A lot happens in season four. Ross goes from just barely getting back together with Rachel again to marrying Emily. Chandler and Monica cross the line from friendship to romance. Phoebe is pregnant with her brother’s baby, and Joey is…well, Joey is Joey.
In The One With All The Wedding Dresses, Ross is engaged to Emily, and Ross and Rachel have their first real discussion about it. From that discussion, it becomes painfully clear that Rachel is, in fact, not really over Ross, but she decides to ignore that reality, and focuses on trying to get Joshua (whom she has only gone on four dates with) to marry her, basically so she can be even with Ross in the relationship game, but what it really comes down to is, Rachel doesn’t actually care all that much about Joshua, she does care that the door that might eventually lead her back to Ross someday is closing.
Meanwhile, Ross plays oblivious to Rachel’s actual feelings, much like Rachel did to Ross in season one. He asks Monica to do him a favor and pick up Emily’s wedding dress, since Emily is still in London and Ross can’t see the dress. Monica happily agrees, and she and Phoebe go to the dress boutique, where Monica ends up trying the dress on, and not wanting to take it off.
Later, Phoebe comes to Monica’s apartment, having apparently also caught the wedding dress bug, in a maternity wedding gown she rented from a place called “It’s Not Too Late”.
The smaller plot of the episode involves Joey having a snoring problem and Chandler not being able to sleep because of it, so they visit a sleep clinic to diagnose Joey. Not my favorite Chandler and Joey episode, but still enjoyable in that their relationship is adorable.
Rachel trying to get married for the heck of it, and Monica and Phoebe celebrating their guilty pleasure of wearing a wedding dress come together by episode’s end, when Rachel realizes she is actually all worked up over Ross, and is kind of depressed about it. Phoebe knows just the thing to make her feel better. Cut to: Monica, Rachel and Phoebe on the couch in wedding dresses, drinking beers. Amazing.
Best line of the episode comes from Phoebe, when she and Monica start feeling pathetic about their secret wedding dress wearing.
Phoebe: Well at least you didn’t rent yours from a store called “It’s Not Too Late”.
