Second Look: Friends Season 4, Episode 5 – “The One with Joey’s New Girlfriend”

Friends Season 4, Episode 5 – “The One with Joey’s New Girlfriend”
Written by Gregory S. Malins & Michael Curtis
Directed by Gail Mancuso
Aired October 30, 1997 on NBC

As the true beating heart at the center of Friends, Chandler-centric episodes, especially in these early seasons, are always such a treat – even “The One with Joey’s New Girlfriend”, which sandwiches an intriguing, exciting new story for Chandler in between a laughably forgettable Phoebe story, and an early example of Ross and Rachel’s grating new dynamic. The fact Chandler’s infatuation with Joey’s new girlfriend Kathy can stand up against the loud, draining subplots elsewhere in the episode is a testament to writers and performer alike; as it often does, Friends experiences narrative and comedic highs when led by Matthew Perry’s performance, something “The One with Joey’s New Girlfriend” is able to enjoy, despite trying its hardest to get in its own way.

“The One with Joey’s New Girlfriend” begins, as you might expect, with Chandler hyping himself up to meet a cute women he sees in Central Perk – only to find out she’s both exactly his type, and already dating his best friend and roommate. Seasons three and four certainly have their flaws – finding interesting ways to explore Chandler and Joey’s friendship is not among them, and “TOW Joey’s New Girlfriend” is another great example of the writer’s room taking full advantage of dynamic, layered relationship Joey and Chandler have built to this point in the series (last season’s “The One with the Giant Poking Device” is considered by some as the best episode of season three).

“Joey’s New Girlfriend” is really the inverse of “Giant Poking Device” in some ways; where the latter finds Joey trying to avoid telling Chandler a terrible secret about his girlfriend, this episode finds Chandler avoiding Joey and his new girlfriend, in fear of letting his burgeoning feelings for Kathy bubble to the surface. After Chandler and Kathy (played wonderfully by Paget Brewster, I might add) enjoy a late night viewing of an Ernie Kovacs movie, Chandler is infatuated – and it’s hard not to cheer for Chandler, after seeing how casually Joey is treating their new relationship.

Try as he might, Chandler can’t contain his feelings; and though Joey doesn’t realize it as it is happening, they explode when Joey chastises Chandler for not giving Kathy a chance (noting that he did the same for Janice back in “The One with the Princess Leia Fantasy”). And in one scene, we are reminded of just how magical Perry’s performance as Chandler could be; one can feel the angst in his voice as he tells an unknowing Joey that yes, he’s falling in love with his girlfriend, mad that Joey met her first – and guilty he’s having these feelings at all, a testament to how much his friendship with Joey means to him, and why he can’t just come out and be honest with him.

Perry finds the humor and agony in this moment, capturing a melancholy Friends rarely employed throughout its run – but one that sets the stage for stories to follow in season four, in what is perhaps the show’s best season at capturing the melancholic moments that define the shift in life from our twenties to our thirties (but more on that later… the genesis of that idea is planted here, however, and is one we’ll see in almost every character’s story this season).

For now, Chandler’s crush sits as something lingering just under the surface; that tension is welcome, because the rest of “The One with Joey’s New Girlfriend” is fairly underwhelming. As much as I can appreciate (or thoroughly despise) Phoebe’s one-off stories, her pursuit of a sexy singing voice – by trying to hold onto a common cold – is thoroughly unfunny, even removed from the post-COVID panic of watching someone trying to catch sneezes out of another person’s mouth. Phoebe’s musical career is really never played for anything but jokes throughout Friends – “The One with Phoebe’s Ex-Partner” being the rare exception to this rule – and this episode really doesn’t even try to establish the stakes of Phoebe’s sickly journey.

Yes, it is explained she’s still out of work following the massage room incident… but what tangible benefit does this Sexy Sick Voice provide her, besides sounding cool? That question is never really even posited, which leaves this plot flailing for any sense of purpose, which it ultimately never finds, fragments of story inserted into this episode, almost as if it was pulled from the cutting room floor of another episode and utilized her to fill space between Chandler’s scenes – and of course, the annoying Ross and Rachel scenes, which are already threatening late season three levels of torpedoing any good qualities of the episode, with some truly heinous, shitty writing for two of its treasured main characters.

