"The One With The Girl From Poughkeepsie" is the tenth episode of the fourth season of Friends, which aired on December 11, 1997. It is a Christmas special.
Plot
Although it's almost Christmas, not everyone is in a really festive mood, and Rachel, Ross and Monica, in particular, face some tough times ahead of the holidays.
Following her highly negative review which earned her the head-chef job at Alessandro's, Monica is being tormented by her colleagues. Even if no amount of burned chef jackets and "Quit Bitch"-signed hats is enough to make Monica quit, the attitude she receives from fellow chefs and waiters almost pushes her off the edge. She takes Chandler's advice and hires Joey as a waiter for the sole purpose of firing him in front of the others, but when Joey finds himself with a handful of tips he forgets the deal he and Monica have. Only when he truly sees the degree of abuse Monica is being forced to endure (which almost makes her resign) that he sticks to his part and plays the arrogant employee. Monica quickly takes advantage of this and fires Joey in front of everyone, which Joey seems to take a little harder than he expected. This is enough for Monica to acquire control over her colleagues who realize they could get fired too.
Rachel hates to be single around the festive season, and is more willing than usual to have a fling with someone rather than something serious. Chandler knows of a couple of guys at work who might do the trick for her, which he uses in his favor to obtain free stuff from them. After picking her preferred guy, Patrick, Rachel starts to believe in something more than a fling between her and him, but when she learns that Chandler told Patrick how all she wants is a fling, she's furious with him. Chandler tries to rectify his mistake, but telling Patrick that Rachel might be interested in a serious relationship with him is another mistake which leads to Rachel being dumped before Christmas. Angry that she's all alone again, Chandler consoles her how he never lied once about her to his colleagues, which makes Rachel appreciate her friendships more.
Ross meets an amazing girl from Poughkeepsie on the train, whom he finds really beautiful, smart and funny. All that is keeping him from this girl is the considerable distance between him and her. Things are different with another girl from uptown - she's really close and easy to reach, but isn't smart, not funny and a bigot. Managing time between the two girls is too much for him, and he ends up exhausted from dating both of them. He breaks up with the girl from uptown, and doesn't even manage to talk to the girl from Poughkeepsie as he falls asleep on the train. He only wakes up in Montreal, next to a beautiful blonde woman who asks him out for coffee. Just as things might head in a new, exciting direction, he learns that the woman is from Nova Scotia.
Phoebe finds it hard to write a special holiday song about all of her friends because of the lack of good rhyming words, but it only takes some of her more fertile imagination to solve the problem. She sings the song at the end of the episode.
Trivia
General
- This is the only Season 4 appearance of Stu, Monica's colleague. His second and final appearance was in "The One With The Stripper" (S8E8).
Goofs/ Continuity
- In this episode, Ross is seen sleeping in Central Perk. However, in The One With George Stephanopoulos Ross sees Phoebe sleeping in Central Perk and states "I cannot sleep in a public place." It's possible that he was so tired that he fell asleep in a public place.
- Rachel's birthday is inconsistent. In "The One with Joey's New Girlfriend," Rachel tells Gunther her birthday is May 5, and this is consistent with the month of birthday parties thrown for her on the show in "The One Where Rachel Finds Out," (which aired in May 1995) and in her one-month-early surprise party in "The One Where Rachel Smokes," (which aired in April 1999). Rachel's 30th birthday, however, is celebrated in February in "The One Where They All Turn Thirty," (which aired on February 8, 2001). A birthday in February is also consistent with Rachel's statement to a police officer in "The One with Chandler's Dad" that she is an Aquarius (January 21- February 19). Rachel also mentions that her birthday is after Valentine's Day, but before Christmas in "The One with the Girl From Poughkeepsie."
- The woman on the train in Montreal states "it’s just a two hour ferry ride to Nova Scotia." No passenger ferry services exist between Montreal and Nova Scotia (they are in fact connected by road), and even if they did the trip would take significantly longer than two hours.
- Towards the end of the episode, Ross is seen traveling to Poughkeepsie to break up with one of the girls, but has fallen asleep. He apparently stays asleep till Montreal, which is approximately a 9 and a half hour journey by train (Adirondack service) - it's highly doubtful he would've remained asleep for such a long period of time.
Cast and Crew
Main Cast
Jennifer Aniston - Rachel Green
Courtney Cox - Monica Geller
Lisa Kudrow - Phoebe Buffay
Matt LeBlanc - Joey Tribbiani
Matthew Perry - Chandler Bing
David Schwimmer - Ross Geller
Supporting Cast
Fred Stoller - The Waiter
James Michael Tyler - Gunther
Jamie Kaler - Mike
Micheal DiMaggio - Drew
Shannon Maureen Brown - The Woman On The Train
Amy Smallman - The Kitchen Worker
Yasemin Baytok - The Poughkeepsie Woman
Vic Helford - The Conductor
Crew
Directed By:
Gary Halverosen
Written By:
Scott Silveri
| 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 Where They're Going To Party" |
Series Four Episodes | Followed by "The One With Phoebe's Uterus" |
| << Season 3 | Season 4 | Season 5 >> | |||||||
| #01 | "The One With The Jellyfish" | #09 | "The One Where They're Going To Party" | #17 | "The One With The Free Porn" | ||||
| #02 | "The One With The Cat" | #10 | "The One With The Girl From Poughkeepsie" | #18 | "The One With Rachel's New Dress" | ||||
| #03 | "The One With The Cuffs" | #11 | "The One With Phoebe's Uterus" | #19 | "The One With All The Haste" | ||||
| #04 | "The One With The Ballroom Dancing" | #12 | "The One With The Embryos" | #20 | "The One With All The Wedding Dresses" | ||||
| #05 | "The One With Joey's New Girlfriend" | #13 | "The One With Rachel's Crush" | #21 | "The One With The Invitation" | ||||
| #06 | "The One With The Dirty Girl" | #14 | "The One With Joey's Dirty Day" | #22 | "The One With The Worst Best Man Ever" | ||||
| #07 | "The One Where Chandler Crosses The Line" | #15 | "The One With All The Rugby" | #23 | "The One With Ross' Wedding, Part 1" | ||||
| #08 | "The One With Chandler In A Box" | #16 | "The One With The Fake Party" | #24 | "The One With Ross' Wedding, Part 2" | ||||