The One Where Monica Gets a Roommate, aka The Pilot. This is the very first episode of “Friends” where Rachel shows up at Central Perk in her wedding gown, and gets to meet the rest of what will soon become “the gang”.
A life lesson that can be taken from this episode is: sometimes it’s better to live alone in the “real” world, rather than living off of someone in a “fake” world. Alone doesn’t necessarily have to mean by yourself, it just means without the (financial) support of others, like your parents for example. All the characters on this show live alone in the “real” world because most of the time they are supporting themselves, but they still get to hang out with each other. We see this when Rachel cuts up her credit cards and enters the adult world, or as Monica calls it, “the real world”. It can really build someone’s character, as we also see with Rachel over the first season, and is very important in becoming a truly independent person.
The Squinting Observer 