The gang makes--then breaks--a pact to celebrate New Year's Eve without dates. Ross compensates for his loneliness by getting a roommate, a monkey named Marcel.

The gang searches frantically for Marcel, who slipped out of the apartment while Rachel was baby-sitting him. Just as it looks as though Rachel and Ross might actually spend a romantic evening together, her ex-fiancé barges in and declares his love for her.

Rachel and Barry start dating again, which is kind of awkward since he's now engaged to Mindy, who wants Rachel to be her maid of honor. Meanwhile, Chandler goes nuts when a woman he likes won't return his phone calls.

A drunken Rachel is persuaded to call Ross and reveal her feelings for him on his answering machine. Now, Ross must make a decision between her and Julie. Meanwhile, Monica finds work as Chandler's personal trainer and Phoebe has a hard time trying to get her boyfriend to have sex with her.

When Janice asks the gang if any of them have ever slept together, the friends flash back to a time three years before.

When Rachel finds out that Ross is bringing a date to the premiere of Joey's big play, she finds one of her own. Ross alone concludes that her date is insane. Poor Phoebe is on hold for days with a company she needs to talk to before her phone warranty expires. Meanwhile, Joey's play gets terrible reviews, but his co-star provides some comfort.

Monica caters a party for her mother, who still doesn't quite know how to talk to her daughter. Chandler's encounter with Rachel's boss leads to an embarrassing situation. And an encyclopedia salesman takes advantage of Joey.

Chandler agrees to spend Thanksgiving in a shipping crate as penance for kissing Kathy. The gang decides to give each other Secret Santa gifts. After Monica gets ice in her eye, she ends up visiting Richard's son, who is as attracted to Monica as his father was.

Chandler and Ross's college friend Gandalf is planning to come to town. Gandalf is "the party wizard." Ross and Chandler are very excited until Gandalf cancels. However, they decide to make their own party with Joey's help. Joanna squashes Rachel's chance at a promotion. And when Monica fills in for a friend as food critic for a small newspaper, she must decide between a steady job as head chef of a restaurant she panned or keeping her catering business with her friend Phoebe.

After a three-day fishing trip with his dad, Joey is in a jam when he doesn't have time to take a shower before going to the set of Charlton Heston's new movie. Rachel, continuing to fawn over clothing shopper Joshua, sets Ross up with her boss's niece Emily when she is unable to take her to the opera. And while Chandler is despondent after his breakup with Kathy, the girls take him to a strip club.

As Ross and Emily send out wedding invitations, he and Rachel each look back on their relationship together while Joey and Chandler look for a purpose in life.

Joey convinces Ross to pick him as his best man instead of Chandler. He throws a great bachelor party, but the next morning he's shocked to find out that the wedding ring is missing and he suspects that the stripper stole it. Meanwhile, Phoebe is experiencing major mood swings due to her pregnancy and the girls decide to throw her a baby shower to cheer her up, but it only makes matters worse.