‘Friends’: Best 30 Episodes, Ranked

Season 5, Episode 16
The titular cop, Gary (played by Michael Rapaport), would be proven to be a terrible boyfriend for Phoebe (Lisa Kudrow) in a later episode when he shoots a bird. But here is just the start of their relationship, with the kind of meet-cute only Phoebe would have. She finds his cop badge in the couch cushion at Central Perk and then uses it to impersonate an officer, but he catches her doing it and then tracks her down. The real iconic moment from this episode, though, comes from when Ross (David Schwimmer) refuses to pay a delivery fee on a new couch and enlists some of his pals to help carry it up the stairs in his apartment building, leading “Pivot!” to become a long-lasting part of pop culture.

Season 1, Episodes 16 and 17
Let’s pretend the subplot with Chandler (Matthew Perry) dating his employee — who he was supposed fire — didn’t happen because it’s just problematic on a few levels. What makes this episode block notable in a good way is three-fold: First, the writers and producers creatively leaned into Kudrow also playing a waitress on “Mad About You” by making that character Phoebe’s twin sister on whom Joey (Matt LeBlanc) develops a crush but with whom Phoebe doesn’t get along. Additionally, Ross learning to be a father through his monkey Marcel makes that weird plot worthwhile. And finally, it’s the start of the parade of big-names in cameo roles when “ER’s” George Clooney and Noah Wyle guest star as doctors who go on a double date with Monica (Courteney Cox) and Rachel (Jennifer Aniston), who are pretending to be each other due to an insurance scam and growing increasingly petty with each other.

Season 7, Episode 11
This episode comes with lots of important lessons about not ditching your friends for a date and not expecting to be invited to a wedding where you’ve slept with the groom, but what really makes it memorable is watching Rachel and Chandler fight over cheesecake — to the point of eating it off the floor in the hallway. Joey stumbling upon them and not thinking twice about what he sees, just pulling a fork out of his pocket and asking what they’re having is a true stroke of genius, too.

Season 1, Episode 14
A boyfriend bonfire and a blind date with Janice (Maggie Wheeler), what more could you want in a comedy? The girls create the aforementioned bonfire in Monica and Rachel’s apartment, lamenting the poor relationships in their lives (and their lack of plans in general), while Joey ropes Chandler into a double date that neither of them knew would be with Chandler’s ex, Janice. Ross sacrificing his own night of romance to comfort his ex Carol (Jane Sibbett) when Susan (Jessica Hecht) gets unexpectedly called to work is a nice touch, too; it’s nice to see how sweet Ross can be, given that he rages so often in later seasons.

Season 6, Episodes 15 and 16
Alternate universe episodes can be nice escapes, but they are most satisfying when character relationships carry over, implying a sense of fate or destiny. Such is the case with this two-part look at what would have happened if Joey hadn’t been fired from “Days of our Lives” (the first time), Rachel had gone through with her wedding, Monica never lost the weight and more. Phoebe taking a job as a stockbroker is a bit of an outlier, in that it seems so out of character it’s hard to believe it ever would have been a real option she considered, but the way the show toys with a Joey-Rachel pairing early here is nice foreshadowing of what’s to come later on, and the fact that Chandler and Monica still get together is really what makes this most special.

Season 3, Episode 9
This was the true start of Thanksgiving episodes being a tradition on the long-running sitcom. Although the show did one in its first year, it skipped its second. But here it came back with a renewed energy by diving into the deep sibling rivalry between the Monica and Ross through a game of touch football. It turns into so much more when Phoebe gets to play her first game of football ever; Rachel is constantly underestimated, even by her own best friend, and the boys square off versus the girls. Admittedly, a B-plot about Joey and Chandler fighting over the same girl drags this episode down a bit, but that troll doll nailed to a 2×4 — and how hard the Gellers compete to win it — saves the day.

Season 6, Episode 17
Monica and Chandler both forget they were supposed to make each other’s Valentine’s Day presents, which leads to her feeling so guilty she decides to “cook whatever” he wants in the kitchen and “do whatever” he wants in the bedroom — until she pops in the mixed tape he gave her to hear his ex Janice crooning on it for his birthday. That would be pretty great on its own but each story in this episode is sillier than the next and that’s exactly what makes it so fun. Joey hires another actor to pretend to be his identical twin to earn money from a scientific study, and Phoebe, Rachel and Ross get embroiled in a battle of wits about who could kid who’s ass.

