In this season's Thanksgiving episode, Jack and Judy Geller join the friends for the holiday. However they don't like Chandler because Ross told them Chandler smoked weed in college when it was really him. Monica tries to get Ross to admit the truth and must hide her relationship in the meantime.
Rachel is entrusted to make dessert this year and chooses a traditional English trifle, but accidentally mixes in part of the recipe for Shepherd's Pie, much to (almost) everyone's disgust. Phoebe reveals a sex dream she had about Jack, and Joey just wants to leave to party with Janine and her dancer friends.
Tropes
- Big Eater: Joey, as usual. Not only does he like the taste of Rachel's trifle, he ends up eating all the servings the others left.Joey: What's not to like? Custard, good. Jam, good. Meat, good!
- Bizarre Taste in Food: Joey since he scarfed down not only his plate full of the trifle but in The Stinger Monica’s and her parents portions of trifle.
- Bottle Episode: The episode takes place almost entirely in Monica's apartment (the beginning has a bit at Joey's apartment).
- Broken Pedestal: Learning Ross did drugs in college, got fired from the museum, married and divorced for a third time, and lied to them about all of it forces Jack and Judy to realize Ross isn't as great a son as they thought.
- Call-Back: The Truth-Telling Session below includes mentions of Ross's Accidental Marriage to Rachel in Las Vegas and his getting fired from the museum.
- Cordon Bleugh Chef: Due to the pages of the recipe book sticking together, Rachel accidentally adds a layer of mince meat to the trifle.
- Erotic Dream: Phoebe dreams that Mr. Geller rescued her in a fire and then made out with her. Later, she has another where he cheated on her and she made out with Jacques Cousteau instead.
- It Tastes Like Feet: Ross's comment on the meat trifle is the Trope Namer.
- Laser-Guided Karma: Ross refuses to admit to a secret that by this point doesn't matter, so Monica not only makes him admit this secret but reveals other more serious ones like getting an innocent mailman fired from his job, being unemployed for almost a year, and having gotten divorced for the third time.
- Lingerie Scene: Invoked. Joey is turning up the heat in his apartment in the hope that it will force Janine and her friends to strip down to their underwear.
- Never My Fault: In college Ross told his parents that Chandler was the one smoking pot in their dorm room. When Chandler and Monica insist he tell them the truth he wants to claim he was "tricked" into it by someone else.
- Only One Who Likes Spam: Joey is the only one who likes the meat trifle, not only eating all of his piece but finishing off everyone else's.
- Somebody Doesn't Love Raymond: Monica reveals that her parents don't like Chandler. Ross confirms it and works out that it's because of a lie he told in college. Once the truth is revealed Jack and Judy completely change their opinion of him.
- Smug Smiler: Phoebe does this when she's able to get out of having to eat Rachel's trifle, which contains meat, because she's a vegetarian.
- Thanksgiving Episode: The gang have a Thanksgiving dinner with Monica and Ross' parents.
- Throw the Dog a Bone: After all Chandler had to put up with in this episode, it ends with him being praised by Jack and Judy as a "wonderful human being" for sticking by Ross during his 'drug problem' and now taking on Monica as well.
- Truth-Telling Session: After Monica tells on Ross smoking pot.Monica: And Dad, you know that mailman you got fired? He didn't steal your Playboys, Ross did! [the Gellers give Ross a Disapproving Look]
Ross: [decides to fight fire with fire] Yeah, well Hurricane Gloria didn't break the porch swing, Monica did! [Rachel, Joey, and Phoebe look shocked, while Monica looks outraged]
Monica: Ross hasn't worked at the museum for a year! [the Gellers gape at Monica in disbelief]
Ross: Monica and Chandler are living together! [Monica looks horrified, Chandler looks embarrassed, and the Gellers look stunned]
Monica: Ross married Rachel in Vegas, and got divorced! AGAIN! [Ross looks mortified]
Phoebe: [deciding to join in] I love Jacques Cousteau! [the Gellers look at her in utter confusion]
Rachel: [reading the recipe she was following] I wasn't supposed to put beef in the trifle!
Joey: [pounding the table in desperation] I WANNA GOOOOOOOOOO!
Mrs. Geller: [rubbing her temple] ... That's a lot of information to get in thirty seconds.- In a rare moment of genuine cool Judy Geller then stands up and definitively deals with each person's statement one by one; Joey can leave if he wants to, Rachel did make a mistake with the trifle, Phoebe is informed that Jacques Cousteau is dead, they wonder why Monica felt she had to hide an important relationship from her (and they guessed about the porch swing), and wonder how Ross made so many mistakes.
