The One With Rachel's Going Away Party

"The One With Rachel's Going Away Party" is the sixteenth episode of the tenth season of Friends, which aired on April 29, 2004.
==Plot==
As Rachel prepares to move to Paris, Monica and Chandler are preparing for the birth of their child in a few weeks as well as moving to their new home. Erica has arrived to stay in New York until the birth, but is being put up in a hotel since Monica and Chandler are now packing stuff away for their new home. Chandler, Joey and Ross are having fun with bubble-wrap in Monica's guest room, by tying the bubble wrap around Joey's head so that if one were to punch it he wouldn't feel a thing. They find a set of black handcuffs which Chandler thinks belong to Monica during her time with Richard. After she denies this, and Rachel and Phoebe also deny it being theirs, Chandler finds out that they were her grandmother's.
However, they find the time to throw a going-away party for Rachel. She decides to privately talk to her friends during the party. Each and every speech ends in a very touching moment for them: Phoebe (who tries to give her a swab of Phoebe's saliva to clone her with), Monica (to whom Rachel notes that none of what has happened to her over the show would have been possible without her, and with each noting that they feel like sisters, they end up breaking down and talking in-distinctively), Chandler (who tells her he loves her, and is so torn that he ends up telling jokes again, ruining the moment), and Joey (where it is unknown what exactly she tells him, but it is so unbearable that he attempts to jump off the balcony, but is stopped by Rachel). However, when it comes to Ross, who has been anxious about his goodbye the entire time, Rachel completely blows him off without a goodbye speech and leaves, baffling everyone else.
Ross is so upset about this that he forgets his pride and confronts her at Joey's apartment, expressing disappointment that after everything they have been through, he can't believe she wants to leave things between them on nothing. He then storms off to his place. Not long after, Erica comes over to the apartment, where she has contraction pains. Monica and Chandler take her to the hospital for the birth of their child. At Ross' apartment, Rachel comes storming in, slamming the door. She angrily explains to him that the reason she didn't give him a goodbye is not because he means less to her than everyone else, but because he means more, and that the mere thought of not seeing him every day makes her not want to go, making it too hard to bid him goodbye. Ross, overwhelmed, tries to retort but ends up grabbing Rachel and kissing her. Ross and Rachel suddenly pull away to ponder the situation, and then continue to make out.
==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===
Anna Faris - Erica
===Crew===
Directed By: 
Gary Halvorson
Written By: 
Andrew Reich & Ted Cohen
==Trivia==
*This is not only the last episode with Rachel's name in the title, but the last episode with any character's name in the title.
*This is the last episode titled "The One With..."
*This is the last episode to have a tag scene.
*Chandler says "It's like when Melrose Place got cancelled." Melrose Place was a popular prime-time soap opera from Aaron Spelling that ran on Fox from 1992 to 1999. It focused on the lives of a group of young adults living in a brownstone in West Hollywood, California. Matthew Perry had auditioned for the role of Billy Campbell before landing the role of Chandler on Friends.
*Rachel tells Monica "you've been like a sister to me" and later says to Chandler "you've been like a brother to me", although the TV version omits the latter. This foretells that they will become her sister-in-law and brother-in-law when she marries Ross shortly after the series finale.
*Due to the season number, it has been exactly 7 years (not counting the air date) since Ross and Rachel's break up.
*In the uncut version of this episode, an extra continuing gag is featured. After Rachel seemingly blows off Ross, Monica asks her if she is forgetting something. Rachel seemingly remembers to say goodbye to Ross, but instead asks him to write a card to Judy for her birthday. Later, in the scene in Ross' apartment, Ross is initially seen writing the card, only to become so upset that he stops, just before Rachel comes in.
*When Ross complains about not even getting a hug, Joey hugs him. This is reminiscent of when Chandler complained about not being kissed in "The One With The Monkey" and Joey kissed him.
*The Magna Doodle on the door of Joey's apartment at the opening scene reads "Joey call Reid", possibly a reference to gaffer Reid Haessig.
==Goofs/Continuity==
*As shown in "The One On The Last Night" (S6E6), Rachel's old room is completely empty when she moves out, so the handcuffs from Monica and Ross' grandmother should not be there.
* The level of beer in Ross' bottle goes up and down between shots as he's talking to Joey at the kitchen table.
*When Ross fears that Rachel is going to talk with him, the volume and the color of his beer changes between shots.
*Erica is supposedly over eight months pregnant with twins, and considering the twins size when they were born, she would be much bigger than she is in this episode.
*Chandler is once again crying in this episode, and Monica mentions him crying over the 6:00 news the day before (because of an old woman scammed by her mechanic), which is in direct contradiction to "The One Where Chandler Can't Cry". However, at the end of that episode, Chandler seemed to not be able to stop crying.
== External links ==
* Transcript of the episode
* "The One With Rachel's Going Away Party" at the Internet Movie Database
==Episode Navigation==
Category:Friends Episodes
Category:Season 10
Category:Episodes with Rachel's name in the title
Category:Episodes
Category:Season 10 Episodes