Friends Season 4, Episode 7 – “The One Where Chandler Crosses the Line”
Written by Adam Chase
Directed by Kevin S. Bright
Aired November 13, 1997 on NBC
It’s rare Friends opens an episode as it does with “The One Where Chandler Crosses the Line”; there is no incidental cold open, no peaceful series of establishing shots bringing us back into the Friends universe. Instead, it begins with a feverish rush, a robed Chandler storming into Monica and Rachel’s apartment after accidentally seeing Kathy naked. But an incredibly jarring start like this is necessary; paired with the following episode, “The One Where Chandler Crosses the Line” is perhaps the most important episode about Joey and Chandler’s friendship in the entire series (if we’re counting, “The One Where Joey Moves Out” is second on the list), and thus demands the audience’s immediate attention.
Friends is never a series to move slowly with its narrative (as we’ll see later on this season, in one of the show’s most divisive storylines), and it would be easy to forget its only been two episodes since Kathy’s introduction in “The One with Joey’s New Girlfriend”. The episode’s script (credited to series regular Adam Chase) smartly catalyzes what’s been brewing in Kathy and Chandler’s shared time in the living room boat, when an already-flustered Chandler walks in on Joey exchanging numbers with a woman at Central Perk.
HIs excitement is palpable; so is his disappointment, when Joey states the obvious and points out he’s going to date both women (on the same night – after he’s already eaten an entire pizza himself!). As effectively as Matthew Perry channels Chandler’s anxiety for humor, perhaps his true talent was channeling it for vulnerability; which comes front and center as he struggles and fails to indirectly convince Joey to take the monogamous route for once in his life.
But after Joey and Casey conveniently get stuck far, far offscreen (the transmission bouncing somewhere around the Brooklyn Bridge, I like to imagine), Friends turns the pressure up to 11 – and for five straight minutes (an eternity in Friends‘s typical narrative structure), “The One Where Chandler Crosses the Line” watches as Chandler and Kathy’s defenses fade away, until they end the scene in each other’s arms.
What begins with Chandler and the duck watching Baywatch together, ends with the two embracing not once, but twice; in between is an incredibly well-written scene, one constantly increasing the narrative (and sexual) tension in the room. It is Friends at its rom-com finest; the two laughing as they share symmetrical seats on the boat, Chandler shivering as Kathy cuts his hair and gently breathes in his air, and finally, the two leaning against opposite sides of Chandler’s apartment door – as Chandler points out moments before, “we can swallow our feelings, even if means we are unhappy forever!”
That moment speaks to Chandler’s character in such a powerful way; lest we forget, it was only a season ago Chandler saw an entire future forming for himself – before realizing he was already living in someone else’s happy ending. For three-plus seasons, we’ve watched Chandler twitch and flail his way through his romantic pursuits, a man earnestly putting himself out there time and time again, even when the world continues to beat him down. At this point, he’s resigned himself to failure, watching his best friend date the first semblance of hope he’s felt in ages – and even after his luck seemingly changes, it comes at the potential cost of the most important friendship of his life.
Some may call into question Joey’s behavior in this episode; for my money, this Joey is much closer to the “true” Joey than the bumbling idiot we saw offloading his emotional labor in “The One with the Dirty Girl”; one can’t fault Joey for dating around if him and Kathy weren’t exclusive, and one also can’t blame him for how he reacts, when he finds out Chandler made his move on Kathy before she had broken up with him (and also, why Chandler remodeled their entire living room out of guilt).
It’s a tough trick to pull off in three episodes (especially with the weird Joey behavior in the last episode), but Friends clearly does it – when Joey tells of Chandler at the end of the episode, the audience’s heart falls alongside Chandler, as he becomes torn between the two people at the forefront of his life… a knife only twists further after it’s pointed out to Chandler he probably could’ve just asked Joey, and avoided this entire situation altogether.
It’s an incredibly well executed piece of plot; even Kathy, who would most likely be registered to an extended punchline if she appeared in later seasons, has a surprising amount of presence in this plot (at least, to this point). As she points out to Chandler (until he begs her to stop), it’s not that she doesn’t like Joey, but what she sees in Chandler is something different, something deeper and a lot riskier than hanging out with a silly guy who is a bit dumb, a bit endearing – and of course, a bit selfish in how he approaches his romantic entanglements. Her recognizing the spark between them only makes what happens harder, when Chandler puts his years-long friendship on the line to embrace a woman he’s spent weeks thinking about.
The plot at the center of “The One Where Chandler Crosses the Line” feels like season four kicking into high gear; however, for their story to have the weight it needs – especially in the second act – the rest of the episode needs to provide a counterbalance. Who would’ve thought a Ross/Phoebe subplot would be the perfect solution? In perhaps the strangest turn of events, Phoebe encouraging Ross’s “return” to music turns out to be exactly the companion piece to the Chandler/Kathy/Joey love triangle dramatic needs.
