When it comes to the scary outside world, I tend to dive into the fictional world as an escape. It’s not the best way to cope with things, but it helps keep my sanity. In my escape sessions, one of the TV shows I absolutely love to binge-watch is Friends. Over the years, I’ve accumulated many thoughts, questions, and theories about the show. I only just started to write my thoughts down, and I think now’s the perfect time to share them with you!

• Monica (Courtney Cox) definitely broke the seashell lamp on purpose. There’s no way she just decided to walk RIGHT next to it and spin that drastically to put on a jacket.

• I think Rachel (Jennifer Aniston) let Joey (Matt LeBlanc) and Chandler (Matthew Perry) off the hook way too much. First off, they helped Ross (David Schwimmer) create a list of reasons not to pick Rachel when he was stuck between her and Julie. The list was even Chandler’s idea! Of course, Rachel didn’t know that, so he’s off the hook with that one. However, they still helped Ross with the list, and they tried to hide it from her when she tried to see it.

• They also convinced Ross not to tell Rachel he slept with the copy girl. Ross even told Rachel that they told him not to tell her. Now, I know during the first three seasons, Joey and Chandler had a stronger bond with Ross than Rachel, but they were still her friends. If my friends did that to me, I definitely would’ve held them accountable too. There was deceit on their part that she shouldn’t have ignored.

• I wonder if Julie (Lauren Tom) and Russ (David Schwimmer) are still together.

• So, in the pilot episode, Ross arrived at the coffeehouse completely bummed out because Carol (Jane Sibbett) moved her stuff out of the apartment. The second episode takes place a month later, when Carol tells Ross that she’s pregnant. My theory is that the last time they saw each other (when she moved out), they ended up sleeping together one last time, and that resulted in the pregnancy. If I’m right, then that means she cheated on Susan (Jessica Hecht) with Ross, because she was already in a relationship with Susan when she left Ross.

• Ross and Rachel slept with each other exactly 300 times throughout the show. In the episode The One With The Cop, Ross bragged to a furniture salesman that he slept with Rachel exactly 298 times (I really don’t know why he kept count). That episode was in the show’s 5th season. Since then, Rachel only slept with Ross two more times; the first time was when they conceived Emma (Cali and Noelle Sheldon) in season 7. The second time was when they slept together before Rachel left for her new job in Paris.

• Some fans wondered why Phoebe (Lisa Kudrow) spent her childhood on the street after her mother killed herself and didn’t stay with her grandmother until she was an adult and she moved out of Monica’s apartment. This could be because maybe her grandmother wasn’t living in New York at the time Phoebe was on the street and moved back when Phoebe was an adult. Another thing I’ve considered was that Phoebe’s grandmother wanted nothing to do with her because she knew Phoebe and Ursula (Lisa Kudrow) were not really Lilly’s daughters. However, that theory doesn’t seem very likely.

• I’ve also heard fans question why Frank (Bob Balaban) and Phoebe never tried to be in each other’s lives after his introduction in The One With Joey’s Bag. Her story in the episode concluded with her sitting next to her father, placing her hand on his knee, and realizing she wasn’t ready to be that close to him. I would completely believe it if they continued to talk and they came to the conclusion that it was too late for them to form any kind of relationship.

• After everything that happened with Charlie (Aisha Tyler), Benjamin (Greg Kinnear) should’ve at least given Ross that grant.

• One thing that absolutely frustrates me about watching Friends on TV is that so many good parts are cut out! A prime example is in The One In Barbados. So, Phoebe was in Barbados with David (Hank Azaria), who was planning on proposing to her to help her get over her ex-boyfriend, Mike (Paul Rudd). However, just when David was about to pop the question, Mike suddenly shows up in Barbados to stop it. The TV network cut out an important scene that explained how he even knew Phoebe was in Barbados, what resort she was staying at, or that David was going to propose to her. I understand cutting out a couple of jokes here and there, but you can’t cut out important plot points like that! If people watched that episode for the first time on TV, then they would have no idea that Monica was the one who called him and convinced him to stop the proposal. They’d be left with so many questions!