The One With the Hypnosis Tape

Thursday, 13 March 1997

Frank turns up engaged to his much older former Home Ec teacher, and Phoebe talks Alice out of the wedding while a rich customer buys his way into a date with Monica.

What happens

• Rachel gives Chandler a hypnosis tape and tells him it made a colleague of hers stop smoking.
• Frank arrives at the coffee house and tells Phoebe he is getting married, which delights her.
• Frank introduces Alice, who is decades older than he is and taught his Home Economics class, and she says the two of them want children immediately.
• Phoebe cannot bring herself to object to Frank's face, so she asks Ross and Joey to talk him out of the marriage for her.
• Monica shows the others the twenty thousand dollar tip her customer left her, and Chandler recognises him as the millionaire behind a piece of office software.
• Frank's account of loving Alice wins Ross and Joey over completely, and they come back as his best man and his ring bearer.
• Phoebe lures Alice to her flat with a stained tablecloth and then asks her to call the wedding off.
• Pete destroys the cheque in front of Monica and gets her to agree to a single dinner by promising her ten thousand dollars if she has a bad time.
• Frank tells Phoebe that Alice has ended the engagement, and when Phoebe admits she caused it he turns on her.
• Phoebe brings Alice over to justify the breakup to Frank, the two of them start kissing instead, and Phoebe gives up and lets the relationship stand.