The One With The Stain

This was my least favorite episode of the season so far. The plot felt very forced and ridiculous, and a lot of the lines weren’t even that funny. It didn’t seem like an episode of Friends, where laughter usually comes naturally.

Monica’s character was so exaggerated in this episode, even more than usual, that it became annoying instead of comical. Chandler hires a maid to clean their apartment, who Monica thinks is stealing her clothes including her jeans and bra. Her suspicions get obsessive and she finds herself in some awkward positions when trying to check the stain on the jeans and a cut in the bra. The maid quits after seeing Monica’s weird and strange behavior. In turns out, Rachel had taken the jeans and Monica was wearing the bra herself. Monica was being suspicious toward an innocent person.

Sean Penn returns as Eric and his storyline continues from the previous episode. Eric has broken up with Ursula after learning about all her lies, and then asks Phoebe out right after. Phoebe happily says yes and the two meet for their first date. However, Eric can’t look at Phoebe because it reminds him of Ursula and causes all his anger to come back. Eventually, he gets over this problem, but later on he accidentally sleeps with Ursula thinking that she’s Phoebe (since they’re identical twins). Phoebe and Eric’s storyline just wasn’t entertaining and seemed very unrealistic.

Ross was the only bright part of this episode. Rachel is looking for a new apartment to move to when the baby comes, and Ross suggests that she move to his building where an apartment just became vacant because an old lady had died that morning. He’s especially excited because now he’ll be able to spend a lot of time with the baby. However, it turns out the old lady is still alive, just in a critical condition. Her daughter is taking care of her, and it’s revealed that they are Dutch. Ross visits the apartment frequently and tries to learn Dutch so that he can get the apartment for Rachel. Ross’ efforts are simply hilarious. Props to David Schwimmer for practically saving this episode with his amazing comedic performance!