Wine and Friends Season 1, Episode 2

The host of the podcast Wine and Friends apologizes for giving the wrong Facebook page in the previous episode and announces some format changes based on listener feedback. The podcast pairs different wines with episodes of the TV show Friends. Listeners can recommend wines and specific episodes on the show's Instagram or Facebook page. The host introduces the wine for this episode, a 2020 Behringer Brothers bourbon barrel aged red wine blend, and provides some background information about the vineyard. The blend is primarily made from Petit Sirah grapes, known for producing dark, acidic wines with flavors of blue fruit. The host explains the process of vinification and the aging process of the wine in bourbon barrels, which adds vanilla and caramel notes. The host then opens the bottle and describes the wine as dark and inky. She gives a brief overview of the episode of Friends being discussed, highlighting the storylines involving Ross's ex-wife's pregnancy, Rachel's meeting with her Hello, all you lovely lovelies! Welcome to Episode 2 of Wine and Friends. Let me tell you guys, we are going to have some fun today. Before we get into the episode, I wanted to do a little bit of housekeeping. In the first episode, I mentioned the social medias for this show, and I gave the wrong Facebook page. So, the show's Instagram page is WineAndFriendsPod, and the Facebook page is just WineAndFriends. I am super sorry about that, but I am nothing if not human, and I'm sure that's not the last mistake I will make. So, again, I apologize for that. You'll also notice a little bit of a format change in this week's episode. I heard a lot of great feedback from some of you guys, and I wanted to implement a few changes that will hopefully make the show better. So, now that that is out of the way, as I said last week, this podcast is called WineAndFriends because I am pairing a new or different wine with each episode of the show Friends. If you guys have any recommendations of a wine you would like to see paired with an episode of the show, head on over to the Instagram or Facebook page 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 for that episode and also give you a shoutout on the show. So, let's get to the wine. Another one of the changes that I'm making to the show is a highlighted friendly lesson. See what I did there? Or a theme for the episode. So, this week's theme couldn't come at a better time because it's Mother's Day. So, our theme for season one, episode two, is mothers and honestly really just family dynamics in general. The wine I'm pairing with today's episode is the 2020 Behringer Brothers bourbon barrel aged red wine blend. I don't think I've actually ever had a wine that's been aged in a bourbon barrel, so this is another newbie for me. We've got two for two so far. So, I was doing a little bit of research on this particular vineyard on their website which is just Behringer.com and I was pretty surprised by just how long they've actually been around. Jacob Behringer moved to America from Germany in 1868 and he made his first stop in New York, but after hearing that the rocky hillside soil and fertile valley floor of Napa Valley resembled that of the vineyards back home in Germany, Jacob made his way to California in 1869. He started as a cellar foreman for Charles Krug who was one of the first commercial winemakers in Napa Valley and by 1875 Jacob and his brother Frederick purchased 215 acres right next door to Charles for $14,500. I know, holy shit, 215 acres for less than 15 grand. Like, sign me, sign me the fuck up. So, this parcel of land known as Los Hermanos, aka the Brothers, became the heart of the Behringer estate. Over the years, this winery has assembled a wide range of noteworthy accolades along with being the number one wine of the year for the 1986 Cabernet and then six years later Wine Spectator named the 1994 Chardonnay number one wine of the year, which is pretty awesome since we are currently existing back in 1994 with the beginning of Friends. So, I just thought that was pretty cool. So, like I said, this bottle is a red blend which is a wine made from two or more different grape varieties. The flavor profile of a red blend depends on the grapes used and the vinification techniques used to make it. Sorry, that was my phone. Let me just turn that off. So, just to clarify, vinification is the conversion of grape juice extract into wine by fermentation. So, just so we know going forward, if I ever use the term vinification, that basically just means turning grape juice into wine. Like my man Jesus, like he did that, you know, with the words coming out of his lips. So, the Behringer Brothers red blend is 41% Petit Sirah, 21% Sirah, 18% Petit Verdot, 9% Cabernet Sauvignon, 9% Merlot, and 2% Other. Like I guess we don't know what that other is or it's just not important enough to like list. But as you can see, I mean there are one, two, three, four, five, six different types of red grapes that are in this particular blend. So, since the largest percentage is made from the Petit Sirah variety, I just wanted to give you guys a little info on that type of grape. All this info was pulled straight from Wikipedia, which is literally becoming like my best friend for the show. Petit Sirah grapes are also known as Durif grapes, D-U-R-I-F, as in fantastic. This variety of red wine grape is primarily grown in Australia, California, France, and Israel. Petit Sirah produces dark inky colored wines that are relatively acidic with firm texture and mouthfeel. So, we will get to that, the whole mouthfeel thing in a couple of minutes. There's just something about that term. Anyway, the aroma has herbal and black pepper overtones and typically offers flavors of blue fruit, black fruit, plums, and especially blueberries. The wines are very tannic with aging ability that can exceed 20 years in the bottle. Petit Sirah can sometimes be rather quote-unquote short, and what that means is that the flavor of the wine doesn't linger in your mouth, hence the benefit of blending with another grape or grapes. So, it's like a pretty short stop after you just take a sip of like only Petit Sirah, you wouldn't have like a lasting flavor if it was just Petit Sirah. So, um, yeah. I know that this all sounds so fucking confusing sometimes, but basically it just means that this particular grape is a little on the