The One With the Girl from Poughkeepsie

Thursday, 18 December 1997

Chandler sets Rachel up with a colleague and ruins it twice by telling him the wrong thing, Monica fires Joey to win her kitchen's respect, and Ross sleeps through his stop on the way to a breakup.

What happens

• Ross tells the others about a woman he met on a train, and admits she lives two and a half hours away in Poughkeepsie.
• Rachel says she is sick of being single and would settle for a fling, so Chandler offers to set her up with someone from his office.
• The restaurant staff burn an insult onto Monica's chef's hat, and on Chandler's advice she hires Joey purely so she can fire him in front of everyone.
• Rachel returns thrilled from her date with Patrick and wants something serious, and Chandler admits he had already told Patrick she only wanted a fling.
• Monica finally raises her voice at the waiters, but Joey stays silent rather than lose his tips, and he talks her into keeping him on instead of firing him.
• Phoebe tells Ross, who still cannot choose between the Poughkeepsie woman and the one uptown, to end both relationships in a single train trip.
• Patrick breaks up with Rachel after Chandler tells him she wants a serious relationship, and Chandler apologises and invites her to a hockey game.
• Ross falls asleep on the train and rides past Poughkeepsie while the woman calls up to his window from the platform.
• Locked in the walk-in and covered in sauce, Monica comes out, fires Joey in front of the staff, and starts giving orders the kitchen actually follows.
• Ross wakes at the end of the line in Montreal and agrees to coffee with a woman who then mentions she lives a two-hour ferry ride away.