Summary of The One with the Ring
Phoebe helps Chandler shop for an engagement ring, but when he finds the perfect ring he realizes he doesn't have his credit card. He goes to get his card and leaves Phoebe to guard the ring, but Phoebe gets so caught up in trying on expensive jewelry that she barely notices when someone buys the ring and walks out with it. She tries to chase the man with Chandler's ring, but she's wearing a huge amount of jewelry she hasn't paid for, and gets caught in a security cage at the front door. Chandler is horrified, and although he buys a different ring, he's not happy with it and really wants the first one he picked. Phoebe says she did hear the guy who bought the ring say where he was planning on proposing, so Phoebe and Chandler go to the restaurant and beg the guy to exchange rings. He finally agrees after Phoebe pretends that she is Chandler's dying fiance. Chandler goes back to Joey's apartment and tells all of his friends that he's planning on asking Monica to marry him.
Ross and Joey feel like they got blown off when they came into Chandler and Monica's apartment and Chandler and Phoebe ran away. Ross asks Phoebe why they ran like that, and since Phoebe can't tell him they were going ring shopping, she says that Chandler is mad at Ross. The only thing Ross can think of that Chandler would be mad about is when Ross and Joey went to the Knicks game last week and didn't invite Chandler. Although Ross and Joey think Chandler is being a little pissy about the entire thing, just avoiding them and not talking about it, they decide to try to make up for it by getting Knicks tickets for that night and inviting Chandler. They do so, and Joey tells Chandler about the tickets, but Chandler is so wrapped up in buying the ring that he just says he can't make it and thanks anyway. Joey goes back to Ross and now they can't believe that Chandler doesn't even care, so they decide to stop talking to Chandler. The news, however, that Chandler is going to propose to Monica quickly ends their freeze-out, and the whole thing is forgotten without Chandler ever knowing that his friends were even mad at him.
Rachel is frustrated with Paul's strong/silent act, and tries to get him to open up. She tries prompting him to talk about his day, his childhood, anything, and finally he recounts a short story about how when he was six and wanted a big-wheel for his birthday he got a bouncy chicken instead and all the kids in the neighborhood called him chicken boy. Suddenly, the flood gates are open, and Paul is openly weeping and analyzing his childhood while Rachel gets more and more bored, hungry, tired, and fed up. Finally, Rachel tells him that she's tired of listening to him blubber, and tries to seduce him to get him to shut up. That works for a moment, but then he starts crying after sex about how good it was. She ends up dumping him.
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