Maybe, maybe not.

Rachel was portrayed, for want of a better word, as a bit of a slut. So her kissing a guy (on this occasion, Chandler) one time at a party may have just been a weekly event for her. And she was drunk, so her memory would have been hazy.

I think it's not a huge stretch to think that Rachel may not have remembered Chandler in the coffee shop that day, given it was shortly after she had run out of her wedding and her brain was probably fried with that anyway.

There is nothing to suggest she then may not have filled in the blanks and remembered more about her previous interactions with Chandler once she calmed down and settled in at Monica's over the next few days. We just wouldn't have seen this on screen.

Did anyone ever get told that Monica didn't ever sleep with joey when the truth about Monica and chandler came out?

Surely Monica would have said something like "you remember Chandler" to Rachel

Sure, but there is also the potential that she momentarily forgot about the previous stuff as well. She used that exact term when introducing Ross, 'you remember Ross'. Because Monica would have expected Rachel to remember Ross as they knew each other for years, day to day. Chandler only met her a few times in very short bursts.

Let's not forget that although the events seemed important, that Chandler and Rachel only met 4 times that we saw prior to the pilot- Thanksgiving two years running, the college party and in the bar that was there before the coffee house (this I think was a year before the pilot, which we saw in the Season 3 flashback episode)

However all 4 of these were fleeting, one off meetings. Rachel and Chandler were never a part of each other's day to day lives, so as much as I still realise it probably just is lazy writing, I do feel there is some very, very vague argument that it could have happened this way.

im going wiht lazy writing not intentional plot li ne

anyway imoff to friends fest anyone else been?

I'm not saying it was intentional, I agree it's most likely to be lazy writing.

I just like playing devils advocate and try to find justifiable reasons to explain these gaffes.

I think we are meant to assume all that came out off screen

I'm surprised the other "Friends" weren't more shocked/interested in Monica being a sex addict, sleeping with Joey and staking him.
How exactly did she explain her way out of that later.
OK Ross was on medication and didn't want to know but as if Phoebe and Rachel would let that lie!

Monica cutting off Chandlers toe...
I can't even start on that one.
Silly plot.

I've never understood that plot. I don't get why Chandler is suddenly more annoyed about his toe being cut off than he was at the time, just because it is revealed it was part of an immature revenge for him calling her fat.

I'm stretching and struggling here..
I suppose he came to terms with it being a goofy accident years ago... (although why it was never mentioned along with his other thanksgiving whinges is beyond me)... But to find out its actually coz of Monica trying to hurt him (albeit emotionally) sent him back into his self loathsome whinging state.
But yes the toe is something that shouldve come up long before it did.
Maybe Ross and Chandler made one of their special pacts that he wouldn't give Monica a hard time over it.

I want to know though... They can retool Monica and Chandler but how come we never really found out why Monica and Rachel lost touch enough for Monica not to be invited to her wedding.

Big fan of the series, though I never liked how they portrayed Brits. These are some of the lowest points in the show for me. Emily's parents for example were awful. I've never known anyone here speak like that. Not a massive fan of any of the Emily episodes either, they made her being the villain too obvious, while everyone was supposed to root for home girl Rachel.

They also have that friend (Stiflers Mum actress? ) who pretends to be British and Phoebe berates her to Monica for saying "Mobile" for cell phone in the way Brits say it. Seems more to me like they're just taking the piss out of us for saying mobile and kind using her as a vehicle to do it. I notice this in quite a few US comedies. Big Bang is quite bad for it.

Good point.
i was watching the one where chandler and monica decide to live together last night and when their talking about Rachel not being upset when she is told, monica says does the last 6 years mean nothing (yes i know she's referring to living together) but they were friends for years before that.

Also in that episode Monica suggests that they have a guest room but Chandler wants a game room with asteroids etc and monica shuts that idea down. Yet when Phoebe buys them a arcade game for their wedding present Monica is so happy and excited

When Ross is playing the states game, he thanks Tag for reminding him about Ohio when he mentions that his girlfriend was there. Later on in the episode, Ross asks Tag which state he is from and Tag is from Colarado. While Tag and his girlfriend could have been from different states, it does seem a little strange that Ross would ask Tag where he is from

Something I find interesting is the way they so easily they made Monica look like she was not someone who would wait around in the Pilot. I think it was quite brave of the writers to have Monica sleep with Paul in the very first episode as a way to introduce us to the character. Looking back, it doesn't seem like a very flattering first-impression.

Of course, with the way Paul treated her, viewers would most likely were meant to take Monica's side, but how would the writers know that was the case? It was the very first episode. Monica wasn't an established character, she could have easily been called promiscuous (or other versions of the word) and not be a very popular character. I just think it was a brave move, but also a silly one which could have established Monica as a "slut". I think i read an article about something regarding the way Monica is introduced.

