The One That Could Have Been (Parts 1 & 2)

Thursday, 17 February 2000

The friends wonder how their lives would have gone if a few key things had broken differently, and the episode then plays out that imagined version, in which Rachel is married to Barry, Ross is still married to Carol, and Chandler never quit his job.

What happens

• At Central Perk, Rachel reports that Barry and Mindy are divorcing, which sets everyone naming the turn their own life might have taken instead.
• In the imagined version, Ross runs into Rachel at a newsstand, learns that she is married too, and takes her along to see Monica.
• In that version, Chandler is a broke unpublished writer, and Monica talks Joey into hiring him as his assistant so he can take the money without shame.
• In the imagined version, Phoebe is a stockbroker, loses thirteen million dollars on a trade, and has a heart attack in front of Monica and Chandler.
• In that version, Ross tells Carol their sex life has stalled and offers ideas, and Carol seizes on the threesome.
• In the imagined version, Rachel admits she wants to sleep with Joey despite being married, and Monica lets slip that she is a thirty-year-old virgin.
• In that version, Monica's date is called away to the hospital, so Monica and Chandler agree to sleep together as friends, and Monica loses her virginity to him.
• In the imagined version, Rachel drinks herself sick at Joey's apartment, nothing happens between them, and Joey gives her a prop ring as proof she did not cheat.
• In that version, Ross describes his wife's night with another woman to Rachel, and Rachel's reaction makes him understand that Carol is gay.
• In the imagined version, Chandler pages Monica's boyfriend away under a fake emergency and tells Monica he wants to be with her.