bitter side when you sip the wine and it leaves your mouth feeling more dry than like saturated, um, like it would if you had a sweeter wine. So, the fate, nope, hold on guys, the flavor profile nailed it. It's gonna be a little fruity but not overly sweet like like a peach or pear type flavoring wine, but more of a subtle soft sweetness like a blueberry. So, it is actually pretty dope that you can age this grape for 20 plus years and I'd actually be really interested to see what the difference would be in the flavor or taste from a more recent vintage and a vintage that had been aged for that long, but lord knows I don't have the patience to wait 20, 20 years for some wine. So, um, Beringer Brothers Red Blend is picked at the peak of flavor development for the grapes from top sites across California and fermented in temperature controlled stainless steel tanks and then 20 percent of the wine is aged for 60 days in second pass charred American oak barriques, which is the term for a smaller barrel, which is previously held bourbon. So, it's these barriques that add rich vanilla and caramel notes that wouldn't otherwise be present and I fucking love bourbon and clearly also wine, so I am super excited to try this. Okay, so I'm going to go ahead and grab the wine and it is a cork, so it's a popper, so I'm going to go ahead and pop the wine. All right, here we go. All right, so I am going to try not to kill myself or spill it all over my laptop. Here we go. Oh, boy. Oh, wow. Sorry, that was probably so loud. Anyway, cheers, guys. So, I definitely see what they were talking about with the, like, dark inky color. I mean, this looks beautiful. Let me try it. Oh, yeah, that's really good. All right, well, cheers, friends, and let's get into the show. Let's get into the show. So, I pulled the episode description straight from Wikipedia again, which is my bestie, as we can see. So, Friends Season 1, Episode 2. The one with the sonogram at the end is the second episode of the first season of the NBC television series, Frets. It was first broadcast on September 29, 1994. Okay, so here comes the second change to the podcast format. As I said, the first change is I wanted to, you know, have, like, a friendly lesson or a theme of each episode, and this is the second edition that I'm putting into the podcast. So, since 1994 feels like it was a lifetime ago, yet it also feels like it was literally just last week, I thought it would be really cool to go back in time and find out what was going down on or around the time that each of our episodes aired. So, September 29, 1994 was a pretty wild time. The first phase of jury selection had just ended for the O.J. Simpson murder trial in which they chose 304 people. The Grammy award-winning vocal group the Pointer Sisters received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, which is so cute because that also ties into the family theme, like the Pointer Sisters. The Pointer Sisters, if you don't know, which I actually didn't even, which is fairly embarrassing, their most famous song is, I'm So Excited. And then speaking of music, Boyz II Men's song, I'll Make Love to You, was the number one song in America on September 29, 1994. I love that song, and the boys are from Philly, which is even better since I'm born and raised just outside the city. So, the day after the show aired, September 30, the space shuttle STS-68, or Endeavor 7, launched into orbit. So that's pretty fucking cool. Now, hardy har, let's fucking launch into this episode. You guys, that was so dumb. Okay, in this episode, Ross processes his ex-wife Carol's pregnancy and supports her as she goes through her first sonogram, though he clashes with Susan over the name of the baby. Rachel struggles to balance her emotions as she meets with her ex-fiance, Barry, and Monica becomes increasingly irate with her parents, eventually spilling the details of Ross's failed relationship that he failed to mention to them. So, I just have one tiny clarification in this description, this Wikipedia description. Since I've watched this episode as recently as less than 24 hours ago, Monica doesn't actually spill the details of Ross's failed relationship and impending fatherhood. But, we will get to it. You'll see, you'll see what I'm talking about. It's not, just keep in mind that it's not actually Monica who, like, rats out her brother. So, we open on all six of the friends in Central Perk in what is typically known as the cold open, also referred to as a teaser sequence. Now, you know my bestie Wikipedia tells us that a cold open is a narrative technique meant to entice the audience into watching the show before the theme song and the opening credits. So, in this week's cold open, again, all six of the gang are talking about the importance of kissing. Monica says that to quote-unquote us being women, kissing is as important as any part of it. She's fully supported by Phoebe and Rachel, and Joey laughs at her sarcastically saying, yeah, right, until he realizes that the women actually are serious, that kissing is that important to them. Chandler chimes in by saying that to quote-unquote us being the guys, and he's probably generalizing like all men in what he thinks he's saying, but he says to us, kissing is more of an opening act, like the stand-up comedian you sit through before Pink Floyd comes out. Then, Ross follows that by saying that it's not that we don't like the stand-up comedian, it's just that's not why they bought the ticket. And so, you can kind of like, you can kind of get the like implications of what they mean here between like the kissing and the Pink Floyd and the main act, etc, etc. So, there's some more back and forth, and it appears that the guys are irritated by the fact that women, air quotes, always seem to want the comedian to come back even after the concert is over. To which Rachel replies, yeah, well, word of advice, bring back the comedian, otherwise next time you're going to find yourself listening to that album alone. And then Rachel and Monica high-five. After a long pause, Joey wonders out loud to Ross if they're still talking about sex. And this is, this is the first time we see Joey as Joey in his character, which is this really dense, just takes him a second to get it kind of dude's dude. Ross gives him the thumbs up, and then we fade out to the opening sequence. As the theme song begins, we see the original