The One the Morning After

Thursday, 20 February 1997

Ross sleeps with a woman from the copy shop on the night he and Rachel break up, then spends the day trying to keep her from finding out, and Rachel ends the relationship once Gunther tells her.

What happens

• Rachel tells Monica that she and Ross broke up on their anniversary, and that after talking to Mark she has decided she wants to make the relationship work.
• Ross wakes at his apartment with Chloe there and plays a message from Rachel saying she loves him and will come by at half past eight.
• Ross hurries Chloe out, hides her behind the door when Rachel arrives early, and agrees to take Rachel back while Chloe is still in the apartment.
• Ross tells Chandler and Joey what he did, and they talk him out of confessing to Rachel.
• Joey warns Ross to think about who might pass the news along, and Chandler works out the chain from Chloe through Isaac and Jasmine to Phoebe and then Rachel.
• Monica and Phoebe try out the leg-waxing kit Monica bought from an infomercial and discover that it hurts a great deal.
• Ross visits Chloe, Isaac and Jasmine in turn to buy their silence, and learns that Jasmine's roommate is Gunther and that Gunther has already told Rachel.
• Rachel throws Ross out and refuses to look at him, while Monica, Phoebe, Chandler and Joey listen from Monica's bedroom and Monica discovers the men knew.
• Rachel works out that Chloe was still in the apartment when she arrived that morning, and Ross defends himself by saying he believed they had already ended.
• Ross begs Rachel to find a way past it, and Rachel tells him he has become a different person to her and that the relationship is over.