Rachel dates a guy with a really short temper. When Ross tries to warn everyone about him, everyone thinks he's just jealous. Kate gets a job in Los Angeles and breaks things off with Joey.
Tropes:
- Big "YES!": Joey upon a review saying he's not the worst thing about the play.
- Bird-Poop Gag: Tommy is holding Joey's chick when it poops on his hand. He loses his temper (and takes it out on the duck) and that is when the others finally see his true colors.
- Cassandra Truth: No one believes Ross when he says Tommy has a bad temper because they are never around when he loses it, and chalk it up to Ross being jealous.
- Damned by Faint Praise: A review saying Joey isn't the worst thing about the play is all he needs to hear. He actually wants to save the review.
- Ending by Ascending: At the end of the play within the show, a ladder magically descends from above, and Joey's character grabs onto it to ascend into the waiting spaceship, leaving his love interest behind to melancholically watch him depart, so that he can "go to Blogon 7 in search of alternative fuels". No blinding light, in this case, but the ladder is beautifully decorated with flashing Christmas lights.
- The Ending Changes Everything: Metatextually: We had gotten hints about what the play was about across the past few episodes, including this one, but nothing concrete. It's only when Joey cues the ladder that it's revealed this was science fiction.
- Gainax Ending: Joey's play seems like an ordinary romantic drama, but it ends with his character going into outer space.
- Hair-Trigger Temper: Tommy gets really angry at the slightest provocation. However, only Ross ever witnesses it until the end.
- Hypocrite:
- Marshall dumps Kate for the bad review even though his (admittedly terrible) direction received an even worse review.
- Rachel blows off Ross when he tries to tell her about Tommy's anger issues by accusing him of just being jealous and everyone backs her up, even though the only reason she started seeing him in the first place was because she was jealous he brought a date to Joey's premier and no one called her on it.
- Multitasked Conversation: By the end of the episode, Joey's co-star Kate had been replaced by Lauren, as she's leaving for LA that night, as she got a role on General Hospital; she shows up before the play's final scene to say goodbye. Joey tries to talk her into staying, but she can't. Then, Joey is sent on stage to do the scene... but he sees Kate's still off-stage."Adrienne": So this is it? Victor?"Victor": Yeah, I guess it is... (Joey notices Kate; moves Lauren so she's right in front of her; looks at Kate) Listen, I uh... I gotta say good bye, and- and I gotta say it quick 'cause this is killing me... One thing you gotta know is that I will never forget you. But... you’ve got things you have to do now... and so do I. (steps back) And so... (points up) I'm gonna get on this spaceship.
- Papa Wolf: Parodied with Chandler telling Tommy, who had just been screaming at the duck, "Step away from the duck."
- Rhetorical Question Blunder:Joey: Listen, drama critics... they're nothing but... but people who couldn't make it as actors. You know what you should do?
Kate: Become a drama critic! - Ridiculously Long Phone Hold: Phoebe spends several days on hold (on Monica's phone) with a company she needs to talk to before her phone warranty expires. It is only after these days have passed that they realize they are being charged for this call (long distance) since Phoebe had mistaken the Utah area-code for a toll-free number.
- Sanity Slippage: The massively long wait takes a toll on Phoebe, as she passes the time by moving furniture from one room to the next and starts repeating the wait message in a response to Joey.
- Shout-Out to Shakespeare: The drunken director quotes Romeo and Juliet when he tells Kate and Joey "A pox on both your houses!"
- Sleep Deprivation: Phoebe insists on holding her phone call to the point that she doesn't sleep for two days. She is totally exhausted at the end of it and is incoherent when Tommy asks if he can borrow the phone.
- Small Name, Big Ego: Marshall's self-importance and constant criticism of his cast look even more ridiculous when the reviews trash how he directed the play.
- Wearing It All Wrong: While waiting on hold on the phone, Phoebe gets tangled up trying to put on a sweater.
- Wham Line: "And so... ...I'm gonna get on this spaceship..." is two-fold: In-Universe, it reveals that Joey's character suddenly has to leave for space and travel at relativistic speeds while his love interest takes The Slow Path. But for the viewer, it signifies exactly what the play we had been following for several episodes was really about.
- Yank the Dog's Chain: A woman at Central Perk sends Chandler a drink and then asks for it back because she thought he was someone else.
