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"The One With The Fake Party" is the sixteenth episode of the fourth season of Friends, which aired on March 19, 1998.

Plot[]

Rachel is still intent on pursuing her attraction to work client Joshua; however, when he lets it slip out that he's not ready to date girls, she is thrown off course. Emily's stay in the United States is about to end, and with two days to go, Ross has a romantic evening planned out with her. But Ross' plans are quickly shattered by Rachel, who throws a "bon-voyage-Emily" leaving party for Emily, who is surprised, but Ross tries to carry out the romantic night, but Emily keeps talking to the guys and no time is left for anything he planned for them to do at all.

Rachel tries different approaches to seduce Joshua, but her attempts are nowhere near successful - she almost chokes on a cherry stem, plays spin-the-bottle to try and kiss him (Phoebe interrupts when she senses the baby kicking in her tummy), changes from a sexy dress to her old cheerleader outfit and carries a cheer-leading number, at the end of which she trips and bites her lip.

Phoebe, who has been fighting the cravings for meat, tries to eat meat substitutes to try and satisfy the baby, but ends up nauseous when she eats soy burgers. She finally snaps at the party and devours Chandler's sandwich. Joey, who is in disbelief at first, introduces her to the more tasteful aspects of meat when he cooks steaks for him and Phoebe. When Phoebe feels bad about at what cost she ate the meat, Joey offers to stop eating meat until the baby is born, which turns out to be a big problem for him.

When Joshua is about to leave, she tries to take her bra out of her sleeve, but ends up with the stuck bra in her sleeve. She finally ends up confessing everything about her feelings to Joshua, who explains how despite not wearing suits to work, he has bought six of them from her, and that he kept coming to the store to see her. Still, he sticks with his decision not to date for a while since he just got out of a marriage, and Rachel has to make her peace with it. As Joshua leaves, she bumps into Ross, who is distraught about the badly-spent last night with Emily. Rachel talks Ross into realizing that he truly likes Emily, and their romance could last more than two weeks, as a girl like Emily wouldn't look through photo albums or ask to hear stories about him if their relationship was just a holiday fling. Just as Rachel starts to contemplate how it feels to be a loser (alongside expert Chandler), Joshua makes his way back to tell her that he might make an exception to the no-date decision. Rachel invites him over for coffee, also so that Chandler is not audience to them.

Cast and Crew[]

Main Cast[]

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

Supporting Cast[]

Tate Donovan - Joshua Burgin
Helen Baxendale - Emily Waltham
James Michael Tyler - Gunther

Crew[]

Directed By:
Michael Lembeck

Written By:
Alicia Sky Varinaitis, Scott Silveri & Shana Goldberg-Meehan

Trivia[]

  • There are various extra scenes in the uncut DVD version of the episode:
    • When Ross and Emily come to Central Perk, Chandler speaks to Emily with a British accent. Monica mentions how Chandler always does it when he is around Emily and tells him to stop, to which Chandler responds by saying "Oh, ho ho. I think you like it. I think you can't resist me when I do it. You want to eat me up like a cream pumpet!"
    • At the start of the episode, when Phoebe enters the apartment she angrily knocks over a cereal box.
    • When Joey is talking about how long it takes him to get over a relationship, Monica retorts that it has never taken him more than a shower to get over a relationship. This is actually in the Netflix version.
    • During the party, Monica gives Ross the alternative version to 'the finger' after he squeezes her leg for telling Emily about his childhood and telling Emily that Monica being overweight is the reason why swing sets were strengthened. A few frames of that scene can be seen in the opening title sequence of the next episodes.
    • When the gang are playing Spin the Bottle, on Chandler's turn the bottle lands on him, and he says "Story of my life". He then spins again and the bottle lands on Joshua. Chandler then says "Story of my father's life..."
    • Several additional lines are exchanged between Rachel and Joshua in the scene where she admits to trying to seduce him.
  • Emily mentions to Ross that Monica told her about when he used to dress up like an old lady and host make believe tea parties, which was previously revealed in "The One With The Metaphorical Tunnel" (S3E4).
  • This is the only episode where we see one of the bedrooms in Monica and Rachel's apartment while Chandler and Joey are living there. It's Chandler's room (board games, a clown puppet, M&M figurines, baseball poster, hockey stick, hockey game board). Joey prefers to decorate with movie memorabilia.
  • Joey tells Rachel about taking her bra off through her sleeve (which she tries unsuccessfully). Years later, in "The One With Ross' Tan", Rachel successfully does so in an effort to have sex with Joey when they're dating.
  • During the party, the song "Brimful of Asha" by Cornershop can be heard in the background, followed by "The Impression That I Get" by The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, and then followed by "6th Avenue Heartache" by The Wallflowers.
  • Harp Lager is the Irish beer that Ross drinks in the hallway when the party ends.
  • This marks the start of Rachel's brief relationship with Joshua which ends in "The One With All The Wedding Dresses" (S4E20).
  • Joshua is the third divorcee Rachel has dated in the series having previously had a date with Michael in "The One Where Ross Finds Out" and of course had a 12 month relationship with Ross.
  • Rachel recalls putting on the cheerleader's outfit to seduce Joshua in "The One With All The Kissing" (S5E2) when she (briefly) asks Monica to take charge of her love life.
  • Ross asks Emily "You really didn't know?". He said the same thing to Rachel in "The One With The Two Parties".

