PLEASE note that this is about the *second* part of the finale.
If you have any comments about part 1, please refer to my review "Friends S09-23 - 88 little piggies". Many thanks.
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And having got big, it just kept getting bigger!
British/Anzac/Euro SPOILER SPACE for 924...
S P O I L E R
S P A C E S
S P O I L E R
S P A C E S
924 "TOI Barbados (part 2)"
The morning of the third day at the Barbados conference is beautifully sunny, but alas the friends cannot enjoy it since they have to attend the keynote speech. However, Dr.Geller does well, thanks to Charlie's writing, some clear visual aids, and the odd palaeontological joke.
Monica, Phoebe & Mike listen politely, and Chandler tries to restrain himself; but frustrated beach babe Rachel just can't sit still, without making bitchy comments. As the speech turns to homo erectus, Charlie is upset that Joey finds "erectus" funny, while Rachel giggles at "homo".
Once Dr.Geller concludes, he runs to hug Phoebe as she congratulates him, but then he's pulled aside by an adoring Professor Oberblau who admires the man more than the speech. Ross is glad that Charlie was there to inspire him, making her feel like his groupie - and when he jokes about finding her naked in his room, she catches her breath.
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The others hope to hit the beach at last, but the heavy rain resumes, so Mike suggests they play Ping Pong in the games room. Monica's eyes light up, so Chandler & Phoebe remind her of the last time that they played - when she pinched them, then clunked their heads together.
However, Mike is not afraid to play her, since after he wins the first point, he informs Monica that he's awesome. As she becomes increasingly competitive, Chandler has to stop his wife from playing for money; then Mike the ex-lawyer disallows Monica's first point on a technicality.
Though Monica eventually wins the game, Phoebe is turned on by Mike's aggression; while Chandler recoils from his sweaty wife, whose hair is getting bigger. Then to Monica's despair, Mike levels the score.
After three hour's play, the deciding game remains tied for a further hour, and even Phoebe's enthusiasm has waned; while Chandler protests to Monica that her hand is blistered, she can hardly stand, and her hair has now become so huge that it's inexplicable.
But when Monica injures her wrist, she's forced to forfeit, unable to believe she's lost - except Chandler steps in and brilliantly wins the match, explaining he hid his prowess to avoid doubles tournaments.
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Back in their room, Joey & Charlie discuss how he's had the best time with Rachel, while she's had fun with Ross - yet they have had little fun together. Charlie dumps him, since they have nothing in common.
Joey takes his bad news to Rachel's room, where he tells her how he feels so stupid for always going after the wrong girl, like her then Charlie; but Rachel denies it, saying that she didn't mean Charlie.
Once outside the door, the incredible truth hits Joey, and once he goes back inside the look on her face speaks volumes. Rachel reveals that she's fancied him for a month, but Joey says that they can't be together since it just wouldn't be right, he can't do it to Ross.
Apologising and agreeing it was no big deal, Joey goes outside again to wrestle with his feelings, finally leaning against her door in deep despair - when Rachel opens the door, and he falls right through!
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Oberblau starts coming on to Ross, who is saved by the arrival of the guy's unhappy wife; then Charlie takes Ross aside to tell him that she & Joey broke up. She's about to reveal her feelings for Ross when they are interrupted by three geeks who want to throw the keynote speaker into the pool - so Ross grabs Charlie's arm, and they run off.
Ross & Charlie hide from their pursuers behind a potted palm, pressed together to look like an amorous couple. Revealing that she's single, Charlie kisses him, and so Ross kisses her back. He starts to protest that he can't do this to Joey, but gives up and kisses her hungrily.
The couple are really going for it, when Joey arrives & sees them. He carefully watches the pair; considering, contemplating, and concluding that he has the green light: then calmly returns to Rachel's bedroom.
As Rachel opens the door, Joey answers her question with a sweet kiss, holding her gently. She searches his face, then lets slip a small moan of acceptance. Staring deeper into her eyes, Joey brushes a stray lock from her cheek, while her arms snake around his neck to hold him tight, before his manly hands slide up her naked back to dive into her hair.
Starting to kiss more fervently, Joey's arms crush Rachel against him whilst her mouth grants entry to his thrusting tongue. Suddenly, their hands are everywhere as Rachel sinks right into him; with their joined passion swelling, things are starting to get steamy, so Joey kicks the door closed behind him, and then he edges Rachel towards the bed...
