Ross tries to play rugby to impress Emily. Meanwhile, Chandler runs into Janice, and to avoid her, claims he is moving to Yemen. Monica discovers a light switch in the apartment that seemingly does nothing and takes some extreme measures to find its use.
Tropes:
- Artistic License – Sports: The rugby game that Ross plays in bears very little resemblance to reality. Although Ross's ignorance of the laws can be excused, since he's never played before, the rest of the players and the referee have no excuse.
- The scrum that the other players yell at Ross to join more closely resembles a maul, as it is a disorganised mess while a real scrum has a specific structure and positions for all the players involved. In real life, a scrum would never begin without all the players involved already being bound to it, and additional players wouldn't be allowed to join after it had started the way Ross does. The scrum also seems to involve every player from both teams, while a real scrum only involves forwards, who would make up 8 of the 15 players.
- Rather than wearing matching jerseys to indicate the two teams, the players are all wearing completely random colours. It's possible that this is because the match is simply a friendly game in the park rather than an official competition, but this is unlikely since there is a referee present who is wearing a proper referee jersey.
- Emily tells Ross that another player is not wearing a cup as a weakness he can exploit. In reality, almost no rugby players wear cups so this would not be noteworthy.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Because none of her friends took it easy on Ross as promised, Emily tells Ross what weaknesses he can exploit in order to get some payback and inflict as much pain as possible.
- Blatant Lies:
- Chandler's story about having to go to Yemen.
- When Monica puts on old drawings because "they brighten up the place". It doesn't fool Rachel though.
- Concealing Canvas: Rachel enters the apartment and finds that Monica put up drawings around the frame of the door. She pulls one out, revealing a hole that Monica made trying to find out where the switch is connected, and realizes the other pictures are covering other holes (except one that Monica just liked). Monica even put one on the floor when she tries to see if the wire led downstairs.
- Correlation/Causation Gag: In The Stinger, Phoebe thinks that blinking turns the TV on and off, not realizing it's because of the switch in the other apartment.
- Eskimos Aren't Real: Joey thinks Yemen is a fake place that Chandler made up to get away from Janice.
- Five-Second Foreshadowing: At the salon, Rachel finds she's sitting on a particular type of press-on nail.Chandler: Hey, you know, uh, who used to have nails like that?
Janice: [appearing] Oh, my God! - Flanderization: Janice was always a quirky and cartoonish character, but her previous appearance in Season 3 added more depth to her character, seeing through Chandler's shenaningans. In this episode, however, she's completely fooled by Chandler's incongruous Yemen story.
- Hot-Blooded: "RED ROSS!"
- In Touch with His Feminine Side: Rachel convinced Chandler to join her at a salon getting nails done. Chandler admits it is kind of fun, but also embarrassing because the only other guy there is the building's mailman (and he's only there as part of his route).
- Indy Ploy: After Janice makes her intentions clear, Chandler claims his company is transferring him over seas. Deconstructed in that he keeps trying to adjust in response to something Janice says or does, which ultimately results in having to buy an expensive ticket to Yemen and then fly there.
- Lampshade Hanging: One of Monica's ideas to figure out what the light switch does is to plug in four devices that make noise and following the noise after flipping the switch. Rachel points out she could've done this with lamps and followed the light instead.
- Last Request: During a break, a battered Ross puts on a brave front for Emily, but he privately tells Joey and Phoebe to tell Ben that he loves him.
- Moving the Goalposts: Janice continues following Chandler closer and closer to the departure gate, until finally he is forced to board the plane.
- Noodle Incident: Ross recalls how he had to "go Red Ross" when he exploded at a guy who cut in line when the group went to see Dances with Wolves. Neither Joey nor Phoebe remember this moment, until later when Ross psyches himself up before getting back in the game.
- Oh, Crap!: Chandler when he finds that Janice is not leaving until his plane takes off, forcing him to fly to Yemen.
- Relationship Revolving Door: When Chandler expresses revulsion about possibly getting back together with Janice, Phoebe lampshades how he was previously crazy about her and took their last break-up very hard. Chandler responds that all the things he found annoying about her are back in a big way (plus nine new ones). Janice is committed to getting back together with him, and Chandler is just as committed to getting away from her.
- Rugby Is Slaughter: The Ross plot is built around this trope, and when he plays in a game with Emily's friends from home he gets hurt pretty badly.
- "Shaggy Dog" Story: After all the measures she takes, Monica doesn't learn what the light switch is for. During the credits, it's revealed that it controls an outlet in the other apartment.
- Snap Back: Despite Chandler actually having to fly to Yemen to escape Janice at the end of the episode, by the start of the next episode he's back in New York with no explanation.
- This Is Gonna Suck: Heading to the door, Chandler can only mutter, "I'm goin' to Yemen!"
- Worth It: Ross ends the rugby game in such bad shape he can't move around on his own, but he is delighted over how he dished out some serious pain to guys taller and stronger than him.
- Played for Laughs a second later. When Emily moves in to hug him, Ross yelps in pain, but tells Emily it's worth it. Once she does it again, however, he changes his mind and decides it's not.