Anyway, whatever it was, Monica was then written differently. Looking at her in the 10 series, she was seen as someone who was the most sensible in the "how fast" to go in a relationship. Also, I am not certain, but is Monica the only person in the series to never cheat on anyone? This is if we count Rachel going with Mark during her break (but did anything really happen?). Phoebe has cheated, Joey did numerous times, Chandler did and Ross did.

Who did Chandler cheat on?

Rachel did not cheat with Mark. You may say Chandler betrayed Joey but he didn't actually cheat on anyone.

Chandler and Rachel have been the "other person" in the cheaters relationship.
It's a grey area with Kathy though as her and Joey were not exclusive.
I suppose With this one the bottom like is Chandler knew what he was doing would hurt Joey and did it anyway.
Early Rachel didn't have much look with her men staying faithful.
Chip, Barry (although she didn't know) , Paolo and of course Ross

I felt sorry for Emily. it was clear we were meant to dislike her but she was better than Rachel who I never liked.

No one specifically Maybe I shouldn't have just put "cheat" in my post. I know Joey and Kathy weren't ever really exclusive, but I classify as Chandler doing what he did with Kathy behind his best friends back, as bad as cheating. But it's not cheating really, so I shouldn't have put the word "cheat" in the post. I'd personally be more upset with my best friend who i had known for years if he had gone with my girlfriend. Relationships are difficult, but you'd like to think your best friend always stands by you and has your back.

As Ross said, given how much Joey cared for Chandler, had Chandler told Joey, knowing Joey he would have said "it's fine, we are not exclusive", but it was the fact Chandler went behind his back.

I am wrong about Rachel though actually. She never did cheat, had to refresh my memory that she never actually did anything with Mark.

With Emily, I don't know whether it was intentional to do what they did or they went along with public perception. Emily was likeable in S4, I don't know whether they had meant her to be a longer lasting relationship but then noticed as S4 reached an end, that the viewers were not taking to Emily? (but surely writers would know this? Surely the viewers would generally side with a main character over someone who has just come in). It seemed like the latter episodes of S4 were really trying to build up Emily as some sort of end-game, but perhaps that was intentional. She got on with all the friends, her and Ross IMO suited in some ways.

Then after Ross said "Rachel", she automatically turned into a villain, which is totally understandable, but the stark difference between S4 Emily and S5 Emily was huge, but I assume that Emily was written in that way to try and easily dispose of her, I mean, "you can't see Rachel anymore" was the line that did it for her character. It's understandable, but people had already invested in 4 years of Rachel and Ross, they were hardly going to say "hmm, yeah Emily has a point", even if they did believe she had a point.

At Judy and Jack's 30th wedding anniversary party Phoebe allows Parker to badger her into eating an oyster (although she doesn't, but drops it on the floor, pretending she ate it). In the past she's been very vocal (and self-righteous) about her vegetarianism so why didn't she just say "I can't eat that."? (and yes I remember she ate meat during her pregnancy but otherwise she didn't dip in and out of vegetarianism).

IIRC Emily was meant to be a permanent character...the producers loved her and so the idea was she'd marry Ross with no glitches. But Helen Baxendale's pregnancy, coupled with actor's intention to stay put in Britain (for Cold Feet) meant by Season 5 she was unable to commit to the show. The whole wedding was a terrible end to that season.

Apparently Helen was meant to return for a cameo in Season 10, but rejected it. There's all sorts of rumours that she never felt welcomed by the cast, which is understandable....feels a bit 'cliquey'. But she's been on record to say the nicest cast members were Lisa and Matt.

I get that. It's like moving into a new school after 5 years from the start when everyone has already made bonds. With soaps it's different because people come and go in large amounts, so new people would normally feel welcomed because it's constantly changing cast members. But with TV series, it's understandable because the core 6 are main characters who spend a lot of time together, the other characters are minor usually.

I don't know. I think we see a bit of that side of Emily before the wedding. At the very start she doesn't even wait for an explanation as to why Rachel can't go to the opera (who has arranged for Ross to go in her place) before ranting and storming off. Also when Ross and Emily are sitting writing out the wedding invitations she's more than a tad bitchy about the fact that Rachel is being invited. She knows Rachel is a long-standing close friend, she knows the group's dynamic - yet she can't stop chucking in a barbed comment about it, all of which is especially galling when it was Rachel who convinced Ross to be honest about his feelings for Emily during the fake bon voyage party. Okay she probably doesn't know that but still, I say Emily wasn't exactly written as an altogether pleasant character from the start.

There was also the whole 'let's reschedule the wedding' thing. Although one could feel a bit of sympathy for Emily losing her dream wedding venue, especially when she was moving her whole life to the US for Ross, cancelling a wedding that dozens of people have paid for transatlantic flights for would be ridiculous.