Friends: Most Memorable Ross And Rachel Moments
Published on February 28, 2017. Updated April 16, 2021Ross and Rachel are one of the most iconic couples in television history. Rachel had Ross’s heart long before she first appeared on the show after fleeing the alter from her husband-to-be. Ross was the older brother of her childhood friend, Monica, and he’d pined after her all throughout high school and college without her ever knowing. Their romance was actually quite short lived on the series, but writers loved to tease fans with the idea of them getting back together. Of course, the timing was never right, until the epic season finale. In honor of their epic love story — here’s a look at 15 of the best moments between Ross and Rachel!
15. Ross and Rachel Date
There’s a lot of pressure when Ross and Rachel finally go on their first date because it had been such a long process to get them together. When their first date gets ruined by a bit of awkwardness, Rachel tries to make it up to him by planning their second date. Their second date gets interrupted again when Ross has to deal with an emergency at the museum. In order to salvage the date, he sets up a romantic setting in the planetarium’s theatre with stars on the ceiling and they end up sleeping together for the first time. It’s one of the most romantic moments for these two!
14. When Ross Drinks the Fat
In season three, episode two, Ross gets frustrated with the group because nobody is ready for a big function he has at the museum. Ross continuously gets more and more flustered because they are running late and nobody seems to be showing any kind of urgency while getting ready. Monica is distracted by Richard, Joey and Chandler who are too busy fighting over the chair, and then Rachel is struggling to find something to wear. Ross’s patience wears off and he ends up raising his voice at Rachel which makes things worse when she decides she’s not going at all. To prove how sorry he is, he is willing to drink a glass of fat for her! Thankfully, Rachel stops him at the last second and forgives him.
Source: NBC13. Ross Misses his Discovery Channel TV Moment
Not too long after the explosive “we were on a break,” Rachel and Ross share a moment in the episode “The One With a Chick. And a Duck” when Ross is given the opportunity to appear on the Discovery Channel, but ends up blowing it off when an injured Rachel, who has no clue about Ross’s TV gig, asks for his help getting ready. He ends up taking her to the hospital and gives her the support she needs. Later in the episode, she finds out what he gave up to help her and feels incredibly touched. It almost seems like for a moment they might get back together, but Ross breaks eye contact, and they say goodbye.
12. Ross Says Rachel’s Name at the Alter
When Ross starts dating Emily, it’s bittersweet. Fans don’t want to see Ross mull about his break-up with Rachel any longer, but at the same time they also don’t want to lose hope that Ross and Rachel will reconcile. Things move quickly between Ross and Emily and by the time the finale episode rolls around in season 4, Ross and Emily are getting married! Rachel is unsure about how she feels and is convinced she shouldn’t attend the wedding because she still has some lingering feelings for Ross, but changes her mind at the last minute. She goes to London to stop the wedding, but it turns out she doesn’t have to because Ross ends up blurting out Rachel’s name instead of Emily’s when they are exchanging their vows! This is a true testament to how Ross feels about Rachel.
11. Emma Gellar-Green is Born
During the season finale of season eight, after 17 hours of waiting, Rachel finally goes into labor. Ross and Rachel are the only two in the delivery room, and even though their not together, Ross does a good job of coaching Rachel through it. Finally when the baby is born, it’s a pretty special moment between these two and they share a kiss while Rachel holds her for the first time. Later, when the doctor comes in and calls the baby “Green,” Rachel announces that her name will be “Gellar-Green.” At the end of the episode, Monica lets Rachel take the name she was saving for her child, Emma.
10. Rachel Tells Ross She’s Pregnant
In the third episode of season eight, Rachel finally works up the courage to tell Ross that she’s pregnant and it’s by far one of the funniest episodes in Friends history! At first he thinks Rachel just wants to sleep together again and he gives a big speech about how they shouldn’t get back together. But she tells him that’s not what it is and that she’s actually pregnant and his reaction is absolute shock. At first he just sits there quietly for a long period of time and doesn’t move, then he freaks out and starts looking for some place to put the blame. He goes off on a rant about how condoms are only 97%, calls the condom company and leaves a complaint!
9. Ross and Rachel Get Married in Vegas
One of the funniest scenes between Ross and Rachel is when the gang goes to Vegas, get really drunk and end up getting married! After a long day of doing outrageous things to each other to embarrass one another, Ross takes it too far when he draws on Rachel’s face and she can’t get it off. She doesn’t want to walk around Vegas embarrassed, so the two of them stay locked up in her room and get really, really drunk together. At some point in the night, they wander off in search of more booze and end up getting married!
8. The Prom Video
Yet another incredibly romantic moment between Ross and Rachel is when the whole group watches an old home video from prom. Rachel learns for the first time that on the night of her prom, when her date seemingly stood her up, Ross got dressed in a tuxedo, ready to take her so she didn’t have to go alone. In the end, Chip shows up and Monica and Rachel leave never knowing that Ross was going to take Rachel. Ross and Rachel are in a fight during this episode because she found a pro and con list Ross had made about dating her. He tries to stop the group from watching the video because he knows what happens, but no one else does — not even Monica! After they all see what happened, Ross is standing by the door looking rejected and embarrassed, and Rachel gets up, walks over to the door and kisses him, forgiving him for what happened between them, finally beginning their relationship!
