The One With All the Thanksgivings

Thursday, 19 November 1998

The friends trade their worst Thanksgiving stories, and flashbacks reveal that Chandler once insulted Monica's weight and that she later severed his toe; in the present he accidentally tells her he loves her.

What happens

• Ross calls this the worst Thanksgiving of his life because of his divorce and his eviction, and Chandler insists his own history is worse.
• In a flashback to his childhood, Chandler's mother tells him over dinner that she and his father are divorcing because his father prefers the houseboy, and Ross concedes the title to Chandler.
• In a flashback, Phoebe finds Joey with his head stuck inside the raw turkey he put on to frighten Chandler, and Monica is furious because that bird has to feed twenty people.
• Phoebe realises Rachel meant a different year, and in a flashback to 1987 Ross brings his college roommate Chandler home, where a heavier Monica offers to cook him macaroni and cheese.
• Still in the flashback, Chandler tells Ross he does not want to be left alone with Ross's overweight sister, and Monica overhears him.
• In a flashback to the following year, Monica has lost the weight, and Chandler stares at her openly in front of her parents.
• Monica tells Rachel that revenge is not enough and that she wants Chandler stripped and humiliated, so Rachel coaches her to act as though everything around her is arousing.
• Monica's attempt at seduction ends with a dropped box and a falling knife that takes off the tip of Chandler's toe, and at the hospital she produces a carrot instead of the toe, so the doctor cannot reattach it.
• Back in the present, Chandler learns that his lost toe was the result of his remark about Monica's weight and walks out.
• Monica wins him back by dancing with the turkey on her head in a hat and sunglasses, and Chandler blurts out that he loves her.