Wine and Friends Season 1, Episode 3

The host introduces the podcast and explains that each week they pair a wine with an episode of the show Friends. They ask for wine recommendations and share information about this week's wine, Three Finger Jack Chardonnay. They also provide details about Chardonnay and its flavors and characteristics. The host opens the wine, describes its aroma and taste, and then discusses the episode of Friends that they are pairing it with. They mention that not much happened on the day the episode aired in 1994. Hello, hello, my friends, and welcome to Episode 3 of Wine and Friends. I'm your host, Katie, and if you've been with me since the very first episode, thank you so much for coming back. If this is your first time here, welcome. I'm so excited for you to be here with us to dive deep into the world of wine and deep dive into our favorite friends. As you know by now, if you've been listening since Episode 1, this podcast is called Wine and Friends because each week we pair a new wine with an episode of the show Friends. And if you have any recommendations of a wine you would like to see paired with an episode of the show, please head over to the Instagram page at Wine and Friends Pod or the Facebook page at Wine and Friends and leave a comment on this week's wine pairing post with your recommendation of a wine for an upcoming episode. Also, feel free to let me know if you would like that wine paired with a specific episode and I'll make sure to grab your recommendation and give you a shout out on the show. OK, so let's get right into the wine. If you haven't been following the Instagram or Facebook page, this week's wine is going to come as a surprise. But the title of our Friends episode is the one with the thumb. So we are pairing three finger Jack Chardonnay. It's so cheesy. But, you know, one of the biggest things I've learned in the last three weeks of doing this show is that it is hard as fuck to find wines that pair with the episode titles or the themes for the show. It also doesn't help that Pennsylvania has really ridiculous liquor laws and we only actually have state run liquor stores, which means we don't get those huge total wine stores like some of the rest of you guys. We just get tiny state owned fine wine and spirits stores, which are lovely, don't get me wrong. And I know that they do try, but their selection is like just a couple drops in the huge bucket as far as like compared to huge wine distributors. So I am doing my best to find pairings that work with the episode in some way, even though sometimes I'm sure, especially down the line, it might be a stretch. So, again, we are drinking the three finger Jack Chardonnay and I pulled this information from wine.com says Roaming the Sierra foothills of California gold country situated 70 miles east of San Francisco, a notorious desperado by the name of Three Finger Jack searched the rugged wilderness relentlessly for riches. Nobody knows how he lost his fingers or how he died, but his legend lives on today in the Lodi region of California through Three Finger Jack wines. The gold may be gone, but the wine grown in the land where Jack once roved pays tribute to Jack's outlaw nature. The East Side Ridge Cabernet Sauvignon red wine, the Gold Mine Hills Chardonnay white wine and the rum barrel aged red wine blend, all set in craft spirits inspired bottles, is the perfect ode to a legendary outlaw and stands up to its name. Three Finger Jack, outlaw by nature. And I'm like, dude, like same. Let's let's be outlaws by nature. So this winery only makes those three wines. Again, it's the rum barrel aged red blend, the Cab Sauv and the Chardonnay. I figured since last week was a red blend, it might be fun to switch it up and do a white wine this week. I don't typically drink Chardonnay too often because I'm not a huge fan of that like typical sweet and buttery palette. But I am pretty excited to try this one because it has actually been a while since the last time I had a Chardonnay. So let's dive a little deeper into that specific varietal, the Chardonnay, and all of the following information came from winefolly.com. So Chardonnay is noted for its incredible versatility and range of flavors. This diversity can be attributed to the range of winemaking techniques and climates that it is subjected to. From crisp, un-oaked versions in cool climates to full-bodied and oak-aged versions in more moderate climates, the flavors of Chardonnay can vary significantly while also retaining common characteristics. On the nose, the un-oaked or Chablis style of Chardonnays tend to offer fragrant notes of green apple, pear, and citrus with some chalky or mineral-like aromas. Oaked Chardonnays will often present rich aromas of peach, mango, and lemon accompanied by notes of vanilla, butter, and often a hint of toasted bread or nuttiness due to the influence of the oak, the malolactic conversion, and leaves stirring. So just a little side note, the malolactic conversion is a process in winemaking in which tart-tasting malic acid is converted to softer-tasting lactic acid. And lactic acid may sound familiar because that is definitely something that's present in that like dairy products. So the primary goal of the malolactic conversion is to de-acidify the wine. It can also affect the sensory aspects of the wine, giving it a smoother, rounder, more complex flavor profile. And leaves stirring, also known as batonnage, is a winemaking technique that involves stirring the leaves or the sediment of the wine back into the barrel. The leaves or sediment is then left in contact with the wine to extract flavor, aroma, and texture. And then these solids are filtered out at the end of the process before bottling. So on the palate, Chardonnay offers a broad range of experiences depending on its style. Unoaked Chardonnays are