Goofs[]

  • After Rachel chokes while trying to seduce Joshua with a cherry, Joshua goes to pat her with his right hand, in which you can clearly see he is holding a bottle. However when the angle changes, he is holding a cup in his right hand and now picks up the bottle from the table with his left hand.
  • When Rachel is sitting in the hall convincing Ross to go back inside, she has her left leg crossed behind her right leg. When the camera angle changes, her upper body is still twisted, indicating that she hasn't moved, but her legs aren't crossed anymore.
  • Before Emily arrives at the party, the Magna Doodle says "Joey enjoys the", however when Emily arrives the message has changed to "Joey eats little". The latter was what Ross was writing on the board when Rachel burst in. The change probably occurred during the reset of the scene as a result of the bloopers for the scene.
  • During the party, the Magna Doodle says "Emily… Bon voya See ya!"
  • When Joey says "you'd just be eating my animals." the position of Phoebe's arms changes between this and the next shot.
  • Rachel states in this episode that she is 28 years old. However, in "The One Where Rachel Quits" (S3E10), which is set around 18 months earlier, Chandler says that Rachel is 28 years old. Also Rachel marks her 30th birthday in "The One Where They All Turn Thirty" (S7E14), around three years later.
  • When Phoebe finishes eating her steak and puts it on her plate, the bone is laying left to right. A few seconds later Joey says " what if i can even things out for you, meat wise" and Phoebe says " what" the camera switches angles and the steak bone has changed directions, then the camera switches angles and the steak bone is placed left to right on her plate again.
  • When Rachel tries to remove her bra, she first unhooks it from the back, then frees the left strap, then from a different angle the right strap is already free. Later in that scene, when she stands up and says "I liked you and you liked me" only the left strap is hanging from her sleeve, and in the next shot a full cup of the bra is out.
Rachel Seducing Joshua

Rachel seducing Joshua

  • When Rachel bends over in a final effort to free her bra, almost her entire left breast is revealed.
  • Rachel refers to Joshua as "Josh" on at least two occasions (and doesn't correct Ross when he calls him Josh) even though in previous episodes she's stated she doesn't like Josh.
  • Joey says his relationships last at most two weeks but he dated Angela Delveccio for three years.
  • During the conversation between Rachel and Joshua in the sales room, the door behind Rachel goes from closed to open and closed again even nobody entered or moved.
  • There is a glitch in the opening credits where "Supervising Producer Seth Kurland" appears twice.
    • This only appears on the DVD version; once where it should be; the second time is where Ross mentions how Emily has to return to London.

External links[]

Episode Navigation[]

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24
Preceded by
"The One With All The Rugby"
Series Four Episodes Followed by
"The One With The Free Porn"
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