The One With Monica's Thunder

"The One With Monica's Thunder" is the seventh season premiere of Friends, which aired on NBC on October 12, 2000. Minutes after Chandler proposes to Monica, she plans to celebrate on the town with her friends - until she catches Ross and Rachel kissing.

Plot[]

7x01 Monicas Thunder — Monica catches Ross and Rachel kissing in the hallway

It's still the night of Monica and Chandler's engagement and Ross arrives at Monica's apartment and is told the good news and Monica screams from the balcony in happiness. Later the gang decide to dress up to go drink champagne at the Plaza. Rachel is a little sad and lonely and asks Ross whether they want to have a "Bonus Night".

Monica catches them kissing and is upset because she waited her whole life for that day and thought it would only be about her engagement but now it is about Rachel and Ross getting back together - they stole "Monica's thunder". Monica is really upset and doesn't want to go out for champagne anymore, especially not with Rachel.

Monica's remark prompt a huge fight between her and Rachel, where Monica reminds Rachel the last time she stole her "thunder" was when Rachel went "third base" with Monica's cousin on her (boring) 16th birthday, and it was all her guests talked about. Monica accuses Rachel of doing it again because Rachel wanted to be the first to get married and can't stand that her 'former fat friend' is getting married before her. While initially angry at Monica's accusation, Rachel admits that she kissed Ross because she was sad about not even being close to getting married. Monica forgives Rachel, who's truly sorry for ruining Monica's night. Ross is embarrassed however, when Monica almost made Rachel sleep with him.

'Sup? — Joey trying to look like a 19-year-old for his audition.

Meanwhile Joey has an audition for a movie and tries desperately to prove he can look like he's only nineteen for the part while Phoebe decides to make certain she's chosen by Monica and Chandler to play her guitar at their wedding reception.

Cast and Crew[]

Main Cast[]

Jennifer Aniston - Rachel Greene
Courteney Cox Arquette - Monica Geller
Lisa Kudrow - Phoebe Buffay
Matt LeBlanc - Joey Tribbiani
Matthew Perry - Chandler Bing
David Schwimmer - Ross Geller

Crew[]

Directed By:
Kevin S. Bright

Written By:
Wil Calhoun, Marta Kauffman & David Crane

Trivia[]

General[]

This is one of the few bottle episodes in which no extra actors or sets are used.
Monica tells Rachel that she's to announce that she's pregnant when Rachel announces her engagement to Ross. Ironically, the opposite happens in the final episode of this season - Monica and Chandler get married, and Rachel finds out that she's pregnant.
When Joey comes out dressed as a 19-year-old, Chandler is playing Crash Team Racing on his PlayStation. As with the previous scenes of PlayStation games being played, the game sequence is pre-recorded off-air. However both crew and cast played these games between filming.
During season seven, the theme song is now cut down to just the chorus of the song and there are no dancing scenes of them at the fountain. The DVD, however, has dancing scenes and is the same length as the other seasons.
The Magna Doodle shows a drawing of a cartoon beetle ready to step on an ant.
This was the first episode of Friends that was shown on British TV channel E4.
Running gag: Ross bragging about he and Rachel kissing and possibly getting back together, until Rachel tells him the moment had passed. However they do sleep together again one month before Monica's wedding resulting in Rachel becoming pregnant, after both admitted they wanted to sleep together on this night, as seen in "The One With The Videotape".
In the uncut version, an additional scene is shown. The scene shows Rachel giving advice to Joey on how to look like 19 by choosing the right clothes to fulfill that ambition. She then, says to him, "fashion is all about youth". Later in the episode, Joey follows Rachel's advice by trying some clothes on.
In Phoebe's final song, she sings "who will perform the ceremony". Joey ends up conducting not just Chandler and Monica's wedding but also her wedding to Mike Hannigan in the final season.
In the TV episode, as Phoebe and Joey have their conversation about whether Monica would let Phoebe play at the wedding, Joey sniffs Phoebe's breath and angrily realizes that she ate his candy bar. In the uncut DVD episode, Phoebe and Joey instead adlib a few lines about "would she" when Phoebe says it's beginning to sound like "woodcheese" and Joey says "I could go for some woodcheese right now". It is not clear why the uncut episode omitted the scene from the TV version.
The "incident" Chandler talks about is the same thing which it's implied happened to Ross in "The One With The Jellyfish" (S4E01).
The discussion between Ross and Rachel in the hallway about the good times they had sex comes up again after returning from visiting her father in hospital in "The One Where Joey Speaks French ".
Rachel telling Ross he couldn't watch her change is a callback to "The One With A Chick And A Duck" when they had a similar conversation.
From this episode onward, the subtitles in the Netflix version are written in normal sentence case, rather than all-uppercase as with most past episodes.
This episode was used as "T is for Thunder" in the Nick at Nite Friends A-Z Event (January 2023).