typically lean and crisp with high acidity, often resembling the freshness of a Sauvignon Blanc, but with a little more body. And the Oaked Chardonnays are known for their full-bodied, creamy mouthfeel, there's my favorite word again, moderate acidity, and those flavors of butter, vanilla, baking spices, sometimes overlaying a stone fruit character. Despite the stylistic differences, both types tend to share a characteristic underlying note of apple or citrus, and with age, no matter the style, Chardonnay tends to develop hazelnut aromas. Most of these wines range from 12 to 14 percent. So I didn't, excuse me, I didn't really know before I started doing the research for Chardonnay, but I was wondering myself like, how does oak versus non-oak age impact the Chardonnay? So the intriguing complexity of Chardonnay owes much to the oak aging, a process which is significantly influenced by the barrel size, type, toast value, and time of aging. The barrel size influences the wine development where smaller barrels mean more wine to oak contact, leading to enhanced flavor extraction and tannin integration. And again, remember the tannins are just that like acidic sort of bitter bite that you can get from those types of grapes. Different types of oak impart varied flavors. American oak gives bold, coconutty notes, French oak offers subtle spicy nuances, and Hungarian oak strikes a balance between the two. The barrel's toast level impacts the flavor profile as well. Light toasting of the barrel provides delicate notes, medium toast introduces those baking spices, and a heavy toast delivers robust and obviously toasted flavors. And then lastly, the aging duration also matters. Longer periods will intensify that flavor extraction, and deepen the oak influences, leading to a more rounded and complex wine. An oak's gift to Chardonnay includes the vanilla essence, creamy aroma from the lactones, and a hint of dill from eugenol. I'm not quite sure what that is, I didn't get a chance to get into that, but these elements in harmony with the wine's inherent qualities create that richly layered sensory experience. The perfect serving temperature temperature for Chardonnay varies depending on the style. So sparkling Chardonnay should be served very chilled, 38 to 45 degrees Fahrenheit, 3 to 7 degrees Celsius. Leaner styles like Chablis should be served a bit cooler, around 45 degrees Fahrenheit or 7 degrees Celsius, and oaked styles should be a little bit warmer, so around 55 degrees Fahrenheit or 12 degrees Celsius. The three-finger Jack Chardonnay retails for around $20, which is a little higher than I would typically go for for a bottle of wine, but it looks like it's going to be worth it, especially because this this vineyard only produces three bottles of wine, and it clocks in at 14.5 ABV, which if you remember is actually higher than the typical 12 to 14 percent ABV of Chardonnays, and I am here for it. I mean, let's get it. So let's go ahead and open this, this little motherfucker right here, and this is our third pop of the show, so here we go. Oh, that was really quiet. I don't even know if you guys are going to be able to hear that, but anyways, cheers. Let me go ahead and pour myself a beautiful glass of this lovely wine. Okay, so this, this one smells a little more on that Chablis style. It smells definitely citrusy. Oh, that's really interesting. I am not a fan of citrusy wines, but this one is. I am almost 100% certain that this is an oak-aged Chardonnay, because there is, on the end of this, is a very, like, woodsy, like, oaky type flavor, which is actually really delicious, because it doesn't, it doesn't leave room for that, like, like, creamy buttery taste. So fucking yum. Okay, let's get to the show. Friends Season One, Episode Three, the one with the thumb, is the third episode of Friends' very first season. It first aired on the NBC network in the United States on October 6th, 1994, and I know that we talked last week about the new segment that I was adding about what happened on or around the day that this particular episode aired. Honestly, there wasn't a whole lot of noteworthy information. Nothing really happened on or around this particular day back in 1994. I did find that Ben Mokonoa, I'm sorry, I should have read how to pronounce that, but he became the first black mayor of Middleburg, South Africa, so that seems pretty noteworthy. But outside of that, if you were born on October 6th, 1994, you are 29 years and seven months old, and that makes me feel just about 10 years older than you. So October 6th, 1994, boys to men were still rocking the number one spot on the music charts with their hit, I'll Make Love to You, and if you were listening to me last episode, we all know how much I loved that song. But coming in at a close number two was Sheryl Crow with All I Want to Do, which is also one of my all-time favorite songs. I love that song so much, and Sheryl Crow in general. So number three on the charts was Luther Vandross with Endless Love. Number four was Babyface, When Can I See You? And number five was John Mellencamp's Wild Night. Now I just want to clarify that this information was just obviously like melding all genres of music together and just sort of like divvying out at that point who was the number one to number five at that time. So the most popular movie on October 6th, 1994, was a fucking classic. It was the movie Little Giants. I loved this movie when I was a kid so fucking much, and if you don't remember or you've never seen this movie, essentially it's that quintessential underdog little kids football team story. And this is just a little description that I picked up about the movie. So it says, ever since childhood, nerdy Danny O'Shea, Rick Moranis, if anybody remembers Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, has felt inferior to his