One thing’s been clear this season, though: Friends, for the first time, has really invested in Rachel’s growth as a character, and the writers clearly recognized the limitations of keeping the two together. Whether Chloe’s effect on the plot accomplishes that, well… that’s a debate for another day. But that’s not the point here, of course: Chloe needs to be established quickly as someone close enough to the group’s orbit that Ross would be comfortable with her – though her introduction and presence seem very random, I think it’s a rather well-crafted bit of narrative magic to make her feel at least a little dimensional, rather than a sex object thrown at Ross to make things more interesting.
The one where ross and rachel take a break full#
It’s a very difficult puzzle to try and script out how does a show establish Chloe as someone Ross would legitimately be tempted by? Given we’ve seen how awful his ability to converse with women normally is, there’s really only one way, which credited writer Michael Borkow utilizes to full effect Chloe has a crush on Ross, and hangs out at the bar that looks suspiciously like the one Central Perk was supposedly turned into.Īs a story for Chandler and Joey? Quite frankly, it’s one the series has already done this season, and one it would do better numerous times throughout the series’ run. And for such a throwaway Chandler/Joey plot, it is rather smartly crafted as a way to introduce Friends infamous agent of chaos. Similarly, “TOW Ross and Rachel Take a Break” needs Chandler and Joey’s awkward copy shop adventures it allows us to meet Chloe, a character who Friends quickly establishes has existed on the fringes of the story for awhile. We need Phoebe’s ridiculous attempt to date a non-English speaking diplomat, because it provides a comedic salve for what happens between America’s favorite sitcom couple without it, it wouldn’t feel like Friends, in a way that could threaten to consume the entire season to follow (doesn’t make her plot, which ends in a combative double date with Monica, any more useless). It’s a necessary balance, of course, because every time the episode cuts back to Ross and Rachel’s snowballing argument (during their anniversary, 365 days after “The One Where Ross Finds Out”), Friends gets about as dark as it ever would.
However, what is often remembered as a fairly clean thoroughline from Rachel’s declaration to Ross’s drunken decision, is actually a rather nuanced story – one that’s weaved surprisingly well between two utterly bullshit asides about Phoebe’s diplomat boyfriend, and Joey and Chandler debating how they’d approach a theoretical threesome together. With such dramatic stakes comes expectations – which, given its place as one of the most iconic plot twists of the 1990’s, it certainly lives up to, at least on a surface level. With a title like “The One Where Ross and Rachel Take a Break”, Friends certainly can’t be accused of burying the lede of its 63rd episode.
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