The One Where Chandler Can't Cry

The One Where Chandler Can't Cry
Chandler cries.
Episode Information
Air date	February 10, 2000
Written by	Andrew Reich & Ted Cohen
Directed by	Kevin S. Bright
Episode Guide
Previous	The One With Rachel's Sister
Next	The One That Could Have Been, Part 1

"The One Where Chandler Can't Cry" is the fourteenth episode of the sixth season of Friends, which aired on February 10, 2000.

Plot

The friends discover Ursula's porn video.

Joey, Phoebe and Monica discover that Chandler can't cry no matter what the circumstances. Joey tells him that he's dead inside and Monica makes repeated attempts to elicit some emotion from Chandler. Rachel asks Ross to stop seeing her sister, Jill. Ross agrees to cancel their date, but when he tells Jill she doesn't take it very well. Rachel admits to Jill that it was she who asked Ross to stop seeing her because of their "history" together. Jill gets mad at Rachel for trying to control her life, so she goes over to Ross's apartment to use him to spite Rachel. She uses the pretext of being upset over a fight with Rachel and wanting to see more of Ross' slides. She later closes the drapes and makes a face while Rachel is looking, causing Rachel to realize what is going on. While Ross works on preparing the slides and brings out wine, he fields a phone call from Rachel warning him and, not suspecting anything, tells her he can handle it. However, Jill soon gets personal with Ross and kisses him, but he asks if she's just using him to get back at Rachel.

Jill wants to make out with Ross.

She readily admits to this and he breaks it off. He later reveals she destroyed his slide projector in her rage. Later, when Ross tells Rachel that Jill kissed him, Rachel is furious. He then admits that he stopped the kiss because he didn't want to ruin the chance of them getting back together someday, even if it never happens, and she is almost lost for words saying "I don't know what to say" and playfully nudges him with her leg, Ross then doing the same to Rachel. After witnessing this encounter, Chandler is finally able to cry, asking why Ross and Rachel can't work things out. Jill later gives a cold goodbye to the group, which causes Chandler to cry again, because according to him he "opened a gate".

In Central Perk, a man recognizes Phoebe and asks for her autograph, saying he's her biggest fan. She signs a napkin, then leaves, but tells Joey to take care of him because he's a fan. Joey thinks the man is a fan of his, but he reveals he's seen all of Phoebe's porn movies. Joey talks to Gunther, who also has seen some of these movies. Joey and Ross later buy some of the movies to watch at Monica's apartment. Joey insists it would be wrong to watch them because Phoebe is their friend, but the others do anyway while Joey looks away. As the movie begins, Rachel notices a heart tattoo and realizes that it's not Phoebe but Ursula using Phoebe's name, eventually peaking Joey's interest. Phoebe enters, cries "What am I doing?" and they tell her the story. Phoebe confronts Ursula, who is in the middle of making another movie at her apartment. She tries to get Ursula to stop using her name and says, "Shame on all of you." In the end, her solution is to pick up all of the checks Ursula accrued under her name and yells at someone who seemingly recognizes her for all of Central Perk, including his girlfriend, to hear.

Cast and Crew

Main Cast

Jennifer Aniston - Rachel Greene
Courteney Cox - Monica Geller
Lisa Kudrow - Ursula Buffay/Phoebe Buffay
Matt LeBlanc - Joey Tribbiani
Matthew Perry - Chandler Bing
David Schwimmer - Ross Geller

Supporting Cast

Reese Witherspoon - Jill Greene
James Michael Tyler - Gunther
Larry Joe Campbell - The Fan
Douglas Looper - The Vampire

Crew

Directed By:
Kevin S. Bright

Written By:
Andrew Reich & Ted Cohen

Trivia

General

• This is the final appearance of Reese Witherspoon as Jill Greene in the series.
• In "The One With The Worst Best Man Ever", Chandler somewhat cries in contrast to this episode where he claims he doesn't cry, also in "The One Where Everybody Finds Out" (S5E14), Rachel said Phoebe made him cry with her words.
  • Chandler later cries at the news in "The One With Rachel's Going Away Party"; also in "The One With All The Candy", after Ross gives Phoebe a bike, she says on the way out that "Oh, and Chandler is about to cry" and Chandler replies "Am not!" with emotion, with Joey later confirming that Chandler did cry. However, he says in this episode that he has "opened a gate" and can now cry with ease.
• The porn movies Ursula stars in are parodies of known works: Buffay the Vampire Layer (the TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer), Inspect Her Gadget (the animated series Inspector Gadget), Sex Toy Story 2 (the 1999 animated film Toy Story 2) and Lawrence of A Labia (1962's Lawrence of Arabia).
• Ross saying "I don't know if anything is going to happen with us again...Ever. But I don't wanna know that it never could", to Rachel foreshadows the fact that they get back together 4 years later. It also shows that Ross still has feelings for Rachel while Rachel urging Ross to break up with Jill shows she still has feelings for him too.
• After Ross explains why he broke things off with Jill, Rachel nudges him on the leg with her foot. This is a reminder of The One With A Chick And A Duck (S3E21) when Ross drops his chances to be on TV to take care of her broken rib and she playfully nudged him with her foot while he helped her change.
• Rachel watches the video and spots a tattoo on Ursula's ankle. Many years later Jennifer Aniston would get a tattoo on her foot.
• This is the second porn movie the gang watch featuring one of the group although in this case, it's actually Ursula rather than Phoebe in the film. In "The One With Phoebe's Husband", they watch Joey's porn movie, although some tv broadcasts omit the latter.
• When Chandler says "I wish they could work it out", this is a callback to The One Where Ross and Rachel Take A Break when he told Ross that "you can work it out with her".
• At the start of the episode, after the credits Monica is wearing a sweater similar to that worn by Rachel in The One With The Butt except that this sweater is red with a white cross while Rachel's was a red cross on a white sweater.
• This is the final episode to be photographed by Mikel Neiers. All episodes that follow, beginning with The One That Could've been, were photographed by Nick McLean.

