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The One Where Chandler Can't Remember Which Sister

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"The One Where Chandler Can't Remember Which Sister" is the eleventh episode of the third season of Friends, which aired on January 9, 1997. In it, Monica and Rachel deal with an annoying neighbor, Rachel gets an interview at Bloomingdales, and Chandler has drunken sex with one of Joey's sisters, but can't remember which one.

Plot[]

The guy living above Monica and Rachel has removed the carpets on his floor, and he's too loud for the girls to stand. Phoebe tries taking a stand, but as Monica already pointed out, he's too charming to intimidate, and Phoebe starts going out with him. The girls also hear her having sex with him in his room upstairs, and leave their own room in a hurry to escape the scene.

All of Joey's sisters together.

All of Joey's sisters together.

Rachel finds her new job at Fortunata Fashions is just serving coffee to others. She vents her frustration with the wrong person - classy chef Monica, in her fake boobs at the Moondance 60's diner - but she runs into the right person - Mark, who manages to get her an interview at Bloomingdale's and coaches her through it. Ross is not at all happy about this and fears that Mark only wants to have sex with Rachel and is in love with her, not actually trying to be nice. She lands the job, to Ross' dismay.

Meanwhile, at Joey's birthday party, Chandler gets too drunk from vodka Jell-o shots and fools around with one of Joey's sisters, Mary Angela. Joey is pretty mad at Chandler for groping his sister until he's deceived into believing that Chandler may really fall for her. Things get out of hand, however, when he goes to talk to her and is, once again, in the presence of all of the sisters; he even mistakenly kisses Mary-Therese, believing that she's Mary Angela. When Joey and the others confront Chandler, he admits his fault and apologizes since he was drunk as well as the fact they all look similar. Joey forgives the mistake but tells Chandler to apologize to Mary Angela though he still can't recognize Mary Angela and apologize to her, Joey gives the go-ahead to his sister Cookie, who gives Chandler a black eye.

At the end of the episode, Phoebe apologizes to Rachel and Monica for the fact that they had to listen to her having sex with the man upstairs, but insists that she has really developed feelings for him. But then they all hear him having sex with another woman. While Rachel and Monica comfort Phoebe by telling her that he "sounded like he was having more fun with [Phoebe]" an irate Joey goes upstairs to give him "the butt kicking of a lifetime", followed by Ross and Chandler. But bizarrely, he's somehow able to calm them down with a single sentence when they confront and start to berate him.

Cast and Crew[]

Main Cast[]

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

Supporting Cast[]

Shelley Berman - Mr. Kaplan Jr.
Steven Eckholdt - Mark Robinson
Thomas James Kepner - Singing Partygoer
Mimi Lieber - Mary Therese
Lisa Maris - Tina
Lisa Melilli - Dina
Alex Meneses - Cookie
Penny Stanton - Nonna
K.J. Steinberg - Gina Tribbiani
Holly Gagnier - Mary Angela

Crew[]

Directed By:
Terry Hughes

Written By:
Alexa Junge

Quotes[]

Rachel: Oh, God, I hate my job. I hate it. I hate my job. I hate it.
Monica: I know, honey. I'm sorry.
Rachel: Oh. I wanna quit, but then I think I should stick it out. Then I think, why would such a person stay in such a demeaning job just because it's remotely related to the field they're interested in?

Monica: You're going out on a date with the noisy guy upstairs?
Phoebe: Well, he's very charming.
Monica: I know, he's too charming. But if you two start going out, then it's just gonna make it so much harder for me to hate him.

Monica: Joey, where are the Jell-o shots?
Joey: I don’t know, Chandler is supposed to be passin’ ‘em around...
[Camera cuts to show Chandler giving a Jello shot to the ceramic dog and holding an empty tray of Jello shots.]
Joey: Chandler!
Chandler: Hello-dillillio!!
Ross: Oh, somebody’s feeling better.
Monica: [to Chandler] Stick out your tongue.
Chandler: [to Monica] Take off your shirt!
[Chandler sticks out his tongue and it’s a horrible shade of green.]
Monica: Oh my!!
Joey: Oh my God! How many of these things did you have? These are pure vodka.
Chandler: Yeah, Jell-o just like Mom used to make.

Rachel: The most unbelievable thing happened to me today.
Ross: Hi!
Rachel: Hi! So I’m out having lunch at Monica’s and this guy starts talking to me, and it turns out he works for a buyer at Bloomingdale’s and there happens to be an opening in his department. So I gave him my phone number and he’s gonna call me this weekend to see if he can get me an interview!
Ross: Wow!
Rachel: I know!
Ross: What, so this guy is helping you for no apparent reason?
Rachel: Uh-huh!
Ross: And he’s, he’s a total stranger?
Rachel: Yeah! His name is, um, Mark something.
Ross: Huh. Sounds like Mark Something wants to have some sex.
Rachel: What!?
Ross: Well, I’m just saying, I mean, why else would he just, y'know, swoop in out of nowhere for no reason.
Rachel: To be nice.
Ross: Hey, Joey. Are men ever nice to strange women for no reason?
Joey: No, only for sex.
Ross: Thank you. [to Rachel] So did you, ah, did you tell Mark Something about me?
Rachel: I didn’t have to, because I was wearing my "I heart Ross" sandwich board and ringing my bell.
Ross: Uh-huh.

