The episode of friends “Were Ross and Rachel on a Break” that technically aired on television 23 years back, on February 13, 1997, has still been the most discussed episode so far. In the episode, it’s the anniversary of Ross and Rachel and the career-oriented Rachel is extremely busy with her new job. Unfortunately, she decides not to celebrate their anniversary.
The sweetheart Ross instead of feeling annoyed or being upset plans to visit her office with a picnic basket. Alas! Contrary to what the lover boy expected, he finds Rachel being stressed and embarrassed instead. This leads to an argument later in the night and during the dialogue exchange Ross ends up hurting Rachel emotionally by being insecure about her Boss Mark.
Rachel played by Jennifer Aniston suggests that they take a break to which Ross played by David Schwimmer storms out of the apartment. Things got even worse when he calls Rachel while he is at the bar only to find out that Mark is already at their apartment. Amidst all this chaos Chloe ends up kissing Ross, and eventually, Ross kisses her back too resulting in two of them sleeping together.
When Rachel later finds out about this, she is extremely hurt leading their relationship to end. This has been a cause of debate for a long time now. A lot of people including relationship experts and therapists have had their views about this episode. Some people feel that they were on a break so it was okay for either of the partners to sleep with other people.
On the other hand, a few people strongly believe that being on a break never means that you have stopped loving each other hence sleeping with other people is still called cheating. For a few people, the debate is still about whether Ross and Rachel were on a break or not.
Well! Ross played by David Schwimmer finally puts an end to the debate by saying that yes, they were on a break. Now even after his statement, a few people agree to disagree. As per them firstly Rachel said, “maybe we should just take a break” and secondly Ross simply walked out of the apartment and never agreed for that break. So, technically they were not on a break.
With that in mind, we must agree that Love between two partners never guarantees loyalty. For some, it’s easy to have an open relationship too but for some, they would still consider it cheating if you slept with someone even when on a relationship break.
It’s important to set expectations right and agree on the same ground rules both when in Love and when taking a break. Because ultimately, it’s the couple who has to continue the relationship or go through after-effects of not continuing it hence they must be able to decide what they want to step in to.