Goofs

• When they are watching the porn movie, it cuts to Joey (who is sitting in the kitchen), you can see in the background that the television is switched off.
• The title of this episode relates to Chandler not being able to cry but he has cried many times in the past.
• Continuity error: This episode picks up almost immediately where the previous one left off, with Rachel by the window and Monica still in her bathrobe. However, at the end of the previous episode, Monica was sick with a distorted voice. Now she seems miraculously cured. However two and a half hours have past since the final scene in Monica's apartment in the last episode so it's possible that the vapour rub has had an effect.
• In the beginning of the episode while Joey is talking to Rachel next to the balcony window, a camera man is visible behind him.
• In the beginning of the episode, Monica and Chandler's TV, entertainment set and ferns are gone. The wall is bare except for the French Poster. 
• When Rachel is urging Ross to call off his date with Jill, her grip on her mug changes between shots. In addition at one point Rachel is seen putting the mug on the table but when the shot changes it's back in her hands again. 
• When Ross and Rachel are discussing Ross stopping anything happening with Jill, Rachel's arms go from by her side to crossed in one shot.  
• In this episode, Joey says that he was mad at Chandler for ten years when he fooled around with his sister, only for Chandler to correct him that it had only happened five years ago. However, The One Where Chandler Can't Remember Which Sister took place only three years before.
• When Monica grabbed the photo album with childhood pictures of Chandler, the TV is off, while in the previous shot they were watching a movie.
• In "The One Where Old Yeller Dies" (2.20), Phoebe talks about how when her mother was still alive, she would turn off the TV during sad endings of movies, and then tell Phoebe some alternate happy ending. In that episode, "Bambi" was one of the examples which she mentioned which had a happy ending to it. In this episode, however, part of the gang (including Phoebe) is watching "ET" and they're crying and talking about how sad it is. Then, Phoebe mentions that "Bambi was sadder because she was crying "for three days after that movie [Bambi]. No, wait, two 'cause on the third day, my mother killed herself.
• When Jill come into Central Perk to tell Rachel that Ross blew her off there is a woman and man sitting at the table by the door and the window. When Jill first comes in a waitress brings the table their drinks. The camera switches to Rachel who says two sentences and when the shot moves back to Jill there is no one at the table and just a red coffee cup sitting there. In the final sequence of the scene two different women are in sitting at the table and one of them is in front of the same red cup.
• When Rachel is talking with Jill at the counter, the position of Rachel's mug changes between shots even though she's not touched it.
• Once Rachel realizes it is Ursula in the video and not Phoebe, Joey jumps up to say he can watch the video, and knocks over the blue chair. When Phoebe comes in, the blue chair is now standing. When the shot cuts back to Phoebe covering her mouth, the blue chair is gone yet again.

Quotes

• Rachel: Okay-okay-okay-okay-okay-okay-okay! I got it! I got it! I got it! I can’t! I can’t! I can’t! I cannot go with you and my sister thing. Okay? I just can’t. It’s just too weird, all right? I imagine the two of you together and I freak out. It freaks me out. I can’t do it! I can’t do it.

---

• Phoebe: Oh y’know what’s sadder than this? Bambi. I cried for three days with that movie. No wait two! Because on the third day my mother killed herself so I was partly crying for that.
• Chandler: Well see now that I can see crying over, but Bambi is a cartoon!
• Joey: You didn’t cry when Bambi’s mother died?
• Chandler: Yes it was very sad when the guy stopped drawing the deer!

---

• Nasforatool: Buffay, are you going to plunge your stake into my dark places?
• Ursula Buffay: Actually, I was kinda hoping it would be the other way around.

See also

• The One Where Chandler Can't Cry/Transcript

External links

• "The One Where Chandler Can't Cry" at Google Drive, full episode, uncut
• The One Where Chandler Can't Cry at the Internet Movie Database

Episode Navigation

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Preceded by "The One With Rachel's Sister"

Series Six Episodes

Followed by "The One That Could Have Been, Part 1"

<< Season 5		Season 6					Season 7 >>
#01	"The One After Vegas"		#10	"The One With The Routine"		#19	"The One With Joey's Fridge"
#02	"The One Where Ross Hugs Rachel"		#11	"The One With The Apothecary Table"		#20	"The One With Mac And C.H.E.E.S.E."
#03	"The One With Ross' Denial"		#12	"The One With The Joke"		#21	"The One Where Ross Meets Elizabeth's Dad"
#04	"The One Where Joey Loses His Insurance"		#13	"The One With Rachel's Sister"		#22	"The One Where Paul's The Man"
#05	"The One With Joey's Porsche"		#14	"The One Where Chandler Can't Cry"		#23	"The One With The Ring"
#06	"The One On The Last Night"		#15	"The One That Could Have Been, Part 1"		#24	"The One With The Proposal, Part 1"
#07	"The One Where Phoebe Runs"		#16	"The One That Could Have Been, Part 2"		#25	"The One With The Proposal, Part 2"
#08	"The One With Ross' Teeth"		#17	"The One With Unagi"
#09	"The One Where Ross Got High"		#18	"The One Where Ross Dates A Student"