Friends Season 4, Episode 6 – “The One with the Dirty Girl”
Written by Shana Goldberg-Meehan & Scott Silveri
Directed by Shelley Jensen
Aired November 6, 1997 on NBC
Through its first half dozen episodes, Friends‘s fourth season is a real contrast in styles; while the acerbic tone of season three’s episodes still lingers whenever Ross and Rachel appear on screen, the series has noticeably shifted in season four – and though “The One with the Cat” is hardly what I’d consider a memorable episode, it definitely sets the tone for a lighter, more earnest season, something subsequent episodes, especially “The One with the Dirty Girl”, benefit quite a bit from.
“The One with the Dirty Girl”, like “The One with Joey’s New Girlfriend”, makes its smartest decision by letting Chandler’s arc set the tone for the rest of the episode. Picking up where last episode left off, Chandler finds himself in an awkward position after being tasked by Joey to buy a gift for Kathy – right after Chandler tells everyone else he just bought her a rare first edition of The Velveteen Rabbit, her favorite childhood book.
Had this episode taken place in season three, I’m sure there would’ve been a lot of focus on Joey’s laughable, thoughtless attempts at a gift; he certainly does himself no favors, raising questions whether he’s even taking his relationship with Kathy seriously. However, that is merely a catalyst to make Chandler’s feelings towards Kathy even more palpable – especially as it slowly becomes clear Kathy picks up on what Chandler’s putting down, seeing through Joey’s facade and understanding what Chandler was willing to do for his friend. In turn, it reminds Chandler what a good friend he is to Joey – he even says it out loud, somberly noting “he’s my best friend” to Kathy in the world’s saddest interpretation of “bros before hoes”.
It’s a touching moment – and Perry, as he often does, is able to bring some real pathos to the moment, a somber resignation taking over his voice as he contends with the fact he’s really falling in love with his best friend’s girlfriend. Of course, it would be nice to see a little bit more of that happening, because let’s be honest – they’ve exchanged a few jokes, late night TV and some googly-eyes, right before she bangs his roommate in the bed next to his… it’s not exactly the most convincing premise for a love triangle, but Perry (and to their credit, Brewster and LeBlanc are both pitch perfect in their roles) makes those questions melt away with his performance, which takes a fairly rote romantic trope – best friends fight over hot girl – and gives it a lot of gravitas, a man who knows his actions are wrong, and yet still can barely stop enough, because his attraction to Kathy is that strong.
When all those elements come together in the final scene, it’s almost shocking how much it shifts the episode’s tone, and reflects the changes in the show (at least, anything not related to Ross and Rachel) this season towards more empathetic, earnest overarching stories – which again, I’d argue is the perfect antidote to the toxic cloud hanging over the post-breakup episodes of season three.
Beyond the love triangle, Chandler’s internal conflict helps form the thematic foundation of the episode, which is reinterpreted in two very different ways in the rest of the episode. “The One with the Dirty Girl” is an episode about observing characters – specifically, Chandler, Monica, and Ross – being pushed to their ideological limits. This manifests for Chandler, obviously, with his slowly weakening abilities to maintain his cool around Kathy and Joey; though Monica and Ross provide a bit more of a humorous take on this, their individual subplots in this episode, oddly enough, fit neatly alongside Chandler’s emotional plight, and give the episode a bit of harmony not often afforded to Friends.
Of the two, the Ross story is probably more impressive, in that it’s the most relatable Ross has been in awhile (though I’d have to agree that being expected to read 36 pages of bad writing at 5am after a breakup is ridiculous); after hitting it off with an extremely attractive doctoral candidate (Rebecca Romijin, making her acting debut before taking on the role of Mystique in the original X-Men trilogy three years later) and drawing the jealousy of everyone in the crew – Monica: “Probably the only time I’ll ever say this, but did you see the ass on her?” – Ross goes back to her place and learns she is an incredibly disgusting slob, presenting him with a rather pressing dilemma.
There’s so much to enjoy here; Ross squirming the first time he visits her place, discussing with Joey about “doing it in the mess”… for my money, the best part are his reactions when he finds a disgusting, sticky liquid on her couch – and later, when he violently murders a rat making its way through the garbage piled up in her living room. Everyone, male, female, or otherwise, has had that moment in their lives where they’ve had to measure how horny they were for someone they found repulsive – watching Ross live out that experience is a treat, and provides one of the better moments of comic relief for the character.
More importantly, it gives Schwimmer something else to do besides be whiny and self-righteous, something the show’s indulged in with his character a bit in recent vintage – while there’s nothing wrong with having a dirtbag paleontologist as a protagonist, the show’s hand often tips away from endearing towards insufferable with Ross, and there’s a recalibration in “Dirty Girl” that it feels his character has needed for a bit.
The rest of “The One with the Dirty Girl” finds Phoebe and Monica at a funeral, trying to plot their escape from a non-paying customer (a good reminder that if you are catering funerals, getting paid up front is probably a good idea). Although Friends kind of just did this story in “The One with the Cuffs” (where acceptance was the currency Monica sought from an uppity, WASP-y boomer), it is an important building block in Monica’s season arc, establishing a bit of entrepreneurial spirit within her, while also challenging her character’s inherent passivity; a lifetime of being shamed and ridiculed has left Monica struggling to build her confidence, and a non-paying, stubborn widow proves a great foil for Monica to start realizing the mental limitations she’s placed on herself.
The conflict itself, over unpaid catering bills, is hardly compelling; but how it incorporates Monica into the episode’s theme of standing firm against the tides of life adds a bit of potency to the two stories around it, a proof of concept that sometimes the world is going to present as many goddam roadblocks as it possibly can, and it’s up to us to decide how strong our character is – and, of course, how important our best friends are in supporting that growth and confidence within ourselves.
Though the three stories of “The One with the Dirty Girl” vary wildly in their tone and resolutions, the unified ideas behind each premise help give the episode a lot of energy and momentum – which pays off in spades in the final scene, where Chandler audibly reminds himself of his own limits, and how dangerous sometimes it can be to move past that into the unknown. For some, like Monica, the potential of that is an exciting, perhaps necessary one – for Chandler, that question is much more complicated and uncertain, and his struggle to reconcile gives this episode a strong emotional core, one that definitively states the genesis of season four’s larger stories in compelling fashion.
Grade: B+
Other thoughts/observations:
- Chandler still owes Phoebe a birthday gift; “I have a call in about that!”
- I love Rachel’s reaction when she mistakenly thinks Monica is catering a funeral for 60 dead people.
- Since when does Phoebe have money to lend? Also, notice how lending money to friends is a plotline sitcoms haven’t done in 20 years, because millennials have been broke their entire adulthoods.
- Sometimes I still say “it’s a pen, that’s also a clock!” when picking up random writing utensils.
- At some point in Phoebe’s professional history, she was scolded “These sombreros aren’t big enough. Bad little white girl!” I don’t think we ever learn the backstory of this.
- That tie Ross is tying for Joey (which – adorable) is so ugly, in such a specifically late 90s way.
- “Now you go get that beautiful pig!”
- Rachel: “I did it! I finished the crossword puzzle… and there’s nobody to hug!”
- Who’s up for an episode of Hard Ass & Wuss?
- Joey Love coupons expire, which is really kind of a rip off!
- Over the closing credits, Monica arrives at Cheryl’s house to clean: “I couldn’t sleep thinking about it.” We are still in the early days of Monica’s OCD cleaning habits, which slowly will become a much larger part of her character as the series continues.
- Extended thoughts: not really a lot different here, outside of a couple alternate takes.
- Up next: Ross gets back into music in “The One Where Chandler Crosses the Line.”