fountain scenes from last week. And as I mentioned, this is when we start to see the clips from upcoming episodes as well. As the theme song ends, we open on a shot of the Museum of Prehistoric History, where Ross works. And he is talking with a co-worker, who happens to be a woman, in this exhibit about a cavewoman who he thinks is looking a little angry. So, they have this little back and forth, and she says, well, he's out banging other cavewomen over the head with a club while she sits at home, which was like so hilarious to me, like maybe she was projecting some of her own personal life struggles or relationship struggles on these inanimate objects in this exhibit. And Ross counters with Marcia, these are cave people, they have issues like, gee, that glacier is getting kind of close. And that humor is so specific here, but it's very much Ross. And then she says, speaking of issues, isn't that your ex-wife? And Ross, ever the conflict avoidant, says, no, no it's not. As his co-worker totally throws him under the bus by saying, yes it is, Carol, hi. And then conflict commences. So, on the other side of the glass, we see Ross's ex, played by Anita Barone. Now, if you've watched Friends with any kind of consistency, then you know that this is the only time we see this actress playing the role of Carol. And in my research, I learned that Anita Barone was previously in a comedy series called Carol and Company, which is kind of ironic given that her name is Anita and she was playing the role of a Carol. And she had also had a small role in one previous episode of Seinfeld. She also had actually auditioned for one of the main characters in Friends, but she was offered the role of Carol instead. And after appearing in this episode, she actually decided to leave the show to pursue a more full-time opportunity. So, the role of Carol was then assumed by Gene Sibbett, who played Carol till the end of the show. So, after Ross's co-worker acknowledges Carol and he can't just leave, he tells the co-worker, I'll catch up with you in the ice age. And she leaves and he motions for Carol to come back behind the glass into the exhibit. He looks clearly miffed that she is even there, which is understandable seeing how upset he was in episode one, the day that she had moved all her things out of their apartment. And here we see a little physical comedy with Ross because one of the arms falls off the caveman, which he picks up just as Carol comes into the exhibit. And he actually holds on to the arm, which adds to the whole like awkward humor of the scene because it wraps around her and him as he goes to hug her. It just looks, it looks so weird. It looks like he has this like extra long hairy arm. So, they begin to have a pretty strained conversation. He tells her she looks good and he hates that, which I mean, we can all completely relate to. There is something so fucking irritating about seeing someone that has hurt you and they still look so fabulous and unaffected or even sometimes they look better than before. So, he just, he sort of lets that go. She still confirms that she's a lesbian and then Ross asks how the family is. She begins to answer, but he interrupts her by asking why she's even there. And I mean, that is like totally a fair question. If they haven't really spoken since she moved out and he already knew that she had someone else, it would be so confusing for him that she just randomly showed up at his job. So, she looks right at him after he says, what are you doing here? And says, I'm pregnant. Pause for fucking dramatic effect. Who the fuck saw that coming? Not me. I feel like not anybody outside of like, if you read the title to this episode, you might be like, oh, okay. Like maybe, maybe we saw that coming sort of. There were some, there were some red flags. So, in this scene, Ross is so stunned that he's got his arm outstretched in the exact same way as the caveman displayed next to him. And their resemblance is literally the pun of the joke. So, we fade out and then we're back in to Monica and Rachel's apartment and we see Joey Chandler and Phoebe watching an episode of Three's Company. Chandler says he thinks this is an episode of the show where there's some kind of misunderstanding. And Phoebe says, then I've already seen this one. And she turns off the TV like two other people weren't also watching. Like, while that's happening, Monica is literally flying around her apartment, just leaning. She's got like a little spray bottle of something in her hand. She's fluffing pillows, yelling at Chandler for his trash on the coffee table. And we can clearly see that she is prepping for something. So, like something big. So, she apologizes to everyone saying she's sorry, but she just doesn't want to give them any more ammunition than they already have. And Chandler clears up the question of who they are by using his iconic Chandler inflection for the very first time. And he says, yes, we all know how cruel parents can be about the flatness of a child's pillow. And we're going to see that so much more coming up, which I'm so excited about. Yeah. So, Phoebe and Joey are worried about Monica and how quote unquote chaotic and twirly she's being over her parents. And obviously, that is Phoebe and not Joey. And Joey tells her to calm down because Ross isn't all chaotic and twirly. To which she replies that where her parents are concerned, Ross can do no wrong because he is the prince. And this is the first glimpse we get into the family dynamic between Ross, Monica, and their parents. Like we can so clearly see that Monica has this innate need to be validated by her parents. Like they're just coming over for dinner, but she's trying to make sure that everything looks perfect and she seems a hundred percent put together. And then she obviously feels that Ross hasn't had to search for that validation basically like since he's been born. So immediately after this, Chandler is looking out the window and alerts everyone that ew, ew, ew, ugly naked guy just got a sign master. And I have feelings about the character of ugly naked guy, which we will get to. But suffice to say, we never actually see him, like never see his face. But this is the first of many, dare I say, questionable peeping Tom moments that we have where the friends are spying on their neighbor. So I feel like there's been a lot of conversations about the ugly naked guy character. There