The One With the Proposal (Parts 1 & 2)

Thursday, 18 May 2000

Chandler's restaurant proposal to Monica is derailed when Richard reappears and tells her he still wants to marry her, while Ross ends his relationship with Elizabeth and Joey accidentally buys a sailboat.

What happens

• Chandler shows the others the engagement ring and lays out his plan to propose to Monica over champagne at her favourite restaurant that night.
• The group tells Ross that the twelve-year age gap between him and Elizabeth is a real problem, which he had assumed was only teasing.
• Joey treats the charity silent auction as a guessing game and ends up committed to a twenty-thousand-dollar sailboat he cannot pay for.
• Richard arrives at the same restaurant with a date, the two tables are pushed together for the evening, and Chandler never gets to propose.
• Rachel talks another bidder into taking the boat off Joey's hands, and then Joey decides he wants it himself and will pay in instalments.
• After Phoebe and Joey almost give the surprise away, Chandler decides to throw Monica off by convincing her that he is frightened of marriage.
• Ross breaks up with Elizabeth outside her dormitory, and she leans out of her window to insult him.
• Richard comes to Monica's restaurant kitchen and tells her that he still loves her and that he wants to marry her and have children with her.
• Rachel asks Ross to be her backup husband and finds out that Phoebe has promised the same arrangement to both Ross and Joey.
• Chandler comes home to find Monica down on one knee, takes over from her with the ring, and she accepts.