Second Look: Friends Season 4, Episode 10 – “The One with the Girl from Poughkeepsie”

Friends Season 4, Episode 10 “The One with the Girl from Poughkeepsie”
Written by Scott Silveri
Directed by Gary Halvorson
Aired December 18, 1997 on NBC

Through nine episodes, Friends‘s fourth season has been a much more consistent affair than its third, with a renewed focus on its interpersonal dynamics and a more balanced storytelling approach. The benefits have been obvious; its thematic consistency has helped buff over some of the episode’s rougher edges (aka the one bad subplot in each half hour) – and the quieter the Ross/Rachel conflict has gotten, the further Friends removes itself from the rampant cynicism plaguing so much of season three’s back half.

Season four’s tenth episode, “The One with the Girl from Poughkeepsie”, is almost none of those things; its four stories are incredibly discordant, is character arcs are unevenly dispersed – and at times, it even feels like the ‘mean’ Friends of last season is starting to creep back into the foreground. And in previous seasons, those missteps would pile on each other, leading to episodes like “The One with Ross’s Thing”. To its credit, the third act makes a remarkable recovery – while it never finds a neat way to tie its many stories together, the incredible vibes of its individual resolutions keep it from feeling like an throwaway episode.

The strangest thing about “The One with the Girl from Poughkeepsie”, of course, is its title; the titular character, of course, is never given face or name, a title that’s more a trivia piece than an effective conveyance of the episode’s story or themes. It’s really kind of random, a reference to an entirely forgettable plot about Ross trying to choose between dating a nice, wonderful woman who lives two hours away, or a woman he has no attraction to (and who might be racist?) who just happens to live in a more convenient area. As the titular plot of the episode, this whole story is a disaster from beginning to end; smartly, Friends doesn’t put much stock into this beyond a few jokes, because the more time he spends talking about his thought process, the more desperate and awful he seems.

However, as unfortunately centered as Ross’s story is, it is but one of four stories of “The One with the Girl from Poughkeepsie”; and the other three stories are much more effective, if also somewhat thematically random, inclusions. The only thing tethering Monica’s frustrations at work with Phoebe’s handwriting and Rachel’s dating issues (at the hands of Chandler) is the value of effective communication – but it’s not utilized to any real effect here, as its stories eventually diverge with incredibly varied emotional stakes.

The best of these, obviously, comes between Monica and Joey, when Joey agrees to “act” as a waiter so a frustrated Monica can strike a bit of fear into her coworkers (a bit based on the story of Orson Welles hiring someone on each of his productions, to fire them and assert domination over cast and crew), who have been harassing and insulting her vigorously since taking over in “The One Where They’re Going to Party!”. They’re locking her in the cooler, lighting her jacket on fire, and writing nasty comments on her chef’s hat; to retaliate, she hires an out-of-work Joey to berate in front of everyone. I mean, what’s not to like here: Monica’s anxious reactions to her team, Joey’s instincts to step in and support his friend, and how they both consider the sacrifices they’ll make by letting Joey stay (or by firing him), is all classic Friends material, where the drama of the situation is supported by the characters learning something about each other, and growing closer as a result.

(by the way – don’t look now, but between this and “The One with Chandler in a Box”, Joey is taking an early, unexpected lead for season MVP…. we’ll see if it continues.)

The other two plots of the episode almost feel like they’re cut out of different episodes; while I’m always down for the rare Chandler/Rachel affair, him taking gifts and retirement plans in exchange for setting up colleagues on dates with Rachel just feels empty from the get-go. Is this entire subplot worth it for the moment Chandler realizes he’s basically been selling Rachel at work like she’s fertile livestock? Probably not, but it’s definitely the funniest moment of the entire episode, and so it’s not something that can be that easily dismissed.

Putting aside some of the more underwhelming, obvious gender dynamics at play here, their conflict is not tethered to anything else in the episode – except the women of Friends putting their trust in Joey and Chandler, which always leads to mixed-if-somewhat-endearing results. The real issue, however, is it feels closest to the Ross plot, untethered from any sort of logic or tangible emotional stakes; it’s a complete throwaway plot, a chance to experiment with tones and rhythms with two characters – which, despite leaning into an underrated interpersonal dynamic, achieves absolutely nothing in an emotional or narrative sense, despite managing to exist without feeling excruciatingly toxic, or even just mildly annoying, at any point. It’s just kind of there, and adds nothing to the episode’s already-underdeveloped textures.

For such a forgettable episode, it is notable how memorable parts of “The One with the Girl from Poughkeepsie” still is 27 years later; “Spin the dreidel, Rachel!”, Joey’s math, and Monica’s awaited ascension to power are all indelible images, moments that are representative of Friends at its best (and, with this episode’s resolutions, its kindest). The rare episode of the series that is definitely more than the sum of its actual parts, “The One with the Girl from Poughkeepsie” is a microcosm of Friends at this point in its lifecycle: some of its less desirable habits from previous seasons still prevalent, but consistently overshadowed by the clear chemistry of the writing room in the early construction of this season. It’s a quality that can be fleeting – but in the moment, it helps elevate a rather middling episode (in terms of narrative and comedy) into something a bit more affirming – and importantly, watchable.

Grade: C+

Other thoughts/observations:

• Joey, trying to figure out his recent string of bad auditions: “Does this Orson Welles guy direct Burger King commercials?”
  
• Gotta love Gunther trying to find a moment to shoot his shot when Rachel talks about wanting a holiday season fling – how well it works, without Gunther having a line, is a testament to James Michael Tyler’s incredible consistency in the role, one of the truly great background character performances of the 20th century.
  
• Rachel says she doesn’t like guys with boring jobs, to which Chandler appropriately asks: “and Ross was a lion tamer?”
  
• The episode opens with Joey beating a personal beat of stuffing 15 Oreos into his mouth at once. They should’ve recreated this at the reunion, rather than those interminable Cara Delevingne and Justin Bieber bits.
  
• Joey, again bringing the fire: “Bagel, mail, jail, bail, cable, maypole… all rhyme with Rachel!”
  
• “Now wait a second – you make food and robots?”
  
• Phoebe lived in Prague at some point, a factoid only mentioned in this episode as an aside to Joey. I’m surprised Peacock hasn’t turned this into a series yet.
  
• Ross falls asleep traveling, and ends up in Montreal, being hit on by a woman from Nova Scotia. Though its placement over the credits makes it clear how hollow this story is, there’s a touch of well-constructed 90s irony I’m willing to acknowledge.
  
• Rachel: “Between you telling him that and me putting out on the first date, he’s going to get the wrong idea!”
  
• The season of great guest stars continues with Fred Stoller, in one of two appearances as a bullying Alessandro’s waiter.
  
• Extended thoughts: the only real addition is Chandler getting a tie and jacket off a man desperate to date Ross – it ain’t much, but it’s there!
  
• Up next: Frank Jr. and Alice return in “The One with Phoebe’s Uterus”.