The Rosita in question is Joey’s armchair, and while Rosita’s plot is Shakespearian in its low-level misunderstandings and hijinks, which I always adore, this episode is on the list because of Monica’s storyline. It’s made obvious throughout Friends that Monica and Ross’s parents prefer their son, but nowhere is it personified better than through Ross’s immaculately preserved childhood memory boxes and Monica’s purposely flood-damaged ones. Then there’s Phoebe, who’s on the phone with a suicidal Jason Alexander in a rare example of Friends digging into dark humor.

I’m such a sucker for episodes centered around one thing, like Emma’s first birthday party, which deteriorates because Rachel and Ross won’t wake her from her nap, and the bunny cake’s actually in the shape of a penis. Meanwhile, Chandler and Monica’s frustration grows as their train to Vermont gets closer, and before Joey and Phoebe join them in wanting to leave, they struggle with their gifts. There’s also the great detail of Ross filming the party so Emma can watch the tape on her 18th birthday.

Say it with me: Paolo is the worst. He’s dating Rachel, but he comes on to Phoebe while she’s AT WORK giving him a massage. It’s douchey to the nth degree, but the bonding between Phoebe and Rachel after the former tells the latter epitomizes the kind of warm friendship moments Friends excels at, as does the sillier Chandler-and-Joey-buy-a-table storyline. That’s right. This is the episode where we meet the (first) foosball table. A historic day.

Unlike many of the greats, this has four isolated storylines: Rachel and Tag trying to prove who’s right about a work thing (fourth best, because they both lie and at one point Rachel says she “didn’t want to seem too bossy” — also, you know, maybe don’t date your assistant), then there’s Chandler not falling asleep and Monica dealing with it (third best, good but just that), Joey and Ross getting locked out on the roof and fire-escape (second best, because the best is faultless), and Phoebe battling it out with her smoke detector (what a best). It’s such a fun episode.

Following “The One Hundredth” (where Phoebe gives birth to the triplets) is a difficult task, but “The One Where Phoebe Hates PBS” succeeds. Phoebe puts the babies behind her and butts heads with Joey over whether selfless good deeds exist, a secretly together Chandler and Monica have a light and amusing fight in the last episode before someone finds out about them, and Ross struggles between staying with Emily and never speaking to Rachel again or getting porced for the second time before he’s 30.

“Boobies” comes in hot, with Chandler accidentally seeing Rachel topless pretty much immediately, before no one told us life was gonna be this way. A great opening, but it’s far from the best moment in an episode chock-full of anger, heart, and playfulness. Here’s what we’re dealing with: Phoebe’s psychologist boyfriend, who tries to psychoanalyze everyone in the group, is hated by them all, and Joey’s father spends the night, along with his mistress. (Rachel and Chandler, plus eventually Joey and Monica, do their “booby” storyline every once in a while for some solid laughs, though it’s not OK to try to see someone naked if they don’t want you to.)

My god does this episode have a lot of work to do. It – essentially alone – is the transition to post Ross-and-Rachel Friends, as much as that ever really exists. The script isn’t flawless, but that’s okay, it doesn’t have to be. The fact that it realistically gets us to Rachel and Ross being able to be in a room together again is achievement enough, especially considering how much Ross sucks during most of the episode. Hey, if you want to watch Friends but also sit in non-overwhelming sadness, this is for you.

While Phoebe’s titular storyline is quite good, this episode’s best bit is one scene and its flawless direction: the scene where the friends’ secrets come out. In addition to that magnificence, in “Phoebe’s Husband,” Rachel’s longing for Ross turns lightly vicious — Jennifer Aniston, you deserve every award — and it gives us a beautiful unrequited-yet-of-course-requited climactic conversation. Also, I mean, everyone watching Joey’s “porno movie” is legendary.

Chandler falling for Joey’s love interest, Kathy, is arguably the greatest Chandler storyline outside of Monica. Matthew Perry portrays the longing and guilt with such tenderness and quiet anger that it affects me every time. “The One Where Chandler Crosses the Line” is when that secret love boils over, resulting in a deep betrayal of Joey. Also, on a much lighter note (inadvertent pun), here Ross plays the keyboard, and we bear witness to his “sound.” It’s impressively terrible.

Valentine’s Day is made for sitcoms, but that all of the storylines in this episode would work on another day takes away any possible compulsory cheese. Nobody’s 14th is good, least of all poor Mona, whose boyfriend just moved in with his pregnant ex-girlfriend and lied to her about it (come on, Ross). From Chandler and Monica watching a tape of a birth to Joey’s unrequited love for Rachel, this episode just works, all-around.

I find it magical when separate storylines connected through a loose frame meet for one climactic moment. In this episode, it’s when the friends stand alone together at a New Year’s Eve party — just like they planned to do before they all got dates (except for Ross, who brought his new monkey, Marcel). Every storyline, especially the sobering A-plot of Phoebe’s ill-fated relationship with David, shines in this hilarious and crushing winner.

I love a claustrophobic episode – like, one with few locations and/or intertwined storylines. In this case, there’s much more literal claustrophobia when Susan, Ross, and Phoebe get stuck in a hospital closet while Carol’s in labor with Ben. We also have Rachel flirting with Carol’s doctor, Joey helping a woman (a great Leah Remini) give birth, and Chandler and Monica foreshadowing their love story through baby and marriage discussions.

Part of Friends‘s legacy will always be an extreme lack of persity, most notably in terms of race, but also in terms of LGBTQ+ representation (there’s also sexism, with some very fragile definitions of manhood and womanhood, rampant transphobia, and the whole “Fat Monica” thing). But the show was trailblazing and “modern” in many ways, like by airing the second same-sex wedding in sitcom history, even if there are bad jokes about it, and we don’t see Carol and Susan kiss (ugh). Every plot in this episode is exceptional, and Ross walking Carol down the aisle is, in my opinion, the best thing he ever does.

