199.The One with the Sharks

Season:9 Episode:4 First Aired:10/17/2002 Prod Code:175254

Guide
Phoebe has a talk with Ross that prompts her to realize that she's never had a long term relationship. Monica makes a startling discovery while visiting Chandler in Tulsa. Joey's date's apartment seems really familiar, although he doesn't remember sleeping with her before.

Summary
Ross and Phoebe are in Central Perk, as Phoebe is preparing for her date with Mike. Ross tells her that he is really impressed that she dates all these guys without having a serious relationship with any of them. This upsets Phoebe, as she realizes that she's in her 30's and has never been in a long-term relationship. She begins to cry as a result, just as Mike arrives to pick her up.
Joey is checking out a girl in Central Perk, but is having trouble figuring out if she is attractive or not, since her back is to him. When she turns around, he sees that she is very beautiful, so asks her out on a date and she says yes. While on their date, he notices that everything in her apartment looks very familiar, and he figures that he must have slept with her before. He confronts her about this, but she says that he's wrong. Eventually, the girl's roommate comes back, and recognizes Joey, and he realizes that he slept with the roommate. This abruptly ends their date.
Ross, feeling bad about what he did, decides to go to Mike's apartment to talk about what happened with Phoebe. He tells Mike what he did, and Mike is okay with it. In fact, he had just asked Phoebe out on another date. When he asks Ross about whether or not Phoebe never been in a long-term relationship is true, Ross tells him that Phoebe had a serious relationship with a man named Vikrum. Later, he tells Phoebe about her six-year relationship with Vikrum, and that he is a kite designer who used to date Oprah. He wants her to go along with the story, but she refuses. She agrees to be honest with Mike, but when he shows up, she goes along with Ross's story. As Phoebe continues to talk about Vikrum, she eventually decides to tell Mike the truth that there is no such person by that name; and that she's never been in a long-term relationship. Mike decides to give their relationship a chance. Ross then calls Phoebe's home pretending to be Vikrum.
Monica is disappointed that Chandler has to stay in Tulsa for the weekend, so Joey suggests that she go to Tulsa and surprise him. She agrees. Before she arrives, Chandler decides to watch some pay-per-view porn. As he is pleasuring himself, Monica enters the room, just as Chandler changes the channel to a documentary about sharks. Monica then calls Rachel and tells her that she thinks Chandler is aroused by sharks. Chandler arrives back in New York and Monica surprises him with a video documentary on sharks. Chandler becomes confused with why she is doing this, so she tells him that it turns him on. When she questions his actions from the previous day, Chandler tells her that he changed the channel when she walked in, and that he was just watching regular girl-on-girl porn. Monica becomes relaxed upon hearing this.
At the end, Joey and Phoebe are sitting in Central Perk and Joey is deciding whether he should approach a woman who enters the cafe. Phoebe tells him that he's in his 30's and has never been in a long-term relationship, trying to make him feel as bad as she did when Ross told her that. It backfires as Joey concludes that he loves his life. He decides to go for it, but realizes that he's slept with her before and quickly sits back down.