brother Kevin, played by Ed O'Neill, a former college football star. Danny runs a gas station while Kevin coaches the local youth football team. When Kevin's team rejects Danny's daughter, Becky, because she's a girl, Becky convinces her dad to start a rival team, though the city can support only one team. To prove himself against his brother, Danny begins coaching his team of misfits for a playoff game. Like, oh my god, no notes dude. I remember watching this movie as a kid and just knowing there was something so badass about a girl going in there and basically starting a football team because a bunch of jack-off jocks didn't want her to play. I mean, like, even though I think these kids were like 10 years old or something, and it probably wasn't their fault at all, but anyway, you know, fuck the patriarchy, let the girls play football, and I loved this movie so much. I actually wonder if it still holds up, so I think that that's what I'm going to do after this episode is I'm going to go back and watch Little Giants, and I will let you guys know if it still holds up, which I really hope it does. So there's just a little bit of information about what was going on 29 years and 7 months ago. Kill me now. Okay, okay, so back to our episode overview. In this episode, we see Chandler pick up his old smoking addiction, a habit that the rest of the group finds hard to get him to break. Only Alan, the new boyfriend of Monica, can can convince Chandler to drop the habit. The gang falls in love with Alan, but Monica does not see a future with him, and the two break up, much to the disappointment of the friends. Meanwhile, Phoebe struggles to get rid of all the free money she is receiving, including $7,000 from a soda company when she finds a severed thumb in her drink, and there is there is a little bit more of that description, but I want to save it because I don't I don't want to I don't want to I want to bury the lead in this in this regard, so we'll save it till the end. Okay, so our cold open for this episode begins with a shot of Phoebe walking into Central Perk. Everyone else is already in the coffee shop. Rachel's working, and the rest of the friends are seated on or around our lovely, iconic Central Perk couch. Phoebe says hi to everyone as she walks over to the counter where Rachel is standing. Ross asks her, hey, oh, how did it go? And she replies, um, not so good. He walked me to the subway and said, we should do this again. Everyone but Rachel understands what that means and begins to commiserate with her. But Rachel seems baffled by their responses and says, what? He said we should do this again. That's good, right? And Monica lets her know that actually, no, we should do this again. Loosely translated means you will never see me naked. Rachel still seems like she doesn't believe her, which would probably make sense because it doesn't seem like she is actually dated that many men up till this point. I mean, we don't get the whole backstory. I mean, we get a little bit of backstory as the show progresses between Monica and Rachel and their relationship in high school. But outside of that, we don't really know like what happens between the two of them as far as like, did they, did their friendship fizzle out after high school? Or did they remain close through college? Or like what happened? So we don't really get to see Rachel's dating history once they separate, you know, as far as their friendship goes from high school. But it would make more sense to me that Rachel didn't really date a lot of men or didn't have a lot of like dating experience because she's recently out of a marriage. And it seemed like she had been with Barry for a fair amount of time before she bailed on on her wedding day. So I don't know, I would be really interested to hear your your guys's perspective on that as well. So the friends are going around basically explaining to Rachel that there's a quote unquote, dating language that society uses to soften the blow of a breakup or a letdown after a date. Joey starts by explaining the phrase, it's not you means it is you. And I mean, full disclosure, like I've definitely used that phrase before, not necessarily just like the it's not you but like, oh, it really isn't you. Like I'm just going through things. I just need to focus on myself when really it's like, I never want to see you again, lovely, kind person. So Chandler chimes in with or you're such a nice guy means I'm going to be dating leather wearing alcoholics and complaining about them to you. So here we go again with his little Chandler intonations. And then Phoebe adds, or you know, I think we should see other people means ha ha, I already am. And I'm sure you guys can relate like this. This is so fucking true. If you are dating someone, and I mean, in the sitcom world, things tend to happen very quickly like a date or two days with somebody is like we're already discussing relationship status. But in our reality, it's like when you've actually gone on a handful of dates with someone and you've established that you are seeing each other exclusively, and then they bring it back around and say, I think we should see other people. In my experience, that means they've already there or maybe there was never even an exclusivity. And it's just like, Oh, yeah, I see you want this to be something that I wasn't willing or ready to, like, give you. So let's just see other people. And that'll be my easy out to be like, you're not the one for me right now. So yeah, and it is that whole thing about softening the blow. Like we don't want to just come out and be like, Hey, listen, I'm not really that into you. And give all of these other like, reasons or explanations or excuses of why we shouldn't continue. But me just being me and who I am and my personality, I would much rather have somebody be like, Hey, listen, you're