Season 2, Episode 7
This is when Ross and Rachel get together. The first time. Briefly. Well, they kiss. After Ross returned from trip to China with a new girlfriend (Lauren Tom), Rachel stewed in her feelings for awhile. But while on another date she gets drunk and leaves Ross a message where she lies and tells him she’s over him — only, he didn’t realize she had been “under him.” With cards on the table that she has feelings for him and he has feelings for her, he ends up going to Central Perk while she’s closing it down for the night and the two share a passionate embrace in the doorway. It seems like it’s the start of something — and it is, just not the typical rom-com couple’s journey.

Season 7, Episode 14
Flashback episodes, when returning to previously seen footage, just feel like filler, but “Friends” truly mastered the art of enhancing the present-day story by giving quick, heretofore unseen glimpses into past moments with the characters. In this case, it was a compilation of all six key friends celebrating their 30th birthdays — to varying levels of excitement. While Joey fretted over himself (and others) getting old, Monica got hammered and Phoebe ended up learning she is actually a year older than she thought she was. But it all centers on Rachel, who realized just how much she wanted to accomplish when it came to love and children.

Season 9, Episode 8
Let’s just say it now: There are going to be a lot of Thanksgiving episodes on this list. This one is extra special for introducing Christina Applegate as Rachel’s sister Amy, a startling look into the woman Rachel certainly would have been if she had not run away from her wedding and through the doors of Central Perk. On one hand, this episode is a crash course in varying kinds of nuanced humor, from Amy’s self-involved nature to Monica’s tightly-wound nature making her too afraid to use her wedding China for the meal. But on the other end of the emotional spectrum, this episode delivers some really important discussions around who Ross and Rachel would entrust with their daughter if something should happen to them, and it also allows for true growth from Chandler, who steps up and proves himself as a mature man when Amy and Rachel’s fighting ruins one of Monica’s precious plates.

Season 2, Episode 5
The plot where Chandler pretends to be a woman’s ex on the phone, only for her to think he stood her up in person so Chandler can swoop in and make her feel better didn’t age great. But what does make this episode stand out in good ways is how it taps into the very real issue of financial disparity among the young friends just trying to make it in New York City. It’s not a comfortable conversation to have over a fancy dinner and when Ross’ birthday hoopla is upcoming, but it’s a necessary one, and it proved the show was not just going to be a fluffy comedy. Plus, bonus points for casting “Dance ‘Til Dawn’s” (now Nickelodeon) Chris Young as a former babysitting charge of Monica and Rachel.

Season 4, Episode1
At the end of the third season of “Friends,” Ross was faced with choosing between getting back together with his long-time love Rachel and pushing forward new girlfriend Bonnie (Christine Taylor). The fourth season premiere answers that cliffhanger immediately, with him entering Rachel’s room in the beach house in which they are vacationing, but it prolongs their rekindling as Rachel wrote him a letter (“Eighteen pages, front and back!”) asking him to take responsibility for their relationship going south the first time. He falls asleep while reading and, in true Ross fashion, doesn’t take ownership of that. Of course his fuming as he realizes what he had agreed to eventually leads to Red Ross coming back out, which is funnier than it probably should have been, given that it signifies oh so many of his shortcomings. But the episode is also remarkable for Phoebe making peace with her birth mother and, of course, the titular jellyfish incident that, in hind sight, makes it even more special that Monica and Chandler ended up together.

Season 8, Episode 9
This episode was special when it aired because A-list movie star Brad Pitt, who was married to Aniston at the time, guest starred — and as a former classmate of Rachel’s who hated her so much he co-founded an “I Hate Rachel Green” club to boot. But it is even more special now, serving as a snapshot of pop culture in the mid-aughts.

Season 2, Episode 11
“Friends” often gets a lot of flack for its lack of inclusiveness in its casting, given that the show was set in New York City. But one thing it doesn’t get enough credit for is doing an episode about same-sex marriage years before it was legally recognized. It was declared from the start of the show that Ross’ first ex-wife Carol was with a woman, and in the middle of the second season, they get married. It isn’t all smooth sailing, though: Her parents have a problem with it and that causes her to have doubts, but Ross tells her that all that matters is that she and Susan love each other, and he ends up giving her away. Separately, this episode is the first time Joey appeared on “Days of our Lives” within the show, which is the start of a great, years-long arc for him.

Season 6, Episode 6
It truly is the end of an era. Monica and Chandler are moving in together, which means Rachel and Joey are left behind. The episode deals with all of the ups and downs of the emotions that come with that by seeing Rachel and Monica get into a ridiculous fight, while Chandler worries over Joey’s ability to pay the bills, so he invents a game through which Joey can win money without realizing he was being given charity. That that game, Cups, has not yet been turned into an app is a travesty.

