99.The One with All the Kissing

Season:5 Episode:2 First Aired:10/1/1998 Prod Code:467652

Guide
Ross continues to try and mend his marriage to Emily. When Chandler accidentally kisses Monica in front of everyone before leaving for work, he tries to recover by kissing everyone. Meanwhile, Phoebe starts getting irritated by everyone's London stories.

Summary
Monica and Chandler are taking a bubble bath in Chandler’s tub when Joey knocks on the door. Monica quickly holds her breath and dives under the water when Joey comes in. He’s getting chicken, and he wants to know if Chandler wants any. Chandler gets Joey to leave, but when Monica resurfaces, she decides she’s hungry, so she dives underwater again while Chandler calls Joey back in and orders them chicken.
The next morning, Phoebe enters Monica and Rachel’s apartment to tell Monica, Chandler, and Joey a story about a funny cabdriver she had. She gets frustrated, however, when the other three won’t stop talking about the fun times they had in London. Ross enters, and we learn that Rachel is due back from Greece any minute. Ross worries what Rachel’s reaction will be to the fact that he abandoned her on the plane to Greece when Emily showed up at the airport. However, when Rachel enters, she assures Ross that she had a great time in Greece, and that there are no hard feelings. Once Ross leaves, however, Rachel tells the others her true feelings. She was stuck in Greece for several days because she couldn’t get a flight home, and had to stay in Ross and Emily’s honeymoon suite, with hotel employees constantly asking her, “Oh, Mrs. Geller, why you cry?” She declares that she makes very bad decisions and wants Phoebe to make her decisions for her from now on. Phoebe says she’s not comfortable having that kind of power and control over someone’s life, so Monica eagerly volunteers for the job. Chandler leaves to go to work, and without thinking, he and Monica passionately kiss. Realizing his blunder, Chandler kisses Rachel and Phoebe too to cover for the mistake. He leaves and the girls look at each other, bewildered.
At the coffeehouse, Monica is showing Rachel pictures from London in an attempt to cheer her up, but Rachel’s not much in the mood. Monica tells her that it’s time she got over Ross, and to look around and notice there are great guys everywhere. She points out a guy by the window with whom Rachel flirted earlier, and uses her position as Rachel’s new decision-maker to order her to go talk to him. She does and gets herself a date for the following night. Phoebe comes in and Monica tries to show her the London pictures too, but Phoebe is getting increasingly frustrated with her feeling of being left out of all the fun in London.
Back at the apartment, Monica and Chandler are once again caught red-handed as Phoebe, Rachel, and Joey walk in on them kissing. Chandler leaves, and once again kisses Rachel and Phoebe on his way out. Joey wants to know what just happened, and Monica suggests maybe it’s a European goodbye he picked up in London.
The next night, Rachel is returning from her date with Dave, the coffeehouse guy. She invites him in, then remembers she’s not supposed to make her own decisions. She leaves Dave at the door and goes inside to find Monica, but she’s not there. Instead Ross is there, with a box of the 72 roses he sent to Emily, cut up into mulch and mailed back to him. Rachel goes back out and tells Dave that her roommate is sick, so she’ll have to take a rain check on continuing their date. She then goes inside to comfort Ross.
Monica comes in with her laundry and asks Rachel if she can see her in the hall. Monica tells Rachel that she ran into Dave, who told her that Rachel blew him off. She demands that Rachel leave Ross alone and go get Dave, but Rachel refuses. Monica wants to know what Rachel’s trying to do, and Rachel admits that ultimately she wants to tell Ross that she’s still in love with him. Monica vehemently opposes this idea, but Rachel fires her as her decision-maker and locks her out of the apartment.
Monica pounds on the door and Ross lets her in. She wants to see Rachel in the hall again, but Rachel refuses, so Monica is forced to talk in front of Ross. She tells Ross that Rachel wants to take swing dance lessons, but Monica doesn’t want her to, because “it’s dangerous, she’s never going to get what she wants, and who knows who she might end up hurting”. While Ross goes to cancel the five giant teddy bears he sent to Emily, lest they meet the same fate as the roses, Monica begs Rachel to try to find one person who thinks it’s a good idea before telling Ross she loves him. Rachel reluctantly agrees to the deal.
Everyone is feeling bad that Phoebe didn’t get to go to London, so when she enters the coffeehouse, they propose that the six of them take a trip together. Phoebe loves the idea and excitedly asks where they’re going. Monica tells her they will all go to a picnic in Central Park. Phoebe’s not too thrilled about this, as Central Park is only a few minutes from her house and she goes there all the time. Chandler leaves to “bask in the glory of [his] Central Park idea”, but Rachel stops him, telling him to please stop kissing them every time he leaves the room.
The next day, everyone is at the coffeehouse again, and Chandler tells Phoebe about a new trip they’ve planned: a weekend in Atlantic City. Phoebe likes that idea a lot better, and everyone goes upstairs to pack except Ross and Rachel, who stays behind to tell Ross how she feels. Monica makes one last attempt to change Rachel’s mind, but Rachel insists she doesn’t care. Ross sits down and she tells him she’s still in love with him. He sits there stunned for a minute, before Rachel bursts out laughing. Ross asks if this was a joke, because it’s not a very good one, but Rachel tells him she was serious, but that after she said it she realized how ridiculous it sounded and couldn’t help but laugh. Rachel asks if Ross can just forget that she told him and he says that he kind of has to, because he’s married to Emily. She thanks him for not getting freaked out by her confession, and they hug.
Back at Monica and Rachel’s apartment, the friends are ready to leave for Atlantic City when Phoebe’s water breaks. Phoebe is all for going to Atlantic City anyway, but Chandler tells her the babies are coming, so the six friends leave to take Phoebe to the hospital.