a great person. You're just not the right match for me. Instead of trying to like sugarcoat it with all of these lines that everybody is being told and you're like, can you just own up and be honest? But anyway, that's, that's just me. So Rachel is so shocked by this, that she asks if this is something that everybody knows. And Joey says exactly what I mentioned before that saying this like, quote unquote, bullshit, all these bullshit little lines is just to cushion the blow and hopefully not hurt the other person's feelings. And then Chandler draws the parallel to your parents telling you that they sent the family dog off to live on a farm, instead of telling you the truth that they actually had to put your dog to sleep. And I guess I can understand this if the child is like super young. But otherwise, I'm not really sure I understand why parents would lie to their kids about that. Now, obviously, I don't have children. And that's definitely just me. But also kids are pretty fucking smart, dude. Like, I'm sure they would know if something didn't seem right about their dog just magically disappearing to a farm where they can never go see them again. Anyway, so immediately after Chandler mentioned the parents sending the dog to a farm scenario, Ross has his own little come to Jesus moment, where he's explaining to the group. Oh, yeah, like our parents, Monica and his parents actually did send their dog off to live on a farm. And Monica says, Ross and gives him this like kind of knowing look, but he's just not ready to accept that truth yet. So he goes off on a tangent about how they sent his dog to the Milner's farm in Connecticut and the farm had horses and rabbits he could chase. And everyone is just looking at him waiting for him to catch up to his own truth. And once he finally gets there, it hits him so hard. And he just says, Oh, my God. And then we fade out to the theme song. So you guys know how that goes. So when we fade back in, we are panning up the side of a New York City apartment building and we open for the very first time in the show in Chandler and Joey's apartment. The boys are rehearsing lines obviously for something Joey is is trying to audition for and the dialogue leads us to believe that it is a man on death row about to be executed. That would be Joey's character and the warden is Chandler's character. So in the lines there's a scene where the man on death row says that he just wants to be back in his cell because in his cell he can smoke and the warden aka Chandler says smoke away. It is so clear in this scene that little baby Joey has probably never smoked a cigarette in his life, which is honestly a little hard to believe with the whole like bad boy image they're always infusing through his storyline. But when Chandler tells him to quote unquote, smoke away, he picks up the lighter and literally flicks it out of his hand and across the room. The first time he tries to light the cigarette and this is fucking hysterical. I don't know how Matt LeBlanc did this but it looks so funny and realistic. I just watched this episode yesterday and I laughed my ass off as soon as I saw him try to light that lighter and it just flew across the room. So he finally gets the cigarette lit and you can tell that he is not into it at all. On his first puff he coughs and the cigarette literally does look just like a prop sitting in between his fingers but it's in this moment that we find out our sweet little baby Chandler is a seasoned smoker. He begins giving Joey smoker's tips, tells him to relax his hand, let your wrist go, not so much as Joey almost drops the lit cigarette and then tells him to take a puff, which Joey does but his face is so disgusted with the taste of the cigarette that Chandler just tells him okay just give it to me and Joey refuses at first saying that he is not going to give a cigarette to Chandler but he assures him it's fine and asks him do you want to get the part or not. So Joe hands over the smoke and Chandler says now don't think of it as a cigarette, think of it as something that has been missing from your hand. When you're holding it you feel right, you feel complete and Joey asks you miss it to which Chandler quips nah not so much. Like he was literally just going off about how much he's missed a cigarette in his hands but no he doesn't miss it, it's fine. Chandler takes his first puff of a cigarette in who knows how long, hint we find out, we will get there and I will tell you and says oh my god as if he's just been brought back to life and can confirm this is the absolute truth. As someone who used to smoke cigarettes I have firsthand experience when it comes to that feeling of the first puff of a cigarette when you haven't had one in x amount of days, weeks, months, years. So I can can confirm that his response to that was absolutely valid. So we crossfade from the boys in the apartment to Monica, Ross, Joey and Chandler in the coffee house and Monica is telling everyone that she has heard that they quote unquote say it's the same as the distance from the tip of a guy's thumb to the tip of his index finger and of course all three guys look down at their own hands and we can only be left to assume they're talking about dick size. Now this would be an interesting theory to try and prove though I have definitely dated men with big hands or big feet and that theory didn't really track like sorry not sorry. So I personally I don't buy it but I would be interested to find out if that was actually true. So Rachel comes over and tells the four friends don't tell me as she's trying to remember who ordered what drink. She gives Joey the decaf cappuccino, coffee black to Ross, the latte goes to Chandler and Monica gets the iced tea. She seems so happy with herself and says I'm getting pretty good at this with everyone encouraging her but as