The One With George Stephanopoulos

Thursday, 13 October 1994

On the anniversary of his first night with Carol, Ross is dragged to a hockey game and ends up in the emergency room, while Rachel's first paycheck and her old friends' good news send her into a crisis about her new life.

What happens

• Phoebe keeps falling asleep at the coffee house because her grandmother's new boyfriend keeps her up all night, so Monica invites her to sleep over.
• Joey and Chandler hand Ross hockey tickets as a fake birthday present, and Ross works out that today is the anniversary of the first time he and Carol slept together.
• Rachel opens her first paycheck and discovers that the money left after tax is almost nothing.
• Three of Rachel's old friends turn up at the coffee house and announce a pregnancy, a partnership at a law firm and an engagement.
• Joanne asks Rachel when she is moving back home, and Rachel defends a waitressing job whose duties amount to the specials board and the dead flowers.
• The credit card company calls because Rachel has stopped spending, and Rachel breaks down about having given up everything to fetch coffee for other people.
• A puck hits Ross in the face at the game, and Chandler and Joey take him to an emergency room where the receptionist makes them wait.
• A pizza arrives at the wrong apartment, revealing that George Stephanopoulos lives across the street, and Monica fetches binoculars to watch him.
• Pushed to explain why the date matters, Ross admits that Carol was the only woman he has ever slept with.
• Chandler answers a second call from the credit card company, and Rachel takes over and tells them she is fine.