Rachel finally goes on a date with Danny, but discovers he has a strange relationship with his sister. Phoebe does charity work. Ross gives Joey the idea to write his own script, but is overbearing in getting Joey to commit to it.
Tropes:
- Ability over Appearance: In-universe. Talia Shire is cast in a play over Joey, despite the part being to play a 29 year-old male Italian actor from Queens (all things that Joey is in real life). When he protests to Estelle that Talia is a 52 year-old woman, Estelle can only say that she nailed the audition.
- Bad "Bad Acting": To get Chandler and Ross to make up, Joey comes up with a rather obvious scene paralleling the whole situation. The dialogue he came up with leaves Chandler and Ross providing rather clunky delivery.Chandler: [stilted] "Could I be more sorry?"
- Berserk Button: Ross hates it when others simply say he's unemployed. He angrily asserts that he's on sabbatical.
- Big "OMG!": Chandler's reaction to seeing how close Danny and Krista are.
- Both Sides Have a Point: Ross is right that Joey should honor his commitments rather than goof off, as well as how Chandler enables this procrastination and helped him engage in a rather destructive game. In turn, Chandler is right that Ross is simply using Joey as a means to alleviate his own boredom while not working.
- …But He Sounds Handsome: Joey's scripts just happen to refer to the character he plays as "the handsome man".
- Calvinball: Joey and Chandler invent a game called "Fireball", which involves oven gloves, lighter fluid, and a tennis ball. Later, they introduce the variant "Ultimate Fireball", which involves a bowling ball and an acetylene torch.
- Christmas Episode: The episode takes place during the Christmas holidays, with Phoebe getting involved in collecting money for the poor, which doesn't go very well for her.
- Empty Fridge, Empty Life: Ross is so bored while on sabbatical that he decides to rearrange the contents of the fridge. The bottom shelf is meat and dairy (and also completely empty), the middle shelf is fruit and vegetables (with one unidentifiable item) and the top shelf is packed with "expired products".
- Girl on Girl Is Hot: In end credits scene Joey attempts to get Rachel and Monica to act out a new scene where their characters make out. The girls quickly catch on and storm off in disgust before anything happens.
- Holiday Volunteering: Phoebe spends Christmas doing charity work. She quickly gets annoyed with people "disrespecting the bucket" and eventually gets fired because she's too aggressive in defending it.
- Hope Spot: Rachel is rather relieved to learn the other woman is Danny's sister, Krista. She then immediately sees just how close the siblings are.
- Incest Subtext: Danny is incredibly close with his sister, which freaks Rachel and the rest of the gang out.
- Late to the Realization:
- Most of the group gets to see how close Danny and his sister are and (after the two leave) agree with Rachel how inappropriate they were being. Joey, however, didn't know the two were related until Chandler explicitly pointed it out. Chandler is visibly displeased by this late realization.
- It takes a few lines of Joey's script for Ross and Chandler to realize he's trying to get them to iron things out.
- The Matchmaker: Monica gets sick of Rachel dancing around her feelings for Danny and decides to just ask him him out for her. Rachel is annoyed at Monica's "meddling" for about five seconds before cheerfully declaring that she finally has a date with him.
- Mistaken for Cheating: Rachel catches Danny getting on the subway with another woman and thinks he's cheating on her. It turns out the woman is Danny's sister, but that turns out to be the least of her worries.
- Prank Call: Joey apparently makes frequent calls to Chandler's office pretending to be a woman who's in love with Chandler.
- Workaholic: Ross so much so that his sabbatical leaves him desperate for something to do.
