The Most Epic Kisses That Happened On Friends
After 17 long years, the break is finally over: The cast of "Friends" is finally set to reunite in a long-awaited, much-anticipated reunion special on HBO Max, coming to screens everywhere on May 27 (via ET). Trailers for the special indicate that it's going to be an emotional viewing — not just for fans, but for the cast members, too.
"I was flooded with 10 years of irreplaceable memories," Courteney Cox, who played Monica Geller, told People (via People).
Matt LeBlanc (Joey Tribbiani) echoed her sentiments: "It's funny, when we do get together, it's like no time has passed," he said.
The reunion promises lots of nostalgia, with a partial table read of " The One with The Jellyfish" and a recreation of that famous trivia game in Monica and Rachel's apartment (don't forget – it's "Ms. Chanandler Bong") — plus a star-stacked list of special guests, like David Beckham, Justin Bieber, Mindy Kaling, Reese Witherspoon, Elliot Gould, and more.
Ahead of the reunion, now's a perfect time to take a look back at some of the best "Friends" moments — including, of course, the show's biggest, most jaw-dropping romantic moments.
Ross and Rachel's first kiss
Even casual viewers of "Friends" likely recall that Ross and Rachel were on-again, off-again, on-again, off-again for the entirety of the show's ten seasons. But it all started with one epic first kiss. At the beginning of the show's second season, Rachel goes to pick Ross up from the airport following his work trip to China — only to discover that while there, he reconnected with Julie, an old friend from grad school. And while Rachel had spent the entirety of the first season oblivious to Ross' affections, once Chandler reveals Ross' love for Rachel in the season one finale, she realizes she feels the same. All of this comes to a head in Episode 7 of Season 2 — "The One Where Ross Finds Out."
Rachel, on a date and attempting to get "closure" from the Ross situation has a few too many drinks and decides to drunk dial Ross (who among us hasn't been there) and leaves him a voicemail, letting her know she's over him. What Ross then wants to know is: "When were you under me?"
Hours later, Ross shows up at Central Perk while Rachel is closing up. He tells her he didn't get the cat that he and then-girlfriend Julie were set to adopt that day. The two argue and Ross storms out — only to return moments later. The pair kiss and as Drake might say ... "Nothing Was the Same" (via Genius).
'He's her lobster'
Flash forward to seven episodes later and sadly, Ross and Rachel still aren't together. With Rachel seemingly looking to move on, Phoebe (Lisa Kudrow) assuages Ross' concerns about Rachel getting away, telling him: "She's your lobster." She elaborated further, saying, "It's a known fact that lobsters fall in love and mate for life. You can actually see old lobster couples walking around their tank, holding claws" (via E! Online).
It once again seems like all hope is lost for Ross and Rachel — that is until the group unearths a video from Rachel and Monica's prom night — the first in what will become a number of flashbacks to the friends before they were, well, friends. It is revealed that when it seemed like Rachel's prom date, Chip, was standing her up, Ross was ready to come to her rescue and take her to the big dance — even more proof that he's always loved her. Eventually, Chip shows up and Rachel goes off into the night, while Ross is left heartbroken.
Rachel, so moved by Ross' gesture, walks up to him and kisses him. Phoebe happily cheers, "See, he's her lobster!"
A flashback to London
Not every entry on this list can be Ross and Rachel related — there has to be room on it for the other "Friends" epic romance: Monica and Chandler. "Friends" executive producer Scott Silveri once credited their relationship with extending the show's run.
"If you didn't have a Monica-and-Chandler relationship, if the center of Friends had remained Ross and Rachel, you would've seen a much shorter shelf life for the show," he said. "Without Monica and Chandler, it ends three years earlier. I don't owe my whole house to them, but at least two bedrooms and a bath are because of them" (via Vulture).
While fans didn't get the chance to experience Monica and Chandler's first kiss until much after they got together (their tryst was initially revealed to fans the morning after it occurred), "Friends" finally tells us how it all went down, and shows us the initial spark that lit the flame that would be Chonica — or Mandler.
And, of course, this was intentional. As Silveri explained, "We didn't want to spend too much too fast. We didn't want it to be high drama. So we just kept taking baby steps forward and feeling our way through." And those baby steps eventually led to Monica and Chandler getting married and adopting kids.
She got off the plane
So the big question toward the end of "Friends" was: Will Ross and Rachel finally get together? The creators of the show left fans uncertain, when Rachel accepted a job offer to work for Louis Vuitton in Paris (via Cheat Sheet). Ross and Rachel spend the night together before Rachel is set to depart, and Ross ultimately decides that he can't let her go.
He shows up at the airport and tells her how he feels, and initially Rachel gets back on the plane, saying "I can't do this right now, I'm sorry." But when Ross returns home, he has a message from Rachel, wherein he hears her trying to get off the plane. And — big reveal a few moments later — Rachel got off the plane.
The two, as far as we know, were finally on-again and, hopefully, lived happily ever after. After all, they're each other's lobsters.