The One With The Proposal, Part 1

"The One With The Proposal" is the double-length season finale of the sixth season of Friends. Both parts aired on May 18, 2000.
==Plot==
Ross is being questioned by his friends about his relationship with Elizabeth; mainly asking if the relationship is going anywhere. Ross quickly claims he and Elizabeth are great together and his friends are all wrong... until he sees her having a water balloon fight with her buddies. He talks about it with Chandler and Monica and deciding she is too young, he breaks off the relationship. Afterward, Ross questions his decision, thinking about how well she took the break up, until Elizabeth confirms her immaturity by dropping water balloons on his head from her upstairs window.
Rachel takes Phoebe and Joey to a charity event helping children, including a silent auction. While Phoebe is obviously over-drinking, Joey has bigger problems; misunderstanding the silent auction process, Joey thought that bidders guessed an item's worth, with the prize going to the person with the closest guess. Joey "guesses" $20,000 and "wins" a yacht. Rachel and Joey try to convince the next highest bidder to buy the boat, but in the process of persuading the man of the boat's virtues, Joey changes his mind and wants it for himself.
It is a big night for Chandler as he plans to propose to Monica during a romantic dinner he's planned. However just as he starts none other than Monica's ex-boyfriend Richard walks in with a date and the moment is lost. What follows is a very awkward dinner as Richard and his date join Monica and Chandler. When the others come home from the charity event, they constantly ask to see Monica's hand, thinking Chandler proposed already. Feeling that Monica will figure out that Chandler plans to propose, Phoebe and Joey suggest that Chandler pretend he hates the idea of marriage and never wants to get married. However, the next day at her restaurant, Richard goes to see Monica and tells her that he's still in love with her.
==Cast and Crew==
===Main Cast===
Jennifer Aniston - Rachel Greene
Courteney Cox - Monica Geller
Lisa Kudrow - Phoebe Buffay
Matt LeBlanc - Joey Tribbiani
Matthew Perry - Chandler Bing
David Schwimmer - Ross Geller
===Supporting Cast===
Tom Selleck - Dr. Richard Burke
Alexandra Holden - Elizabeth Stevens
Steve Hytner - Mr. Thompson
John Apicella - Mr. Beaumont
Natasha Pearce - Zoe
Tori McPetrie - Sarah
Anil Raman - First Dorm Guy
Jacqueline Schultz - Lisa
Tony Nichols - The Maitre D'
Alexandra Margulies - The Waitress
Steven Harad - Emil Alexander
Hunter Cochran - Second Dorm Guy
James Michael Tyler - Gunther (uncredited)
===Crew===
Directed By: 
Kevin S. Bright
Written By: 
Scott Silveri & Shana Goldberg-Meehan
== Trivia ==
* There are several back references in this episode:
** Monica and Richard talk about Monica's father's birthday party in "The One Where Joey Moves Out" (S2E16).
** When Chandler talks about his parents, he references "The One With All The Thanksgivings" (S5E8).
* This is the first appearance of Richard since "The One Where Monica and Richard Are Friends" (S3E13), though Richard and Monica had lunch together off-screen in "The One In Vegas, Part 1".
* This is the last appearance of Alexandra Holden as Elizabeth Stevens as Ross breaks up with her in this episode. Elizabeth is however mentioned again by Ross later in the series. 
* In the uncut DVD version of episode, Ross knocks on Elizabeth's door to break up with her.
* At the start of the episode when they're looking at the ring, Rachel tells Ross when he says it's a nice ring "well you should know, you've bought like a billion of them" and Ross replies "you didn't get one". In the uncut version of the previous episode, Rachel used the latter as the reason they never had sex when they were married.
* This is one of the few episodes without a tag scene. Instead the introduction credits roll.
* It is implied in the previous season and subsequent seasons that Mr. Zelner is Rachel's boss at Ralph Lauren. However in this episode, Mr. Thompson is shown as her boss. It is likely that he is above Mr. Zelner as Rachel introduces him as the head of her department and is thus both of their bosses, but he is neither mentioned or shown again for the remainder of the series. 
* Rachel puts down a bid for the Paris trip. Years later Rachel has the opportunity to move to Paris for a new job but ultimately turns it down to get back together with Ross in The Last One, Part 2. 
* When the episode is shown in two parts, in Part 1 the fountain dancing sequence is shown in the end credits.
* This is one of the few episodes in the Netflix version to have subtitles written in normal sentence case, as the subtitles for most episodes on Netflix (until the end of Season 6) are written in all-uppercase, with only portions for off-screen dialogues being written in sentence case.
*This episode was used as "P is for Proposal" in the Nick at Nite Friends A-Z Event (January 2023).
=== Goofs ===
* When Ross turns around in the water balloon fight Elizabeth is having, his suit is dry, but he was just hit by a water balloon.
* In the scene where Richard is being seated next to Chandler and Monica, the amount of champagne in Chandler's glass changes.
* When Rachel asks Joey "Why would a charity give away a free boat?" her hands are not visible, but in the next shot, her hands are on the table.
* When the Mr. Beaumont is seen arriving outside Central Perk, Joey's right arm is on the couch's arm. In the next shot, his arm is on his lap.
* When Ross leaves Elizabeth's apartment, he is wearing different clothing.
== External links ==
* Transcript of the episode including the deleted scenes
* "The One with the Proposal: Part 1" at the Internet Movie Database
* "The One with the Proposal" at Wikipedia
==Episode Navigation==
Category:Friends Episodes
Category:Season 6
Category:Friends
Category:Episodes
Category:Season 6 Episodes