Second Look: Friends Season 5, Episode 14 “The One Where Everybody Finds Out”

Friends Season 5, Episode 14 “The One Where Everybody Finds Out”
Written by Alexa Junge
Directed by Michael Lembeck
Aired February 11, 1999 on NBC

Season five is the end of a number of important eras for Friends, from the conclusion of Phoebe’s personal journey of discovery in “The One with Joey’s Bag” to Ugly Naked Guy’s final appearance in this episode; but more importantly, “The One Where Everybody Finds Out” is largely the end of the series as a show about twentysomething’s trying to figure themselves out. Once Monica and Chandler’s relationship becomes knowledge within the group, the entire dynamic of the show shifts, centering itself not on the fruitless romantic and professional pursuits of young adulthood, into deeper, more serious storylines about finding partners, having children, and experiencing professional success (the exception of this, oddly enough, being Ross for the next few seasons… but we’ll have plenty of time to talk about his regressions as we continue). Though this episode is obviously – and rightly – remembered for being the episode to bring Monica and Chandler’s relationship into the light of day, it remains a memorable episode because of how monumentally it shifts the core of the series moving forward, representing the changing tides of the iconic sitcom as it nears the halfway point of its ten-season run.

The conceit of “The One Where Everybody Finds Out” is ingeniously simple; when Ugly Naked Guy moves out, Ross enters a bidding contest to sublet his apartment, leading Phoebe and him on their own individual paths towards learning the truth about Monica and Chandler (who apparently can’t stop fooling around in front of Monica’s living room window). And for how important, and iconic, those individual moments of discovery are, it’s fascinating to consider they bookend the episode: “The One Where Everybody Finds Out” gets a lot of mileage from playing the Friends equivalent of “Who’s on first?” with who knows (and doesn’t know) about the increasingly-obvious relationship between Monica and Chandler, bringing Phoebe into the fold after the opening credits, but smartly delaying Ross’s discovery of the two until the episode’s closing sting – although there’s really not a lot going on in between those two scenes, Friends surprisingly fills the space with some fun, if slightly repetitive, goofs of the two groups (Phoebe/Rachel and Monica/Chandler, with a reluctantly participating Joey on the side) playing chicken with each other for twenty minutes.

The farce mostly works because it focuses its energy on its two strongest comedic performers; Chandler being awkward and Phoebe being aloof are comedic staples of Friends, so engineering a ploy where Phoebe tries to seduce Chandler into admitting he’s dating Monica makes perfect sense as a way to kill some time before getting to the “big” reveal (which the show does hold until the final seconds of the episode, a rare show of restraint from the Friends writers). This allows the episode to mostly fuel itself off vibes alone; Chandler being awkward with Phoebe’s increasingly forward, sexual advances, insisting that the “messers are becoming the mess-ees!”, even as it is clear she’s way better at faking it than he is.

By centering Chandler as the pressure valve for the whole story, it allows both of the emotional final reveals to work as a bit of a surprise. After goading Chandler into nearly fondling Phoebe, Chandler finally gives up the gag and admits to everyone that he’s not attracted to Phoebe – and takes it a step farther, proclaiming that he’s in love with Monica, reminding both ensemble and audience that their relationship is a serious one, and more importantly, one not built on the pretensions of destiny and fortune that weighed down Rachel and Ross from the pilot episode until “The One with the Morning After”. For all intents and purposes, Monica and Chandler was a concept the series put to bed during “The One at the Beach” (doubling down on it after Chandler peed on Monica during “The One with the Jellyfish”): to see it so quickly become an emotionally rewarding, narratively important part of the show’s DNA is an incredible transformation, and one the series rightly takes a moment to appreciate, as they declare their love and the audience screams in the background.

That cathartic release is really all the episode needed; Ross’s reaction at the beginning and the ends of the episode, first in exuberant elation as the girls try to distract him from his sister getting banged in front of a window, and then in extreme derision as he shows his colleague (soon to be former colleague) his new apartment, when there’s nobody to distract him from the burgeoning exhibitionists he knows and (presumably still) loves. One has to give Friends credit for isolating Ross for the entirety of this episode; it would’ve been easy to turn this into another “Ross tries to outrun the truth” episodes (though one in a very different emotional vein than “The One with the Morning After”), but holding back until the very last seconds, when Ross is alone and his reaction becomes the cliffhanger between episodes, is a remarkable show of patience by Friends, allowing itself room for a victory lap before confronting the fact that Ross would feel most acutely: that Monica and Chandler’s pairing changes everything about the group dynamic – and, metatextually, the very fabric of the series moving forward.

Though Ross and Rachel’s feelings for each other would obviously continue to be a driving force of the arcs opening and closing each subsequent season of Friends, the heart of the series would really shift to become about Monica and Chandler building their life together; getting engaged in season six, married in season seven, then adjusting to life and preparing to start a family in the show’s final two seasons. And the other arcs of the series would follow suit; Joey’s professional resurgence, Rachel’s journey to motherhood, and Phoebe’s marriage are all a major shift away from the short-lived relationship arcs and professional divergences of the show’s earlier seasons, towards more meaningful, lasting arcs for the main cast.

Oddly enough, it makes Ugly Naked Man the great divider of the show’s two arcs; with Ugly Naked Man, Friends was still a show of characters exploring their limits, reaching out into the world to see what greeted them. Which is great, when you’re young and untethered by relationships, children, careers, and personal baggage; but at some point, even the most enthusiast nudist is going to fill up a box and label it “clothes”, as their identity becomes compartmentalized between person, neighbor, friend, father, and the million other roles and titles that begin to define us as we shift away from young adulthood into the middle years of our lives. It’s not a particularly deep metaphor, but the Ugly Naked Guy’s box of clothes is a fitting one for Friends and its first 111 episodes.

Though “The One Where Everybody Finds Out” is pretty singularly focused episode of Friends, how it represents the larger changing shifts and tides of the series makes it an interesting demarcation point in the show’s oeuvre. It’s also a great episode in its own right, playing off audience expectations and loyalties and delivering a series-changing plot twist with an unexpected level of careful execution. The whole 14-episode arc is a masterclass in slowly building tension itself – the fact it pulls off the reveal, using a comedic tool it usually poorly employs (farce), is just another feather in the cap of “The One Where Everybody Finds Out”, which marks the end of Friends‘s unofficial “single era” in style.

Grade: A-

Other thoughts/observations:

• Phoebe’s orange jacket makes another appearance here – and it continues to be the single most distracting piece of costuming in the show’s history.
  
• Phoebe and Ross’s reactions to “the apartment” are two of the best physical bits in the entire series – and they’re in the same scene!
  
• Phoebe: “I’ll use the strongest tool at my disposal… my sexuality.“
  
• Naked Ross having coffee with Ugly Naked Guy is also a great bit, and one that goes a bit under the radar with the much larger physical gags of the episode.
  
• “Get off my sister!!!”
  
• Extended thoughts: the extended versions of season five continue to underwhelm; not a lot here, save for some extended bits about Ugly Naked Guy’s apartment (and in particular, a piece of tape stuck in a very bad position).
  
• Up next: Ross deals with his new reality in “The One with the Girl Who Hits Joey”.