Ross and Rachel Get Married
In the season opener, Friends picks up right where they left off last season. As Ross and Rachel stumble out of the chapel, Monica and Chandler look confused, and Phoebe and Joey run into the chapel, leaving Chandler wondering, “Is everybody getting married?” When Monica and Chandler see Phoebe and Joey there, they immediately try to cover up their intentions to get married, and the conversation topic quickly turns to their drunken friends.
The next morning, Ross and Rachel are surprised to wake up in bed together, being that they have no idea what happened the night before. Somehow, in the strange world of television, where drunken ex-lovers get into bed together and don’t have sex, it is determined that they didn’t actually sleep together. They both start to get dressed, and right when Rachel exclaims, “I’m just glad we didn’t do anything stupid,” Ross shows off the graffiti on his back, which reads, “Just married.”
As the gang starts to arrive at breakfast, Monica tells Phoebe that now that she thought about it, she doesn’t want to rush into a marriage with Chandler, while Chandler tells Joey the same thing. However, neither one wants to hurt the other one’s feelings, so they spend the rest of the episode trying to avoid getting married without actually telling each other that they don’t want to.
When Ross and Rachel arrive at breakfast, they act as if nothing happened between them. After a few awkward moments, Chandler finally asks them if they plan on talking about what they did, and they still have no idea what he’s talking about. The rest of the gang finally points out that they got married, and after looking confused for about thirty seconds, it finally clicks, and Ross and Rachel start to freak out.
Everybody flies back to New York, except Phoebe and Joey who have to drive her grandmother’s cab back. Rachel begs Ross to get the marriage annulled, but he doesn’t want to, simply because he doesn’t want to be known as the guy who got divorced three times. He tries to convince her to stay married to him, but finally she gets frustrated and exclaims, “This is not a marriage! This is the world’s worst hangover!” Ross finally agrees to get it annulled. He then tells Rachel it’s taken care of, but admits to Phoebe that he couldn’t go through with it.
Meanwhile, Monica and Chandler finally admit to each other that they don’t want to get married, but they do somehow want to take the next step in their relationship. Chandler suggests moving in together, and Monica agrees. Chandler tells Joey he is moving out, and Joey can’t deal. At the same time, Monica tells Rachel, who seems unaffected. Monica is offended that Rachel is not upset, and Rachel admits to Monica that she didn’t think they were actually going to go through with it. Finally Monica convinces Rachel that she and Chandler really are moving in together, and now Rachel has to find a new place to live.