soon as she turns to walk away they all swap their drink with the owner of the actual order and the real order went Joey with the latte, Ross had the iced tea, Chandler had the coffee black and Monica had the decaf cappuccino. So my girl got it all wrong. So as they're sitting on the couch Phoebe walks in talking to herself but she's mumbling so softly that no one can understand what in the world she is saying. Joey asks her if she's okay but she lets everyone know that she isn't because her bank sent her a quote-unquote statement and in this statement there is an extra $500 in her account to which Chandler replies oh Satan's minions at work again and his sarcastic humor is everything I need in this life. My humor is so similar to his like just sarcastic and dark and often self-deprecating that I just feel so seen by Chandler like we all have our senses of humor and how we how we find things funny but I just I feel so seen by him. So Phoebe is genuinely upset though because now that now that she's gotten this extra money in her account she has to go down to her bank and deal with them over the random money that showed up in her account and Joey tells her she should just keep it which I kind of agree with though I also I really do understand where she's coming from not that I necessarily believe in the whole like quote-unquote karma thing in the way that she's about to explain to us but I would just be worried that if I spent that money the bank would realize their mistake at some point and come knocking on my door wanting that money back which would fuck me over so bad because if I get $500 put into my account that wasn't supposed to be there and then I go and spend it like if she's gone she gone and she isn't ever coming back which means that I would be responsible for coming up with an extra $500 to pay them back so I get it um but Phoebe then goes into the explanation that if she kept it it would be like stealing to which Rachel replies yeah but if you spent it it would be like shopping and I'm over here like exactly exactly just take that money and run girl but Phoebe explains that if she were to spend the money she wouldn't even be able to enjoy it because she would feel like she had a giant karmic debt so I mean here we see like my little sweetheart Phoebe I understand girl but if this big bank gave you an extra $500 don't you feel like maybe karma is trying to give you a gift so prior to the beginning of Phoebe explaining herself we had seen Chandler sitting right next to her but at the end of this karmic debt sentence all we see is his ass leaning over the back of the couch and Monica says Chandler what are you doing and it's at this point we realize he has been smoking in the coffee house and trying to hide it behind the couch everyone including Rachel who is back over by the friends starts freaking out and we learned that yes in fact Chandler used to smoke but up until his little audition rehearsal with Joey it had been three years since the last time he had a cigarette three years I mean I get that that's a long time so the friends start to pester him about how hard it was the last time he quit to which he replies this time I won't quit which I'm like okay you know get your commitments my love get your convictions so they continue to hound him to put it out put it out and so he begrudgingly complies by dropping the cigarette right into the coffee that Phoebe just got she's like oh no I can't drink this like Monica tells everyone that she is going to go leave to change because she has a date Rachel asks if it's with Ellen again how is it going and she says it's going pretty good and they're having fun but everyone else really just wants to know when they get to meet him Monica says let's see today is Monday never and then they start to bug her about letting them meet him and she clarifies not after what happened with Steve it would appear that Steve had a lisp of some sort because Chandler then tells her what are you talking about we love Steve Steve was sexy and everyone fucking dies myself included now I do apologize because I know that that's not necessarily the best thing to laugh about but in this exact moment it is just so funny and Monica clarifies that she doesn't even know how she feels yet she asks them to let her figure that out first then Rachel asks if they can meet him after that and she says no sorry when we fade back in we see Monica in the kitchen with another chef and she is our first of far too few African-American actors and this was Jennifer Lewis who played the guest role but she was a pretty mega level actress in her own right so I just picked this up really quickly from Wikipedia Jennifer Jeanette Lewis born January 25th 1957 began her career appearing in Broadway musicals and worked as a backup singer for Bette Midler before appearing in the films Beaches and Sister and Lewis is unofficially known as the mother of black Hollywood which is also the name of her memoir and this is due to the many and frequent matriarchal film and television roles that she's played so I mean look up her catalog of movies and shows it is really really impressive so back to the show Monica is lamenting to her co-chef about the friends and their innate need to meet whomever she's dating at the time and I actually had a friend like that an ex-friend but that's just an aside whenever I would introduce her to someone I was dating seeing or even just on a date with she would immediately go and friend this person on Facebook and I have no idea how many people that have been in and out of my life or on and off of my social medias that are literally still floating around on her Facebook friend list like to this day so you know sometimes like it's okay it's okay to to maintain some boundaries but Monica is describing her friends as coyotes picking off weak members of the herd and