The One With the Videotape

Thursday, 18 October 2001

Ross accidentally records the night Rachel got pregnant, and when the group watches the tape it proves Rachel made the first move using a seduction story that Joey invented.

What happens

• Monica and Chandler come home from their honeymoon thrilled about a married couple they met on the way back, and admit to Joey and Phoebe that they brought back no souvenirs.
• Rachel and Ross argue in front of everyone over which of them started the night Rachel conceived, and Ross lets slip that he has the evening on videotape.
• Monica keeps reaching a delicatessen when she dials the couple, and the others tell her that Greg and Jenny gave them a fake number.
• In a flashback, Ross tells Joey he has gone six months without sex, and Joey lends him a romantic story about backpacking near Barcelona to use on a date.
• In a flashback, the story collapses because Ross's date has lived in Barcelona, so Joey blames his delivery and lends him a video camera to rehearse into.
• In a flashback, Rachel bursts in while the camera is still running, and Ross forgets about it and records the whole night.
• Ross gives Rachel the tape to destroy, but she decides to watch it precisely because he does not want her to.
• The tape shows Rachel confessing she never sent Monica's wedding invitations and then spilling wine on them, and Chandler realises the ruined ones are the pair he had framed.
• The tape shows Rachel using the backpacking story on Ross, settling that she made the first move and revealing Joey as the story's author, after which Ross tells Rachel he would have started it himself anyway.
• Monica finds the couple's real number in the phone book and badgers Greg until he agrees to meet them in January.