Ross' Third Apartment

The interior of Ross' third and final apartment

This is the two bedroom apartment across the street of Monica's Apartment. For the first four seasons and the first half of the fifth season of Friends, it was occupied by Ugly Naked Guy. When the guys see him packing in "The One Where Everybody Finds Out", Ross decides to fill in an application and try to bribe the renter with a basket of mini-muffins only for this to look tiny compared with the bribes of other prospective buyers. Ultimately, Ross obtains the apartment in this episode when he strips down to spend time and bond with Ugly Naked Guy. He lives in this apartment for the rest of the series.

Things don't start in the best way for Ross in the new apartment - he spots Monica and Chandler fooling around (he's still unaware of their relationship), he shows signs of uncontrolled rage in front of his boss in spotting Monica and Chandler costing him his chance to get his job back at the museum. After that, he made enemies of everyone else in the building when he refused to contribute to the retirement fund for the handyman because he had only just moved in (in "The One With The Girl Who Hits Joey").

Even though the guys often express positive criticism about Ross' apartment, they rarely spend time there, with the exception of Rachel (especially from being pregnant with Emma to the rest of the series), although Phoebe also lived there for a few days to give Chandler and Monica some time to themselves after they became engaged. However, the apartment is shown a lot more than his old apartments. Also, unlike Monica's apartment, none of the other guys have keys to Ross' place, although it's likely Rachel has a key from her brief time living there while moving out of Monica's apartment. This becomes a problem for him in "The One With Ross' Step Forward" when he gives girlfriend Mona his key, as they contemplating moving in together (Although the key argument eventually proves that the two of them are moving too fast). The bedroom is first and only seen at the beginning of The Last One, Part 1, when Ross and Rachel sleep together there. Rachel then moves back in with him when they get back together in The Last One, Part 2. Although, its likely they moved into a bigger apartment or a house after becoming a proper family, with their daughter Emma. This was hinted at when Rachel commented that she liked Westchester when she and Phoebe followed Chandler in "The One Where Chandler Gets Caught". Also in an earlier episode Ross had told Rachel that they would move out of the city to raise their family.

Trivia

• Out of all of Ross' apartments in the show, this is the only apartment of Ross' in which all of Ross, Monica and Rachel's family members have been seen inside, except Jack and Sandra, respectively.
• The apartment is numbered 3B as revealed at Howard's retirement party but was previously numbered 201 (as seen when Ugly Naked Guy answers the door to Ross) and is later without a number.
• Rachel briefly moved in with Ross into this apartment during season six until learning they were still married and again from "The One With The Secret Closet" (S8E14) to "The One Where Monica Sings" (S9E13), when she moves back in with Joey. However, Rachel moves back in here with Ross when they get back together in series finale and has been there for a few days between their final onscreen kiss and the final scene in Monica's apartment.
• The building has no elevator, even for freight, which caused problems when Ross, Rachel and Chandler tried to move a sofa up the stairwell to his apartment in "The One With The Cop".