The One with Chandler in a Box

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"The One With Chandler In A Box" is the eighth episode of the fourth season of Friends.

First aired: November 20, 1997

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

[edit] Plot

The teaser shows Joey, stewing alone in his apartment. Chandler calls him several times, attempting to apologize for kissing Joey's then-girlfriend Kathy, but Joey hangs up on him every time.

Phoebe and Monica, who are starting their own catering business (and, at the moment, preparing the gang's Thanksgiving supper), propose a Secret Santa gift exchange for Christmas this year. Chandler attempts to trade recipients so that he gives to Rachel. Phoebe, who had Rachel initially, expresses great joy at this idea. Rachel, she claims, is impossible to buy gifts for, as she exchanges them incessantly. When Chandler reveals this to Ross, Ross is angered and accuses Rachel, over supper, of having no sentiment. Rachel, near tears, flees to her room, returning with a shoebox containing, among other things: a movie ticket stub from her and Ross's first date, an eggshell from their first breakfast in bed, and a fossil from "the first time we... were together." Ross is touched and apologizes, though he'd like the fossil back: "You're not supposed to take these. It's like a million years old, we... we actually, we had people looking for that."

Monica, while dragging things out of the freezer, gets a chip of ice in her eye. She refuses to call her optometrist—old flame Richard Burke—but does agree to see the back-up on-call doctor. This doctor turns out to be none other but Richard's son Tim Burke. Monica finds him attractive enough to invite him over for Thanksgiving dinner, to the consternation of the gang (Rachel: "It's Richard's son! It's like inviting a Greek tragedy over for dinner!"). For Monica's sake, they try to accept him, but when she and Tim first kiss, it reminds her of kissing his father, and the date comes to a shuddering halt.

Joey decides to return all the new furniture that Chandler bought out of guilt, such as the new foosball table, which he re-packs in its packing crate. Ross steps in to try and change Joey's mind. Joey accepts him as his new best friend, replacing Chandler, but Ross's first act in that position is to tell Joey to patch things up with Chandler. Joey agrees, but is derailed when he stumbles across Chandler and Kathy kissing in Central Perk. Joey decides to return to his family. He cites the time their apartment was robbed, and claims that, while he was locked in the cabinet for hours, he could think only of how he had let Chandler down. Chandler, touched, offers to lock himself in an equivalent space for several hours. Joey points to the foosball table's packing crate. Chandler spends the Thanksgiving dinner inside said box, with only a small airhole to connect him with the outside world. He jokes from within it until Joey tells him that, if his penance is to be serious, he must be quiet. This rule still holds when Kathy enters to speak to him. Sitting outside the box, she tells him that she can't see him anymore since she doesn't want to be the kind of person who pushes best friends apart. Joey is touched and frees Chandler, telling him to catch her while he still can. Chandler and Kathy's reunion is the subject of the credits-crawl footage (Phoebe: "All right, get a room!").