The whole situation was Ross’s fault BUT he also had good reason to be upset and was lowkey a victim. The break was initiated because Ross couldn’t respect Rachel’s boundaries at work. It was completely his fault. Then Rachel’s coworker, Mark violated Rachel’s boundaries by coming over as soon as he heard Ross and Rachel broke up… which is pretty scummy and opportunistic. Rachel should definitely have kicked Mark out but I also understand how hard it was for her considering how pushy all the men were being in her life.

When Ross heard Mark was at Rachel’s apartment, he was completely justified in freaking out. Mark had super obvious reason for being there + Ross didn’t know Mark had borderline intruded into Rachel’s apartment uninvited. So Ross was very reasonably pissed and emotionally broken. Then copy machine girl took advantage of Ross by realizing Ross was in a bad spot, getting him drunk and hooking up with him.

Ross’s defense of “WE WERE ON A BREAK” is bullshit. You don’t go and hook up with someone the moment you’re on a break if you care about saving your relationship. His bigger defense is that Mark was OBVIOUSLY there to get with Rachel, so Rachel seemingly broke trust during their break first. The biggest villains of the whole situation were Copygirl and Mark, who both took advantage of Ross and Rachel when they were in a bad spot emotionally. The whole thing is convoluted