Ross meets a woman who lives far away. Monica hires Joey as a waiter to help her with her new staff. Chandler checks around at his office to see if any of his co-workers are interested in dating Rachel. Phoebe attempts to write an original Christmas song about her friends, but has trouble getting their names to rhyme in the lyrics.
Tropes
- Artistic License – Geography: Ross falls asleep on the train and ends up in Montreal. He then meets an attractive woman who says she takes the ferry to Nova Scotia. Montreal is on the Saint Lawrence River, nowhere near any port with a ferry connection to Nova Scotia.
- Characterization Marches On: Monica is too meek and nice to fire any of her employees at Alessandro's. She gets bullied by them instead. That would be a far cry from the bitchier, bossy Monica of later seasons. Justified as she had a tumultuous past two years so it's likely she was having self-confidence issues.
- Christmas Episode: The episode takes place around Christmas. Joey becomes hesitant to get fired as a waiter because of how generous people tip during the holidays, and Phoebe tries to write a Christmas song for her friends.
- Didn't Think This Through: Monica and Joey's bluff relies on the fact that the Alessandro staff supposedly never considered that when they antagonised Monica past breaking point, rather than just quit herself, she might fire them instead. When they realise this is a possibility, they instantly cower from her and behave themselves.
- Hollywood Law: Ross should have been awakened by a conductor to check his passport before entering Canada.
- Informed Judaism: One of the few hints that Rachel is from a Jewish family is that her only objection to Phoebe's lyric "Spin the dreidel, Rachel" is that it doesn't rhyme.
- Just One Extra Ticket: When he tells the guys at his office that his "hot friend" Rachel is looking for a fling, everyone begins sucking up to Chandler by offering sports tickets, cigars, and whiskey.
- Least Rhymable Word: Phoebe writes a Christmas song for the gang but struggles to find words to rhyme with "Rachel" and "Chandler". She eventually resorts to ending their line by mumbling vaguely for a few seconds.
- Morton's Fork:
- Ross can either keep dating a nearby girl who he's not clicking with because she's potentially racist, or date a girl who lives so far away that he's exhausted trying to maintain the relationship; he's eventually convinced to give up on both.
- Whether Chandler tells his co-workers that Rachel's looking for a serious relationship or a fling, the answer is going to be wrong.
- Replacement Scrappy: In-Universe. Alessandro's staff hate Monica because her employment got their old beloved chef fired. They also still hold a grudge against a harsh review she gave them in the past. While this doesn't really change by the end, Joey's staged firing leaves them terrified of Monica and keeping their opinions to themselves.
- Sadist: Monica's new staff in Alessandro's could be this. Since they torture Monica ruthlessly and mercilessly.
- Screw the Money, I Have Rules!:
- Joey becomes reluctant to go with the original plan of Monica "firing" him after learning the pay is pretty good, but after seeing the rest of the staff treat Monica so horribly to the point that she's almost in tears, he quickly abandons it and goes back to the original plan so they can be kept in line.
- Subverted with the staff themselves. Despite their personal vendetta against Monica (having replaced a favoured chef and also previously given them a bad review), they immediately become subservient when they realise it puts their job at risk.
- Stupid Evil: It never occurred to the staff Monica could fire any one of them for how they treated her until she fires Joey.
- Sure, Let's Go with That: Joey at one point wonders if Orson Welles was the one who recently fired him for a Burger King commercial. After pausing for several moments, Chandler tells him yes.
- Thin-Skinned Bully: The Alessandro staff bully and rebel against Monica, until they see her "fire" Joey. Their hate campaign seemingly relied on Monica being an Extreme Doormat and quitting first, when they see she might fire them in response instead, they snivel pathetically before her.
- Villainous Breakdown: After Monica "fires" Joey, most of the staff are left in shock. Stu the waiter, the most vindictive of the staff, outright grovels before Monica.
