“The One With Ross's Grant”

Friends season 10, episode 6
Original air date: November 06, 2003

Phoebe reveals to everyone that she and Mike are getting married and hands off her little black book to Rachel, since she's the last single girl Phoebe knows. Chandler tells everyone that he's about to launch his first national commercial with his advertising company, and Joey lobbies Chandler to be the actor in the commercial. And Ross is up for a major grant that Charlie's ex-boyfriend, Benjamin, is administering. Ross worries that it could be really weird for him to be evaluated by Charlie's ex-boyfriend, but Charlie suggests that the three of them go out to dinner to break the ice.

As Monica is helping Phoebe clean out her apartment to get ready to move in with Mike, Phoebe gripes that Mike is making her give up "Gladys," a creepy painting/collage with a mannequin protruding from it. Monica feigns shock and sadness on Phoebe's behalf, at which point Phoebe decides that Monica should take Gladys, since she obviously means so much to Monica. When Phoebe brings it up at Monica's apartment a few days later, Rachel feigns jealousy that Monica's getting Gladys, prompting Phoebe to flip a coin to decide who gets her, which Monica wins.

Joey hands off a tape of all his commercials to Chandler for review, still trying to convince him to cast him in the commercial for "e-business software that facilitates networking." Chandler continues to insist that Joey's not right for the part; when Joey presses him, Chandler says that he watched the tape and thought Joey was great, but that when Chandler passed the tape off to his bosses to review, they didn't think Joey was right for the part. Joey knows Chandler's lying and calls him on it. To prove it, Joey pops the tape in the VCR and shows Chandler a commercial where Joey hawks "Ichiban," a blue men's lipstick in Japanese. Chandler has to admit that he's never seen the Ichiban commercial, and to make it up to Joey, he has to wear the Ichiban lipstick to the coffeehouse to tell the gang, "Lying is wrong. And I'm a pretty little girl."

Ross and Charlie go to dinner with Benjamin, and it becomes apparent that Charlie and Benjamin have quite a past together. They spend the evening reminiscing about funny escapades they had when they were a couple. When Charlie goes to the restroom, Benjamin asks Ross to break up with Charlie. At Ross's interview for the grant, Benjamin asks him ridiculous questions that Ross couldn't possibly answer (like "When is my birthday?"), so that Ross looks like an idiot in front of the other candidates. When Ross confronts Benjamin about his behavior, Benjamin reiterates that Ross will get the grant if he breaks up with Charlie. Ross again refuses, and this time tells Charlie what Benjamin's been asking him to do. Charlie is outraged at first, but realizes that she still has feelings for Benjamin and breaks up with Ross.

Rachel comes home from work to find Gladys propped up on their lounge chair. Joey explains that he bought Gladys from Monica for "a very reasonable price." Rachel makes up a story about how Gladys comes out of her frame at night to search for legs to steal, and Joey yells at Rachel to get Gladys out of their apartment. Rachel marches across to Monica's to take Gladys back, but Phoebe comes in and has a new creepy woman-protruding painting for whoever doesn't end up with Gladys — Gwyneth. Rachel uses the Gladys painting to creep into Joey's room and scare him, time after time, and on the third time, she bumps into Monica carrying Gwyneth and freaks out.