It really doesn’t help this is the opening shot of the episode; “The One with Joey’s New Girlfriend” begins with Ross waving a woman’s phone number in Rachel’s face, which is an unfortunate tone-setter for the touching Chandler story woven in between the rest of this episode’s nonsensical narrative. The only redeeming factor of Ross and Rachel’s delusional attempts to make each other jealous, is how hostile “The One with Joey’s New Girlfriend” treats their behavior; Ross eventually finds out he’s nothing but a babysitter to Amanda, while Rachel spends a full minute trying to justify Joshua, her new college boyfriend, constantly stealing money from their purse.

But “The One with Joey’s New Girlfriend” is not an episode about karmic justice; if that were the case, then the Joey/Chandler story would have to take a much different (and arguably less interesting) approach to its story to fit in. Without any sort of pathos attached to it, Ross and Rachel’s competing with each other to have the shittiest date feels like a major tonal miscalculation; this is “The One at the Beach” or “The One without the Ski Trip” levels of pettiness – except without those exotic settings providing some sort of distraction, this idiotic behavior is happening in the familiar locales of Central Perk and Monica’s apartment, only further souring the proceedings and tainting any energy or momentum Chandler’s story could build, with each underhanded insult from Rachel and every self-righteous smirk from Ross.

It makes “The One with Joey’s New Girlfriend”, which ostensibly kicks off a major plot arc for the season’s first act, feel like a forgettable, incidental episode – which would be a great bit of creative subterfuge, if it wasn’t wildly obvious there was no attempt at disguising the importance of this story. Friends, as we saw last season, has a keen ability to pander to its audiences with a strange mix of fan service and pessimism; there are hints of those habits being formed in this episode, and without an incredibly strong Perry performance to counter everything, would feel like one of the more pointlessly toxic episodes of the series to date. Thankfully, Chandler’s plot (and the performance behind it) continues to be a saving grace when the show needs it the most, offering the season’s first hint at a new overarching story with a really strong opening act, grounded smartly in its most versatile performer. At that, “TOW Joey’s New Girlfriend” is an undeniable success.

Grade: B-

Other thoughts/observations:

• I don’t really have an issue with Phoebe’s storyline – it just goes nowhere, and is one of those episodes of TV that feel a bit different post-COVID.
• Monica reminds Joey that a four-letter word for ship can’t be ship: “I thought it was a freebie!”
• Rachel’s birthday is revealed to be May 5th – though don’t think about this too hard, continuity with birthdays is something Friends really didn’t give a shit about.
• Chandler: “I was just trying to figure out a way to demonstrate how I could get my exceptionally large feet, into my even bigger mouth.”
• Phoebe has two endlessly quotable lines this episode: “This chick sounds goood” and “Gunther, be a good boy and bring me a whiskey.”
• We learn of a little darkness in Kathy, when she notes she works for a medical research company that does shit to hamsters.
• With the foresight we have, it is hilarious to see Ross chide Rachel for dating a college student, considering he would do it multiple years from now.
• Phoebe makes Monica soup while she’s sick; but it’s just noodle water, since Phoebe doesn’t eat anything with chicken in it.
• What is going on with Monica and Rachel’s hair in this episode? They both look terrible.
• Rachel, to Ross: “Why don’t you marry her? Oh wait, I forgot – she’s not a lesbian!”
• Fishnet stockings remind Chandler of his father, another reminder of how bad he needs therapy.
• One thing this episode does give us: Ross’s secret language for giving someone the finger, which I still do occasionally in 2024, because it’s just that good.
• Also – what the fuck is that pleather jacket Ross is wearing?
• Phoebe struggles to write new music for her sexy voice: “Nothing that sad has ever really happened to me.”
• I love the closing moment, where Chandler goes to Monica’s house to get a break from listening to Joey and Kathy. Though the writers probably didn’t realize it, it’s actually kind of a nice building block for the pair’s future romance.
• This episode has Phoebe’s song about parading goats leaving shit behind them, which is one of my favorite little Friends trivia points.
• Extended thoughts: the extended version of this episode is about a minute and a half longer than the broadcast version; most of this comes from extending the Chandler/Kathy scene in the middle of the episode, which is absolutely worth the extra running time.
• Up next: Chandler buys a birthday gift, and Monica caters a funeral in “The One with the Dirty Girl”.