Bustle Exclusive
Yes, Friends Inspired That Steamy Off Campus Scene
Monica and Chandler are the mom and dad of secret hookups.
More than a month after Off Campus arrived on Prime Video — scoring the streamer’s third-most successful debut series ever — fans are still obsessing over the hockey romance’s steamiest moments. Literally steamy, in the case of Allie and Dean’s bubbly bathtub scene.
To recap: Episode 6 features a montage of their secret situationship where they explored their sexual chemistry. At one point, they indulge in a candlelit bath at the Briar guys’ house. When Tucker stops in the bathroom, Allie quickly dips beneath the surface to hide — so from Tucker’s POV, it looks like Dean was just enjoying a romantic solo bath with a pink vibrator.
Once he leaves, Allie emerges from the foam, gasping for air as she tells Dean: “That was absolutely the last time.”
If the scene felt familiar to you, you’re not imagining things! Co-showrunner Louisa Levy confirms to Bustle that it was partially inspired by another iconic TV couple who started with a secret hookup era: Monica and Chandler from Friends.
“Yes, we did that as a Friends moment for sure,” Levy says, noting that she’s a big fan of the NBC sitcom. “In addition to a book moment. We kind of merged the book moment and our Friends reference.”
As Levy points out, Allie and Dean’s bathtub scene first played out in Elle Kennedy’s novel, The Score — vibrator and all. (In fact, it becomes something of a house joke among the guys. At one point, Tucker asks Dean if his “little pink buddy” will be joining the team for breakfast.) But in the book, Allie jumps out of the tub and hides behind the door when Logan comes in. The on-screen version is a little closer to Friends, where Joey interrupts Chandler and Monica’s romantic bath time, prompting her to hide underwater.
Like in Off Campus, Joey is confused to see his friend having an uncharacteristically sensual, candlelit bubble bath, and like Dean, Chandler tries to play it off as totally chill and casual. “I’ve had a very long, hard day,” he says to his perplexed roomie.
It’s no wonder that Off Campus established a playful parallel between Allie and Dean and their Friends forebears. Both couples started out by keeping their hookups a secret from their respective friend groups, only to realize that their feelings for each other go way beyond the physical.
With Allie and Dean skating into the spotlight in Off Campus Season 2, viewers can look forward to the moment their pals finally find out about their hidden romance.
