The One With the Cat

Thursday, 2 October 1997

Phoebe adopts a stray cat she believes holds her dead mother's spirit, Joey and Chandler get robbed while selling their entertainment center, and Monica finally dates her high-school crush Chip and finds him unchanged.

What happens

• Chandler rips his coat on the entertainment center again and talks Joey into selling it.
• Chip Matthews leaves Monica a message, and Rachel calls him back assuming it was meant for her.
• Phoebe picks up a stray cat at Central Perk and decides it carries the spirit of her mother Lily.
• Rachel objects to Monica dating Chip, then relents after Monica describes how invisible she felt in high school.
• Rachel brings in a flyer showing the cat belongs to a little girl in Soho, and Ross orders the others to tell Phoebe.
• Joey bets a buyer he can fit inside the unit and climbs in to prove it.
• Chandler comes home to an emptied apartment and lets Joey out of the unit the thief locked him into.
• Monica learns Chip still works at the multiplex and lives with his parents, so she dumps him.
• Ross tells Phoebe the cat is only a cat, and after she pushes back about losing a parent he apologises to the cat and she agrees to return it.