The One Where Ross and Rachel... You Know

Thursday, 8 February 1996

Ross and Rachel's first date collapses into nervous laughter, so Ross stages a second one at the museum planetarium where they finally sleep together, while Monica begins dating her parents' friend Dr. Richard Burke.

What happens

• Joey's soap contract is renewed, so he buys two leather recliners and a huge television and gives Chandler his pick of the chairs.
• Rachel discovers she has booked her first date with Ross on the night she promised to waitress Monica's catering job, and Phoebe offers to take the shift.
• At the party Dr. Burke fails to recognise Monica because she has lost so much weight, and he tells her that he and his wife have separated.
• Phoebe tells Monica she is infatuated with Dr. Burke, and Monica admits she has booked an eye appointment she does not need.
• Rachel keeps laughing while she and Ross are kissing, and the date ends with Ross too self-conscious to touch her.
• Rachel apologises to Ross the next day and proposes a second date of dinner and wine followed by her apartment.
• Monica tells Ross she is going out with Richard Burke, and Ross is appalled that his sister is dating a friend of their father.
• Monica and Richard face the twenty-one year gap and his grandchildren, agree to end it, then kiss and decide not to decide yet.
• Ross's museum work runs so late that the restaurant closes, so he lays out a fur pelt in the planetarium and improvises the date there.
• Rachel does not laugh this time, and the two spend the night in the museum, waking to find a church youth group watching them.