her co-worker says the funniest fucking line that I'm sure we can all relate to she says well listen as someone who's seen more than her share of bad beef that is not such a terrible thing and she goes on to explain that it seems like Monica's friends are really just looking out for her and Monica divulges that she wishes she would just meet someone her friends actually liked and her co-worker challenges that by saying the odds of that happening are a little slimmer if they never get to meet the guy like totally fair point so we're back in Monica and Rachel's apartment where Ross seems to still be so torn up about the fact that he realized his parents lied to him about his childhood dog and Chi Chi is actually dead not off at some exotic pet retreat slash farm and we now find out that Monica has apparently decided to let her friends finally meet Ellen and he is on his way over just a little side note Chandler is standing outside smoking yet again and it starts to rain and none of the friends will let him in as long as he has his quote unquote filter tip little buddy with him so he decides to put the grill cover over his head like an umbrella and this little split second in the scene had me laughing so hard I've seen this episode dozens of times and it wasn't until watching it for this show that I ever actually saw this part of the scene so I just gotta I really just gotta like commend friends for their little tiny easter eggs of things where like even if you've been watching the show for years and years you may on an off chance just catch something some little comedic moment that you've never seen before so poor Phoebe walks into the apartment and she is clearly upset they say hi and she sits down and reads a letter to them from her bank in which they're apologizing for the error of the $500 and would like to make it up to her by crediting her account with another $500 and they sent her a football phone as a free gift guys this phone is fucking hilarious again we are living in another time with this because landlines were a thing in fact they were for most people the only thing available and to all you listeners out there who never grew up with a landline you missed out yep that's right you missed out on having to sit in one spot while you were talking on the phone you missed missed phone calls and voice messages on a machine and busy signals and call waiting and caller id like what a time what a fucking time oh yeah wow okay so we hear the buzzer and alan is on his way up to meet monica and apparently everyone the exact same way that paul the wine guy did in episode one and if you guys remember i told you that we would be seeing this meet the friends event happening so many more times so joey calls out to chandler who's still on the patio in the pouring rain telling him that alan's here so he pops back inside and honestly i i don't know there's just something about the way matthew perry looks in this scene he just looks so good there are times throughout the entire season where each character looks for whatever reasons so attractive to me and this is chandler slash matthew perry's moment in this episode monica is begging everyone to be good and remember how much they like her alan comes in and she introduces him to everyone and he breaks the ice by saying he's heard so much about you guys and everyone just dies laughing so the scene fades out and we're back with monica coming back from her date walking into the apartment alone and she is expecting everyone to start bashing alan but as we quickly find out they are all absolutely in love with him ross says i think alan will become the yardstick against which all future boyfriends will be measured and everyone keeps on gushing about what they thought of alan and as the scene fades out they're all lost in their own thoughts about him and monica is just looking around the room like what the fuck is going on here so the scene fades out and when we come back in monica is sitting at the counter in central perk rachel ross chandler and joey all walk in with softball gear gloves bats balls and they all look super bummed so monica asked them how was the game and ross says well then they all jump up screaming we won we won and monica says that's fantastic i have one question how is that possible and we find out it is all because of you guessed it alan they go on to explain how he is playing basically every position and resembled the bugs bunny character cartoon where he did just that playing every little like position just all on his own and monica is happy that they're happy of course that they won but she asks everyone if they ever think that alan is a little too alan and they all adamantly disagree and say that's why they like him so much and monica has that exact same face from the previous scene so we can see exactly what's going on here there is a huge complication when your friends like the guy you are dating more than you do like been there done that got the receipt not really not good so the next scene is phoebe in the city walking across the street as we find out she has a friendship with an unhoused woman in new york city she walks up to her and says hey lizzie to which lizzie replies hey weird girl which kills me i mean yeah it's so cute though because phoebe brought her soup alphabet soup to be specific and lizzie asks her if she picked out all the vowels which leads me to believe that phoebe has brought her soup before and i guess lizzie just isn't a big fan of the vowels which is fine you know that's like you like what you like but baby tells her yeah she she did she picked out the vowels and this is also again just showing how sweet phoebe is because it seems like she must have brought her seat before and she knows that she doesn't like the vowels so she just picked them out previously so phoebe then tells lizzie that she