was speculation for a long time that it was actually the actor who played Mr. Trigger, the super in Monica's building, who we referenced last episode, who doubled as ugly naked guy. But apparently someone at HuffPost spent an entire year tracking down the real ugly naked guy. And they discovered that it was actually a man by the name of John Haugen. He only had two on screen appearances, but I feel like he deserves a lot of credit because as we see in upcoming episodes, storylines just wouldn't be what they became without him. So cheers to you, John. And this wine is fantastic. So as they're all peering out the window, Rachel comes out of her room asking everyone if they have seen her engagement ring. Phoebe automatically replies, yeah, it's beautiful, which which lends to the earlier development of Rachel's character being a bit self-centered. And so the friends at this point have learned to sort of just like roll with it. Like, oh, if Rachel asks you this, just like give her the validation she needs. But that wasn't even really what she wanted. She's actually asking if anyone has seen it, because as we find out, she is going to see Barry for the first time the following day and she's going to be giving him back the ring. But how can you give him back the ring if you've lost it? So she starts to spiral a little bit about what she's going to do and Monica assures her that they will all help her find it. Everyone starts looking for the missing ring and Joey asks her when she had it on last. And my love, Phoebe, interrupts saying, Joey, probably right before she lost it. And Chandler, my other love, echoes my exact sentiments by saying, you don't get a lot of joy these days. I would really this is me now, not Chandler, but I would really love to know when we stopped saying joy. Like it is such a zinger. It's it's way better than just saying duh. Like somebody's like, oh, I did this and you're like, duh. But if somebody says, oh, I did this and you're like, Joey, it's like it's so it's so much better. It's so much better. Anyway, I'm going to I'm going to start bringing back joy. So Rachel starts retracing her steps and we find out that she thinks she has lost her fucking engagement ring in the lasagna that she helped Monica make for her parents visit. So Monica is looking at the bottom of the dish and they can see that they think that it's in there and she is just so torn up about it. Like she doesn't want them to defile her lovely parents lasagna, but she allows Chandler, Joey and Phoebe to start picking through the lasagna with their bare hands. So there's a knock on the door and it's Ross. Now, OK, this is a really important question for this particular moment in the episode. Why wouldn't Ross just walk in? This is completely baffling to me, seeing as how literally none of the friends ever knock, whether they live there or not. However, she opens the door and it's Ross. He gives her the same depressing high that he gave everyone in Central Perk in his character's opening scene last episode. And Monica says that is not a happy high. And Ross tells her and everyone else that Carol is pregnant right at the same moment that Phoebe finds Rachel's ring in the lasagna. So that's obviously trumped by Ross's news. So Ross comes in and starts explaining to everyone that Carol says she and Susan want him to be as involved as he wants to be or doesn't want to be. And that is totally up to him. To which Phoebe replies, oh, she is so great. I miss her. And I'm like, girl, read the room. Just read the room. But like, you know, she does miss her, which is so cute. So he tells them that Carol and Susan want him to go with them to the sonogram tomorrow. And Rachel asks him what he thinks he's going to do. And he is just, wow, he is just so open and vulnerable. And I know this is like acting and it's just a show. But like, I really value the level at which, at which, yes, he is acting in this moment, because you can clearly tell his vulnerability when he tells them that he has no idea. But no matter what he does, it doesn't matter because he's still going to be a father. And now I'm going to dive into that a little deeper. I think a lot of times it is so easy to gloss over the real elements of this show because there is so much solid comedy surrounding every single scene. But if we can just take a moment to really understand what is happening here. Ross, who is still so deeply in love with Carol, and still wants to be with her, was left by her because she had to be true to her authentic self. And she was really discovering who she really was. And then he finds out that even though she doesn't want to be with him, she is pregnant with their child and is fully planning on raising this child with her partner Carol, which like, yeah, but she still respects and in some ways loves him so much that she still wants him to be a part of the child's life. And I just think the writers were doing something so beautiful here, like something, something so beautiful. They were showing something that wasn't, if ever, really seen in a typical television sitcom slash show in this era, where a lesbian couple are having a child and the biological father is invited to be an active part of that child's life. And we're seeing the real struggle he's facing of continuing to exist in a painful dynamic, existing in this painful dynamic of a woman he still loves, who doesn't love him, and meeting slash raising his child or putting up his walls and like, self-defense, protecting his feelings at the expense of losing the ability to be a father and be in his child's life. And I'm sure it would seem to some people to be a really obvious decision. But this is a reality that not too many people have ever faced or ever will face. So I really just wanted to highlight that because again, me personally, it's not something that I ever remember seeing before in TV around this time. So everyone is being really supportive of Ross as he's explaining what he's struggling with. And as they're all sitting on the couch, you hear this loud clanking sound and the camera pans over and we see Joey going to fuck in town on Monica's quote unquote ruined finger lasagna. Okay, so I feel I really feel this because Joey is my food loving doppelganger. If I was hungry, which I always am, and my professional chef friend had just made this gorgeous lasagna for her parents, and it was tainted by a couple