Second Look: Friends Season 4, Episode 15 – “The One with All the Rugby”

Friends Season 4, Episode 15 “The One with All the Rugby”
Written by Ted Cohen & Andrew Reich (story), Wil Calhoun (teleplay)
Directed by James Burrows
Aired February 26, 1998 on NBC

Alongside “The One with Rachel’s Crush” and “The One with Joey’s Dirty Day”, “The One with All the Rugby” completes a trilogy of Friends episodes prominently focused on Chandler’s Break-Up – and in a particularly genius move, brings back Janice to truly mark this as the end of an era of Chandler Bing’s life. Though the episode doesn’t really have a lot of time to reflect on this, thanks to a much louder, more prominent story about Ross and his new girlfriend, “The One with All the Rugby” uses its humor to observe a changing of the tides with two of its main male characters – a quietly effective, if inconsistently applied, way to start laying the groundwork of what’s to come.

There’s certainly a reading of Chandler’s latest (and what would be his last) attempt to have a relationship with Janice that feels particularly cruel; after all, this episode details Chandler going through an elaborate series of farces to try and avoid actually breaking up with Janice (eventually telling her he’s going to Yemen to try and solve the impending energy crisis). However, there’s an underlying sadness to the immaturity Chandler displays in this episode; his desperation to immediately rid himself of Janice after running into her at the nail salon (where he was reluctantly getting a mani/pedi with Rachel) – it’s a reflection of the “old” Chandler, from his initial interest to the creeping realization that he’s made a very familiar mistake, and still isn’t quite mature enough to handle it like a rational adult.

Ultimately, there’s not a lot to be learned about Chandler here – except that perhaps, a $2100 trip to Yemen provides him some perspective on his maturity level and the decisions he makes with his life. Oddly enough, it’s more effective in context with the two aforementioned episodes preceding it; together, they form a trio of life lessons for Chandler about his approach to relationships, and how something needs to change, lest every cycle and era of his life be defined by the time between breakups with Janice. Considering this episode completely undoes their season three breakup (remember, Chandler broke up with her because he didn’t want to be a homewrecker, and Janice returns this season riding the “alimony pony”), one would think “The One with All the Rugby” would take them a bit more seriously, if only for an instant – but from the moment her signature “oh my god!” is heard offscreen in the cold open, Friends establishes this episode as the first episode of Janice 2.0 – a much more frustrating, empty character used for a few cheap callback punchlines and not much else through the rest of the series.

In that regard, it is a disappointing return for her character, who, in the show’s first three seasons, at least challenged Chandler’s perception of himself – from here forward, her presence would offer nothing of the sort to his character, or Friends as a whole. The moment Chandler stops taking her seriously, so does Friends – again, “The One with All the Rugby” feels like the end of an era for a certain brand of reductive Chandler storylines – and, almost sacrificially, marks the end of her utility as a recurring character, at least for how Friends typically deployed her.

Where one familiar plot line ends, of course, another begins for Friends in this episode; “The One with All the Rugby” is really the beginning of Friends revisiting the Ross/Rachel dynamic, as Ross’s heartfelt attempts to embrace the sport of rugby (in a silly attempt to prove his masculinity to Emily after meeting an ex-lover of hers while walking around the city) play out in front of a frustrated Rachel, whose romantic pursuit of Joshua has fallen flat – and possibly revealed itself as a source of distraction for Rachel, as she continues to try to ignore the devolution of her personal and professional life.

Thankfully, “The One with All the Rugby” spends more time with a sheepish Ross rather than a confused Rachel; given where Friends is heading, his attempts to win her over by participating in the masculine endeavors of her ex tap into the classic Ross neuroses – not the one that make him an incredible annoyance at times, but into the aspects of his character that are flawed, but endearing. Ross putting himself through psychical hell certainly isn’t necessary – it’s clear in her brief bits of dialogue that Emily is fairly smitten with her New York fling – but that’s kind of what makes it so useful, and properly calibrates Ross’s courtship of Emily to make Rachel uncomfortable in a very believable (and more importantly, not corny) way.

If there’s anything missing from this episode, it’s really just more Emily; as the first episode she’s been prominently featured in, there’s a certain buzz around her character’s ability to sweep Ross of his feet – and none of that mystery is really resolved in this episode, in a way that’s just a bit frustrating. It’s rewarding to watch Ross put himself in danger to endear himself to a woman; but what makes him so willing to jump in head first with this woman (in stark contrast to his years-long, passive pursuit of Rachel) is a source of tension Friends doesn’t push on here, which leaves Emily’s presence in her own story feel a little bit lacking (a trend that will, unfortunately, mostly continue this season).

Chandler and Ross’s stories both have their ups and downs; where “The One with All the Rugby” does consistently shine, however, is in its C-story, which sees Monica obsess over a phantom light switch in her and Rachel’s “new” apartment. Watching Monica drive herself insane, concocting different experiments to try and figure out the switch’s source, is exactly the kind of entertaining empty calories a mid-season Friends episode needs, letting a simple prompt and a few punchlines be the foundation for Courtney Cox’s hilarious performance to shine – and shine it does, especially when Rachel shows up to give Monica a reality check, and discovers holes in their floor (and in the extended version, their ceiling).

With Monica’s story as a consistent undercurrent, the floor for “The One with All the Rugby” is a bit higher than most mid-season Friends episodes dipping their toes into the third act stories to follow. And thanks to some solid execution of Chandler and Ross stories, “The One with All the Rugby” is ultimately a half hour that feels a bit more than the sum of its parts,

Grade: B

Other thoughts/observations:

• Rachel notes that Joey doesn’t flush the toilet – a throwaway joke that just happens to be one of the most off-putting things we ever learn about a Friends character.
  
• Joey and Phoebe are mostly left for their old comedic relief roles in this episode; but between Joey’s reaction faces and Phoebe learning what “Pheebs” actually means, it’s a feature rather than a bug.
  
• Janice saying hi to Ross unfortunately reminded me of Janice’s next, and perhaps most regrettable, appearance in the series.
  
• Also see: Phoebe doing her British imitation, one of the silliest punchlines of the entire series.
  
• “Who knew Cupid had a station at 14th Street Nails?”
  
• “You’re the toughest paleontologist I know!”
  
• Red Ross is a bit I wish we got more of throughout the series.
  
• Chandler’s new mailing address? 15 Yemen Road, Yemen, of course.
  
• Extended thoughts: not much here besides the ceiling joke, unfortunately.
  
• Up next: Joey and Phoebe make a deal in “The One with the Fake Party”.