Friends' Main Debate: Did Ross Cheat On Rachel?
Ross and Rachel were the couple that caused the most controversy among Friends fans.
The biggest, most painful, most controversial question in Friends' most popular couple – Did Ross cheat on Rachel?
An entire episode was dedicated to this event, and it was appropriately called The One Where Ross and Rachel Take a Break.
After a huge fight where Rachel said they needed to take a break, Ross went to a bar with Joey and Chandler, and unfortunately there was a girl named Chloe.
And if it wasn't for Ross' spur-of-the-moment decision, we wouldn't be having this conversation right now. But the fact remains that Ross was obviously looking for rebound sex.
Ross, of course, only realized his mistake the next morning, when he woke up with Chloe and learned that Rachel wanted to start over and forget about their stupid fight. But it was too late.
Looking at the situation through Rachel's eyes, Ross is wrong on all fronts. He is the one who tried to distract her during work hours, all because of unmotivated jealousy.
And when she made it clear to him that she wanted to take a break, Ross was the one who left without listening to the end and finding out all the conditions for this break.
Rachel didn't say she wanted to break up – if she said so, Ross and Chloe's night would definitely not be considered cheating. But Rachel said "take a break."
When we take a "break" at work, we don't rush to find a new job, we just relax alone and then go back to our old office. Thus, the break does not require a replacement.
According to Ross, his night with Chloe doesn't count as cheating because he thought his relationship with Rachel was on hiatus.
Did Ross have to put two and two together to realize that Rachel wasn't really going away? Yes, he had to. But feelings are not math, and sometimes even the smartest people don't see the obvious answers right in front of them.
What Ross did was selfish, stupid, and too spontaneous, even for him.
If we imagine that all of this did not happen within the plot of the fictional show, but real people were involved in the situation, then the answer would of course be "cheated."
Yes, they misunderstood each other. Yes, Ross loved Rachel for all ten seasons. But that does not change the fact that, without listening to her arguments, he slept with a random girl an hour after their fight.