"The One Where Everybody Finds Out" is an episode of Friends that earned two Emmy nominations. It's definitely not considered to be one of the worst episodes of the show, nor does it contain any controversy that fans may not even know about.

If you can't remember, Rachel and Phoebe end up finding out about Chandler and Monica. Wishing that they were told the truth of their relationship, Rachel and Phoebe attempt to get them to come clean through a series of manipulations that include Phoebe seducing Chandler... This causes Monica off and gets her to force Chandler into exposing the fact that Phoebe and Rachel know about them... It's basically all summed up in one memorable line... "They don't know that we know they know."

Perhaps the episode's success was due to the clever plotting and unique angle show creators Marta Kauffman and David Crane took in telling the rest of the characters that Monica and Chandler were together... which was something that wasn't even supposed to happen.

Here's the secret truth of it all...

Chandler and Monica with Joey Friends
Decider

Monica And Chandler Were Never Meant To Be... So The Creators Used It To Their Advantage

While Phoebe and Joey were supposed to end up together, unexpected pairings weren't really a thing on Friends... Until Chandler and Monica.

In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, the co-creators, creatives, and cast of the show went into detail about the origin of Monica and Chandler's relationship and how they orchestrated the reveal to the rest of the cast in that excellent episode.

Related: Inside Jennifer Aniston And Courteney Cox’s Fun Friendship

"Our intention was not for them to be as serious as they became," Marta Kauffman explained. "One of the fun things about doing a show that has years of legs on it is that it begins to tell you what it should be. When we were shooting the scene in London where we find out that Monica and Chandler have slept together, we were in front of a live audience and the reaction was so stunning…. We didn’t expect applause to last for two minutes. We kind of went, “Huh, this is such an unexpected duo, let’s play with it for a little while."

Eventually, Monica and Chandler's relationship evolved and, one-by-one, the rest of the characters found out about it... And they all handled it very differently.

Using Phoebe To Get The Information Out Of Chandler And Monica

Phoebe, especially, was unhappy that she wasn't told about their love so she full-in flirted with Chandler to get him to come clean about it... It was one of the episode's funniest moments... At least, the cast certainly thought so...

Phoebe and Chandler Friends The One Where Everybody finds out
IMDb

"I don’t think we ever got through it in rehearsal," director Michael Lembeck said. "Lisa [Kudrow] was always the first one to break. She and Matthew [Perry] really enjoyed this week playing off of each other. Because this particular element of sexual tension had never been there before and them discovering comedically how to go about the business of succeeding at that was, again, just a hilarious event."

It's this flirtation that tipped Monica off and causes her to retaliate against her by forcing Chandler to call Phoebe out on her bluff.

"That’s what sticks out to me, was trying to write it and see how many twists we could make without getting confused," Marta Kauffman claimed.

Then, of course, Joey steps in to try and get the two sides to stop trying to manipulate each other into telling the truth... So, he snaps Phoebe's shirt open, exposing her bra. In his mind, this would end things by causing Chandler to cave. "Chandler's afraid of bras, can’t work ’em."

Related: Matthew Perry Has A Busy Year Ahead Of Him, Thanks To The ‘Friends’ Reunion

"We almost had to rig Matt’s fingers to make it work!" Marta Kauffman said of the moment Matt LeBlanc's Joey tears open Phoebe's shirt.

"As Matt talked through what he wanted to do, it became a technical exercise: Show the costumer what you want to do and see if she can rig the dress," Michael Lembeck claimed.

Eventually, they had to use a Velcro shirt to be able to get Joey to efficiently snap Phoebe's shirt open in one swoop of his hand. It made for glorious comedy... But not as glorious as Phoebe's mating dance... which was entirely choreographed by Lisa Kudrow herself.

"Lisa moves in a certain way. She is a bit rhythmically challenged, so I wanted to really take advantage of that," Michael claimed. "And all week, me, as her director, and her cast just kept encouraging her to do more because we found it so damn funny. And you can see Matthew’s little grin. There’s a moment when his head goes back when she starts doing it. If you keep your eye on him, you can see the twinkle. You can see Matthew — while Chandler is curious, Matthew is enjoying."

Finally, Phoebe and Chandler kiss in a dreadfully uncomfortable moment that causes him to come clean about the fact that he "loves" Monica.

While the creators of Friends could've revealed this fact in a sappier and less creative way, they chose to use their characters to force it out in a brilliant turn of events. But when you don't plan on doing something like this from the start, it opens up all sorts of possibilities.

Next: How Close Are ‘Friends’ Stars Matthew Perry And Matt LeBlanc Today?