Breaking Ross & Rachel's Relationship Down By Each Friends' Season (2024)

Friends premiered in 1994 with relatively unknown stars and took off shortly after, elevating Aniston, Schwimmer, and their cast mates -- Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, and the late Matthew Perry -- to be household names. For ten seasons, viewers watched as Ross and Rachel were on-again and off-again and wondered if they would ever get their happily ever after.

When Rachel Green (Jennifer Aniston) burst onto the scene -- quite literally, as she came flying through the doors of Central Perk in a wedding dress -- it was easy to see she would steal the hearts of everyone around her. Ross Gellar (David Schwimmer) still harbored a childhood crush that he navigated even as he was dealing with a recent divorce. As Rachel tried to move on from jilting her fiancé at the altar and Ross tried to be there to catch her, it was clear that their love story would be one for the ages.

Updated by Jordan Iacobucci on February 14, 2024: Friends may have come to an end twenty years ago, but it still stands as one of the most popular sitcoms of all time. With a wonderfully compelling cast of main characters, endlessly quotable lines, and plenty of memorable moments, Friends still lives rent-free in many viewers' minds. Among the show's most infamous plotlines is that of Ross and Rachel's turbulent love story--which carried on for over a decade.

1 Ross's Unrequited Love Carried Over from Rachel's Teen Years

Season 1

In Season 1, Episode 1, "The Pilot," viewers learn that Ross has had a crush on Rachel since high school, but she has no idea. Ross tries to tell her several times, but his final attempt is thwarted by Paolo, the exotic Italian in the building, in Season 1, Episode 7, "The One with the Blackout."

In Season 1, Episode 24, "The One Where Rachel Finds Out," Ross misses Rachel's birthday to go to China for work but asks Chandler to pass on his birthday gift, a broach that Rachel once told him reminded her of her grandmother. When Rachel opens the gift, Chandler accidentally tells Rachel that Ross is in love with her, and Rachel tries to catch him at the airport but fails.

2 Jealousy, Firsts, and Lobsters

Season 2

See Also

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Season 2, Episode 1, "The One with Ross's New Girlfriend," finds Rachel waiting for Ross at the airport. Ross surprises her and all of his friends by bringing a girlfriend, Julie, back with him. It isn't until Season 2, Episode 7, "The One Where Ross Finds Out," that Rachel and Ross finally discuss their feelings. At the end of the episode, Ross surprises Rachel at Central Perk, and they have their first iconic kiss.

That kiss leads to more will-they-won't-they when Ross makes a pro-con list for both Rachel and Julie, which Rachel finds, and when Rachel dates Russ, Ross's doppelganger. In Season 2, Episode 14, "The One With The Prom Video," Phoebe encourages Ross to continue to pursue Rachel because he's "her lobster," and when the gang finds a video of Monica and Rachel's prom, everything changes. By the end of season two, it finally feels like Rachel and Ross are solidly together.

3 Every Friends Fan Is Familiar With "We Were On A Break"

Season 3

When Rachel gets a new job at Bloomingdale's, Ross is certain that her coworker Mark is interested in sleeping with her. Ross becomes possessive, showering Rachel with an inappropriate number of gifts and accompanying her to events where Mark will also be in attendance. On their year anniversary, Ross surprises Rachel with a basket lunch, but she is too busy with work to join him. Their fight later in the evening leads to Rachel telling Ross they should take a break, and Ross goes out drinking and sleeps with Chloe, the girl from the copy place.

Despite Ross insisting that they were on a break from their relationship, not just the fight, Ross and Rachel's relationship crumbles. When the gang goes to the beach in the season finale, Season 3, Episode 25, "The One at the Beach," Ross learns that Rachel still has feelings for him. The season ends with audiences wondering whose room Ross will enter -- his girlfriend Bonnie's or Rachel's.

4 Ross Gives Up On Rachel and Gets Married -- Again

Season 4

Rachel and Ross are together briefly in Season 4, Episode 1, "The One with the Jellyfish," but after Rachel asks Ross to read an 18-page letter that asks him to take responsibility for their breakup, things end again. Rachel and Ross move on -- first Rachel with Joshua, a client from Bloomingdale's, and then Ross with Emily, the niece of Rachel's boss. For Emily and Ross, it feels like love at first sight.

In Season 4, Episodes 23 and 24, "The One with Ross's Wedding," Ross and Emily are planning to get married in London. Phoebe, who is carrying triplets for her brother and his wife and can't fly, and Rachel, still in love with Ross, stay in New York while everyone else goes to the wedding. In a last-ditch attempt to get Ross back, Rachel flies to London to stop the wedding but cannot tell him after seeing Ross with Emily. During the ceremony, Ross says Rachel's name instead of Emily's, turning everything on its head.

5 What Happens in Vegas...

Season 5

Ross attempts to salvage his marriage, but Emily's demands -- including the ultimatum that he can no longer see Rachel -- end their marriage in Season 5, Episode 6, "The One with the Yeti." Ross and Emily do some of their own will-they-won't-they, especially when Emily gets married again and calls Ross, hoping to get back together.

