The One With The Ride-Along

"The One With The Ride-Along" is the twentieth episode of the fifth season of Friends, which aired on April 29, 1999. As Emily's wedding nears, the group do their best to distract Ross. A gunshot and a meatball sandwich take center stage when the guys go out on the beat with Phoebe's cop boyfriend.

Plot

Ross' ex-wife Emily is getting married again, so the group do their best to distract Ross. Monica decides to organize some photos, but Rachel accidentally drops a box of other pictures on it, ruining all of Monica's work. Due to being upset, the two decide to make margaritas, but they do not have the ingredients, so they decide to steal them from Ross' apartment, where Rachel listens to a message from Emily, who is having second thoughts about her wedding and the divorce with Ross. Monica thinks that they should erase the message, but Rachel thinks Ross deserves to know the truth. In the discussion, they accidentally erase the message.

Phoebe talks about a ride-along that she has recently gone on with her cop boyfriend, Gary, in Central Perk, and Ross, Chandler and Joey get very excited about it. Gary offers to take them out on a ride-along, so they head out in the evening. Joey buys himself "the best sandwich in the world" but Gary tells him that he cannot eat it in his car. Joey continues to talk about the sandwich, and the other three men begin to get irritated. After Ross accidentally turns on the beacon ray, he is not allowed to sit in the front seat anymore, as they are undercover. During the ride, a car backfire scares them all, leading to Joey diving over Ross in an attempt save him, which causes problems between Chandler and Joey because Joey apparently wanted to save Ross instead of Chandler. However, it turns out that Joey had no intention of saving Ross, but wanted to save his sandwich. In order to prove how much Chandler means to him, he lets him have a bite of the sandwich.

After the believed "near-death experience", Ross is filled with a "new found respect for life", which he reports to his own answering machine, resulting in the message being heard by Rachel and Monica, who are still at his apartment. Rachel tells Ross about the message from Emily, but Ross wants to call her back, because "he wants to seize every new opportunity". Rachel talks the idea out of Ross' mind by convincing him that it isn't the day of seizing stuff, but escaping from stuff, and that he should escape from a future of being hurt by Emily.

Cast and Crew

Main Cast

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

Supporting Cast

Michael Rapaport - Gary
Helen Baxendale - Emily Waltham (voice)
James Michael Tyler - Gunther

Crew

Directed By:
Gary Halvorson

Written By:
Shana Goldberg-Meehan & Seth Kurland

Trivia

General

This is the last appearance of Helen Baxendale as Emily Waltham.
- She is credited as a "Special Guest Caller".
When Rachel and Monica are listening to Ross' answering machine, they use each other's catchphrases. Monica says "Noooooo" and Rachel says "I know!"
In the uncut DVD version of the episode there is an extra scene at Ross' apartment where Rachel is trying to recreate the message she deleted from Emily. While recreating it, Rachel jumbles up the names 'Emily' and 'Rachel'.

Goofs

When Rachel breaks Ross's statue it is already in two parts before hitting the ground.
In the scene where Rachel tells Ross that Emily called we see the glue on the side table, which Rachel used to fix Ross' horn statue, standing on straight up, then it is laying down, and then on it is standing upright again.
When Rachel takes Ross' money from the basket she drops it onto the table when the phone rings, but when Monica takes it, it is in the basket. Although Rachel could have put it back in the basket so it doesn't look like she was going take it.
Rachel puts the broken horn statue away from sight by stuffing it into the light fixture. Clearly there are two things the horn and its holder. However, when they are listening to Emily's message only the horn appears to be in the fixture and not the base of the statue.
Ross moved into Ugly Naked Guy's apartment after having broken up with Emily. This means she would not have known the number to his new home unless he had given it to her. Although, this possibly indicates he had hoped they would reconcile their romance.

Episode Navigation

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Preceded by "The One Where Ross Can't Flirt"	The One With The Ride-Along	Followed by "The One With The Ball"


<< Season 4		Season 5				Season 6 >>
#01	"The One After Ross Says Rachel"		#09	"The One With Ross' Sandwich"	#17	"The One With Rachel's Inadvertent Kiss"
#02	"The One With All The Kissing"		#10	"The One With The Inappropriate Sister"	#18	"The One Where Rachel Smokes"
#03	"The One Hundredth"		#11	"The One With All The Resolutions"	#19	"The One Where Ross Can't Flirt"
#04	"The One Where Phoebe Hates PBS"		#12	"The One With Chandler's Work Laugh"	#20	"The One With The Ride-Along"
#05	"The One With The Kips"		#13	"The One With Joey's Bag"	#21	"The One With The Ball"
#06	"The One With The Yeti"		#14	"The One Where Everybody Finds Out"	#22	"The One With Joey's Big Break"
#07	"The One Where Ross Moves In"		#15	"The One With The Girl Who Hits Joey"	#23	"The One In Vegas, Part 1"
#08	"The One With All The Thanksgivings"		#16	"The One With The Cop"	#24	"The One In Vegas, Part 2"