Second Look: Friends Season 5, Episode 10 – “The One with the Inappropriate Sister”

Friends Season 5, Episode 10 “The One with the Inappropriate Sister”
Written by Shana Goldberg-Meehan
Directed by Dana DeVally Piazza
Aired December 17, 1998 on NBC

Dreams meet reality in “The One with the Inappropriate Sister”, a Friends episode that pulls three completely disparate story lines together under the similar, familiar theme of things not appearing as they seem. While it doesn’t make for a particularly memorable half hour, there’s something to be said for a rather aimless episode that’s able to hold itself together by even the thinnest layer of thematic harmony, elevating what is a rather mundane example of Friends taking a beat between major plot developments.

The biggest surprise of the episode comes not from any particularly story, but the simple pairing of Joey and Ross, paired off for the first time since “The One with Phoebe’s Uterus” – and in fact, is almost the inverse of that story, since this time we’re watching Joey teach Ross how to fill time while they’re both unemployed (Ross still reminds everyone he’s on sabbatical, of course). And although their story is utterly weightless – after a day of living at Joey’s pace, Ross inspires Joey to write a play, which just turns into him giving Joey homework between games of Fireball – it just feels refreshing.

Credit can’t go entirely to their pairing – which mostly treads familiar territory, where Joey says dumb shit and Ross reacts (in slightly more obnoxious ways than Chandler, as you might expect) – but the episode spends a good amount of time viewing both sides of the dynamic, which gives the story a bit of depth it wouldn’t otherwise. Where Joey embraces free time and gets Ross to tap into his playful side, Ross shows his own unhealthy approach to work-life balance, swinging the pendulum from Joey Chill to Gellar Neurotic as “The One with the Inappropriate Sister” continues, turning into Joey’s surrogate teacher and assigning him homework after Joey shows vague interest in writing material for himself (as his acting career continues to struggle post-“Boxing Day”)

Their pairing eventually gives way for Chandler to step in (having not much to do but fool around with Monica in the background of the episode), and him and Ross take on the same The Odd Couple dynamic we see whenever Chandler and Joey argue over the chick and duck. “The One with the Inappropriate Sister” gets a little less satisfying when its rehashing that dynamic – but by that time, watching Ross take the light out of Joey’s eyes has lost its luster a bit, and the episode does well to end on a rather affectionate note, when Joey writes a play to get his arguing paren- *ahem*, best friends, to reconcile.

If anything, this episode gives us another fine example of this being the season of Joey Being the Best Friend Ever – which is infinitely more value than what Friends provides with the third, and thankfully last, episode featuring Rachel’s crush Danny. And in his final appearance, we learn… him and his sister are weirdly close with each other, in ways that would even make Ross and Monica blush (even though they’re still more than willing to wrestle with each other, as Rachel proves when trying to prove a point). There’s really nothing else to say here, except watching awkward Rachel (who we saw more than enough of in season four) try and convince herself she can date someone who is borderline incestuous with his sister.

The whole story, which ends when Danny’s sister invites him to join in the bath with her, gave Rachel something to fawn over and ramble about for a few episodes, and… that’s about it? Danny’s ending is even more forgettable than his introduction, and caps off one of the show’s most useless, thoroughly unforgettable multi-episode recurring characters (of which Friends doesn’t have quite as long a list as you might think). It’s so bad and lifeless, and relies on some really unfunny jokes between Danny and his sister (and for Rachel to be a blithering idiot, quite frankly) it seems obvious literally any other story would’ve been time better spent, both for the show and character.

At least the story fits into the episode’s theme, of characters finding out that perception is not always reality – of which Phoebe forms the core, as Friends tries to challenge her undying optimism when she volunteers to be a Salvation Army donation collector in one of their most high-traffic areas of the holidays. Phoebe, hoping to spread joy to people, finds herself defending the donation can from the worst of humanity; it’s not really a story that goes anywhere, but does offer the always-amusing images of Phoebe trying to understand the people around her (who, in this episode, are bitchy old women and people trying to make change for the bus), yet another amusing chapter in the long-running series of Phoebe Against the World.

However, a touch of thematic unity – and Joey’s silly, but endearing “script” he writes for Ross and Chandler – can’t entirely redeem “The One with the Inappropriate Sister”, which does gets stuck in the mud whenever it turns its attention to Rachel and the Danny/Krista dynamic she slowly discovers through the episode (repeating a similar trend last season where her romantic subplot dragged everything around it down). Though in its own odd way, it ends up being a rather fitting story for the winter holidays – which, in some fashion or another, never works out the way it seems (and usually involves close friends or family members getting mad at each other in some fashion). In that regard, it’s not exactly a fitting Friends holiday episode,

Grade: C+

Other thoughts/observations:

• “Hello Mr. Bing” was such an iconic catchphrase in the 90s… scene still holds up, especially in the Extended version, where Joey tells Chandler he looks “sexy in his new suit”.
  
• Phoebe gets her Christmas job by lying about being able to say “Merry Christmas” in 25 different languages.
  
• Friends is slowly started to lean harder into the Joey is Dumb narrative – this week, he’s unable to spell words like suspicious.
  
• I don’t know what’s funnier; Joey’s agent telling us that “Talia Shire suddenly became available” or how Estelle says “gay porn”.
  
• Rachel mentions one of her sisters having a “masculine energy”. Also, that “they’re not very nice people”.
  
• Ross was one sorry polontologist.
  
• Phoebe dressing down an old woman’s donation will never get old, even if the Salvation Army is a disgusting organization.
  
• Extended thoughts: Perhaps the most important moment of the episode is cut – after Monica makes a joke about a promiscuous classmate, Phoebe notes “that’s weird – you’re starting to sound a lot like Chandler lately”.
  
• Up next: Ross tries out some new fashions as Friends rings in 1999 in “The One with All the Resolutions” (an episode that would air after January 1st, oddly enough).