When Joey gets a part in a movie, the gang flies to Vegas to celebrate him (Season 5, Episodes 23 and 24, "The One in Vegas"). Ross and Rachel are poking at each other on the flight over, which leads to a drunken night in their hotel room after Ross draws a mustache on Rachel's face. When Monica and Chandler, who are celebrating their anniversary and believe all the signs are pointing to them getting hitched, arrive at a 24-hour chapel, Ross and Rachel come barreling out the front doors, newly married.

6 Ross And Rachel Somehow Always Remain Connected

Season 6

When Season 6 begins, Rachel and Ross must deal with the repercussions of their drunken evening by getting their marriage annulled, which proves more difficult than they anticipated -- mostly because of Ross, who doesn't want another failed marriage under his belt. The judge won't let them annul the marriage, resulting in another divorce for Ross, who is devastated until Rachel admits she was the one who came up with the idea for them to get married in Vegas. Both of them express that they had always assumed if they got married, it would stick, which makes the divorce sting that much more.

During the rest of season 6, Ross and Rachel date several people but always find a way to be connected to one another. Ross dates Rachel's sister, Jill, and when Ross begins dating Elizabeth, one of his students, Rachel ends up dating Elizabeth's father, Paul. Ross and Rachel both find themselves single on the night that Chandler and Monica get engaged.

7 The Pregnancy Test Reawakens Old Feelings

Season 7

Season 7 opens with Rachel and Ross considering a "bonus night," where they have a one-night-stand as exes, which gets interrupted by Monica, who feels like they are stealing her thunder on her engagement night (Season 7, Episode 1, "The One With Monica's Thunder"). Later in the season, Rachel begins dating her young assistant, Tag, before realizing he's too immature for her when she turns 30 (Season 7, Episode 14, "The One Where They All Turn Thirty").

In Season 7, Episodes 23 and 24, "The One with Monica and Chandler's Wedding," Chandler overhears Phoebe and Rachel discussing their assumption that Monica is pregnant and panics before realizing that he wants to be a father, as long as it's with Monica. When he says something about it to her during the wedding ceremony, Monica reveals she isn't pregnant. Phoebe takes responsibility for the pregnancy test, even though she's the one who found it, revealing to the audience that the test can only belong to one person -- Rachel.

8 Joey, Rachel, Ross, and Mona - A Complex Series Of Events

Season 8

Season 8 focuses primarily on Rachel's pregnancy, from the reveal of the father (Ross, after a one-night-stand while sending out Monica and Chandler's invitations) to the couple finding out the gender at Rachel's baby shower. Throughout the season, Ross and Rachel both deal with love snafus, including when Joey admits to Rachel that he's in love with her and when Ross dates Mona, a woman he met at Monica and Chandler's wedding, and has to tell her that he's having a baby with his ex-girlfriend.

In Season 8, Episodes 23 and 24, "The One Where Rachel Has a Baby," Rachel finally gives birth. Ross is there for her during the delivery, but Rachel worries that he won't always be there for her and the baby. When Joey gets down on one knee to retrieve a ring that falls from Ross's jacket pocket, Rachel assumes he is proposing and impulsively says yes.

9 The Birth Of Emma Gellar-Green

Season 9

Ross, who was only going to ask Rachel to resume their relationship, panics when he finds Rachel wearing the ring that his mother had given him. Though Joey eventually comes clean about his accidental proposal, his actions upset Ross and make him feel he can't ask Rachel to try their relationship again. Ross and Rachel live together for Emma's first few months, but when Ross assumes Rachel is moving on without talking to him about it first and brings home a woman, Rachel moves back in with Joey.

Rachel begins to develop feelings for Joey, just as Ross develops feelings for a colleague, Charlie. At a Days of Our Lives cast party, Rachel and Ross discover that Joey and Charlie are dating (Season 9, Episode 20, "The One With the Soap Opera Party"). In the season finale, Season 9, Episodes 23 and 24, "The One in Barbados," Ross and Charlie discover they have a lot in common, and Rachel and Joey grow closer. By the end of the episode, Joey and Charlie have broken up, Ross and Charlie have gotten together, and Joey finally kisses Rachel.

10 Ross And Rachel Live Happily Ever After?

Season 10

Rachel and Joey don't stay together long, and neither do Ross and Charlie. The final season of Friends has Ross and Rachel dancing around each other, with Rachel eventually admitting that being with Ross is "never off the table" (Season 10, Episode 13, "The One Where Joey Speaks French"). In Season 10, Episode 14, "The One with Princess Consuela," Rachel runs into her old colleague Mark, who gets her an interview with Louis Vuitton in Paris.

In Season 10, Episode 16, "The One with Rachel's Going Away Party," Ross becomes upset when Rachel doesn't pull him aside for a 1-on-1 goodbye, which leads to her admitting it would be too difficult to say goodbye to him, and they end up sleeping together. In Season 10, Episodes 17 and 18, "The Last One," Ross races to the airport to tell Rachel he loves her, hoping she won't get on the plane to Paris. Initially, she does, but eventually, Ross finds her standing in his doorway, and they get back together for good, finally ending their decade-long will-they-won't-they.

Friends

TV-14

Romance

Follows Chandler, Joey, Monica, Phoebe, Rachel and Ross, friends who live in the Manhattan borough of New York City.

Release Date

September 22, 1994

Cast

David Schwimmer , Matthew Perry , Jennifer Aniston , Matt LeBlanc , Lisa Kudrow , Courtney Cox

Main Genre

Comedy

Seasons

10 Seasons