him and name themselves best friends instead.
• Rachel tells Paul she cannot listen to any more of it, he apologizes, and they go to bed, where he cries again.
• Chandler and Phoebe find the buyer at the restaurant where he means to propose and trick him into swapping rings by claiming Phoebe is dying.