The One with the Late Thanksgiving

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Friends season ten (the final season) September 2003 - May 2004 List of Friends episodes
Episodes: The One After Joey and Rachel Kiss The One Where Ross is Fine The One with Ross's Tan The One with the Cake The One Where Rachel's Sister Babysits The One with Ross's Grant The One with the Home Study The One with the Late Thanksgiving The One with the Birth Mother The One Where Chandler Gets Caught The One Where the Stripper Cries The One with Phoebe's Wedding The One Where Joey Speaks French The One with Princess Consuela The One Where Estelle Dies The One with Rachel's Going Away Party (a.k.a. The One Where Rachel Goes To Paris) The Last One, Part One The Last One, Part Two

"The One With the Late Thanksgiving" is the eighth episode of season ten of the television situation comedy Friends.

First aired: November 20, 2003.

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

[edit] Plot

Monica and Chandler arrive at Central Perk to announce that they can't hold Thanksgiving this year because of work and the stress of adoption. Everybody is disappointed but Phoebe says that it's a good idea because she thinks Monica is losing her touch. Monica heartily defends herself but gives in when Phoebe tells her to try and beat her personal best at cooking Thanksgiving dinner.

On Thanksgiving Day, Monica asks Phoebe and Rachel to pick up some chocolate pies for dinner. When she leaves, Phoebe asks Rachel if she can enter Emma in a baby beauty pageant. Rachel disagrees at first but when she's told there's a cash prize, she signs the application, warning Phoebe not to tell Ross as he thinks "it's what's on the inside that's important". Phoebe also says that Emma needs a cowgirl outfit for the competition, so Rachel takes the clothes off Joey's Cabbage Patch Kid.

At Chandler's apartment, Monica is cooking dinner when Chandler realises it could be their last Thanksgiving together, just the two of them; they could be getting a baby soon. Monica tries not to get her hopes up, saying that they haven't heard anything from the adoption agency for a while. She pops the turkey in the oven and checks what else there is to do. Chandler offers to help with whatever's left so she gives him the job of making the cranberry sauce. Just as she leaves to check on something across the hall Joey and Ross appear with three tickets to a New York Rangers game. Chandler notices the game is at one o'clock and dinner is at four; they won't make it back in time. Ross and Joey agree that it's a bad idea to go, but when they leave, they secretly go to the game anyway.

At the baby pageant, Rachel begins to think that coming was a bad idea but Phoebe thinks that Emma can go all the way; she just heard one of the judges say that not one of the babies held a candle to Emma, so Rachel agrees to stay. At the Rangers game, Ross and Joey are having a great time and are sorry that Chandler's missing it. Joey spots the time and suggests they better get going or they'll miss dinner but Ross wants to stay for one more goal. Joey doesn't agree but he agrees to one more fight instead.

Back at the apartment, Monica and Chandler are still waiting for their forty-five-minute-late friends to show up. Chandler is close to tears because he thinks they've ruined "Cranberry Day". On the other side of the door, Joey and Ross have returned from the game and think they'll be unnoticed if Phoebe and Rachel are there. But suddenly the girls themselves appear with the pageant trophy. Ross asks where they've been. Phoebe says they were at a spelling bee but Ross grabs the trophy, reads it, and is about to lecture Rachel when he hears about the cash prize, which calms him down. Joey realises they've stolen the clothes from his Cabbage Patch Kid and is mad at them too. Phoebe points out that there are people in the apartment that are not getting happier so they try to make up an excuse. Ross suggests that they pretend they were mugged. Phoebe says that he doesn't look like he was mugged so Joey rips the pocket of his shirt. Ross' cry of disapproval attracts the attention of Monica and Chandler, who look through their peephole to see what's going on. Rachel suggests that they do rock, paper, scissors to decide who goes in first, but Joey cheats so that's a dead end. Phoebe decides that they can say that they thought dinner was at five o'clock not four. Everyone agrees until a note flies out from under the door that says "We know you're out there".

Rachel knocks on the door and asks to be let in but Monica refuses, saying that the food's all ruined. Chandler panics about the cranberries but Monica says they're fine. Ross says that their subway broke down but Chandler says that he can see Joey's foam finger through the peephole. Rachel pleads to be let in again so they can have some of Monica's turkey but instead a slice of turkey pops under the door and Joey quickly scarfs it. Everyone's famished, but Rachel remembers that Monica put something in her oven that morning but it turns out to be Brussels sprouts, which they all hate (even Joey). Rachel has another brainwave and announces she has her old key to the apartment. The door, however, has a chain on it, only allowing everybody's heads to poke through and plead with Monica and Chandler one last time. Eventually, Monica agrees to let them in if Rachel and Phoebe go get the dessert. Rachel and Phoebe have no idea what she means but then they remember: the chocolate pies. Phoebe tries to make up an excuse:

Phoebe: "Pies? Oh, we though you said 'prize'...here! (hands Monica the trophy)
Monica: "Grand Supreme Little Darling?"
Rachel: "Congratulations!"

This causes the Bings to lose their temper, so the rest of the gang decide to have their own Thanksgiving dinner. They all remove their heads from the crack in the doorway, except Joey, who gets stuck! Monica tries greasing the side of his face with turkey grease, but that doesn't work. The phone rings. Monica goes into the bedroom to answer it. Chandler decides to pull on the door while the others push from behind. Doing so causes the door chain to snap and Joey goes flying right into the trolley holding all the Thanksgiving food. Chandler, enraged at the destruction of his cranberries, calls Monica to come and 'look what the floating heads did!'. But when she enters, she says she doesn't care. The call was from the adoption agency; there's a pregnant woman in Ohio and she picked them. The gang celebrate with a toast at Thanksgiving dinner.