Now that every episode of Friends is at our disposal—thanks syndication and Netflix!—we've gone from having seen every episode 100 times to upping that number to, well, we've lost count, to be honest. But all of these repeated viewings mean that we've spotted some plot holes that seem bigger than ever, as well as some things we've never noticed before that blow our Central Perk-obsessed minds. And, to quote Chandler Bing, could this latest discovery BE anymore of a coincidence?
Ready for this? So, "The One With the Baby on the Bus" (season two, episode six) really should have been called "The One Where Phoebe Really Meets Her Brother for the First Time." Here's why:
In the episode, the song "Smelly Cat" makes its debut and Phoebe gets replaced as the musical entertainment at Central Perk. She heads outside to sing on the sidewalk—with her guitar case opened wide for tips. And, being that this is New York City, someone accidentally drops a condom in the case—only to come back later to retrieve it. And who is the lad? None other than Giovanni Ribisi, who famously played Phoebe's long lost brother, Frank Jr. His first appearance credited as Frank Jr. was later that same season, in the episode called "The One With the Bullies." And we know that Phoebe and Frank Jr. became very close as the show went on because, well, Phoebe served as the surrogate for his triplets.
So, let's break this down. Ribisi was credited as "Condom Boy" in his first appearance on the show (in episode "The One With the Baby on the Bus"), so there's no reason that Condom Boy and Frank Jr. couldn't have been one and the same. And we know that Frank Jr. ended up marrying his high school home economics teacher, so fetching condoms out of guitar cases isn't totally unexpected behavior from him. So is that condom perhaps a hint at what's to come when Frank needs his sister's uterus down the road? You can see the scene (one that you've probably seen a dozen times before and never realized was so important) at the 12:24 mark:
Friends - S 2 E 6 - The One With The Baby On... by xfriendsx
Well, it turns out that it's not an intentional big moment. A Friends writer told Refinery 29 that it was just a coincidence. "He was an actor that was used by the executive producers before," she told them. "They liked him, so they decided to use him more because they liked working with him."
But how about this for a plot twist? Ribisi's real-life twin sister, Marissa, appeared in season three's "The One With the Flashback" as a friend of Rachel's from Long Island. And we know that Phoebe and Frank Jr.'s dad was a bit of a philanderer...so...sorry, we just couldn't resist throwing another theory out there!
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