of my friend's fingers. I can't promise I wouldn't want to eat that shit. Like I probably would. It's okay. Don't share that with anybody. So as everyone realizes the noise is coming from Joey destroying that lasagna, he looks up guiltily and asks, this is still ruined, right? So at least he cares enough about that. We fade out to a scene of the New York City streets then fade back in to Monica's apartment at that fateful night with her parents. Ross is pouring his mom a glass of wine as Monica is serving appetizers and her mom is being just awful. She obviously knows her daughter is a chef, but she is low key passive aggressively commenting on the food Monica is serving. She's like, what is this curry taste? And Monica's like, curry. So you can see there's like clearly a dynamic here. But Ross being the sweetheart older brother that he sometimes is, is just telling his mom he thinks the food is delicious, which I think is so adorable. It's like even though they're grown-ass adults, he is still trying to put up that buffer between his mom and his sister. Okay, so we never learn this in this episode, but I'm going to spoiler alert you guys. Ross and Monica's parents are Jack and Judy. Jack is played by Elliot Gould and Judy was played by Christina Pickles, which is definitely going down as one of my all-time favorite names. If I ever get a second puppy, I'm going to name them Christina Pickles. Also, don't worry guys, we are definitely going to do a deeper, much deeper dive into Elliot and Christina, aka Jack and Judy as the season progresses. But there's just too much to cover in this particular episode to give them the accolades they both deserve. So we're still in the apartment. Monica is cooking something in the kitchen and her mother is telling her about a friend of hers who has a daughter that wants to speak to Monica because she owns a restaurant and that friend's daughter wants to quote-unquote work in food or something. And Monica reminds her mom, I don't own a restaurant, I work in one. And her mom snaps back, well they don't have to know that. So we can see here, I mean we can clearly see here this negative dynamic between Monica and her mother, where Monica is doing really well for herself and she is actually thriving, but it still seems to be just more than not good enough for her mother. She's almost embarrassed by it. Also, just a little side note, if you guys are watching the friends episode around or close to the time that you're listening to this episode, check out Monica's outfit in this scene. I am living for the whole thing. Like her, the jewelry, her white vest, sleeveless shirt is so amazing. And also, what kind of badass boss makes spaghetti, which which is what she was making, in a fucking white shirt? Monica, that's who. So at this point, Monica, who is still cooking in the kitchen, looks towards the living room and sees her mother fluffing the pillows that she just fluffed before they were, before they got there, before they arrived. And again, this is just proving to Monica that she can't do enough for her mom, even though she is doing the absolute most right now. So Monica calls Ross to the kitchen to help her with dinner, and she shows just how much she is always thinking of everyone else before herself by calling herself selfish, for asking Ross to please save her from her current hell by finally coming clean to his parents about the whole baby and lesbian thing, because she thinks it would really take some of the heat off of her. Ross gives her a silent acknowledgement that like, okay, I'll do it. And then the scene ends. So scene fades out, we come back in, and we're back in the apartment. And if you guys recognize from last episode to this episode, they're starting to invest more in each character's storyline. So we're seeing like longer segments with each character instead of like flashbacks to like, or flash cuts to like a new scene. So we're back in the apartment, and everyone is eating around the table, Sebby, Ross, and Monica and their parents. And Ross and Monica's mom is talking about how she saw Rachel's parents at the country club after Rachel's failed wedding. And she says, quote unquote, they were not playing very well, which I can only assume she was referring to tennis or golf. Like don't hate me, but the two most boring sports ever invented. My opinion means nothing. Anyway, so their dad says something so fucking hilarious. He goes, I'm not going to tell you what they spent on that wedding. But $40,000 is a lot of money. Yikes, yikes, guys. As someone who was married once before in what feels like a previous lifetime, we only spent 10 grand on our wedding, and we actually got married. Like I can't even imagine spending $40,000 on a wedding that never actually happened. I mean, fuck the wedding industry, but that's just me. You know, it's like, it's a little too much sometimes. So we're going back into the scene. And Monica's mom throws the absolute most shade ever by saying, quote, unquote, at least she had the chance to leave a man at the altar, which is like, what the actual fuck? Her, her mom said that to her? Like, so I feel so many things about this, but it's just, I can't really get into it all right now. Then we go into this little monologue by Monica's dad, where he reiterates that she's always been independent and fine with being alone, which he means as a compliment, but it's definitely framed in the vein of a low-key insult. Like, yeah, we see a shot of spaghetti on a plate being eaten as her dad continues his speech about how some people shoot for the stars like Ross, and some people are satisfied with staying where they are. And these are the people who never get cancer. Then another shot of the plate with even less spaghetti on it and the continuation of his speech where he reads about these women who want to have it all. And he thinks, God, their little harmonica doesn't seem to have that problem. And poor Monica. I mean, you can tell her dad is trying to give her like a, hey, we're proud of you still. But she literally looks like she just wishes the earth would swallow her whole. And I can get that, and we will get to it. It's at this moment that Monica leans over to Ross, who's sitting on her right, and she puts her elbow on top of his hand, which is sitting on the table. And I loosely say, asks him, what's going on with you? Do you have any news or stories or anecdotes