Second Look: Friends Season 5, Episode 15 – “The One With the Girl Who Hits Joey”

Friends Season 5, Episode 15 “The One With the Girl Who Hits Joey”
Written by Adam Chase
Directed by Kevin S. Bright
Aired February 18, 1999 on NBC

Like many solid episodes of Friends, “The One With the Girl Who Hits Joey” has a bit of a deceiving title; the “girl” in question – Katie, a full-on woman played by Soleil Moon Frye, of Punky Brewster and Punky Brewster (2021) – is only present in the episode’s two acts, and her entire contributions to the story amount to a few small bruises on Joey’s body, Rachel’s arm, and her own leg. Layered around that is an even dumber story, where Ross, with Phoebe’s help, tries to convince his new fellow tenants he isn’t an annoying cheapskate; for large swaths of the episode, “The One With the Girl Who Hits Joey” is a classic mid-season episode, with a heavy emphasis on the mid. And yet, as Friends often does in these middle seasons, when “The One With the Girl Who Hits Joey” turns its attention to Chandler, it takes on a completely different air, an arc imbued with Friends‘ rejuvenated rom-com energy that ultimately saves a forgettable episode, with another poignant moment of growth for the show’s most infallibly lovable character.

It was really only a matter of time before Chandler fully freaked out about his relationship with Monica and how serious it was bound to get; holding that moment until their relationship was fully oxygenated was a smart one by the Friends writer’s room, the benefits of which we see across this episode. What begins as an innocuous comment by Rachel – who tells him that Monica’s thoughts of the future are something Chandler’s obviously already aware of, because he knows her so well – becomes a full on Chandler Freakout, as the potential for another romantic failure begins to permeate his brain. It’s an entirely predictable arc, from his initial attempts to re-establish their relationship as “casual”, to his immediate defeatism when Monica isn’t immediately willing to let him off the hook (she reminds him that she can’t coach him through every emotional development in his life); it’s an arc that could come across as hacky if handled with less care, but Matthew Perry’s performance once again shines through and gives unexpected depth to Chandler’s anxious, comedic reactions, like when Monica reminds Chandler that the things he’s projecting onto her are his problems to work through, not hers.

This allows Friends to lean into a lot of different wrinkles of their relationship, led by the adjustments two best friends have to make if they want to really become a couple. How you view someone as a friend is incredibly different than a partner, and Chandler’s realization of that dichotomy is a palpable one – one that just so happens to feed right into his specific, established neuroses around commitment (and of course, the extravagant overreactions he’s prone to making in his most unsure moments). And it would be easy, and simple, for Friends to just lean on the comedic value of that – but smartly, “The One With the Girl Who Hits Joey” uses Monica to show that while you can literally beat someone’s feelings out of them, the only way anyone is ever going to learn is if they learn to at least try to work through these conflicts themselves; most of the time Chandler’s still going to need her help, because he’s just that broken emotionally, but letting him find his way to that, rather than letting her do the emotional labor, is a sign that Monica really is taking this relationship seriously, even if she’s not putting the same labels and expectations on it that she did with Richard (personal growth – it does exist on Friends sometimes!).

And though Monica and Chandler’s interactions barely make up a quarter of the episode’s running time, it provides a strong foundation for the rest of the episode, which is silly and weightless in the ways most mid-season Friends episodes are, coasting on chemistry and 90s goofiness (and, in this episode, a guest appearance from the dearly departed Willie Garson) through its incidental plots. It’s not always a neat balance; Monica’s role as the “serious one” in this episode contrasts with just about everyone else, although the episode avoids making her an annoying nag who just won’t let Chandler be Chandler (which, honestly, may just be the episode’s saving grace). And when it does nail its jokes, it nails them: Chandler’s faux proposal to Monica is a season highlight, in how it beautifully it defines Chandler’s warped worldview of love (where being in love is but one of the top four reasons for people to get married, in his eyes), gives Monica’s character a soft landing – and, of course, gives us the iconic pair of reactions with Rachel’s horrified face (“Ohhhhh I can’t not look at it”) and Ross and Joey’s resignation with what’s unfolding in front of them.

“The One With the Girl Who Hits Joey” may not be high on anyone’s list of favorite episodes – and honestly, is really only memorable for being arguably the most unrepresentative title of the season, thanks to its pair of uninspired Joey and Ross-centric plots. But as Friends has done time and time again in season five, it has used Monica and Chandler’s relationship to revisit and grow itself as a romantic comedy, more nimbly balancing moments of comedy and levity as it brings depth and meaning into a relationship that could easily be cynically written off as ratings bait in careless hands. Season five isn’t perfect, but an episode like “The One With the Girl Who Hits Joey” is a great reminder of why this is widely remembered as the real love story of Friends, and one of the most memorable sitcom arcs of the 20th century.

Grade: B–

Other thoughts/observations:

• Ross’s initial disgust, and then adoration, of his best friend and his sister dating is a rare strong comedic moment for him this season.
  
• Phoebe brings Ross salt, bread, and a bathroom candle – because, well, you know.
  
• “Howard’s the handyman.” Ross: “To me, he’s just man.“
  
• Chandler, failing to make a coherent analogy: “Richard’s an eye doctor… and I don’t wear glasses.” which… he absolutely does wear glasses, as we’ll see in later seasons.
  
• Ross playing “The Rockafeller Skank” at his empty house party is hilariously 1999-coded.
  
• “Who? Two divorces and Joey?”
  
• Ross trying to hide the piece of Howard’s cake he ate in a random plant is great.
  
• Extended thoughts: There is one additional joke where Ross wipes a child’s spit off his feet. One can almost tell season five is where they stopped shooting a lot of extra footage and alternate takes.
  
• Up next: Phoebe’s dating history gets even more unsettling in “The One with the Cop”.