It took a bit longer than expected, but the Friends season five Second Look finally completed last month – which means its time to rank the season’s episodes, before season six coverage begins on Friday. Enjoy – and share your picks for the best episodes of season five in the comments below!
Episode 6 — "The One with the Yeti"
Saddled by the infamous Danny subplot and the lingering presence of Emily, "The One with the Yeti" is season five's worst episode, a half hour that seems actively bored with its own material, resolving one of season four's central stories offscreen and introducing a romantic interest the show's not even interested in, with nothing but a middling Phoebe plot to support it all.
Episode 17 — "The One with Rachel's Inadvertent Kiss"
A classic mid-season nothingburger, "The One with Rachel's Inadvertent Kiss" relies heavily on its unfunny titular mishap to keep an episode going - one whose only other stories are "Joey can't find a girl" and "Ross dances in his apartment window". Sure, there's Phoebe and Monica arguing over who is having more sex, but this requires us to spend time with Gary, which is never a good thing.
Episode 23 & 24 — "The One in Vegas"
Friends' fifth season finale is a mixed bag; there are some genuinely strong moments in the second part of the episode - it just takes 35 minutes before the finale gets interesting, which barely gives it any time for its interesting conflicts, before its jumping into yet another Ross/Rachel-themed cliffhanger. The rare <i>Friends</i> finale with serious unrealized potential.
Episode 16 — "The One with the Cop"
If "The One with the Cop" was just the Joey subplot, it would be higher on the list - unfortunately, the presence of Gary the titular cop immediately drops this generally solid mid-season episode a few spots.
Episode 10 — "The One with the Inappropriate Sister"
Season five's winter holiday episode might not be the most memorable half hour of season five; but thankfully, it disposes of Danny (and his sister Krista) and the show's middling attempts at detached cringe comedy in one fell swoop. Phoebe's beef with Salvation Army is a decent enough runner - but it's really Joey and Ross's silly C plot (where Joey teaches a newly-unemployed Ross how to relax) that elevates "The One with the Inappropriate Sister" to an ever-so-slightly above-average episode.
Episode 8 — "The One with the Thanksgiving Flashbacks"
"The One with the Thanksgiving Flashbacks" is kind of a disappointing episode; it starts off strong enough with Chandler and Phoebe's cutaways, but trips back to 1988 and 1989 get entirely sidetracked with a hammy Matthew Perry performance and an unnecessary Fat Monica plotline. It remains one of the show's more memorable holiday episodes because of the "turkey on the head" bit at the end and Chandler's declaration of love for Monica - but in reality, it's one of season five's more underwhelming entries.
Episode 5 — "The One with the Kips"
Chandler-as-manchild is never a great choice for Friends - thankfully, "The One with the Kips" has a few other tricks up its sleeve, mostly in the form of a great third act. Anchored by Chandler and Monica's final scene, "The One with the Kips" mostly works, in spite of a toothless Ross/Rachel conflict.
Episode 9 — "The One with Ross's Sandwich"
"The One with Ross's Sandwich" is one of season five's more dichotomous episodes in terms of quality; while it is easily one of the funniest episodes of the season, the writing around its jokes - which mostly focuses on Ross's meltdown and Joey's ability to keep a secret - is often disappointing. There's a more interesting version of this episode that focuses more on Ross's meltdown - but at the very least, "The One with Ross's Sandwich" keeps the laughs coming to cover up its narrative shortcomings.
Episode 20 — "The One with the Ride-Along"
"The One with the Ride-Along" is more notable for what it doesn't do, than what it does; by avoiding the typical pitfalls of Ross/Rachel conflicts (here, Rachel nervously erases a voicemail she hears Emily leaving on Ross's machine), Friends can spend more of the episode being goofy - in the form of the guys riding along with Gary the Cop for a night, which leads to the expected hilarity and subsequent questioning of friendships.
Episode 18 — "The One Where Rachel Smokes"
"The One with Rachel Smokes" is lucky it is able to wring so much great comedic material out of its titular plotline; without it, it's just a couple petty Phoebe/Monica and Joey/Ross subplots (the former throwing a birthday party nobody cares about, the latter getting into the slightly dystopian world of child acting auditions).
None of this really matters, thankfully, because "The One Where Rachel Smokes" marks the return of neurotic Smoking Chandler, easily one of my favorite comedic forms of the character in the entire series. An imbalanced episode, but one of many episodes in the series that is elevated by the sheer comedic power of Matthew Perry.
Episode 21 — "The One with the Ball"
Gary shoots a bird while cuddling in bed with Phoebe, in what is easily the strangest subplot of season five - that is, if you aren't including Rachel buying a hairless cat for $1,000, in what amounts to one of the more disgusting displays of Rachel's privilege.
Then again, this episode also has the titular ball game with Joey and Ross, that eventually incorporates the whole group and works on pure charm alone.
Episode 15 — "The One with the Girl Who Hits Joey"
Season five is one of the show's best, because it always has Monica and Chandler as a fallback to bail out otherwise forgettable episodes. Take "The One with the Girl Who Hits Joey", which features a girl punching Joey (duh) and Ross failing to impress his neighbors (with a particularly unhelpful Phoebe in tow) - two stories that do not work, either alone or in concert with each other, all immediately forgotten when Chandler's freakout (and Monica's subsequent measured reaction) reveal the heart lying within this imperfect, elusively poignant episode.
Episode 19 — "The One Where Ross Can't Flirt"
Friends returns to the bottle episode for a half-hour that spends a bit too long with Ross being awkward to be consistently effective (and Rachel chooses here to defend him? So weird). Though, as far as filler episodes go, Friends could do a whole lot worse than the tangled trail of borrowed jewelry and Joey faking his cut Law & Order cameo for his visiting grandmother that exist around the Ross/Rachel histrionics.
