It's Rachel's birthday and she's not happy about it. Viewers find out how everyone's 30th birthday looked liked via flashbacks. Rachel breaks up with Tag.
Tropes:
- 24-Hour Party People: Monica's birthday party is attended by the gang, her parents, Gunther and a bunch of people the audience has never seen before.
- Age-Gap Romance: Rachel decides to break up with her much younger boyfriend Tag. She's 30 and he's 24. A six-year gap doesn't look that huge and she really likes him, but she realizes he's rather immature and absolutely not ready to even start thinking about settling down and having a family. She however feels she has the highest time to start working on it for herself.
- Amazingly Embarrassing Parents: Jack Geller cheerfully tells Chandler that Ross was conceived "right near" the tuxedo he's currently wearing. Even Judy looks annoyed that he shared this detail.
- Birthday Episode: The episode shows Rachel's thirtieth birthday, and in flashbacks the thirtieth birthday parties of the whole gang.
- Birthday Party Goes Wrong:
- Rachel gets really depressed when her friends throw her a party for her 30th birthday. She feels old and it gets worse when Chandler's birthday card says "grandma" and she realizes she's "behind" regarding her career and mostly her life plan to get married and have a family. Eventually, she breaks up with her 'boy-like' boyfriend Tag whom she really likes but realizes he's too young and immature.
- Monica comes home completely wasted because she felt nervous about turning thirty. Turns out Chandler is throwing her a formal party with her parents who have a camcorder. Monica overreacts and makes a huge scene.
- Joey's party goes wrong because he gets whiny and complains about getting too old, talking to God that they had a deal about others getting old, not him and his friends.
- Chandler's party for his 30th birthday gets ruined when Joey once again cries about it not being fair that their gang is getting old.
- Ross's party is ruined because he has bought himself a red sports car, claiming he's a sports car enthusiast and he shows off his car to his friends. The car gets locked in by two cars in the street. He spends his birthday trying to get out. Finally, his joy is completely spoiled in The Tag when an unattractive and much older man in the very same red car waves at him and greets him with a lame, "How hot are we?"
- Phoebe looks pretty ok with turning thirty, with her party and crossing off wacky adventures of her bucket list. That is until her twin sister Ursula tells her they are in fact thirty-one. Suddenly Phoebe's plan for things she wanted to accomplish falls apart and she feels depressed. Joey tries to cheer her up and make it up for her.
- Didn't Think This Through: Rachel's birthday card from Chandler that says "Happy Birthday, Grandma". Monica sums up this trope perfectly:Monica: All you had to do was buy the card.
- Evil Twin: Ursula casually reveals that she sold Phoebe's birth certificate to a stranger and refers to "my mom" instead of "our mom".
- Gift-Giving Gaffe: Tag deviates from Rachel's gift list and buys her a folding scooter. Ross quietly tells Tag "stick to the list, always stick to the list".
- Growing Up Sucks:
- Rachel gets very dejected on her thirtieth birthday. She feels she's 'behind' regarding her life plan and things she wants to accomplish.
- Joey takes it particularly bad that he and his friends are getting old. Judging from his crying, whining and alluding to his deal with the God about only others getting old, he would like to stay perpetually in his twenties.
- Life of the Party: Phoebe offers to distract everyone from how drunk Monica is by getting even more drunk so Monica will seem normal in comparison.
- Mid-Life Crisis Car: Ross buys a red sports car for his thirtieth birthday (so it's like Third-life Crisis Car). Too bad it gets stuck in the parking space and he spends most of the time trying to drive out. He also quickly abandons the car when an old, bald and decidedly unattractive gentleman shows up driving the exact same car and waves at Ross with "How hot are we!"
- Milestone Birthday Angst: All the characters are shown having a hard time with their 30th birthday, except Chandler (whose party is ruined by Joey). It is mostly shown in flashbacks.
- Rachel feels old and gets depressed mostly because she feels she's 'behind' regarding her life plan. It gets worse when Chandler's birthday card says "grandma" and she realizes she would like to get married and have a baby pretty soon.
- Monica comes home completely wasted because she felt anxious about turning thirty. Chandler is throwing her a formal party with her parents who have a camcorder. Monica overreacts and makes a huge scene.
- Joey freaks out at his birthday, pleading with God that they had a deal to not let him get old.
- Ross bought a red sports car, claiming he's a sports car enthusiast, despite the fact he didn't know what the horse power is which clearly points to it being a Midlife Crisis Car. Ross's car gets locked in by two cars. He spends his birthday trying to get out. His joy is completely spoiled when an unattractive old man in the very same red car greets him and Ross gets dejected.
- Phoebe was pretty ok with turning thirty. That is until her twin sister Ursula tells her they are in fact thirty-one. Suddenly Phoebe's plan of stuff she wanted to accomplish falls apart and she feels particularly bad.
- Platonic Kissing: After learning that she's a year older than she thought Phoebe complains that she hasn't had "the perfect kiss". Joey follows her out of Central Perk and kisses her to try and make it up to her as a friend. Phoebe agrees she can cross that one off her To-Do list.
- Vignette Episode: Much of the episode is made up of flashbacks to Ross, Monica, and Phoebe's 30th birthdays.
- We Need a Distraction: If they need to distract from Monica being drunk, Phoebe's plan is to take her own top off. Joey is fully onboard with this idea.