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Well, this episode was good fun, despite having the most foreseeable twist ending in the history of the show. Or maybe that was the least foreseeable ending, for anybody who was actually expecting a twist.
Poor David was quickly forgotten; as once again Mike wormed his way back into the gang, but he did at least give over-competitive Monica a run for her money - and the bigger her hair became, the funnier she was. Though Phoebe's reactions did not quite ring true, Matthew Perry became a joy to watch, as Chandler's love & loyalty saved the day.
Meanwhile, plot wheels were rotating, as the Rachel/Joey/Charlie/Ross love square finally sorted itself out. With a script by creators Marta Kauffman & David Crane to sanction such a momentous development, good buddies Joey & Rachel crossed the line, presumably becoming a couple.
Though the gay admirer sub-plot was awkward & embarrassing, Schwimmer cut a dash as Ross 'eloped' with Charlie, who at last had the childish fun that she could never permit with Joey. On the other hand, Joey was made to do some tough thinking, and it was right that he struggled for a longer time than Ross did, before finally following his heart.
But then, LeBlanc is always at his best when working with Aniston, and while their chemistry was as superb as it's ever been, I also enjoyed the pair's delightful comic moments, which helped to ease the dramatic tension. Okay, as finales go, this was no classic, but it did provide the right sort of fans with a happy ending. Yet what of the morrow?
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Ooh look, Monica has the left side of the bed!
It's bad enough that these people leave their front doors unlocked at home, but to do this at a hotel? Chandler did mention adjoining rooms, but Rachel clearly burst in from the corridor.
And just look at how untidy that room is! Shouldn't Monica have got it all cleaned up before the chambermaid sees it? Or is she learning at last to fling off her clothes in glorious abandon, for yet another night of no-holds-barred anything-goes no-loss-situation sex?
When Chandler reveals that Ross's speech is in 45 minutes, take a look at Rachel's left forearm, where Jennifer's bandage seems to have been removed. This becomes most obvious later on when she folds her arms to ask Joey what he was talking about, and you can clearly see a long cut (or scar) running along her arm; does anyone know what had happened to her? At least this illustrates how a finale is really two episodes.
Was Monica able to survive the keynote speech with such aplomb because her hair was even frizzier by now, and she couldn't hear a word?
Do you recall when Ross was first offered a lecturing post at NYU, and his friends tried to help improve his technique? Phoebe begged him not to drone on, Joey made him acknowledge his audience, Chandler advised him to begin his lecture with a joke, and Rachel suggested some visual aids. Here Ross did that, so how come only Phoebe listened politely?
Whose name tag does Mike Hanigan wear? Wouldn't he hate to be labelled as David Something? And even if he did not care, Mike could have used that as an excuse for taking Phoebe to the beach in the sunshine.
Did you notice the continuity error when Rachel giggled about the word "homo"? At first her right hand was waving her name tag near her face; and then she was holding up her left hand, without any name tag.
Notice once again it's always Ross & Phoebe who run to hug each other.
And it's Phoebe whom Ross tells how much it means that she's there.
No wonder Charlie was mouthing the words of Ross's speech, it was she who wrote it! Okay, so it was based upon his earlier version, and Ross had done all the academic research - but even if only 10% was actually Charlie's work, it was that which made the difference.
Did she create the slides too, or were they a source of inspiration?
And was that brief period of sun meant to be the eye of the storm?
That was nice continuity to hear a further titbit about the notorious Pictionary Incident. We first heard of this in 118 "TOW All the Poker" when Monica *claimed* that she was merely gesturing, the plate slipped out of her hand; but now we learned that Chandler received a scar upon his forehead. Or was that later on, after Monica was so frustrated that the guys couldn't recognise her sketch of a bird, yet when Rachel drew a bean, Joey knew that she meant "The Unbearable Lightness of Being"?
Is Phoebe proud to discover that Mike is not soft, like Chandler? Or does it count against him to be�even more competitive than Monica?
Phoebe mentioned that Mike used to be a lawyer, so what happened, did he merely give up the rat race to become a pianist? Or was he pushed?
Wow, big bushy hair, little beads of sweat, a loose cleavage, how can Chandler fail to be turned on by his steamy woman?
When Phoebe told Mike to knock that dog off Monica's head, was that an expression, or a reference to the bushy hair?
