The One Where Ross Dates a Student

Thursday, 9 March 2000

Ross starts dating a student who praised him on an anonymous evaluation and finds out too late that it could cost him his job, while a fire drives Rachel and Phoebe out of their apartment.

What happens

• Joey asks Chandler to trade on an old college friendship with the director Dana Keystone and get him an audition before Thursday.
• Rachel phones for her messages, a firefighter answers, and she learns that her apartment has burned.
• Elizabeth admits she is the student who called Ross attractive on his evaluation, and Ross accepts a date once she points out that he is no longer her teacher.
• The bedrooms are gutted, and Phoebe, certain her candles caused the fire, hands Rachel the one spare room at Monica's and takes Joey's place herself.
• A second inspector reports that a hair straightener started the fire, which means Rachel is to blame rather than Phoebe.
• Rachel gets Joey to telephone Phoebe posing as the inspector so that Phoebe goes on believing the candles did it.
• Two meetings pass without Chandler raising the audition, so he fakes a broken heart and gets Dana to schedule Joey for Thursday out of pity.
• Ross introduces Elizabeth to his colleagues as his girlfriend and they tell him that dating a student is grounds for dismissal.
• Ross reads the rule in the handbook and ends things, then he and Elizabeth find the forbidden angle exciting enough to carry on anyway.
• Joey, still at home eating pizza, realises that Thursday has arrived and that he has missed the audition.