Rachel has a crush on her new client. Chandler gets jealous of Kathy and her co-star.
Tropes
- Be Careful What You Wish For: When Joey comes over for some food, Monica balks at having to continue to play hostess and says having the big apartment means providing food to the rest of the group. She just wants to punish the guys for taking their apartment, but Joey turns out to be quite adept at making food and hosting get-togethers, so she does everything possible to become hostess again.
- Big "OMG!": Chandler after the others chastise him for fighting with Kathy solely on the basis of Joey's theory.
- Borrowed Catch Phrase: In The Tag, Rachel is play acting with hers and Joshua's driving licenses and he has him say Joey's "How you doin'?"
- Break-Up Bonfire: Joshua has to buy new clothes because his ex-wife burned all of his clothes except for the suit he's currently wearing and a skirt he apparently grabbed by mistake.
- Catchphrase: This is the first episode where Joey says "How you doin'?"
- Crazy Jealous Guy: Chandler gets incredibly suspicious about the chemistry between Kathy and Nick. He convinces himself that there's something going on between them despite Kathy's protests that they're just acting.
- Death Glare: When Ross suggests that maybe Kathy thought she and Chandler were on a break, everyone except Monica, who was asleep on the couch, turns to glare at him.
- Downer Ending: Twofold for two of the main group in this episode: Rachel ends up demoted to personal shopping and she bungles an attempt to ask her crush Joshua out on a date as he takes the two tickets she gives him and brings his cousin instead, while Chandler ends up brutally broken-hearted after he accuses his girlfriend Kathy of sleeping with her co-star, and breaks up with her after she does sleep with Nick after the last argument.
- Drowning My Sorrows: After his last fight with Kathy, Chandler goes out to a bar and gets incredibly drunk. He's barely coherent by the time he arrives back at the apartments.
- Dumbass Has a Point: Joey's theory about Unresolved Sexual Tension is seen by Chandler as this, and he insists Kathy and Nick not having good chemistry during the next performance is all the proof he needs. However, when the others learn that's all Chandler based his fight with Kathy on, Joey is among those pointing out it was just a theory and not enough to pick a fight over.
- The Ghost: Supposed Hunk Nick, Kathy's co-star, is not seen. They all just keep mentioning his abs and nipples.
- History Repeats: Chandler and Kathy have a fight that could be seen as their relationship ending, Kathy sleeps with someone else, Chandler and Kathy definitely break up. Almost lampshaded by Rachel and Ross.Rachel: Honey, this is not your fault. Just because you guys had a fight, it does not justify her sleeping with someone.
Ross: Well, if-if she thought they were on a break…
(group Death Glare) - Hypocrite: Chandler cruelly throws the fact that their relationship got started with Kathy cheating on Joey with him in her face as if he wasn't a fully willing participant in that.
- I'm Standing Right Here: Rachel comes home gushing about Joshua to everyone, including her increasingly irritated ex-boyfriend Ross.Ross: Uh, hello?
Rachel: Hi! - Insane Troll Logic: Chandler thinks Kathy is sleeping with Nick based on Joey's theory: if they were sleeping together, their on-stage chemistry would be bad.
- Insecure Love Interest: Chandler feels completely threatened by Nick's oft-stated attractiveness and how he gets to do a love scene with Kathy, ultimately accusing her of cheating on him and citing how they got together to back up his point. Deconstructed, as this is a factor in Chandler and Kathy breaking up.
- It's All My Fault: After breaking up with Kathy for good, Chandler says he hates her, only to say he doesn't and express certainty this situation is all his fault.
- Malicious Misnaming: Chandler suspects that Nick will undermine him to Kathy by doing this. Joey acknowledges how that is a good trick. Ross later does it in regards to Joshua, in the face of Rachel constantly praising the guy.
- Mistaken for Cheating: Subverted with Kathy. She insists that there's nothing going on between her and Nick when Chandler confronts her...but then she actually does sleep with him.
- No Guy Wants to Be Chased:
- Phoebe advises Rachel to ask Joshua out instead of waiting for him to make the first move. Rachel picks up the phone to try it, but when he answers she can't bring herself to do it. She eventually tries to invite him to a Knicks game, but screws up and he assumes she's giving him both the tickets.
- When Phoebe makes the suggestion Joey agrees with it and says he thinks that a woman asking out a man is "such a turn-on".
- The Triple: After Chandler broke up with Kathy over Joey's theory, Joey has this explanation:Joey: Whoa, whoa, whoa, that's just a theory! There's a lot of theories that didn't pan out. Lone Gunman, Communism, geometry...
- Unresolved Sexual Tension: Discussed by Joey, who believes the reason Kathy and Nick have such good chemistry onstage is because of this reason, and if they actually had slept together, the tension would be relieved and the chemistry wouldn't be as strong. He backs it up by pointing out how he always had bad onstage chemistry with his female co-stars.
