The friends plan a birthday party for Rachel, but when both of her divorced parents show up, they have to make it two parties and keep the parents apart.
Tropes
- 24-Hour Party People: There's enough guests to fill both of the main apartments but the only people known to the audience are Rachel's parents and Gunther.
- All Men Are Perverts: With two parties going, Chandler takes the opportunity to send any men over to Monica's and any women to his and Joey's.
- Amazingly Embarrassing Parents: Rachel comes back from her sister's graduation complaining. Dr. and Mrs. Green got into such a loud argument that Desmond Tutu (the guest speaker one assumes) had to interrupt the commencement address to tell them to be quiet. Rachel then has to spend her birthday party listening to them badmouth each other.
- Birthday Party Goes Wrong: Rachel's recently divorced parents both show up at her surprise birthday party, so the friends have to keep them separated otherwise they'll start fighting. Quickly things begin to go wrong. Monica rules over her formal party with an iron fist and wants to play boring games. Most of the guests want to sneak out to Chandler and Joey's second party, started as a distraction, because it is more fun and relaxed. Rachel's boyfriend Ross tries to bond with her parents only to make a fool of himself. Rachel tries to spend time with both her mother and her father who say only nasty things about each other, which is driving Rachel the birthday girl crazy.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: Phoebe becomes the one who gets people out of Monica's boring party and into Chandler and Joey's more fun one. This is played up as though she were smuggling migrants across the border.Guest: Is it true they have beer there?
Phoebe: (beat) Everything you've heard is true. - Flanderization: This is the episode where Monica's kicks in noticeably. She has always been tidy and somewhat bossy and compulsive, but here her Neat Freak Control Freak tendencies are exaggerated to the point where she is unable to grasp that her lame games aren't fun. She reminds the guests to close the markers properly 3 times!
- Kiss of Distraction: Joey grabs Rachel's mother and kisses her so she won't notice her ex-husband leaving, and he won't be able to see her face. The kiss does its job of keeping the Greens from seeing each other, and Sandra seems a bit flustered and quite taken with Joey afterwards.
- Make a Wish: During the end credits, Rachel is presented with some flan that has a few candles in it. She makes a wish and blows out the candles, after which a volleyball smashes the flan.Rachel: Wow, those things almost never come true.
- My Eyes Are Up Here: In her costume at the diner, Monica has to tell Joey to stop staring, as well as stress that she's wearing Fake Boobs.
- "Not So Different" Remark: As Rachel sits in the hallway frazzled over having to listen to her parents badmouth each other, Chandler lends a supportive ear and relates his experiences when his parents got divorced.
- Party Scheduling Gambit: The two birthday parties were planned at the same time so as to keep Rachel's parents separated. However, party goers began drifting away from Monica's uptight formal do and into Joey's more relaxed event.
- Wounded Gazelle Gambit: When Monica works on the guest list, Joey argues against inviting one girl because it turns out he previously slept with her and never called her back. When chastised by Monica and Phoebe for this, Joey says he really liked this girl, so much that he got scared. In the face of receiving sympathy for this, he remarks he didn't think that line would actually work.