Season 10, Episode 12
Of all of the “Friends,” Phoebe had the backstory that could have been the stuff of a great drama series premise, but she had the sunny spirit to fit in perfectly in this sitcom. The combination of those things made her so deserving of a happy ending, so seeing her marry Mike (Paul Rudd), but still get a few more digs in at his family, is such a sweet moment in the final season.

Season 1, Episode 7
Arguably, this episode should not have worked. It is just one of a block of NBC primetime programming at the time that takes place during a blackout. It began on “Mad About You,” which was also set in New York (and whose characters crossed over to “Friends” on other episodes) and continues here. Chandler is stuck in a mini bottle episode of his own, trapped in an ATM vestibule — a setting so dated the younger audience today must think it was invented just to get him stuck somewhere with supermodel Jill Goodacre. The others are camped out at Monica and Rachel’s, and magically the dark, intimate setting allows for emotional truths to emerge.

Season 6, Episode 10
Janine (Elle Macpherson) may have drawn Monica’s ire for calling her loud and calling Chandler “blah,” but she did one thing right: She invited Monica and Ross to be a part of the then-New Year’s Eve classic “Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve.” This gifted the world with a brother-sister dance from the Gellers that deserves to be going viral on TikTok right now.

Season 7, Episodes 23 and 24
Admittedly, there are moments in the middle part of this two-parter that are deeply uncomfortable, not just from a character perspective, but also because it’s obvious the show is stalling: Chandler gets cold feet and hides from his wedding, but he obviously isn’t going to leave Monica permanently; the group and therefore the show wouldn’t survive such a breakup. But around it are the gems of watching everyone rally to bring these two back together — to make Chandler feel comfortable and to keep Monica from knowing anything is wrong so she doesn’t spin out. Joey gets to have his big movie moment and still make it in time to officiate the ceremony, the Bing and Geller parents get moments to shine, and of course there is the cliffhanger that Rachel is pregnant but only she, Phoebe and the audience know that by the end. It was the best way to end a season because it made the audience want the next episode immediately.

Season 5, Episode 8
In the middle of its run, “Friends” realizes just how special its Thanksgiving episodes are and delivers one jam-packed with multiple turkey day celebrations as the gang thinks back on what they consider their worst holiday experiences. The episode has a perfect blend of ridiculousness (Phoebe’s past lives in which she keeps losing arms, Joey getting a turkey stuck on his head) and the heartfelt (Monica’s guilt over accidentally cutting off a piece of Chandler’s toe, Chandler telling Monica he loves her).

Season 4, Episodes 23 and 24
The spectacle of seeing the majority of the friends (sorry pregnant Kudrow) in London, encountering such famous Brits as Richard Branson (not playing himself) and Sarah, Duchess of York (as herself) breathes some fresh air into this soundstage-set series, but what really cements the two-part fourth season finale as a special one are the surprise relationship advancements. While the season saw Ross and Rachel dancing around how they still loved each other, despite his quick engagement to another woman, no one saw Monica and Chandler hooking up coming. It is a big deal with Rachel decided to travel overseas to tell Ross she loves him, only for her to realize how crazy that sounds. Of course it is a big deal when he says her name instead of his fiancee’s during the wedding ceremony. But arguably the dynamic shift with Monica and Chandler is even bigger because it is new, it is unexpected (she literally told him he would just always be the guy who peed on her at the start of this season!) and it proves to be the start of the most stable romantic relationship on the show.

Season 3, Episode 16
Here “Friends” proves it can do serious relationship drama just as well as it can do jokes per page. After Rachel learns Ross slept with Chloe (Angela Featherstone) they get into a massive fight over whether or not they were broken up when he did that. The remaining four friends lock themselves in Monica’s bedroom to wait out the fight and end up trapped in there, bonding, all night. Meanwhile outside in the living room, Aniston and Schwimmer are performing their own two-act play that deftly moves between anger and spite to unbearable sadness and reluctant acceptance that their relationship is over.

Season 6, Episodes 23 and 24
The two-part sixth season finale is full of classic sitcom tropes, from an ex (Tom Selleck) coming back in the picture at the worst possible time, to a couple of fake-outs about whether or not the titular proposal would actually happen. Monica and Chandler’s relationship is the anchor of this hour-long arc, and watching Chandler fight so hard not to lose the love of his life after he had spent the majority of the series afraid of commitment was tear-inducing. The proposal itself is beautiful, with Monica trying to skirt tradition but losing control for once and Chandler managing to say the absolutely perfect thing. Around them, though, orbits some special stories about Rachel and Phoebe looking to the remaining guy friends as their own marriage back-ups and Joey beginning his own love affair with a boat.

