By Sumya Nur, Isabella Sam, Cecilia Taravella
Although Friends ended 15 years ago, Marta Kauffman and David Crane’s iconic sitcom still has the power to warm our hearts, especially during the holiday season. Over the course of their 10 season run, Friends has had 9 Thanksgiving episodes. If you want to spend the Thanksgiving break marathoning episodes of Friends, you can’t go wrong with those episodes. If you’d like to watch the best of the best, here are our picks for the top three must-watch Thanksgiving episodes.
3. Season 5, Episode 8
“The One with All the Thanksgivings”
At the beginning of this episode, the main characters reminisce about their previous Thanksgivings and recall when Chandler first met Monica during the Thanksgiving of 1987. In a flashback, Chandler is shown making a shallow comment about Monica’s weight, which causes her to change her eating habits. Back to present time, Chandler apologizes to Monica for criticizing her weight. However, Chandler isn’t apologetic for long as Rachel brings up another Thanksgiving memory that wasn’t very pleasant for him. In the flashback to 1988, the new conventionally beautiful Monica wants her revenge and tries to seduce Chandler. While doing so, Monica accidentally drops a knife on his foot and his toe gets cut off. Chandler reveals that the loss of his toe was the cause of him being bullied all through college. Monica attempts to make it up to him, and the Chandler that was once afraid of commitment accidentally confesses his love to her. The nostalgia that this episode brings is sure to brighten your Thanksgiving.
2. Season 4, Episode 8
“The One with Chandler in a Box”
In this episode, Chandler and Joey’s friendship is put to the test. During the previous episode, Chandler betrays Joey’s trust when he kisses Joey’s girlfriend, Kathy. As a way to gain his forgiveness, Chandler sits in a box for six hours dishing out sarcastic comments. Meanwhile, Monica is hesitant to get her eye checked out because her eye doctor is her ex-boyfriend, Richard. However, things get even more complicated when they discover that Richard is on vacation, and the person who will be taking his place is his son. Monica finds herself attracted to her ex-boyfriend’s son and tries to make things less awkward by inviting him over for Thanksgiving dinner. During dinner, Ross finds out that Rachel exchanges the gifts she receives, and criticizes Rachel for being “devoid of sentiment.” This episode’s trials and tribulations comically reminds us all that Thanksgiving isn’t always a time of joy, but there are always ways to make it through.
1. Season 1, Episode 9
“The One Where Underdog Gets Away”
In the first episode to display Rachel, Monica, Phoebe, Joey, Chandler, and Ross in a Thanksgiving setting, the holiday doesn’t go as planned. While Monica attempts to make dinner perfect for the entire gang, the friends run to the apartment roof to see the runaway Underdog balloon from the parade. Later, they return to Monica and Rachel’s apartment without keys, and realize they got locked outside. Unable to get into the apartment, the Thanksgiving dinner burns and Rachel misses her flight. In turn, the gang fights, blaming each other for ruining the holiday. In the end, they all bond over spying on “Ugly Naked Guy”, once again. With the turkey burnt and all three kinds of potatoes ruined, the six friends settle for some grilled cheese sandwiches. Although it wasn’t the ideal Thanksgiving meal, it brought the six of them closer together, and the gang found themselves to be more of a family than just friends. This episode displays love, laughter, and forgiveness, making it the perfect episode to watch this Thanksgiving.