Monica can't believe that she's lost, but in fact we have seen her lose many times before. Her biggest loss cost her the apartment, for which she was rightfully anguished, but when she lost the mattresses too, she took it quite well. And there were only token grumbles when she lost at poker and the 50 States game - while after she lost that huge fight with Rachel, poor Monica was crushed, and fled in tears.
Are we to assume that Phoebe wants to be spanked with Mike's paddle?
When Chandler proposes a sudden death point, does Mike (or possibly his actor Paul Rudd) reply with "'kay" or "gay"?
Should Monica be so surprised by Chandler's prowess? We've seen them play doubles tennis before, and while she was a real tiger, he had to be good too, since he was letting his boss win. And of course Matthew Perry was once a leading junior tennis player, ranked 17th nationally in the singles category, and third in the doubles category.
What does happen if the sea turtle catches you?
When Rachel needed Joey to tell her just who Curious George was, is that because her Curious George doll is no longer curious?
And isn't the guy with the yellow hat really Rainy Day Bear?
And was the monkey Marcel?
Jarvis Oberblau of Cornell was clearly gay, yet for some strange reason Ross seemed to conclude that he wasn't, when Nancy Oberblau turned up, simply because they were married, and despite how Jarvis reacted to her. Does Ross not recall the conversation he'd just had with Charlie about his first wife & her ex-fianc�?
Since Charlie is only a secondary character, her kiss with Ross was accompanied by silence; whereas Joey was given soaring music even as he walked down the corridor. Then Rachel's positive reaction to their first kiss was marked by a 'trill' upon the cymbals, before that hard driving beat struck up, while the couple really went for it. So, can anyone identify the piece of music? Is its title significant at all?
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According to the filming report by Liat N & Mindy VR, when Ross was supposed to give his speech, the projector wouldn't work, but David Schwimmer fixed it. Ross was pleased that the only time the sun came out was during his speech, commenting that someone up there really likes him, but the people down there with him must be pissed off.
When Mike & Monica kept raising the stakes, Chandler didn't just cut off Monica, he set the prize to ten dollars per game. In some scenes the actors were actually playing the world female table tennis champ, who gave Matthew a game while the hair people were fixing & spraying Courteney's hair. He wasn't too shabby. At one point, Ross & Charlie ran into the games room, to hide on the other side of a pillar behind the door. After the hunt passed by, Ross was stunned to see Monica's big hair, then Charlie pulled him away, and they kept on running.
The scene where Joey falls through the doorway had to be done a few times, but for one take Matthew took his place, much to Jennifer's surprise. Thereafter she kept checking around the end wall. The last scene where Joey & Rachel kiss was filmed after the audience left.
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So, what didn't happen in this second part of the finale? We heard no more about David, so has he left the show forever? Will Phoebe's relationship with Mike be undermined by their guilt if David should take drastic action? He was very depressed when we last saw him.
And how come there was no mention of the nymphomaniac plot? Charlie is supposed to be under the impression that Phoebe wanted every man she could get, which includes Ross as well as Joey, yet we didn't even see Charlie reacting to the the Mike/Phoebe/David triangle.
Then there are the Bings, coming to terms with mutual infertility, and hoping to adopt a baby, but there was not a mention of this; nor did we hear Rachel checking up on Emma, wherever she is.
We heard no more about Kate Miller, so was that a throwaway in-joke, or the harbinger of doom for Rachel? Will she be about to find some happiness at last with Joey, when the first woman he loved suddenly turns up at the Paradise Hotel? And even if she did, would Joey give up Rachel for one who treated him so badly in the end?
In a nutshell, will episode 1001 completely reverse how this season ended? No matter how things look now, will Rachel recoil in disgust to run from Joey straight into Ross's surprised but welcoming arms?
For a little insight into that, consider how Seasons 1/3/4/5/8 ended with a huge twist, which simply was either undone at the start of the following season, or as part of the cliffhanger itself. But Season 9 didn't end with a twist, it was more like Seasons 2/6/7 which ended relatively quietly, and they were followed by smooth continuation.
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PLEASE note that this is about the *second* part of the finale, that's everything while Monica & Mike are playing Ping Pong.
If you have any comments about part 1, please refer to my review "Friends S09-23 - 88 little piggies". Many thanks.
Tennant Stuart