to share with the folks? And she's clearly pressing her elbow harder and harder on his hand till he is in so much pain that he stands up and tells his parents, well, so Carol is a lesbian. She's living with a woman named Susan. She's pregnant with my child, and she and Susan are going to raise the baby. And Jack and Judy look at each other just fucking stunned. And the joke in this moment, the joke is that their mom looks over at Monica and says, and you knew about this? Somehow putting the blame on Monica yet again. Oh, poor Monica. So we end the scene with the parents in the apartment, and we're back in Central Perk. Monica and Ross are venting about their night with the parents to Joey, Phoebe, and Chandler. Monica says, you know, you can't change your parents, but if she could, and she points at Ross, she says, I wish I had yours, which is like, I get that so much. Like you, your siblings, you have the same parents. But for whatever reason, that dynamic of parent-child relationship is something you, you wish you had. Like you wish you had what your sibling has with the parents. So anyway, I thought that was like, very relatable. So Ross gets up and kisses Monica on the forehead and says, he's got to pee. He disappears down the hallway. Pause for wine sip. We find out that Phoebe is a twin, which is even worse. And she doesn't speak with her twin sister. She says that her twin sister is a high power driven career type. And Chandler asks what she does. Phoebe says, she's a waitress, which I guess like aromatherapist to waitress, like waitress may seem more high powered driven and career type. So Rachel comes over and lets everybody know that she's got to clean up, basically like get the fuck out as you're all just like hanging out here in my job. So they're all moving towards the exit. And Monica says, Chandler, you're an only child, right? So you don't even have any of this to which he replies, well, no, but I did have an imaginary friend who my parents actually preferred. Like tag yourself can relate to all of this. So Joey hits the lights as for as the four friends walk out, Rachel is cleaning up the coffee house and basically the dark and Ross comes out from the bathroom. He is looking around the coffee house, all confused and asked, how long does I in there? Like, it's, it's such simple fucking comedy. But every time I hear that line, and I see him in that moment where everybody was there, and then he came out and it's only him and Rachel, he looks so confused. I fucking die. I love it. It's so good. So Rachel says, she's just cleaning up. And Ross asks if she needs any help to which she replies, okay, sure. Thanks. She hands Ross her little broom. And as he starts sweeping, she goes over to the couch and sits down. And I love this so much. Ross thought that he was going to help her clean up. And she thought he meant by helping she was done, which is which I love so fucking much, like work smarter, not harder, right? As he's sweeping up, Ross asked Rachel if she's nervous about seeing Barry tomorrow. And she says, yeah, a little, a lot, and asked Ross if he has any advice as someone who's recently been dumped. And he tells her, well, you may want to steer clear of the word dumped. The chances are that he's going to be a broken shell of a man. So she should try not to look too terrific, but it'll be hard, which is like a really cute little compliment. And that's also such a callback to his first encounter in the very like first scene of this episode, post breakup slash move out with Carol, where he told her how great she looked and how much he hated it slash how much it hurt him to see her like that. He then says that they should basically swap places. He'll go give Barry back his ring and she can go with Carol and Susan to the OBGYN. And like, I get that so much. Sometimes you're just like, dude, if we're friends, like, let's swap places. Just do this for me, please. So we have this really sweet moment where Rachel asks, as she's sitting on that couch, when it all got so complicated, Ross says, you got me. And then she asks him, remember when we were in high school together? I mean, didn't you think you were just going to meet someone, fall in love, and that'd be it? And at this moment, we see again, this, the Ross and Rachel storyline. As she is asking him this question, she is sitting on that iconic central perc couch, and Ross is standing behind her. And he is staring at her like he's just been teleported back to high school, when maybe, hopefully, he was thinking Rachel was the one he would fall in love with. And that would be it. I mean, when you're watching, like, I'm getting a little bit emotional, even like recounting the scene, because when you're watching this scene between the two of them, and she doesn't even know he's standing behind her, looking at her like that. It is so fucking powerful. You can see all of these feelings that he has always had for her, and here they are resurfacing. So we fade out. And when we come back in, we are in the OBGYN's office, and it's the day. Carol is alone, sitting on the table, poor babe, and Ross pops in and apologizes, saying that he was late because he was stuck at work. And immediately after he walks in, Susan comes in, and she says, hi. Carol says, Ross, remember Susan? And he asks, how could I forget? Like, sad feast for Ross. I mean, it's really gotta be so hard to see your ex again, who you still love so much, and then in walks her current partner. And you have to be so strong, save face for yourself, whatever else, so you don't fall the fuck apart. But he did, he did do it. So we find out the three of them are waiting for the doctor, who is a woman, of course. And Ross asks, is she familiar with their special situation? To which Carol replies, yes, and she is super supportive, which is actually pretty fucking dope, dude. Like, pretty fucking dope. Like, with all of the polarizing and complex commentary surrounding women and their reproductive rights and decisions, for a lesbian couple to have an OBGYN, need I remind you, in 1994, who was fully supportive of their plan to raise this baby with whatever level of commitment they had from the baby's father, was just, and is just, so necessary. Like, we need more of this. Can we get more of this, like, every fucking day? Because more, we just need more. Anyway, so, as all three of them are very uncomfortably waiting in the