The Last One (Friends)
Phoebe Buffay (Lisa Kudrow) and Joey Tribbiani (Matt LeBlanc) pack the belongings of Monica Geller (Courteney Cox) and Chandler Bing (Matthew Perry), who have accompanied Erica (Anna Faris) to the hospital.
Rachel Green (Jennifer Aniston) leaves Ross Geller's (David Schwimmer) bedroom after their apparent reunion in the previous episode.
At his apartment, Joey shows Phoebe his house-warming gift for Monica and Chandler: a chick and duckling to replace the ones that died.
Later at the Central Perk café, Phoebe convinces Ross to tell Rachel how he feels about her before she leaves for her new job in Paris.
Phoebe's reckless driving gets her and Ross to JFK Airport and, after buying a ticket to get past security, they search the information boards for Rachel's flight number.
The final shot shows the empty apartment, slowly panning around from the living space to the front door as Jefferson Airplane's "Embryonic Journey" plays.
Before writing the episode, David Crane, Marta Kauffman and Kevin S. Bright decided to watch the series finales of other sitcoms, paying attention to what worked and what did not.
[4] The music playing as the camera pans across the empty apartment at the end of the episode is "Embryonic Journey" by Jefferson Airplane.
"[12] Maggie Wheeler, who played Chandler's "on and off" girlfriend Janice, told People, "the entire cast had to go back and have their makeup redone before starting," and that Perry broke the tension by saying, "Somebody is gonna get fired.
[18] Viewing parties were organized by local NBC affiliates around the United States, including an event at Universal CityWalk featuring a special broadcast of the finale on an outdoor Astrovision screen.
Following the finale, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno was filmed on the set of the Friends' Central Perk café, which featured the series' cast as guests.
The retrospective episode was watched by just under 36 million viewers, and the finale was the second most-watched television show of the year, behind only Super Bowl XXXVIII.
[23][24][25] Robert Bianco of USA Today described the finale as entertaining and satisfying, and praised it for deftly mixing emotion and humor while showcasing each of the stars.
"[26] Newsday's Noel Holston called the episode "sweet and dumb and satisfying,"[27] while Roger Catlin of The Hartford Courant felt that newcomers to the series would be "surprised at how laughless the affair could be, and how nearly every strained gag depends on the sheer stupidity of its characters.
"[28] An editorial in USA Today highlighted the view of many critics who found problem with the aging cast, commenting, "Friends was getting creaky even as it remained popular.
"[29] Heather Havrilesky of Salon.com said that despite the "nauseating hype and the disappointing season and the lackluster finale, it's important to remember what a great show this was for such a very long time.
"[30] Ken Parish Perkins of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram gave the finale a B grade, calling it "more touching than comical, more satisfying in terms of closure than knee-slappingly funny.
[9] At the party at the Park Plaza Hotel, The Rembrandts performed the theme song of Friends, "I'll Be There for You", and the cast gave a re-enactment of the pilot episode's first scene.
