The One Where Underdog Gets Away

Thursday, 17 November 1994

Everyone's Thanksgiving plans collapse, and while the group is on the roof watching a runaway parade balloon, they lock themselves out and Monica's dinner burns, so the six of them eat grilled cheese instead.

What happens

• Monica tells Ross that their parents have accepted an invitation to Puerto Rico and will not be home for Thanksgiving.
• Monica offers to cook the holiday dinner herself, promising Ross the lumpy mashed potatoes their mother made, and Phoebe invites herself along.
• At Carol and Susan's apartment, Ross learns that Susan reads aloud to the unborn baby every day and refers to him only as the sperm donor.
• Monica hands Rachel an envelope of cash the group has collected so she can afford the plane ticket to Vail.
• Chandler explains that he avoids the holiday because his parents announced their divorce over Thanksgiving dinner when he was nine.
• A woman on the subway walks away from Joey after spotting the free clinic poster behind him, and his family concludes he has a venereal disease.
• Joey demands tater tots and Phoebe wants peas and onions, so Monica agrees to make three separate batches of potatoes.
• Chandler reports that the Underdog balloon has broken loose over the city, and everyone follows him up to the roof.
• The group returns to find the door locked, nobody holding the keys and the oven still running, so Joey starts testing a tray of spare keys.
• Ross sings to Carol's stomach and the baby kicks for the first time, which Susan feels too.
• The burnt dinner is thrown out and Rachel misses her flight, and Chandler carves grilled cheese sandwiches and toasts the fact that everyone's plans failed.