exam room for the doctor, Ross is standing by Carol's exam table, and he puts his hand down on the tray with the medical instruments. I need a drink to get to this part. He is looking at all the things he just touched, and of course, what he picks up is the speculum. And we all know, of course, it looks like a duck's bill. So he starts making the duck noise, which is so fucking cringey for anyone who has ever been medically examined by this instrument. Yikes, you guys. Fucking yikes. As he is playing with the tool, Carol looks at him so incredulously and says, Ross, that opens my cervix. But she also looks, which I would as well, so pleased with herself that she gets to be the one to tell him that. So of course, he throws it back on the table, like it just came out of her cervix, and we cut scenes to Rachel. I mean, what the fuck? Like, what a dude thing to do. Anyway, moving on. So a door opens and Rachel walks into one of Barry's exam rooms. I don't think it was even mentioned in episode one, but Barry is an orthodontist. So she walks in as he is working on a child in a chair, in the chair in that room. Now, I don't know for sure, but I'd be willing to bet that legally, there's no way he ever would have been able to let Rachel into the exam room if he had a patient in the chair. But for the sake of TV, let's pretend it's all good, which it always is. It's all good, right? So she walks into the room and Barry says it's fine for her to be there. He asked her how she is. She says she's okay and that he looks great. And his response is, yeah, well, I mean, like, of course he thinks he looks fantastic. So he gets a call in the intercom about another patient and leaves the room. Rachel looks at the kid in the chair after Barry leaves the room and says, I dumped him. And the kid just says, okay, like, like the kid doesn't even fucking care. But Rachel cares because she needs everyone to know, hey, I dumped him. I dumped him. So now we're back in Carole's appointment. Now we're back at Carole's appointment and Ross is just touching shit he shouldn't touch. If you've seen the episode, and I hope you have seen the episode, I mean, and if you haven't, just go back and watch the episode, you know, but it is so awkward. He basically like a costs a real life replica of a fetus in the womb, like, and then it falls over and he tries to put it back up. And then he's just so awkward. And then Ross asks Carole and Susan, how is this going to work with us when important decisions have to be made? So they go back and forth about the baby's name, and they don't come to any agreement, but it looks like Carole is open to discussion where before it seemed like she and Susan had already decided. So I think this is important because it's like, oh, well, when you're with your partner, you think you know what you want to do. But if another person is involved, you need to be open and willing to hear their thoughts about whatever you think you've made as far as decisions. Guys, I'm so sorry if you can hear my dog. I've been really trying to keep her quiet. But that is really sweet because she is just trying to show that she is interested in Ross's opinion as the baby's father. So we end scene and cut back to Rachel in Barry's exam room. He comes back in and apologizes for leaving. He just asks her how she's been. She tells him she got a job. I mean, and for her, that is something worthwhile. And he just says, that's great. But he seems less than interested. She pauses as he walks across the room and asks him why he's so tan. He tells her he went on their honeymoon. She starts out super sympathetic, like about, oh, I'm so sorry you had to go on your honeymoon alone, on our honeymoon alone. Until he tells her he didn't go on the trip alone. He went with Mindy. Rachel asks, my maid of honor, Mindy? She then sees that he has had a hair transplant treatment and he's got contacts when he was previously too afraid to even touch his own eyeball. And he tells her that he's not too afraid to touch his eye for Mindy. And so now here we find out that Barry is in a relationship with Rachel's former maid of honor. Barry basically thanks Rachel for leaving him at the altar because he realized as well that they actually weren't happy. So she seems a little like what the fuck, dude? I came here to give you this ring and now I'm finding out that you're in a relationship with my former, like, best friend slash maid of honor. So she gives him the ring back and he thanks her and we end scene. So then when scene comes back in, we're back in the OBGYN appointment where Ross and Susan are arguing about names for the baby. Ross says Helen Geller, like Helen Geller, to which Carol tells Ross they weren't even considering having his last name be a part of the child's last name. So they have a lot of back and forth and Ross is clearly getting so upset that he ends up saying, of all the ways I ever imagined this moment in my life, this is not my way. He says this is too hard and as he's about to walk out, the doctor finally walks in. Ross says, I'm just going to go. I don't think I can be involved in this particular family thing right now. And as he's about to walk out the door, he hears the sound of the baby's heartbeat. Hmm. He walks back in, mesmerized, looking at the monitor and sees the sonogram of the baby. And we roll the end credits, which is so sweet and endearing. So the tag scene in this episode is a shot of the sonogram on the TV in Monica and Rachel's apartment. And we see everyone looking at the TV with Ross off to the side saying, isn't that amazing? And Chandler and Joey both look so confused as Joey asks, what are we supposed to be seeing here? Then Chandler says, I don't know, but I think it's about to attack the Enterprise, which is a shout out to Star Trek. It could be the show, like it could be the actual show, or it could be the movie, which came out in 1994, obviously, which is when the first season of Friends aired. So take your pick. Phoebe has her head tilted as she's looking at the TV screen and she says, you know, if you tilt your head to the left and relax your eyes, it kind of looks like an old potato. I fucking love Phoebe. So Ross tells her just not to do that. Then Ross runs over to the kitchen where Monica is, and he asks Monica what she thinks. And she just says, mm-hmm. And he asks her if she is welling up and she denies it. And Ross says, you're about