About Ross and Rachel
- as written by Hoppy, former fanlisting owner
When Ross first met Rachel, she was the popular girl in her high school and best friend to Ross' little sister Monica. And to Rachel, Ross was just Monica's geeky older brother. He was smitten with her from the beginning, but Rachel never paid much attention to Ross. Years later, in their twenties, they would meet again when Rachel left her fiancee Barry at the altar to move to New York and ended up becoming Monica's roommate. The recently divorced Ross was once again taken with the lovely Rachel, but was too insecure to speak up about his feelings for her, instead sitting back and watching her date such winners (that's sarcasm) as Paolo. When Rachel's birthday rolled around, Ross left on a trip to China but left a gift behind for her. She opens it and finds a very expensive brooch just like one that her grandmother had when she was a little girl. Rachel is stunned by this beautiful and heartfelt gift, and Chandler accidentally lets it slip that this is what Ross does when he's in love with someone.
Rachel debates with herself about how she feels about Ross, now armed with the knowledge that Ross is in love with her. She makes the decision that she has feelings for Ross as well and decides to meet him at the airport with flowers when he returns from China. Much to her dismay, Ross gets off the plane with a woman named Julie in tow, and Rachel discovers that this is Ross' new girlfriend. Rachel spends quite a bit of time after this being jealous and attempting to get over Ross, but doing it very unsuccessfully. One evening she goes on a date with another guy and has too much to drink, which ends in her leaving a message on Ross' machine telling him that she's over him. Ross listens to the message the day afterwards and is shocked to find out that Rachel has feelings for him as well. He is then torn between the woman he's loved since high school or the new love in his life, Julie. Ross goes to Central Perk as Rachel is closing the cafe down and they argue, but he later returns and they kiss for the very first time. Later, Chandler advises Ross to make a list of pros and cons for each woman, and Ross does so. The list helps him decide to break up with Julie and choose Rachel, however Rachel finds the list and is angered by the faults that he has listed for her. Rachel continues to be angry with Ross, and even dates a guy named Russ who bears a striking resemblance to Ross, even though she doesn't admit to it.
Ross makes continual attempts to apologize for what he did, and convince Rachel that they should be together, but it's not until the viewing of the infamous prom video that she changes her mind. The group watches a video of Monica and Rachel's prom night when it seemed that Rachel's date had stood her up. Unbeknownst to Rachel, Ross had gotten dressed up and ready to go as her backup prom date. He was ready to take her to prom when her date actually did show up, leaving Ross heartbroken at the top of the stairs. After watching the video and seeing how much he cared for her, Rachel changed her mind and kissed him in front everyone, thus officially beginning their romantic relationship.
Things go quite smoothly for about a year, until Rachel quits her job at Central Perk and meets Mark. Mark helps her get a job at Bloomingdales, but Ross is suspicious and jealous from the very beginning, thinking that Mark wants more than just a professional relationship with Rachel. Rachel assures him that he has nothing to worry about, but Ross grows more and more jealous as time goes on, and begins to become overbearing towards Rachel. Things start to fall apart and when Rachel has to work late on their anniversary, Ross feels completely shut out of her life. They argue over her job and Rachel tells him to leave because they need some time apart. Both are miserable about each other but when Ross calls Rachel later on, he hears the voice of Mark in the background. Even though nothing was going on and Mark actually invited himself over, Ross's deepest fears are confirmed and he ends up sleeping with Chloe from the copy shop. The morning after Rachel is ready to fix things with Ross, and he attempts to hide his indiscretions from her, but the news travels fast and Rachel discovers the truth, thus the relationship ends.
Well.... not really. Things are never really over with Ross and Rachel. Through the entire run of the show, Ross and Rachel are on, and then off, and then on again, and so on. They reconcile briefly while on a trip out of town with the gang, but that ends hen Ross admits that he lied about reading Rachel's 18-page (front-and-back) letter where she asked him to take full responsibility for their break-up. They continue to be friends without any romantic complications until Ross hooks up with Emily, and in a very quick fashion, decided to marry her. This sparks a lot of jealousy from Rachel, and made her realize that she was still in love with Ross. Despite Phoebe's protests, Rachel hops on a plane to England hoping to stop the wedding and tell Ross about her feelings for him. She makes it to the church on time, but when she sees how happy Ross is with Emily, she decides to only hug Ross and give him her best wishes. However, as the ceremony begins, Emily makes it through her vows perfectly, but Ross makes the mistake of saying Rachel's name in his vows instead of Emily's, and then stutters out Emily's name to correct himself. The ceremony continues, but Emily runs out on Ross immediately following the wedding.