What’s not to enjoy here? After helping Phoebe with the composition of her latest “song”, Ross is encouraged to break out his piano and sfx CDs to publicly debut his ‘incredibly personal’ music – which leads to one of Ross’s most endearing stories in ages, as his awful sound poems pummel the ears of Friends‘s three leading women. Though Rachel finds it hilarious, neither her, nor Monica or Phoebe (who is mostly jealous of Ross’s hidden ‘talent’), ever ridicule or shame Ross for his musical pursuits, which makes this silly subplot another fine demarcation point between this season and the last.
Admittedly, it’s a bit endearing to see Ross plucking away at his nonsense sounds while Phoebe watches in awe and the other two try to stifle their laughs; it’s a rare example of Friends and its characters not explicitly trying to embarrass Ross for his quirky interests, and adds a light touch around a character who hasn’t been afforded much in the past season’s worth of episodes. And though it has no impact on the stories around it, it acts as a salve between the emotionally charged scenes surrounding it – without being cloying or distracting, traps lazier episodes of Friends often fall into.
“The One Where Chandler Crosses the Line”, however, smartly limits this subplot to minimal running time; in fact, this episode wants the episode’s pitch and rhythm tuned to Chandler’s story so strongly, it cuts an entire Rachel subplot from the episode, cutting an entire three minutes from the episode to keep the emotional momentum from being lost between scenes. And though it’s a choice that works for the episode, the Extended version, which features the excised subplot of Rachel “dating” herself for a week, is far superior for its inclusion – for my money, it’s one of the best one-off Rachel stories of the entire series, from her reluctant acceptance to eat dinner alone, to her eventually having to break up with herself because its the 1990s, and men still think women eating alone is a crazy idea.
Look, it’s not the most impressive endeavor for Rachel; but it’s a great showcase of the range of Aniston’s comedic talents, from describing the joy of her first dinner out, to the inner monologue she has later on, when she realizes she’s had enough of dating herself, and is ready to get out into the world. It offers her character a comedic versatility not often afforded her in the series, which is typically defined by her ditzier qualities – and more importantly, is a reminder of how strong a character Rachel can be when driven by her own internal curiosities, rather than acting in reaction to other’s perception of her. Rachel’s individuality waxes and wanes throughout the years, but this is one subplot harkening back to season three’s earlier episodes – and is all the better for it.
With “The One Where Chandler Crosses the Line”, season four of Friends feels like it’s finally found its footing, an incredibly balanced mix of emotional drama, nonsensical humor – and an underlying sense of self-discovery often driving the best of Friends episodes, especially in early years. And despite not being the most consequential midseason plot of the series (or even this season), “TOW Chandler Crosses the Line” is one of the best episodes of the season, and the show’s second act so far – an encouraging sign Friends hasn’t lost its touch, or its heart, 80 episodes into the series.
Grade: A
Other thoughts/observations:
- Chandler: “There are no boils, she’s smooth…. Smooth!”
- Chandler tells Joey to ‘pick a lane’, to which Joey responds “who’s Elaine?”
- My favorite joke of Rachel’s excised plot is her thinking an Italian restaurant is good because she “saw a lot of Chinese people in there”. She says this, because Monica once said a Chinese restaurant looked good for the same reason.
- Rachel, after watching Ross play piano: “I can’t believe I ever let him touch me with those fingers.”
- Chandler admits he watches Baywatch, but only “for the articles”.
- “I like it in the stern… of the boat.”
- Wait, Joey thought he hit a dog and kept driving? Let’s just chalk this one up to ignorant writing, because that would be one of the shittiest things anyone did in this show.
- Joey didn’t realize Kathy was breaking up with him: “At first I thought she was doing some kind of scene, that’s why I let people watch!”
- Ross pretends to “lose” his musical touch, so Phoebe doesn’t have to feel bad any longer, which is the perfect way to end a story for Ross’s slightly self-righteous character.
- Extended thoughts: Not much else to talk about here, beyond the already-discussed Rachel plot.
- Up next: Rachel’s feelings on return policies come to light in “The One with Chandler in a Box”.
I agree that this is one of the show’s best and most underrated episodes. What I love about Joey and Chandler’s temporary falling out is that it never once forgets that Joey and Chandler both love and care about each other. Even in the midst of his refusal to even talk to Chandler at the beginning of the following episode, it’s clear that Joey desperately WANTS to be in a place where he can forgive Chandler, but Chandler first needs to earn back his trust (which he does in a hilarious and, eventually, heartwarming fashion). One of the most nuanced and underrated subplots of the whole series.