Were they on a break?.....Who cares.

A lot of dudes go for rebounds after hard breakups. I don't see the issue with it. Ross' mistake was going around town, trying to keep the whole thing under wraps instead of being honest about it. Rachel's mistake was that she didn't know what the hell she wanted and didn't understand that her actions had consequences. They both made mistakes by not going over exactly what this "break" entailed. How long was it supposed to be? Could they see other people during it? Why do this instead of breaking things off completely?

I hated both characters, by the way. They deserved each other in the end.

I knew a guy who would call up his girlfriend and break up with her over the phone so he could have a fling, and this to him didn't constitute cheating. A week later they would reconcile. Amazingly, she put up with that crap for years.

I remember the IMDb days on this board and it was nuts!
Those Ross defenders were particularly rabid, saying Rachel had encouraged him to believe she was with Mark.
I agree with you, whether it was a temporary break or a permanent split he still shagged someone 5 hours later. Hardly the actions of the heartbroken in the eyes of the other party.

You are right, it never mattered. Their relationship had become pretty unhealthy. If it hadn't, they never would have fallen into that situation. So on a break or not, they were done by that point (even if not officially).

Also, even if Ross technically cheated (which I don't defend), Rachael played her part in ending things as well.

I wish Ross had grown some more instead of totally devolving. It would be cool to say that they both had to grow to be right for each other and have a healthy functioning relationship. Not totally sure I would say Rachael ever really got there, but Ross defiantly never did. So I find it hard to be thrilled that they ended up together in the end. But hey, maybe they deserved each-other.

I understand Rachel not liking the idea that Ross gave up on their relationship so quickly and slept with somebody else so soon, even though he thought it was over and she was sleeping with another man. BUT she called him a cheater and as far as Ross was concerned that simply wasn't true.

It's funny. The older I get, the more I change my mind on who was right on this issue.

When the show first aired, I sympathised with Ross. My logic being that as far as he was concerned, the relationship was over. Rachel was the one who said she wanted a break, so why shouldn't he be out seeing other people?

However, nowadays watching the episodes back, I'd see why Rachel was upset. Firstly, Ross was the one who was being over-jealous of her relationship with a guy at work. (Which ended up being nothing sexual.) That's what had lead to the argument in the first place. And yes, Rachel did say she thought they should have a break. But Ross' jumping straight into bed with someone else reeked of him not taking his current relationship seriously. As fans, we can see that Ross was upset, drunk and the fling was just a rebound thing because he was hurt. But how would it have looked to Rachel? A few hours after breaking up, he's in bed with somebody else. He didn't wait to see if it was something she'd said in anger, or in the heat of the moment. From her perspective, he was straight into bed with someone else. Almost as if he did it the second the thought he had permission.

Well I think Rachel did not have the virtue to maintain the position she took. She had sex with at least two other people before the event and after the show started. It’s weird because she described that she had passionate sex with palo so her reaction to Ross having sex during their break seemed like someone who had more virtue than Rachel did.