Rachel's sister Amy moves in with her and Joey. Monica and Chandler reluctantly allow Joey to write a recommendation letter to the adoption agency. Phoebe unintentionally stops Mike from proposing to her.
Tropes:
- Accidental Misnaming: Amy keeps calling Emma "Ella", which she insists is a prettier name. At the end, Rachel is touched when Amy finally calls her Emma, only for Amy to retract and call her Ella again.
- Aside Glance: Rachel over Amy mistaking the falafel salesman for Ross.
- Babysitter from Hell: Amy calls Emma "dull" and doesn't understand why a one year-old wouldn't want to eat at a sushi restaurant. She tries to the "fun aunt" by getting Emma's ears pierced without asking Rachel and Ross for permission. Naturally they're furious when they discover the earrings.
- Be Careful What You Wish For: After Joey abused the thesaurus, Chandler and Monica encourage him to just write from his "full-sized aortic pump" rather than try too hard to sound smart. They're subsequently displeased when they find he's already sent in a new letter and is boasting he didn't try to sound smart at all. Luckily for Chandler and Monica, they soon learn the adoption agency thinks an actual child wrote the letter instead of a Manchild.
- Berserk Button: Joey was already displeased over Amy moving in, but her questioning him having some pizza ("A moment on the lips, forever on the hips") is enough for a Big Eater like him to urge Rachel to kick her out.
- Brutal Honesty: Amy's baby styling business is struggling because she rather brazenly tells parents that their babies are ugly.
- Delayed Reaction: It takes a while for Ross to figure out Amy got Emma's ears pierced.
- Dude, Where's My Respect?: Joey is displeased over how Chandler and Monica ask Rachel for a recommendation letter and then don't ask him.
- A Family Affair: When Rachel references Barry, Amy casually remarks she was sleeping with him behind Rachel's back during the engagement. This is on top of how Barry was also fooling around with Rachel's old best friend, Mindy.
- Flat "What": Joey over Amy opting to move in with Rachel (and worse, by extension, him).
- Gift-Giving Gaffe: Monica bitterly reveals that for their last anniversary she bought Chandler a $500 watch, while he wrote her a rap song.
- "Hell, Yes!" Moment: Joey when Rachel says she's kicking Amy out of the apartment.
- Informed Flaw: Joey said Monica made the group tolerate Rachel at first. She was naïve at being a functional adult on her best days and Innocently Insensitive on her worst days but certainly nothing Monica would have to force the others to tolerate.
- Jerkass Has a Point: Amy isn't wrong Monica doesn't exactly qualify as the "cool, fun aunt"
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall: Amy says that Jill has been putting on the pounds lately. In real life at the time, Reese Witherspoon was pregnant.
- Mama Bear: Rachel is horrified when she finds out Amy pierced Emma's ears without permission and threatens to kick her out of the apartment.
- Mistaken Identity: Amy spends the whole episode thinking Ross is a falafel salesman she saw on the street. The Stinger shows the real salesman and Amy tries hailing him by calling him Ross. She cluelessly takes the lack of response as rudeness.
- Mood Whiplash: While likening herself to Amy, Rachel says the overall group looked out for her and helped her become a better person. Joey immediately says Monica made them do that.
- No Sympathy: Phoebe tries to make things up to Mike by doing the jumbotron proposal herself. The announcer and onlookers ridicule the fact that she's the one doing the proposing.
- "Oh, Crap!" Smile: Phoebe when she realizes she botched Mike's attempted surprise proposal at the restaurant.
- Open Mouth, Insert Foot: While at the game, Phoebe and Mike see another couple doing a jumbotron proposal. Phoebe immediately chastises this, calling it tacky and impersonal. Mike immediately gets up to leave, causing Phoebe to realize he was about to do this with her. She spends the rest of the episode trying to make up for this out of fear Mike will lose the nerve to try proposing again, only to snark about those cheesy proposals where the ring is hidden inside the cake.Phoebe: It's in the cake, isn't it?
Mike: Where else would "Lame Mr. No Balls" hide it? - Positive Friend Influence: Rachel credits the overall group with helping her become a better person.
- Replacement Flat Character: Lampshaded. Rachel sees a lot of the person she used to be in Amy. Since the other friends helped her become a better person, she makes an effort to try to do the same for Amy. It goes poorly.
- Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: Joey takes Ross' advice too far and abuses the thesaurus while writing the recommendation letter, turning a sentence like "They are warm, nice people with big hearts" into "They are humid, prepossessing Homo Sapiens with full-sized aortic pumps." He also apparently signed the letter, "Baby Kangaroo Tribbiani".
- Seven Minute Lull: Phoebe and Mike are talking at the hockey game when the crowd cheers and they have to talk louder. The crowd dies down just as Phoebe is telling Mike he's amazing in bed.
- Stealth Insult: Rachel compliments Amy with one of these.Rachel: I kept trying to make you a better person, but you're already a pretty perfect version of what you are.
- Sure, Let's Go with That: Ross decides it's easier to just play along with Amy confusing him for a falafel vendor rather than continue trying to explain who he actually is.
- Suspiciously Specific Denial: When denying giving Emma cookies that he just said she eats all the time, Joey stresses he never gave her frosting from a can, either.
- Wacky Marriage Proposal: Phoebe criticizes proposing at sports stadiums as cheesy and lame, scaring Mike away from doing so when he already had it all set up. To make up for it, she tries proposing to him herself, but it's not well received by the audience. Mike later plans to try proposing at the restaurant by hiding the ring in the cake, only to see Phoebe cite that as another example of a cheesy proposal.
- Wasted Beauty: Joey calls Amy "the hottest girl I've ever hated" because she's so awful to everyone.