Goofs[]

This episode was filmed four months after the previous episode, due to Jennifer Aniston's wedding to Brad Pitt, even though they are supposed to take place on the same day. Some mistakes result from this such as:
- Matthew Perry is noticeably much thinner and his voice higher-pitched, after losing 20 pounds due to pancreatitis.
- Monica's hair is much darker than at the end of the previous episode and she now has a short side fringe.
- Rachel's hair is several inches shorter than at the end of the previous episode.
- Rachel isn't wearing a ring on her right hand.
Monica states that Rachel is jealous that she is getting married before she does, but Rachel technically got married first to Ross in "The One In Vegas, Part 2".
When Chandler tells Rachel that she looks great, Rachel puts her hair behind her ears. The camera then cuts to Chandler, then straight back to Rachel, and her hair is not behind her ears anymore.
When Phoebe and Joey are talking, Joey is holding a sandwich. When the camera angle changes, the sandwich is on the table.
When Phoebe is singing for the first time, the door behind her is open or closed, depending on the shot.
When Chandler and Joey are in the apartment and Joey says "sup with the wack PlayStation sup" Chandler has the PlayStation controller on his right leg. The next shot Joey says "C'mon, am I 19 or what"? Chandler has his arm on the recliner and the Controller is tucked under his hand.
When Chandler is telling Joey "Yes, on a scale from one to ten, ten being the dumbest a person can look, you are definitely 19", the word "19" is very obviously dubbed over. The original word looks like "ten", though this is uncertain. Chandler's mouth does indeed appear to mouth 10.
When Monica is arguing with Ross and Rachel in her bedroom, her bedroom door is open but when Monica storms out of the door it's closed.
When Ross and Rachel are talking about "being good at the stuff" i.e. sex, her arms change position rapidly between shots.
While the gang are discussing Ross and Rachel kissing and Chandler's thing, Monica's bedroom door changes from open to closed several times.
Prior to Monica opening the apartment door, her bedroom door was open but when Ross and Rachel pursue her into the apartment, the door is closed.

Photos[]

External links[]

Transcript of the episode including the deleted scenes
"The One with Monica's Thunder" at the Internet Movie Database

Episode Navigation[]

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Preceded by "The One With The Proposal, Part 2"	Series Seven Episodes	Followed by "The One With Rachel's Book"


<< Season 6		Season 7				Season 8 >>
#01	"The One With Monica's Thunder"		#09	"The One With All The Candy"	#17	"The One With The Cheap Wedding Dress"
#02	"The One With Rachel's Book"		#10	"The One With The Holiday Armadillo"	#18	"The One With Joey's Award"
#03	"The One With Phoebe's Cookies"		#11	"The One With All The Cheesecakes"	#19	"The One With Ross And Monica's Cousin"
#04	"The One With Rachel's Assistant"		#12	"The One Where They're Up All Night"	#20	"The One With Rachel's Big Kiss"
#05	"The One With The Engagement Picture"		#13	"The One Where Rosita Dies"	#21	"The One With The Vows"
#06	"The One With The Nap Partners"		#14	"The One Where They All Turn Thirty"	#22	"The One With Chandler's Dad"
#07	"The One With Ross' Library Book"		#15	"The One With Joey's New Brain"	#23	"The One With Monica And Chandler's Wedding, Part 1"
#08	"The One Where Chandler Doesn't Like Dogs"		#16	"The One With The Truth About London"	#24	"The One With Monica And Chandler's Wedding, Part 2"