to be an aunt. And then she starts bawling and pushes him away, telling him to shut up, as one does with an annoying older brother. So the very last shot of the scene is Rachel calling Mindy on the phone and telling her that she's totally fine with Mindy and Barry. She plays it off for a couple seconds, but then she tells Mindy that she hopes they're very happy and they do get married and they do have kids. But she hopes that the kids have his old hairline and her old nose. And then she hangs up the phone. And the friends are all looking over at her in this moment, like, what did you just say? And she says, okay, I know it was a cheap shot, but I feel so much better now. Which, like, girl, same. I can totally relate. And that, my friends, is the end of season one, episode two. And I feel like we still have so much to unpack. So, as I sip this lovely Berenger Brothers wine, let's jump right in to this new segment for the show, which is the Friendly Lesson, or the theme of the episode. Which, again, for this episode is Moms for Mother's Day, and obviously because, you know, Carol, or just family dynamics in general. This wine is still so delicious. So, I really wanted to try and break down a few of the complex family subtleties that we see in this episode. Before we get into that, though, I just want to blanket this segment by assuring you that everything I say in the next few minutes is only my opinion. And as someone who has had a very complex family history, I definitely have a very unique opinion on this particular topic. But that does not mean that it is or should be how you see things. So, little backstory for me. I was adopted when I was very young, like baby young. I grew up never really knowing either of my biological parents, but I do have some vague memories of encounters with both of my biological grandmothers. My adopted family is quite the opposite. I have a vast expanse of memories spanning most of my childhood that includes not only my adopted parents and siblings, one older sister and younger twin brothers who were all also adopted, but I have many, many, many memories of holidays, birthdays, summer parties, anything you can imagine with my extended adopted family being cousins, aunts, uncles, as well as my adopted grandparents. But as I became an adult and started to form my own identity, I separated myself both physically and emotionally from the majority of my adopted family. Now, without getting too much into the like wild drama and intricacies, as an adult, I've just established a relationship with my biological father whom I love so, so much and essentially I've gone no contact with my entire immediate adopted family. Since I've experienced quite a different reality when it comes to family, I can deeply relate to Phoebe and Chandler because as we touched on very briefly and will continue to explore as the show continues, both of these characters have very complicated and intricate pasts with their respective families. But regardless of family dynamics, I believe most of us can definitely relate to Monica with her need for validation and acceptance from her parents and specifically her mother. I mean, I can also very, very closely relate to that, like regardless of adopted mother or whatever, I was always seeking my mother's acceptance and validation. But I can also really closely relate to the role that Ross seems to play as almost a barrier between Monica and her mother. And I feel like if you were close with your siblings, like when you were young, if you happen to have siblings, and there is a dynamic similar to this, it's almost inherent for us as children to want to protect each other from this parent that we can see is so clearly hurting our sibling, whether they mean to be hurting them or not. So I just think that's a really powerful dynamic to see. And then the second relationship that I wanted to touch on is the quote-unquote X Factor. I mean, we've got Rachel and Barry and Ross and Carol, and both are so different, but I think they were handled so beautifully in this episode because we do get to see the challenges that they both face. And as I said earlier in this episode, I was married once a long, long time ago, but I was the one that left him. So I relate really, really deeply and strongly here to Rachel and her guilt over leaving Barry. And conversely, I have also been dumped. Though these relationships were never as significant as a marriage, it still stands to reason that they were as painful, maybe not as painful, but painful and took a lot of time to process and grow from. So I think it's so, so powerful that we're able to see Ross, who is so outward with his pain, yet we never really see him lose his temper. We never see him lash out at Carol or even Susan. And after finding out that he's going to be a father in this very complicated relationship, he is still willing to be in the thick of it with them, with them together, and him sort of as an outlier. But he doesn't want to miss out on what he could possibly gain by putting his own feelings aside. And so all that said, I think the main takeaway I want to leave with you guys for this episode is that family no matter how complicated or dramatic still deeply affects us. We take the things we've been told and taught as children and we carry those things with us into adulthood. Sometimes we realize these things no longer serve us. So we then have to focus on letting them go and growing past them. And sometimes we realize that the things that we have ingrained in us since childhood are the beautiful and beneficial things that make us the incredible human beings we are. So I just want to thank you guys so much for joining me for season one, episode two of Friends. I love you guys so much. And I'm getting like teary eyed over here. I am so grateful that I get to share this experience with all of you. And in closing, if you are a mother, happy Mother's Day. If you are not yet a mother or you are child free, like me, I'm still celebrating you as well. I can't wait to meet you guys back here again next week. And don't forget, I'll be there for you. Because you're there for me too. Bye guys. Love you so much. Have a great week. Wine and Friends is an independent podcast written and produced by me, Katie Rowe. 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 directly, please feel free to email me at Wineandfriendspod at gmail.com. Cheers, friends.