Friends Season 4, Episode 21 “The One with the Worst Best Man Ever”
Written by Seth Kurland (story), Gregory S. Malins & Michael Curtis (teleplay)
Directed by Peter Bonerz
Aired April 30, 1998 on NBC
With a two-part, overseas season finale looming, it might seem “The One with the Worst Best Man Ever”, the penultimate episode of Friends‘ resurgent fourth season, would have a lot of plot lines to wrap up. Monica and Rachel’s professional challenges, Phoebe’s reunion with her birth mother, and the aftermath of Rachel’s breakup with Joshua are but a few of season four’s recurring plots looking awaiting resolution after the singularly focused “The One with the Invitation” – and yet, none of those are prominently featured (or really even mentioned) in “The One with the Worst Best Man Ever”, which mostly sidelines Ross and Rachel to focus on Phoebe’s pregnancy – and Chandler and Joey’s fight over being Ross’s best man.
For the first 15 or so minutes of “The One with the Worst Best Man Ever”, Friends really seems like its just kicking the tires, even though it sets itself up with a couple of easy comedic premises. Early on, it appears “The One with the Worst Best Man Ever” is going to be focused on two distinct parties; the bachelor party Chandler and Joey plan for Ross, and the impromptu baby shower Monica and Rachel decide to throw Phoebe (the big distinction between them being Ross’s calmly-delivered demands and Phoebe’s hormonal mood swings about her shower gifts).
However, save for one brief scene set during each event, “The One with the Worst Best Man Ever” ignores the inherent comedic potential of both events, sidestepping the most obvious opportunities it had to efficiently waste time until the big season finale to focus on the unpredictability of Phoebe’s emotional state, and the increasingly catty war going on between Chandler and Joey on who gets to be Ross’s best man (where a major sticking point in negotiations is the probability of Chandler getting married, which may be one of the most unintentionally perfect bit of foreshadowing in the history of serialized American sitcoms).
While those certainly aren’t premises void of comedic potential, it feels like “The One with the Worst Best Man Ever” is satisfied with taking the shortest path of least resistance to its third act by how little it engages with its own ideas. It isn’t long before the episode is teasing us with fake Phoebe contractions, and shifting the Ross story to a race to find his family’s heirloom wedding ring, which Joey immediately attributes to the stripper he hired (and subsequently slept with) for Ross’s bachelor party (again – Friends being surprisingly pro-sex work is always a surprising element of a ’90s network comedy). It doesn’t necessarily feel like a rug pull – from the start, the focus is squarely away from Ross and Rachel, reinforced when a mention of Rachel’s decision to skip the wedding is bulldozed by Phoebe’s behavior – but it still feels like Friends leaving a lot of random meat on the bone, especially as it leaves so many of its other serialized elements hanging in absolute limbo (most of which we’re not going to see resolved until next season).
The potential in this episode only becomes more apparent when the episode suddenly makes a massive tonal shift in the third act (right after Chandler half-jokingly asks the stripper to marry him). When sitting in the girls’ apartment, Phoebe confides that she’s struggling with what awaits in her increasingly near future; “Now that they’re in me, it’s like I know them, and it’s not going to be easy when those little babies have to go away.” The shift in tone is abrupt, but not jarring; after such a forgettable pair of non-parties, seeing Friends return its focus to character stories (especially those not attached to Ross and Rachel) for a few minutes ends up being incredibly exciting, and a prescient reminder of what this show’s been able to do to regain its momentum at its best moments through season four.
It results in a really touching scene, where Rachel and Monica reassure Phoebe (rightfully so) that she’s in the best position of them all; though she won’t get to see them every day, she’ll be the cool aunt they talk to about their problems, never having to deal with the stress of saving for college or “giving them Ritalin when they just won’t calm down” (as Rachel suggests, a familiar sentence to many of us who grew up in the ’90s). They remind Phoebe that no matter what, those triplets are going to love their eccentric, accepting Aunt Phoebe; it’s a really nice moment, and an unexpected one after the episode’s laid back, largely unfunny approach to storytelling through the first two-thirds of its running time.
What’s even more unexpected is what follows: after shifting back to the veterinary lobby, where the guys wait for the duck to come out of surgery (having eaten Ross’s wedding ring, exonerating that poor stripper), Friends drops an incredibly silly montage about Chandler and Joey’s duck (set to Barry Manilow’s “Weekend in New England”) before revealing that Ross has chosen both of them to be his best men at his wedding. Though all three can’t express their feelings through words, all three of them start softly crying at the news, retreating to different corners of the lobby to mentally reinstate their masculinity in typical Gen X/old millennial fashion.
Those two unexpectedly poignant scenes close “The One with the Worst Best Man Ever” on an incredibly high note, restoring much of the momentum lost while the guys are making rather awful presumptions about the stripper they hired, and Phoebe goes through a cycle of bitching and crying – both exasperated, low effort attempts to fill a lot of empty space with unnecessary noise. But for a brief moment, Friends pauses to consider the calm before its pair of impending storms, with a pair of scenes reinforcing the shared connection between these characters, the ever-important reminder of this show’s ethos around the moments of harmony found when a group of individuals collectively support each other.
Two strong scenes aren’t quite enough to completely resolve “The One with the Worst Best Man Ever” for the undercooked (and underseen) pair of parties most of the episode revolves around (not to mention all the stories it doesn’t touch upon, though the absence of those are a bit more forgivable). But heading into a big two-part finale – arguably the biggest in the show’s history, given its the only one that takes place outside of America – “The One with the Worst Best Man Ever” smartly doubles back to reassure audiences that even as Friends gets busier, sillier, and louder, it is still more than capable of delivering strong, emotionally driven moments around its ensemble cast and the bonds that hold them together.
Grade: B-
Other thoughts/observations:
- Joey’s “I’ll never get to be best man!” when he realizes what Chandler’s offer means is delivered expertly by Matt LeBlanc – in fact, his comedic timing in most of this episode, and season, is impeccable.
- We learn Chandler’s first attempt at throwing a bachelor party for Ross took place in the basement of a Pizza Hut (Chandler insists Ross thinks he’s “too good for the Hut”).
- “Get your ass back here, Tribbiani!”
- Ross mentions only inviting the “dinosaur dudes”, to which Joey resignedly replies “Ok, we need a six-pack of Zima.”
- Monica’s suggestion for baby shower gifts: tequila, coffee, leather pants, and a carton of cigarettes (“It’s the thought that counts!”)
- Gunther thanks Ross for not marrying Rachel – and later, the guys lure the stripper to Chandler’s office under the name Gunther Central Perk.
- Friends makes a point to let us know Joey does not know the name of the stripper he had sex with, which is a disappointing regression for Joey’s character after a bit of growth the past two seasons (a BIT, this is still the guy who was trying to date two women).
- The stripper points out she makes $1600/week and doesn’t need to steal any rings. Chandler’s response? “Marry me.”
- Monica notes to Emily (in her wordless appearance in the closing credits) that her new ring spent “two days in a duck’s colon”, a closing credits scene that’s only seen in the extended DVD version.
- Extended thoughts: save for the closing scene, most of what’s cut from the broadcast version involves Phoebe’s unstable emotional state. Not a lot lost here (save for a semi-funny joke about Chandler calling 911 to get movie times for Titanic).
- Up next: Friends heads across the pond for “The One with Ross’s Wedding”.