Ross and Rachel do laundry together. Rachel has never done laundry herself before and she is intimidated by a woman at the laundromat, but Ross convinces her to stand up to the woman.
Chandler and Phoebe decide to break up with their significant others together. Phoebe has no problems, but Chandler has trouble breaking up with Janice. Phoebe helps him.
Joey wants to get back together with an ex-girlfriend, Angela, but she is dating someone else named Bob. He convinces her to double date him and his "girlfriend", and he convinces Monica to pose as the girlfriend by telling her that she will be dating his girlfriend's brother, Bob. At the date, Monica is appalled by the inappropriate behavior between Angela and her "brother", but she then figures out that Angela and Bob are together. She and Joey manage to attract Bob and Angela's attentions away from each other.
Tropes
- Double Date: Joey gets Monica to go on a double date with him as a ploy to get his ex-girlfriend Angela away from her new boyfriend Bob. A strange version with Chandler and Pheobe who are double dating to break up with their respective partners.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: Janice's voice isn't as high-pitched as it is later on and her signature Annoying Laugh is slower than in later episodes.
- First Appearance: Of Janice, Chandler's on-again, off-again girlfriend (and eternal thorn in his side).
- First Kiss: Rachel grabs Ross and kisses him after she successfully stands up to the woman ordering them around at the laundromat.
- Go Through Me: When the woman takes Rachel’s cart at the laundromat, Rachel climbs in and says that if she’s going to take it she’ll have to take her along with it.
- Hillbilly Incest: Discussed by Monica when she characterizes the Double Date she and Joey are on with Angela and Bob (the latter two she believes to be siblings) as "cocktails in Appalachia".
- Jerkass: The Horrible Woman (as she’s listed on the credits) who bullies Rachel at the laundromat.
- Laundromat Liaisons: Rachel and Ross bond as a result of their misadventures in the laundromat, culminating in them kissing.
- Must Have Caffeine: Chandler feels the need to drink several espressos to gain courage before breaking things off with Janice. It leaves him fairly hyper.
- Proxy Breakup: Phoebe eventually steps in to break up with Janice for Chandler.
- Red Sock Ruins the Laundry: One of Rachel's red socks ends up in her white load and dyes it all pink. She wails that now she's going to look like a marshmallow peep.
- Relative Error: Inverted as Joey tells Monica that Angela and Bob are siblings to convince her to go on a double date with him. Monica is disturbed seeing the supposed siblings' flirty behavior.
- Shout-Out:
- Janice buys Changler a pair of Bullwinkle socks to match the pair he already has with Rocky on them.
- Monica "laughed so hard" at Bob's Norman Mailer joke she spilled food on his shirt.
