How is that a breach of trust? he didn’t betray anybody, trust has nothing to do with it.
My WAG: the thinking is that if Ross really actually loved her, he’d be crushed by her statement and wouldn’t even think about screwing another girl for quite a while. Not that I agree.
Edit: Alternately, that he should have somehow known that “break” means “We don’t hang out until we/I cool down, but no dating/screwing anyone else in the meantime.”
I do not understand you people who do not see this as a breech of trust. You jealousy is hurting this relationship and I think we need to step back and re-assess.
Oh good, lemme fuck the first girl who looks twice at me in the next 5 minutes!
That is a man who cannot be trusted.
Bolding mine. What would you think if someone you dated did that? You don’t need to be super-jealous to take that the wrong way. This is one of the things that bugs me the most about the situation. She is basically calling for an asymmetrical break up that only she knows the rules for. Ross doesn’t know what is going on. All he knows is that when things get bad she turns to another guy, who she claimed was just a colleague. What should the nonjealous guy think is going on here? Mark was into her. Ross knew it. If he had played it cool about Mark, and the fight had been about something else, would it have been different?
Also, these were not parallel events. Ross finds out she goes directly from the fight and calls the guy over to the apartment and then jumps in bed with someone pursuing him.
I am not sure what Ross needed to explain. Rachael knew that he called and found out she invited Mark over. She knew he thought Mark wanted to go out with her.
One thing that show pointed out several times was that Ross was damaged by his marriage. Ross was an all in type of guy. He worked hard at his marriage and it destroyed his trust and his self-esteem when his wife left him for the girl at the gym.
Or (c) after the second woman he fell in love with left him for someone else he felt worthless and unlovable and accepted any positive attention thrown his way as way.
I don’t care how whiny and jealous you think I am, less than 2 hours after you tell me you want time away from the relationship and you have a date over to the apartment? I pretty much conclude that we are not currently exclusive.
ETA:
You seem to forget step b) I immediately invite over the guy you are jealous of.
A “break” sounds to me more like a pause, a cooling down period, a step-back-and-take-assessment time, not necessarily a permanent break-up. That’s close to what Ross thought, at least at first. I think the show’s writers deliberately chose (or made up) an ambiguous phrase to allow for comedic development. Isn’t that what most of Three’s Company plots were – ambiguity and misunderstanding taken to comedic extremes?
That’s exactly what happened: Ross took it to mean what you said, at which point Rachel patiently corrected him.
You mean by dating another guy?
No, I mean he replies to her initial comment about needing a break as if she’d suggested “a pause, a cooling down period, a step-back-and-take-assessment time” – and she replies, with words and everything, that, no, she meant something else.
I hate ambiguous statements like this. It just makes women look bad. Rachel was a bitch and should have told Ross the exact rules of their “break”. Then again Ross was a jerk - for going back to her.
Ross thought she meant a break from the particular argument they were having. When she said she thought they needed a break, he said something like: *Right, let’s go get a frozen yogurt. * Rachael corrected him by saying: No, a break from us.
So, Rachael explained it pretty well. Still, a “break” implies at least the possibility of getting back together, so sleeping with someone is a bit out of bounds. Having said that, Rachael is being weasely by asking for a “break” in the first place. It’s like breaking up with someone without actually breaking up with them.
It’s all for a greater cause…comedy.
Ross is good in my lights less than 46 seconds after Rachel tells him they need a break. If she wants to work out their issues, she needs to say “We need to work on this more.”
“We need a break” is daring him “You think you’re going to get laid so fast? Go, try it, chump.”
We need a break, too! Not “I” need a break. So she is allowed to unilaterally make relationship decisions but he is not?
He called her and saw that she was with another man less than 48 hours after the “break”, so he does the same, and yet only he gets the blame?
This makes me irrationally angry. :mad:
“Oh my Gawd, if you say that one more time, I’M going to break up with you!!”
There was nothing wrong with him banging the chick who was actually throwing herself at him. He’s a guy, that’s how guys get solace when chicks dump us.
Does that make Ross right? NO!!!
It was Ross’s fault for being a whiny, clingy little…she should have dumped him long before. I imagine Joey took him aside and told him this was a good way to drive a chick off. If your woman is stressed at work and needs a little ME time, you give it to her. If she is exponentially hotter than you, you give her even more and don’t fuss.
I could be wrong, but in talking about this, I remembered that when Ross called, what he heard in the background was Mark asking if he should open another bottle of wine.
Let’s reverse sexes for a minute. What if Rachael was upset that the copygirl was always hitting on Ross, and they had the fight about that. How should Rachael have responded if she found that Ross immediately invited copy girl up for a few bottles of wine?
Forget the break for minute. What would any of you think if someone you were dating responded to fight by immediately inviting someone who wanted to date them over for drinks as soon as you left?
Strassia speaks the truth.
I’m with Ross. If I’m dumped, the first thing I want to do is get laid by someone, anyone, right now, and the more I care about the person who dumped me, the greater the urge. There is no “cushioning” period. And I’m pretty sure there are a lot of men who feel exactly the same way.
I have been told that I exhibit some strong masculine tendencies in the past. It’s probably true, because I feel the same way. It’s validation, to yourself if no one else.
This little story has bothered me ever since it aired, can you tell? 
Just have to chime in with another “not a breach of trust” vote.
Me too. I’ve never gotten it out of my head. I hated Rachel from that point on, even more after the 18-page-letter, single-spaced, double-sided! I’ve held that against Jennifer Aniston ever since. (I sided with Angelina.)
(Can you tell I’m a man in my 40s and so worked up about a sitcom episode that first aired 15 years ago?)