Episode 1.9- The One Where Underdog Gets Away

The TV.com Summary
This is the one where Monica burns her first Thanksgiving dinner as the Underdog balloon gets away, Joey become a poster boy for VD, and Ross sings to his unborn child.

The Guest Stars
Jane Sibbett as Carol
Max Wright as Terry
Jessica Hecht as Susan

The Ratings
Creativity- 8.7
Humor- 8.6
Emotion- 8.9
Fun- 8.6
Overall- 8.7

Chandler- 8.9 (Beautiful New Year's toast, and we delve into the wonderfully funny but complex character of Chandler)
Joey- 8.6 (His VD storyline was quite humorous, but he grew tiresome as the episode wore on)
Monica- 9.3 (Probably the best performance by an actor yet on this show: she is hilarious, temperamental, fragile, and warm, altogether outstanding)
Phoebe- 8.9 (A very funny Phoebe makes this episode glow)
Rachel- 8.1 (Rachel seems at times bored in this episode, but she is charming at some points and annoying at others)
Ross- 8.8 (Ross is great again as he continues to be insecure about getting pushed out of his son's life)

The Best Lines
Joey: As of today I am officially Joey Tribbiani- actor slash model.
Chandler: That's so funny 'cause I was thinking you looked more like Joey Tribbiani- man slash woman.

Monica: And Chandler, I assume you're still boycotting all the pilgrim holidays.
Chandler: Yes. Every single one of them.
Monica: And Phoebe, you're going to be with your Grandma?
Phoebe: Yes, but we're celebrating Thanksgiving in December 'cause he's lunar.

Ross: I'm off to Carol's.
Phoebe: Ooh, ooh! Why don't we invite her?
Ross: Ooh, ooh! Because she's my ex-wife and will probably want to bring her "Ooh, ooh!" lesbian life partner.

Ross (while looking through Carol and Susan's bookshelf): Wow, you guys sure have a lot of books about being a lesbian.
Susan: Well, you know, you have to take a course. Otherwise they don't let you do it.

Chandler: The most unbelievable thing is happening! Underdog has gotten away!
Joey: The balloon?
Chandler: No, no, the actual cartoon character. Of course the balloon!

The Moments
They get locked out of the apartment.
The Friends' first Thanksgiving together.
Joey gets "venereal disease".
Shoop, shoop, shoop.
Chandler's touching toast.

The Romances
Joey was going to have drinks with the "Obession" girl, but she saw his VD poster.

The Verdict
Great first Thanksgiving episode in a long line of excellent/hilarious Friends Thanksgiving episodes. Another wonderful episode in a streak of great epiodes. I'm really beginning to wonder when a half-bad episode will show up. It's starting to seem unlikely, though I know it's got to happen sometime. Monica was stellar, Ross was excellent, but Rachel was irksome. Hats off to the writers for making an original and interesting Thanksgiving episode, and let's hope for many more great episodes to come.