This episode is about three February 13th/Valentine’s Day stories: Monica, Rachel, and Phoebe’s “ex-boyfriend bonfire,” Chandler’s accidental semi-reconciliation with Janice, and Ross’s normal first date that morphs into a painfully bittersweet near “date” with Carol. (Joey’s stellar double date scene in the first half of the episode always makes me cackle.) The tone of this one is consistently, uniquely lovely, making it a should-be-Valentine’s-Day-TV classic.

Friends rarely discusses money in any sort of depth, so an episode that drills into the financial differences between the friends stands in a vibe of its own. Rachel, Joey, and Phoebe make less money than Monica, Chandler, and Ross. It doesn’t matter except when it does, like when the wealthier three want to have dinner “some place nice.” That realistic, nuanced conflict makes this feel almost grittier than Friends normally is, but in a good way that still fits the overarching tone of the show.

Note: Chandler’s subplot involves tricking a woman into sleeping with him, and that’s not chill.

When both of Rachel’s mid-porce parents show up for her birthday party, an impromptu second party at Chandler and Joey’s apartment must be thrown. Rachel straddles the celebrations – one more traditionally fun and one very Monica, which Phoebe sneaks people out of– and ultimately mourns the family she’s always known while the friends show their love for Rachel by keeping her parents apart. Fundamentally, shenanigans and sincere moments intertwine in an underrated Rachel-centric triumph.

When storylines intertwine like pieces of a braid, zigging back and forth, connecting to create something so much greater than the sum of its parts, even when the parts are lovely alone, you can bet that I’m going to love it. “The One With Monica’s Thunder” is Friends’s most impeccable braid. Everyone has something perfect to do, from Rachel and Monica’s fight to Joey’s attempt to look 19 (and his disappearing candy bar). Each small thing pays off — sometimes minutes later — and basically every joke is plot-related, not to mention the only locations are Monica’s apartment and balcony, the hallway, and Joey’s apartment. I love it.

Ross is a complicated figure, but love him or hate him – I don’t even know where I land on that front – you must agree that deciding to offer to be Rachel’s prom date when it looks like the planned boy isn’t going to show up, putting on a tux, taking flowers out of a vase, and watching the love of his life happily walk out with fucking late Chip Matthews, is pure goodness. The only thing better is how Ross never said a word of it to anyone. The Fat Monica jokes in “The One with the Prom Video” aren’t great, but the episode’s final kiss, just preceded by a literal gasp from an audience member, is the peak of Friends‘ romantic love stories.

I read somewhere once that this episode is “Friends doing Seinfeld,” which is so obviously correct that I feel silly for not seeing it sooner, but in fairness to myself, it feels unlikely that a young child would have the tools to catch that, and this is, without question, the episode I adored most as a kid. I had it on my vertical purple iPod Nano in 2010 and I constantly watched this real-time (basically) bottle episode, full of no one being ready for Ross’s big event, other than the man himself and Phoebe. It’s winning and simple and impeccable and just the right amount of daring for Friends. Classics are classics for a reason.

Ross and Rachel’s first breakup is devastating, and Monica and Richard’s snaps your heart. The Friends finale can be sob-inducing, and so can Joey’s unrequited love for Rachel. But no Friends episode is sadder than “The One Hundredth,” in which Phoebe gives birth to the triplets and reluctantly says goodbye to them in a monologue Lisa Kudrow nails. It all feels so real. The episode’s fluffy Chandler and Monica plot is fun and harmless, and the “Joey has kidney stones” storyline lives in the frustratingly large cannon of “cis men also need to have medical pain in a labor episode.” But I forgive it because of the flawless melancholic beauty that Phoebe gives us.

Gosh, where to begin. Well, I’ll start with the terrible fact that we do not talk about this episode enough. Then I’ll say that Ross’s accidental recording of him and Rachel conceiving Emma, and Monica and Chandler’s honeymoon pals potentially giving them a fake number, combine to gift us with the greatest small reveals Friends ever does, one after the other. Why am I not watching “The One With the Videotape” right now? Why am I not watching it all of the time, when I’m not hiking the foothills of Mount Tibidabo?

Note: don’t lie to people to get them to have sex with you.

This is Friends’ first inarguable home run. Throughout the entire 10 seasons, there is no story as sweet, specific, and stupid – in the best way – as Chandler getting trapped in an ATM vestibule with Jill Goodacre during a city-wide power outage. To use an apt but highly overrated phrase, it is iconic. This episode also introduces us to Paolo and features some all-time great Phoebe lyrics.

We pick up where the Season 4 finale left us, with Ross saying he takes “thee Rachel.” We move through Monica and Chandler attempting to secretly hook up, Ross searching for a runaway Emily, Rachel loving Ross, and Joey perfectly appearing when the story needs him, all the way to an ending of Rachel flying to Greece alone on Ross and Emily’s honeymoon. It’s 22 minutes of clever, quick chaos.

Note: At one point Emily hits Ross, and that’s not OK.

Ah, the classic Whichever Pair Knows the Other Best Gets Monica’s Apartment episode. The Phoebe storyline is great, too, with the jewel of a scene where she speaks to the embryos in their little dish. I don’t know what more to say about this one other than you should watch it whenever you’re having a bad day.

And we have a winner, folks. And of course this is our winner, folks. This episode has everything: each character’s involvement, perfect physical and verbal comedy, the elusive Phoebe and Chandler storyline. It’s the climax of half a season of Monica and Chandler build-up, and it nails every beat. There’s a reason this episode was nominated for Outstanding Directing for a Comedy Series, Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series, and Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series (Lisa Kudrow) at the 1999 Emmys.