7. When They Break Up, the Second Time
Ross and Rachel get back together after being apart for four months, but the way they reconcile is iffy because neither one is willing to admit they were wrong. Rachel thinks Ross is accepting the blame for their break up when reads her letter, but in reality, he fell asleep and had no idea what it said. When Rachel congratulates him on taking full responsibility, Ross can’t help but bring up the infamous line, “WE WERE ON A BREAK!” They get into a hilarious argument when Ross corrects Rachel’s grammar in the letter and admits that he had no idea what he was agreeing to when they got back together because he fell asleep. Rachel fights back with a “Just so you know, it’s NOT that common, it DOESN’T happen to every guy and it IS a big deal!” They end up breaking up for a second time, but this one is much more amusing than the first one.
6. They Say ‘I Love You’ for the First Time
In season two, episode 20, Ross and Rachel have only been dating for six weeks when Rachel freaks out that Ross is moving too quickly when he tells her that he thinks about their future together, like how many kids they’ll have and what their names will be. She has a bad reaction to it because of her past when she was pressured into doing things she didn’t want to or having all the big decisions in her life decided for her. They go up to Monica’s apartment and start arguing, but in the middle of the argument, Ross tells her that she better get used to it because he knows they’ll end up together and they both end up saying “I love you” to each other for the first time in the middle of their heated argument!
5. The One with the Morning After
By the time this episode aired halfway through season three, it was clear the iconic relationship between Ross and Rachel was dwindling and it was only a matter of time before they’d break up. But that doesn’t mean it wasn’t hard to watch! Ross and Rachel decided to take a break after they found themselves fighting over Rachel’s new job and Mark, her fellow co-worker who Ross was convinced had a crush on Rachel (and he was right). When Ross finds out Rachel is hanging out with Mark right after she tells him she wants to take a “break,” he gets drunk and ends up sleeping with another woman. When he tells Rachel about it, she breaks things off for good in one of the most emotional episodes in Friends history. This episode isn’t a feel-good episode between these two, but it was a huge marker in their relationship. Plus it began the infamous “We we’re on a break!” phrase that came out numerous times, all the way until the season finale!
4. Rachel Finds Out Ross has Feelings
Ross spends the entire first season pinning after Rachel, and the only person who doesn’t realize it is Rachel herself. In the season finale, the friends are celebrating Rachel’s birthday with a barbecue at Monica’s apartment. Ross stops in to drop off his gift before leaving for China. When she later opens her gift from Ross, which is a very expensive pin, Chandler mistakenly reveals that Ross has feelings for Rachel. She’s completely shocked and ends up discussing the matter with Monica and Phoebe only to decide that she has feelings for him too. She tries to chase him down at the airport, but it’s too late. When he comes back, she’s waiting for him with flowers, ready to tell him she wants to date, but he now has a new girlfriend named Julie. Although this episode doesn’t have a happy ending, it marks the beginning of the Ross and Rachel saga that plays out for the rest of the series!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yfi4sr_vlZA&t=0m55s
3. Ross Finds Out Rachel is “Under Him”
In episode 7 of season 2, Rachel is having more and more trouble keeping her feelings for Ross a secret, but she doesn’t want to ruin his relationship with Julie because he’s finally moved on from pinning after her. She ends up getting drunk on a date and talking about him the whole time. Then she leaves him a drunken message on his cell phone claiming that “she’s over him” and that she now has “closure.” When she wakes up the next morning and sees Ross come over to the apartment to check his messages, she remembers what she’s done and hilariously tries to stop him from calling into his voicemail by jumping on his back, but her efforts are useless. He hears the message and learns that the woman he’s been pining for since grade nine finally has feelings for him too!
2. Rachel Gets off the Plane
In the season finale of Friends, a lot of fans who’d watched the series from the beginning knew it was inevitable these two would end up together, it was just a matter of how and when. The writers managed to hold it off until the absolute end of the episode, when Rachel leaves Ross a message on his answering machine declaring that she loves him too, and then we’re left wondering whether or not she got off the plane. Then we see her in the doorway of Ross’s apartment and she announces, “I got off the plane.” They share a kiss together and finally the series has come full circle, as one of the biggest loose ends of the whole show is finally tied up and fans are left satisfied that Ross and Rachel are finally going to give their relationship another shot — for good this time.
1. Kiss in Central Perk
Rachel and Ross share their first kiss in Central Perk as she’s closing up in one of the most romantic scenes ever! It’s the second season and Ross has finally learned Rachel has feelings for him too, but he’s finally moved on and is happy in his new relationship, so he’s mad at her for telling him and ruining it all. He shows up at the coffeehouse just as she’s closing up and tells her that he didn’t end up getting a cat with Julie, but he’s mad at her. Rachel is mad at him too for not telling her about his crush earlier. He storms out and she furiously locks the door behind him, but he doesn’t actually end up leaving. When she gets up from the couch and sees him still standing there, she opens up the door and they kiss for the first time ever!