Season 7, Episode 10
Hanukkah hardly gets represented on television, but “Friends” featured characters who were Jewish and in the seventh season, Ross’ son Ben (Cole and Dylan Sprouse) is old enough to learn about the festival of lights. Both because this is a sitcom and because Ross is, well, Ross, his best-intentioned plans for the holiday season go awry. When all the costume store has left so close to the holidays is an armadillo suit, Ross takes it and says he is Santa’s representative for “all the southern states — and Mexico,” and also part Jewish, in order to finally teach his son about his religious traditions. And with this tight 22 minute episode, a new icon of the winter holidays was born.

Season 6, Episode 9
Chandler finally winning over Ross and Monica’s parents after their kids spill each other’s secrets is a pretty momentous occasion on its own, but it happens over a Thanksgiving dinner at which Rachel is entrusted to make the (only) dessert, which is a huge deal of its own. Both sides of the story carry equal weight in the humor department, from Ross being too afraid to admit to his parents that he got high when he was younger, to Rachel’s cookbook having pages stuck together so her trifle consists of beef, sauteed with peas and onions in addition to the traditional layers of lady fingers, custard and jam. It’s one of the most-quotable episodes all-around and is capped off with stellar dialogue delivery from LeBlanc and Christina Pickles.

Season 2, Episode 14
The first glimpse at Fat Monica and pre-rhinoplasty Rachel also comes with a mustachioed Ross, but it isn’t all just for kicks. At this point in the show’s run, Ross and Rachel had gotten close to getting together, but the pro and con list he made about being with her versus his girlfriend at the time offended her. Here, though, she finally understands just how much he has cared for her, and for how long, when a video from her teenage years reveals he got himself ready to take her to the prom when it looked like her date was bailing on her. The episode also entered a new definition for “lobsters” into the lexicon.

Season 5, Episode 11
This is a rare episode where all of the friends have individual moments to shine as they commit to bettering themselves with the start of the new year. Not all resolutions are created equal, so some are certainly more interesting than others: Ross’ idea of trying a new thing every day only gets exciting when he buys a pair of leather pants — and then gets stuck in them while on a date, while Chandler agreeing not to make fun of his friends doesn’t pay off until he gives it up and lets loose an impressive string of insults. Where things get really special is in how the episode manages to serialize a part of the situational event: Rachel saying she won’t gossip could have easily been a one-off like the others, wrapped up neatly at the end of the episode, but when she overhears Monica and Chandler making plans, she realizes they are together and sets up a hilarious storyline for episodes to come about who knows and who Monica and Chandler knows knows.

Season 3, Episode 2
Props to Rachel for not letting Ross bully her in this episode when he is trying to rush everyone out the door to an event and he snaps at her. But more props to the writers for creating a near real-time bottle episode in which all of the characters are coming in and out of Monica and Rachel’s living room as they get ready (or not) for this event. From Monica spinning out over an answering machine message from her ex to Chandler and Joey’s argument over a chair that turns into Joey wearing all of Chandler’s clothes, each moment is better than the next.

Season 4, Episode 12
A truly classic episode of “Friends,” this middle-of-Season-4 story sees Phoebe becoming a surrogate for her brother (Giovanni Ribisi) and his wife (Debra Jo Rupp). That piece of the story is sped up a bit unrealistically (but hey, Phoebe’s body has always been a little faster than Western medicine), but it is touching and also a really clever way to write in Kudrow’s real-life pregnancy. That sweet and slightly more serious story is balanced by Monica and Rachel getting embroiled in a gambling battle with Chandler and Joey, culminating in them losing their apartment in a game of trivia. It was a quick way to pepper in previously unknown facts about beloved characters, and it created easy go-to questions for all the real-life “Friends” trivia games that have popped up as the series has gained in popularity.

Season 5, Episode 14
Monica and Chandler are not good at keeping secrets, and in this episode, their relationship cat is out of the metaphorical bag. Joey and Rachel already knew, and Phoebe finds out, which leads to an intricate web of mind games as she prefers to mess with the couple, rather than come clean. Monica figures out Phoebe’s so-called crush on Chandler is fake, and she pushes Chandler to play an uncomfortable game of sexual chicken with Phoebe. He cracks first, admitting he’s in love with Monica not just to Monica, but to all of the friends (minus Ross, who’s dealing with getting a new apartment). It’s a sentimental moment that raises the stakes considerably. But because the episode is so steeped in upping the comedy ante, it does so with a cap at the end in which Ross, too, learns about the relationship.