brought her something else and lizzie asks if it's saltines which i'm like that's a really great great question if you've got soup you want some crackers but phoebe says no and asks her if she would like a thousand dollars and a football phone so phoebe hands her an envelope and then lizzie starts freaking out a little bit because she realizes that phoebe is actually giving her real money so she wants to give phoebe back something in in you know like in response to her giving her the money so she tries to give phoebe her tinfoil hat but phoebe tells her no you need that so they settle on lizzie buying phoebe a soda with some of her newly acquired monies so they head off towards the food truck with the sodas and we fade out when we come back we're in chandler's office and we see him for the first time in his cubicle at work he is of course smoking while he's working and every time he takes a puff off of the cigarette he sprays what i can only assume is air freshener or computer cleaner or something like that into a mini fan and sprays breath freshener into his mouth and of course the second time we see him do this he swaps the air freshener and the breath freshener and we can all imagine how horrible that tasted based on his face and honestly even without a single word in this mini scene the comedy i mean it still it still hits it still hits so good so we flash cut and we're back with phoebe and lizzie now that they're you know even with a thousand dollars for a soda can and lizzie leaves the scene and then here we're watching phoebe open her soda right before she takes a sip she looks inside the can and goes huh and we flash cut back to central perk and ross yells out a thumb and phoebe is standing there with her can of soda she tells everyone she just opened the can and there it was floating in there like a tiny little hitchhiker she asks anyone if they want to see and they're all freaked out saying no chandler goes to light up another smoke and everyone groans and rachel tells him that's worse than the thumb and here we see chandler start to lose his shit a little bit and i mean with a pretty valid point he says we've all got flaws big deal then he goes around pointing out flaws in the other friends so we've got joey who always cracks his knuckles and ross with his over pronouncing every single word and monica with that snort when she laughs and we look over and we see monica snorting as she's laughing and literally we never hear this ever again outside this sequence so i guess monica doesn't really snort when she laughs but she just had to for this moment and that's totally fine so there's a bunch of back and forth here where they're just they're asking each other about the flaws that chandler pointed out like oh does this really bother you is it really that big of a deal and they all start arguing amongst themselves and here we see chandler with his lit cigarette and the smuggest little smile on his face stand up and walk away and i tip my hat to you sir like if you cause chaos amongst and between the people who are starting shit with you their focus will be taken off of you and you can just continue living your life so scene fades out we fade back in and we are in the kitchen again with monica and her co-chef talking about how much her friends just love alan her co-worker seems happy for monica saying are we talking about the coyotes all right a cow got through but monica tells her she doesn't feel the thing her friends feel the thing obviously all of our friends feel the thing about alan but she doesn't and her co-worker gives her some really sage advice here which every person out there should be telling their friends in similar situations she says honey you should always feel the thing if that's how you feel about the guy and you don't feel the thing dump him and monica ends up revealing that she's not even really worried about about how he will take the breakup she's actually more worried about how the friends are going to react if she dumps him so we end that scene and we're back in central perth with joey and ross asking a still smoking chandler if he knows what he's doing to himself he tells them he knows and he's had it with them and their cancer and emphysema and their heart disease he says the bottom line is smoking is cool and you know it like maybe maybe this is the reason i wasn't allowed to watch friends when it first came out because honestly if chandler told little 10 year old me that smoking was cool i may have just believed him so rachel is behind the counter at the coffee shop and she calls over to chandler that alan is on the phone and he wants to speak to him chandler goes over and begins having a conversation with alan and it's clear that it is about his smoking and within literally 30 seconds he has convinced chandler to quit chandler puts out his cigarette and walks off with a smile on that precious little face and the scene ends with rachel saying to ross god he's good to which he replies if only he were a woman then rachel thoroughly agrees with the yeah then they look at each other and she seems embarrassed by her confession to which i'm like rach what did you mean there like what did she mean that that if only he was a woman and that is the end of the scene so we pick pick back up in the girl's apartment ross chandler phoebe and rachel are all watching lamb chops play along i don't want to get too much into it but this show has the absolute worst song ever written this is the okay if you know you know hashtag trauma bond so we find out here that chandler is going through a nicotine withdrawal and it's making him a bit um how how do i say a bit bitchy so monica walks in and asks the friends where joey is chandler looks up at her and says joey ate my last stick of gum so i killed him and like you can tell if you've ever been without a cigarette when