The One With the Metaphorical Tunnel

Thursday, 10 October 1996

Chandler tries to cure his fear of commitment by rushing Janice, Phoebe poses as Joey's agent after losing his audition message, and Ross tries to get Ben to trade his Barbie for a boy's toy.

What happens

• Joey discovers that Phoebe took a message about an audition and never passed it on, so she telephones the casting director pretending to run an agency and books him a new appointment.
• Carol and Susan drop Ben off carrying a Barbie doll, and Ross starts offering him other toys to trade it away.
• Chandler explains that sharing a meal with Janice set off his panic about being a couple, and Joey advises him to beat the fear by becoming the most committed man alive.
• Chandler gives Janice a drawer in his dresser and raises the idea of moving in together, and Janice is frightened enough to leave.
• Chandler reports that Janice wants to slow down, and Monica and Rachel prescribe an accidental-on-purpose meeting where he behaves as though he does not care.
• Phoebe passes on a cruel rejection and tries to resign as Joey's agent, and Joey convinces her that blunt reasons are more use to him than Estelle's polite ones.
• Chandler corners Janice in a grocery store with a fake British accent and a made-up party, and Janice tells him he is either cheating or pathetic.
• Joey decides to go back to Estelle, and Phoebe cheerfully admits that she invented the insulting rejections to get out of the job.
• Janice telephones, Chandler apologises for his recent behaviour and admits he is crazy about her, and the two say they love each other.
• Carol and Susan return to find Ben clutching a G.I. Joe, and Monica embarrasses Ross by recalling that he dressed in their mother's clothes as a child and called himself Bea.