Episode 22 — "The One with Joey's Big Break"
Joey and Chandler's conflicts, while rare, are often easy emotional avenues for Friends to explore, because there's arguably no relationship the audience is more invested in through the series (that includes Ross and Rachel). And while it ultimately is buried under yet another Ross and Rachel story, the genesis of Joey's trip to Vegas is a palpable bit of tension, with Chandler being brutally honest with Joey about his presumed "big break". It ends with Joey broke, working at a casino as hired talent and trying to hide his shame; an incredibly strong ending, no matter how hard the other, lesser plots of the episode - Rachel's inability to take eyedrops and Phoebe's faux anger at Ross - try to bring it down.
Episode 1 — "The One After Ross Says Rachel"
With the phrase "I'm still on London time", Friends would really never be the same - though not for the reasons one might initially expect. As "The One After Ross Says Rachel" tries to untangle itself from another season-opening conflict between Ross and Rachel (and Emily, this time around), it would surprisingly decide to do the opposite and lean into the Monica/Chandler pairing that came about in "The One with Ross's Wedding". And immediately, the spark their new connection brings to Friends is obvious, which completely reset (and elevated) the expectations for the season to follow - and as a result, kicked off the show's creative renaissance.
Episode 7 — "The One Where Ross Moves In"
The best of the short-lived Danny Era of Friends, "The One Where Ross Moves In" is a breath of fresh air, putting aside much of the show's increasingly serialized structure for a one-off episode where Phoebe gets horny for the state (in this episode, an overzealous health inspector), and Ross teaches Chandler and Joey what it really means to have an annoying adult roommate. Narratively light and comedically strong, "The One Where Ross Moves In" is as laid-back as it gets for season five, and is all the better for it.
Episode 2 — "The One with All the Kissing"
Everyone's got something to hide in "The One with All the Kissing" - except the Friends writer's room, who make their intentions for the season pretty clear as they Old Yeller Emily out of the picture and re-center their rom-com material around Monica and Chandler. Throw in the iconic opening bathtub scene, and you've got the new blueprint Friends who use to great effect throughout season five.
Episode 12 — "The One with Chandler's Work Laugh"
Friends is rarely effective as a workplace comedy - but when it is, it does so through Chandler's adventures in corporate America. "The One with Chandler's Work Laugh" not only has its cake of Chandler's goofy fake laugh at work being deployed multiple times, but it eats it too, using its humor as a fulcrum to a more interesting story about how Monica observes and dismantles Chandler's various facades and barriers.
And yes: as crazy as it might seem, Janice and Ross randomly hooking up actually kind of works? You might not expect a story where Janice becomes the mature voice of reasons to resonate - but when tied up within Ross's lingering post-divorce depression, "The One with Chandler's Work Laugh" becomes a rather sneakily versatile episode of Friends.
Episode 4 — "The One Where Phoebe Hates PBS"
The only real knock against "The One Where Phoebe Hates PBS" is the lingering Emily effect; outside of that dragging Ross into sheepishly dour territory, it's a really strong episode built around engaging interpersonal conflicts (Monica and Chandler arguing over their "best sex", and Joey and Phoebe's philosophical debate about the nature of good deeds) with a really funny third act to tie it all together. It's unfortunate Emily's off-screen presence brings down the whole affair, because without her unreasonable demands for Ross to abandon his family and move to Europe, "The One Where Phoebe Hates PBS" might be even higher on this list.
Episode 11 — "The One with All the Resolutions"
I like to think about "The One with All the Resolutions" as the title suggests; on the strength of the incredibly strong resolutions to its unassuming premises. Ross's leather pants, Phoebe "teaching" Joey how to play guitar, and Joey and Rachel realizing they need to keep Monica and Chandler's secret... take your pick on what story you prefer, because this is one of the stronger all-around character showcases of season five.
Episode 13 — "The One with Joey's Bag"
"The One with Joey's Bag" is sneakily a very clever episode of Friends; what begins as silly sitcom fodder with Monica's massages and Joey's top hat shift into something more meaningful, as the death of Phoebe's grandmother slowly morphs the episode into something else. Bob Balaban makes a terrific guest appearance as Phoebe's long-lost father - and while one might think Joey's man-purse and Chandler's internal conflict about being honest with Monica might not seem like natural fits together, the episode almost effortlessly weaves together slapstick and pathos in the way only the very best of Friends episodes can.
Episode 14 — "The One Where Everybody Finds Out"
"The One Where Everybody Finds Out" might not feel as momentous as the episodes ending season for and opening season five, but it's arguably the most dynamic shift of the show's entire run as Friends bids farewell to the Single Era for just about all of its characters. It's the episode where Friends quietly stops being a show about aimless young adulthood and starts becoming a show about building a life with intent; and it does so in elegant fashion, in one of the show's funniest, most poignant episodes of the entire run.
Episode 3 — "The One Hundredth"
Set entirely at the hospital where Phoebe gives birth to her brother's triplets (and thus, bringing the series full circle from "The One with the Embryos", the greatest episode of the series), "The One Hundredth" is a a busy, energized episode that celebrates hitting triple digits by refusing to play it safe. It's a true milestone episode, closing off Phoebe's biggest arc of the series with one of the show's quietest, most emotional moments of the series, when Phoebe talks to the triplets and says goodbye to them at the episode's close.
It's also the episode where Friends begins transitioning away from season four's big story to the more Chandler/Monica-centric season five (and let's not forget the appropriately empathetic Joey story, as he tries to pass a kidney stone, as a moving undercurrent to remind us Joey is, and forever will be, the best Friend of Friends). "The One Hundredth" is certainly a celebration of the show's comedy - but it is also a reminder of how insanely versatile the series could be, even as it started to lose some of its edge in its later years.