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"The One With Joey's New Girlfriend" is the fifth episode of the fourth season of Friends, which aired on October 30, 1997.

Plot[]

When Ross gets Amanda's phone number, he shows it off in front of Rachel, hoping to make her feel jealous. She doesn't stand this, until Chandler blows Ross off by revealing to Rachel that he hasn't even kissed his date the one time that they went out. To get back at Ross, Rachel hooks up with Josh, a college soccer player. A real dating war starts between Ross and Rachel, but the two have clearly chosen the wrong dates to go out with - Amanda makes Ross babysit her son to go out with a man she's been crazy about, (Ross plots his revenge by saying he'll make lots of long-distance phone calls), while Josh turns out to be stealing from Rachel and Monica. Only when Monica points out everything to each other do the two realize that they are both petty to descend to such levels.

HideandSeek

Chandler playing hide and seek with the chick and duck.

Meanwhile, poor and unemployed Phoebe needs her singing at Central Perk to keep her spirits up during this difficult time, when, to cap matters, she also catches a cold. When she projects her first notes on the microphone, she falls in love with her new, sick, sexy voice. However, the new voice doesn't last long when she heals from her cold. When Monica catches a cold too, Phoebe accuses her of stealing it and does anything in her power to get her cold back, including stealing Monica's cold-covered napkins and licking her half-finished noodle soup, but this does nothing for her. When she catches Gunther sneezing at the coffeehouse, Phoebe kisses him fully on the mouth, which gives her a cold and a sexy voice again.

Chandler meets a woman called Kathy at Central Perk and feels an instant undeniable attraction. Unluckily for him, Kathy turns out to be waiting for a date, who enters the coffee house at that very moment. Chandler turns around to see that her date is Joey. That same night, he runs into Kathy while watching Ernie Kovacs reruns. He apologizes to her for hitting on her, and shows her a Wonder-Mop he has bought from a TV ad, which Kathy finds cool. Only the next day at Central Perk do the friends realize from his words that there might be something more than friendship that he wants with her. Chandler is in deep denial about this, but when he crosses half the city just to say 'hey' to Kathy when he sees her jogging, he starts to doubt his denial. Unfortunately, when Chandler admits his crush to the rest of the group (excluding Joey), it seems that no one can comfort him about this. When he watches TV in the living room (Joey and Kathy seem to be 'busy') he raises the volume so as not to hear his friend and date, but when this annoys Joey, he can't take any more of it and goes crashing on Monica's couch.

At the end of the episode, Gunther apologizes to Rachel for kissing Phoebe on the lips. Thoroughly confused, Rachel forgives 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[]

Paget Brewster - Kathy
Laura Stepp - Amanda
James Michael Tyler - Gunther
Brian Smith - Josh
Charles Thomas Allen - Ben
John Christopher Allen - Ben

Crew[]

Directed By:
Gail Mancuso

Written By:
Greg Malins & Michael Curtis

Quotes[]

Monica (sneezes): Phoebe, I think I caught your cold.
Phoebe: You mean you stole it!

Joey: I made an effort to like Janice. Now I think it's your turn to make an effort to like Kathy by coming out to dinner with us. Right?
Chandler: Yeah, right.
Joey: Good. And hey, my treat. But, that's only because you're not eating anything, right?

Trivia[]

  • This is the first appearance of Ross' alternative to "the finger". Ross uses another version involving putting your arms behind your neck and flapping them like bird wings; this is only seen in this episode. During the remaining series all of the gang use it at least once except for Phoebe.
  • The 'RESERVED' notice is on the table where Rachel is sitting, the same one Ross sits at when Phoebe sings "My Sticky Shoes". Normally it's on the main table.
    • This is the same song that she sang with her ex-partner.
  • At the beginning of the episode, Joey and Monica are doing a crossword puzzle together. However, this was only shown in the uncut version.
    • This is the first time they do a crossword puzzle together. The next time, they do one is in Joey's dream in "The One With The Cop" (S5E16).
  • Josh wears an N.Y.U. sweatshirt. Ross begins working there after getting fired from the museum in "The One Where Joey Loses His Insurance".
  • This is the first appearance of Kathy, who turns out to be his last real relationship before getting together with Monica.
  • Kathy wears Joey's starter New York Rangers jersey which worn by him in "The One with George Stephanopoulos".
  • In the coffeehouse scene, Monica pretends that Chandler is being hugged and kissed by Kathy. This joke was previously used by Joey to show Chandler being hugged and kissed by Janice in "The One With Phoebe's Husband".
  • Rachel dates Josh, who is too young for her. Ross makes many jokes referring to this and 3 years later he becomes the butt of jokes when he starts dating Elizabeth, one of his students, in "The One Where Ross Dates A Student". Monica also dated a much younger person in "The One With The Ick Factor".
  • The common cold is a viral infection, Phoebe healed from it when her immune system overcame the virus. If exposed to the same strain of the virus (same season, same group of people) like Phoebe tried to do, a person with a normal immune system will not be "able" to "catch" it.
  • The book Rachel reads in the cold opening is Anthem by Shainee Gabel and Kristin Hahn.
  • Monica catches Phoebe's cold in this episode. In "The One With Rachel's Sister ", she has a cold again but denies ever getting sick and tries to seduce Chandler to prove her point.
  • The location where Joey, Chandler and Kathy go for their meal is an Irish bar called Nicky St Martin, located in Stone St, Manhattan.
  • This episode was used as "K is for Kathy" in the Nick at Nite Friends A-Z Event (January 2023).

Goofs[]

  • Ross' birthday is messed up again as Gunther asks Rachel for her birthday after which he mentions that his birthday is December... before Gunther cuts him off, when in "The One Where Emma Cries", he says his birthday is October 18. Also in "The One With George Stephanopoulos", Ross says his birthday was several months ago when Chandler and Joey take him to see ice hockey on his birthday.
  • When Monica is sneezing, Chandler is standing by the blue table but when Joey and Kathy enter he's by the TV.
  • When Chandler is playing hide and seek with the chick and the duck, the duck changes position between shots.
  • When Chandler, Joey, and Kathy are at the club, Kathy's right arm keeps changing position when the camera angle changes. First it's in front of Joey, and then it is on his back. It keeps changing between shots.

Photos[]

PUBLICITY STILLS
screenshots

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
Preceded by
"The One With The Ballroom Dancing"
Season Four Episodes Followed by
"The One With The Dirty Girl"
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