The One With the Apothecary Table

Thursday, 6 January 2000

Rachel hides that her new apothecary table came from Pottery Barn because Phoebe despises mass-produced furniture, while Joey's new girlfriend Janine tells him she cannot stand spending evenings with Monica and Chandler.

What happens

• Joey announces to the group that he has kissed Janine, then admits he left her sitting alone to come and tell them.
• Rachel's Pottery Barn catalogue arrives with the apothecary table she ordered, and after Monica warns her that Phoebe loathes the chain, Rachel decides to pass the table off as an antique.
• The two couples come home from a double date and arrange another dinner, but once inside Janine tells Joey she finds Chandler dull and Monica too loud to take two nights running.
• Phoebe admires the table and Rachel invents a flea market origin for it, a price of one and fifty dollars, and a history in White Plains.
• Rachel arrives at Ross's flat to find he has bought the identical table, and she persuades him to drape it with his Pottery Barn sheets before Phoebe turns up.
• Joey tells Monica and Chandler that Janine is too ill for dinner, Janine walks out on her way to a play, and Joey confesses what she really said about them.
• Phoebe puts her feet on the covered table, drags the sheet off along with a glass of wine, and Rachel salvages the lie by claiming Pottery Barn copied their antique.
• Ross finds the flat filled with Pottery Barn furniture that Rachel has given Colonial histories, so he hands her sixty dollars and sends her and Phoebe to the flea market.
• Phoebe recognises her own living room in a Pottery Barn window, Rachel confesses, and Phoebe buys the lamp she wants on the excuse that Rachel would otherwise move out.
• Janine and Monica come to blows in the hallway, Joey tells Janine his friends matter too much to lose, and he ends the relationship and she moves out.