you really want one like you know exactly what he's going through here so rachel looks at her and tells her he's across the hall and she leaves ross puts a new nicotine patch on chandler's arm and he replies in perfect chandler form oh i'm alive with pleasure now like i yeah so we find out a few seconds later that the stupid soda people gave phoebe seven thousand dollars for the thumb in her soda which in today's money would be fourteen thousand eight hundred and nine dollars and 96 cents which is fucking wild i guess they did that so like she wouldn't like press a lawsuit or like continue with a lawsuit but like that is so crazy so she then says that on her way over to the girl's apartment she stepped in gum what is up with the universe which like i mean i get i ask that question on the daily though no one is trying to give me almost fifteen thousand dollars because i assure you i would step in all the gum for that for that kind of money so at this point monica walks back into the apartment with joey and tells everyone they have to talk she tells them that she is going to break up with alan and they all go through the entire conversation acting as if they are the ones who have been broken up with they're asking if something's wrong with them if it's over just like that which is so hilarious ross says he just wants things to be back to the way they were and monica is trying to soothe them by saying she'll meet someone else there will be other alans and they all react like she's just told them the biggest untruth and like how dare you no one will ever be alan what alan was to us so she asks them if they're going to be okay ross tells her they'll be fine they're just going to need a little time she says she understands and then turns to walk away with that same face we saw the first time and the second time they were all telling her just how much they loved fucking alan so we crossfade into a new scene with monica sitting with alan they're both apologizing for the end of the relationship saying you know i'm sorry i wish this would have worked out and he tells her that he is a little relieved because he had a great time with her but he just can't stand her friends and roll the end credits so our tag scene opens with the five friends minus monica sitting in the girl's apartment eating ice cream talking about their memories of alan monica walks in and they ask how it went phoebe asks if they mentioned them if he mentioned them and monica says that alan said he's really gonna miss you guys they all smile and look so relieved and monica makes another are you fucking kidding me face and walks over to the couch chandler looks antsy and says that's it i'm getting cigarettes everyone starts protesting he says that's it game over i'm weak i've gotta have to smoke and as he's walking out the door phoebe shouts if you never smoke again i'll give you seven thousand dollars we see chandler disappear out the door and a split second later he comes back in and says yeah all right and that my friends is season one episode three of friends so this episode was much more lighthearted than last week's but i actually love it it's like a little palette cleanser so our friendly episode for this week's show is just acceptance i mean we are all different we have different opinions different priorities different fears different coping mechanisms but at the end of the day we are all just a work in progress when the friends kept needling and needling chandler about him picking up smoking again i completely understand where they were coming from because they didn't want him to continue to have such an unhealthy and detrimental habit but they didn't ostracize him or push him out of the friend group because of that habit they simply put up boundaries around it like having him like have to be out on the patio if he wanted to smoke and not smoking inside the girl's apartment and i also really love that phoebe decided to use her own money not earned money but definitely owed money to bribe her friend to give up his unhealthy habit i think that there is a fine line that has to be walked very lightly when it comes to accepting each other's flaws while also still gently nudging each other towards moving forward and just trying to become the best version of ourselves and one of the hardest things to accept is the fact that just because we love someone or see the potential they have doesn't mean that we have the right to assume that they're going to change in the way or ways that we might think are best even when it comes to harmful behaviors like smoking or the endless list of other things that we can do that aren't necessarily beneficial i mean i believe on most levels it is still possible to love and accept each other without loving or accepting the negative traits or habits compassion care and gentle concern as far as i'm concerned will always cultivate more positive change than hatred bitterness and harsh judgment and it's an endless goal that we can all work towards by just trying to spread a little more love and a little more acceptance and a little more happiness to everyone we encounter so i just want to thank you guys so much for joining me for season one episode three of friends i love you guys so so much and i am continuously grateful for this space that i get to share with all of you i can't wait to meet you back here next week and don't forget i'll be there for you because you're there for me too bye guys love you have a great week wine and friends is an independent podcast written and produced by me katie roe if you enjoyed this show please like rate subscribe and review on spotify or apple podcasts and follow the show on instagram at wine and friends pod and on facebook at wine and friends if you would like to reach out to me please feel free to email me at wine and friends pod at gmail.com cheers friends