The One With Ross' Sandwich

"The One With Ross' Sandwich" is the ninth episode of the fifth season of Friends, which aired on December 10, 1998.
==Plot==
With Joey being the only person who knows about their secret relationship, he finds himself forced to cover for Chandler and Monica. This leads to them doing numerous sexual acts in his apartment, leading him to become frustrated and demand that they calm their activities down when in the apartment and act normally if he is to have to do the same, which they agree to do. Later, Rachel finds Monica's razor in Chandler's bathroom and Phoebe finds Chandler's underwear on the couch in Monica's apartment. Joey is forced to bear the brunt of Rachel's disgust that he apparently undresses in her apartment, with Monica and Chandler successfully pleading with him to keep the secret. Later that night, Chandler and Monica are about to have sex and record it on a video camera in Chandler's apartment. However, Joey returns home with a date, who misunderstands and thinks Joey was going to film them having sex, and storms out in disgust. All of this is seen by Rachel. Joey is again forced to take the blame, making him look more and more like a disturbing pervert. Joey attempts to get Chandler and Monica to fess up, and they tentatively agree.
The next day, Joey finds a naked picture of Monica which Chandler left in the apartment. Initially aroused by the picture, Rachel catches him with it, and rapidly comes up with a narrative that Joey is a sexual predator who took the photo through a secret peephole, which she tells the rest of the group. Chandler and Monica again try to make Joey cover for them, but Joey instead gets his revenge by making up a story about him sleeping with Monica in London just like what happened with her and Chandler, and that Monica set up the camera and left the photo for him as she has been stalking him ever since, trying to get him back into bed; Monica is reluctantly forced to go along with it.
Phoebe is taking a literature class and Rachel agrees to come, but instead of reading the books, she asks Phoebe what they are about right before the class begins. This results in Rachel using Phoebe's exact answers for the book when called on, which makes the latter look foolish since now she can't use her own answers. The second time, Phoebe decides to make up a ridiculous story to tell Rachel, which she repeats in front of the entire class. When Rachel finds out that Phoebe never went to high school and actually wants to learn something instead of just having fun, they agree that Phoebe should take Monica, which turns out to be not such a good idea as she is way too fanatic and everybody hates her as she persuades the teacher to give them a test with essay questions.
Ross is starting to unravel in light of his impending divorce and recent eviction, and the straw that breaks the camel's back is when he takes his leftover Thanksgiving sandwich to work and someone eats it. As this was "the only good thing going on in my life", he gets really mad about it. Phoebe writes a threatening note for him that will scare people off. His coworkers start calling him 'mental' and Ross thinks that getting tough with people is a way to get what you want out of them. This however does not work with Joey, who just pushes him off the couch in Central Perk when he orders him to give him his coffee. This causes problems with his boss, who wants him to see a psychiatrist. Ross tries to explain to his boss, but then finds out he was the one who took the sandwich (and didn't even finish it, throwing the leftover away) Ross screams at him so loud it can be heard outside, scaring a group of pigeons. This results in Ross having to take a sabbatical, and though he is upset at this, he takes solace in knowing that he is no longer upset about the sandwich.
==Cast and Crew==
===Main Cast===
Jennifer Aniston - Rachel Greene
Courteney Cox - Monica Geller
Lisa Kudrow - Phoebe Buffay
Matt LeBlanc - Joey Tribbiani
Matthew Perry - Chandler Bing
David Schwimmer - Ross Geller
===Supporting Cast===
Michael Ensign - Dr. Ledbetter
Scott Mosenson - Carl, the Lit Teacher
Jennette Robbins - Cynthia
Alexia Roberts - The Female Student
Johan-Carl Nowack - Eric Garcia
James Michael Tyler - Gunther
===Crew===
Directed By: 
Gary Halvorson
Written By: 
Ted Cohen & Andrew Reich
==Trivia==
* Joey shows off his leg that he had shaved to Monica and Chandler, after Rachel found Monica's razor and he had to lie for them, saying he's playing the role of a woman for a play. Matt LeBlanc actually shaved his leg for this episode.
