The One With the Ball

Thursday, 6 May 1999

Phoebe moves in with Gary despite her doubts, then ends the relationship when Gary shoots a bird, while Rachel loses money on a savage hairless cat and Ross and Joey keep a ball in the air for ten hours.

What happens

• Gary tells Monica he intends to ask Phoebe to move in with him, Monica passes it straight on to Phoebe, and Phoebe asks Chandler to frighten Gary out of the idea.
• Rachel brings home a hairless show cat she paid a thousand dollars for, expecting it to be as sweet as her grandmother's was.
• Chandler goes to the precinct to talk Gary out of living with Phoebe, and Gary's answer talks Chandler around instead.
• Monica joins the marathon game of catch that Ross and Joey have been keeping alive for hours, and telephones work to say she is ill so she can keep playing.
• Rachel arrives covered in scratches, because the cat attacks her rather than playing with her.
• Chandler reports back that Phoebe should move in with Gary, and Phoebe is furious that he failed at the one thing she asked of him.
• Gary asks Phoebe to move in, Phoebe tells him it is too soon, and then she says yes anyway because he looks so wounded.
• Gary confronts Phoebe with the apartment listings she pretended not to find, Phoebe admits she has doubts, and after Gary offers to drop the whole plan she agrees to move in for real.
• Rachel gets rid of the cat by selling it to Gunther for fifteen hundred dollars, more than she paid.
• Gary shoots a bird singing outside the bedroom window, Phoebe ends the relationship over it, and she puts the ball down in front of the others, finishing their game.