The One with the Halloween Party

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Friends season eight September 2001 - May 2002 List of Friends episodes
Episodes: The One After "I Do" The One with the Red Sweater The One Where Rachel Tells... The One with the Videotape The One with Rachel's Date The One with the Halloween Party The One with the Stain The One with the Stripper The One with the Rumor The One with Monica's Boots The One with Ross's Step Forward (a.k.a. The One With the Creepy Holiday Card) The One Where Joey Dates Rachel The One Where Chandler Takes a Bath The One with the Secret Closet The One with the Birthing Video The One Where Joey Tells Rachel The One with the Tea Leaves The One in Massapequa (a.k.a. The One With the Zesty Guy) The One with Joey's Interview The One with the Baby Shower The One with the Cooking Class The One Where Rachel is Late The One Where Rachel Has a Baby, Part One The One Where Rachel Has a Baby, Part Two

"The One With The Halloween Party" is the sixth episode of the eighth season of Friends.

First aired: November 1, 2001

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

[edit] Plot

At the last minute, Monica decides to throw a Halloween party; enthusiasm diminishes markedly when she announces that everyone needs to come in costume. Monica dresses up as Catwoman, Phoebe as Supergirl, Chandler as a large pink bunny (Monica's idea), Rachel as "a woman who spent a lot of money on a dress, and she wants to wear it because soon she won't be able to fit into it" (on account of her pregnancy), Ross as a potato satellite that looks a lot like feces, and Joey as Chandler.

Phoebe runs into her twin sister Ursula (Lisa Kudrow) on the street. Ursula reveals that she's getting married next week and eventually decides that Phoebe can come; to return the favor, Phoebe invites her and her fiancé to Monica's Halloween party. Ross's girlfriend Mona also attends; Ross is nervous that Joey, who has also shown attraction to her, will steal her from him. Mona is the first to correctly interpret Ross's costume—"You're Spud-nik!"—to which Chandler grunts, "Marry her."

Rachel's maternal instinct kicks in when the first trick-or-treaters arrive, and she spends the evening handing out candy... most of it to a smart little girl who figures out how to charm her. She is then reduced to handing out cash until Gunther can get them some more. Finally a boy arrives who would rather have money than candy, and she yells at him until he runs away, crying—at which point guilt kicks in and she runs after him. She ends up giving him $50 and going to several houses with him as his girlfriend.

Monica and Joey get into a debate over who would win a fight between Ross and Chandler; Monica, of course, is sister to one and wife to the other, so she can't express her opinion ("So, Ross?" "Yeah.") without offending someone. The two take it into their own hands by staging an arm-wrestling competition, which lasts, at total deadlock, for quite some time. (Mona: "Wow, they're both really strong!" Joey: "Or equally weak.") Ross, who needs to impress his girlfriend, convinces Chandler to let him win, but refuses to admit it when asked later. He offers to prove it to Monica, and the two find themselves at yet another arm-wrestling stalemate. Chandler, in disgust: "...I'm gonna kill myself!!"

Ursula's boyfriend Eric (Sean Penn), a 2nd-grade schoolteacher, arrives first and immediately slaps Phoebe's ass; after working through his embarrassment, they begin talking. It becomes clear after some conversation that Ursula has been lying to him, basically returning his own answers to him about her age, pastimes, history and employment ("There's no such thing as the Top-Secret Elementary School for the Children of Spies!"). This, compounded by Eric's sudden urge to be impulsive and romantic, resulted in the two planning to be married barely three weeks after meeting. Phoebe, using Ursula's misplaced purse as evidence, breaks the news to him as gently as she can.