*While the gang is at the coffeehouse, Chandler mentions Annie. After he moves in with Monica, we learn that he has two copies of this musical's soundtrack.
* The book Monica reads in the coffeehouse is Practical Intuition in Love by Laura Day, which had only been published in October 1998, shortly before the airdate of this episode.
* Joey pretends that the video camera was to film low budget porn involving him having sex. A little over two years later Ross would accidentally film himself and Rachel having sex in that same living room, as seen in "The One With The Videotape". 
* Joey claims that he slept with Monica in London. In "The One With The Truth About London", it emerges that Monica was actually looking to sleep with Joey rather than Chandler.
* The bucket Joey is holding has the phrase "finger lickin chicken" on it but the image of Colonel Sanders (associated with KFC) is clearly visible underneath.
* Dr. Ledbetter, Ross' superior at the museum who ate Ross' Moistmaker sandwich, is portrayed by Michael Ensign, who appeared in the James Cameron epic film Titanic as businessman Benjamin Guggenheim. In The One With All The Candy, according to Chandler, Joey always cries everytime somebody talks about Titanic, to which Joey almost tearfully replies, "Those two had only each other!"
* Like The One Where They're Going To Party, this episode is set between Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays ones, but a clear reference to a recently past Thanksgiving is mentioned, as Ross' sandwich consists of Thanksgiving turkey leftovers made with the Moistmaker. It is the first episode where Thanksgiving is being referenced for the second time after the previous one.
* Phoebe mentions stabbing a cop. This may have been when she spent time in jail, as hinted at in "The One In Vegas, Part 1" when she says "I won't go back to that hell hole". Also Gary, the cop she dates later in the season says he'd looked up her criminal record and told her that she's got quite a colorful criminal past.
* Scott Mosenson appeared in ER in 1999, a series which starred George Clooney and Noah Wyle, who appeared in "The One With Two Parts, Part 2".
* The uncut DVD episode has a few extra lines such as Joey suggesting to Monica that she'll find it hard to resist him, to which Monica replies "I'll try".
* Unless they've been put in storage somewhere, perhaps at Rachel and Monica's, there are far fewer boxes in Joey's apartment than before. Also the air purifier seems to have gone too, in fact it's never seen again even when Ross moves into Ugly Naked Guy's apartment.
* The novels which Phoebe reads (and Rachel's supposed to have read) are Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë and Jane Eyre by her older sister Charlotte Brontë. Both were originally published in 1847.
*This episode was used as "M is for Moistmaker" in the Nick at Nite Friends A-Z Event (January 2023).
== Goofs==
*Joey lied for Chandler about underwear which were tighty whities however later he wore boxer shorts. It's possible he changed to boxers after Monica requested it.
*When Joey is looking at Monica's photo, the light panel and people watching from behind the door can be seen when Rachel is coming in the room.
*When you first see the teacher and he's talking about the Bronte sisters, the audio doesn't match up with how his mouth moves. 
*When the gang are discussing Phoebe stabbing a cop, in the close-up shots she has a mug in her right hand but in the wider shots the mug on the coffee table. 
*After Phoebe exclaims that "He stabbed me first," the shot cuts to a wide view of the group. On the right, Phoebe can be seen still mouthing the word "first" from a previous take, but the line is already finished.
==Photos==
5x09 Ross cotton candy.jpg
Monica_and_Chandler-5x09.png
TOWRoss'Sandwich.png
Reading Note.png
Joey_Shoves_Ross!.png
Joey_wants_Sex_with_Monica!.png
== External links ==
* Transcript of the episode including the deleted scenes
* "The One with Ross' Sandwich" at the Internet Movie Database
==Episode Navigation==
Category:Friends Episodes
Category:Season 5
Category:Episodes with Ross' name in the title
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