When everyone returns to New York, Ross is devastated by the thought of losing Emily and makes every attempt to get her back even though Rachel confesses to him that she still has feelings for him. Eventually, Emily agrees to come to New York and be with Ross, but tells him that he must cut Rachel out of his life completely and end their friendship. Ross is torn between his wife and one of his best friends, but Rachel advises him to do whatever it takes to make Emily happy, not realizing that it involves the end of their friendship. Ross agrees to Emily's terms, but later Joey and the others convince Ross that Emily is being unreasonable and he changes his mind, thus ending the saga of Ross and Emily forever. (Thank God.)
A year after the Ross/Emily fiasco, the gang goes to Vegas to visit Joey who is shooting a movie there. Monica, Chandler and Phoebe leave early, and Rachel has the apartment to herself, so she decides to walk around completely naked. Ross sees this from his own apartment window and thinks it is an invitation for him to come over. He does so, but Rachel assures him that she had no intentions to sleep with him that night. Ross gets back at her by drawing on her face with a marker while she's asleep on the plane ride to Vegas. The marker won't come off, so Rachel stays up in her room and Ross keeps her company. Both of them get completely drunk, and the episode ends with them coming out of a Vegas wedding chapel as man and wife.
The next morning, neither of them recall their wedding until Chandler and Monica tell them what they saw. Ross and Rachel decide to get the marriage anulled as soon as they get home to New York. However, Ross is absolutely terrified of getting his third divorce and lies to Rachel, telling her that the annulment went through when it actually didn't. He tells Phoebe the truth, and Phoebe accuses him of not ending the marriage because he still loves Rachel. Rachel finally discovers that they are still married, and though they have a difficult time getting it done, the marriage is eventually ended.
The period after this consists mostly of Ross and Rachel being good friends and nothing more. However, the day of Monica and Chandler's wedding, it is discovered by Phoebe that Rachel is pregnant. After much speculation, the gang discovers that Ross and Rachel had a one night fling (or relapse?) and conceived a child together. While there are moments where we keep thinking that they will reconcile leading up to the birth of Emma, it doesn't actually happen. In fact, Joey finds a ringbox in Ross's jacket pocket and Rachel mistakenly thinks he's proposing to her. The misunderstanding is revealed later, and much to Ross' dismay he finds out that Rachel actually accepted. Little did he know, she was emotional at the time and worried that Ross would not be around to be a father to Emma and she would be raising her daughter alone. Of course we all know that Rachel didn't actually marry Joey and the whole thing settled peacefully in the end.
However, after once rejecting Joey's feelings for her, Rachel later starts to feel attracted to him and while on vacation, Rachel and Joey decide to explore those feelings. They get as far as a few kisses, but both feel guilty for doing it without Ross' knowing about it. They hold off on taking their relationship any further and wait until they can tell Ross about it. Unfortunately, Ross catches them in a kiss, and is very upset to see what is going on. The relationship between Rachel and Joey never actually went anywhere after that as being more than just friends just didn't seem right to them.
In the last season of 'Friends', Rachel gets offered a job in France and decides to take it. It is then that Ross realizes he can't be without her, and tries to do everything he can to get her stay. (Including an attempt at getting her a promotion at her job in New York.) Rachel keeps her plans to leave anyway, and before she leaves, her and Ross spent the night together. Ross assumes this means she would stay, but Rachel assures him that she still intends to leave. They say an emotional goodbye, but after Rachel leaves for the airport, Ross decides that he can't let her leave. Phoebe takes Ross to the airport -- the wrong airport -- but then takes him to the correct one where he catches Rachel just before she boards her plane. He professes his love for her and begs her stay, and though Rachel also loves him too she still gets on to her flight. Later, when Ross comes back to his apartment, he checks his messages and finds one from Rachel who is calling from the airplane. At that moment she decides she wants to get off the plane, but the flight attendant won't seem to let her. The message ends with Ross not knowing whether she got off the plane or not, but he then hears Rachel's voice telling him that she got off the plane. She's standing in his apartment and they share a beautiful reunion kiss.
Thus ends the long story of Ross and Rachel. I think it's safe to assume that they finally live happily ever after. And the fans wouldn't have it any other way. :)
 
|