Ross: So, he’s just a nice guy. You really think this Mark doesn’t want anything in exchange for helping him?
Rachel: Well, I assume I’ll have to take showers with him, but, y'know, that’s true of any job.

[After Chandler fools around with one of Joey's sisters.]
Phoebe: How can you not know which one?
Rachel: I mean, that’s unbelievable.
Monica: I mean, was it Gina?
Ross: Which one is Gina?
Rachel: Dark, big hair, with the airplane earrings.
Monica: No, no, no, that’s Dina.
Chandler: You see, you can’t tell which one is which either! Naah!
Phoebe: Well, we didn't fool around with any of them! Naah! Naah!
Chandler: Veronica. Look, it’s got to be Veronica, the girl in the red skirt. I definitely stuck my tongue down her throat.
Monica: That was me.

Joey: [to Chandler] You gotta be cool, 'cause my grandma doesn't know about you two yet. And you do not want to tick her off. She was, like, the sixth person to spit on Mussolini's hanging body.

Monica: Are you crazy?
Ross: Am I? Am I? Am I out of my mind? Am I losing my senses?

Trivia[]

  • This is the first episode with Chandler's name in the title.
    • Also, the title of this episode is the lengthiest episode title of the entire series.
  • In this episode, Gina, Dina, Veronica, Mary Angela, Mary Therese, and Cookie are all mentioned as Joey's sisters. In "The One With The Boobies" (S1E13), a younger sister named Tina is mentioned, meaning that all seven sisters have now been referenced by name.
    • Although Gina is never seen on Friends, Joey lives with her son in Los Angeles in his spinoff TV series.
  • This episode appears on the Friends - The One with All the Birthdays DVD.
  • Joanna is mentioned in this episode, who makes her first appearance later in the season, in "The One With The Dollhouse" (S3E20).
  • To escape Joey's wrath, Chandler wants to make him believe he moved to France (when actually he'll be in Cuba). In about a year, he'll use a similar tactic to get rid of Janice by persuading her he's moving to Yemen ("The One With All The Rugby").
  • This is the first appearance of Mark Robinson who remains Rachel's co-worker for the next few episodes. They go on one date after Ross and Rachel break up in "The One With The Tiny T-Shirt", but he isn't seen again until "The One With Princess Consuela".
  • Joey's English-speaking grandmother appears in this episode. His Italian-speaking grandmother appears later in the series.
  • In the Joey (TV Series), Gina's son Michael moves in with Joey at the latter's Los Angeles apartment.
  • According to IMDB, the 'friendly upstairs neighbor' was/is played by Ira Ungerleider, one of the series' writers.
  • In this season, Matthew Perry was losing significant weight because of substance abuse issues. The show's costume designers tried to hide this by dressing him in baggy and oversized clothes. This is particularly noticeable in the first scene, when he is wearing such a baggy suit and overcoat he almost appears to be in a costume.
  • Monica picked the name for one of the burgers at the diner where she works, which she named the Barbra Streisandwich. Barbra Streisand was once married to Elliott Gould.
  • At Joey's birthday party, Ross and Rachel wear matching outfits. Rachel wears a charcoal top with brownish pants and Ross wears a brownish shirt with charcoal pants.
  • When Chandler apologizes to Monica for "sticking his tongue down her throat" because he gets overly friendly when he gets drunk, Monica says "that's okay", followed by Phoebe and Rachel who also say "that's okay", indicating that he did the same thing to them. Finally, Ross says "that's okay". This final one wasn't scripted and was improvised by David Schwimmer.

Goofs[]

  • When Phoebe is heard talking upstairs, Rachel switches between sitting back or forwards with each change of shot. Also at the start of the episode she has one hand on Ross' leg, but in the next shot both hands are on her own legs.
  • The scene with Monica and Rachel hearing Phoebe fool around with their neighbor, Monica says that she finished her book and touches one of the books on the table. That book is clearly brand new, only the first few pages have been opened.
  • When Rachel, Ross and Monica first hear Phoebe knock on the door above, Rachel has her hands on her lap, but in the next shot her arms are behind her waist.
  • During the opening scene at Joey's, Chandler's door is half open but when the shot changes its almost closed. Also his door isn't showing the saw cut that Joey made a few episodes earlier.
  • When Ross starts talking to Monica about Mark, Gunther walks over to pour another drink but as the camera changes, he disappears.
  • In the scene where Chandler is telling the gang that he can't remember which sister, the way in which Phoebe holds her mug keeps changing.
  • When Rachel calls Mark while at the coffee house, she hangs up and places the phone on the counter next to the machine. A second later, the phone is placed on the machine.
  • When Ross is reading the note Chandler wrote, it's noticeable that the paper is blank.
  • At the end, when Joey stands up to fight the man in the apartment upstairs and moves around the sofa, a cameraman is visible on the left side of screen.

External links[]

Episode Navigation[]

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25
Preceded by
"The One Where Rachel Quits" 		Series Three Episodes Followed by
"The One With All The Jealousy"
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