Convincing Friends Pregnancy Theory Makes Phoebe’s Triplets Story Much Sadder

A Friends theory reshapes Phoebe’s pregnancy story from season 4 and 5, giving the character one of the show’s saddest plotlines. For most of its ten-year run, Friends was a largely light-hearted show. While there would be occasional bursts of romantic drama between characters, the show largely stayed away from overt tragedy. Even Lisa Kudrow’s Phoebe, the Friends character with the saddest backstory, usually used her history in the service of a joke or punchline. This was contrasted against her bubbly personality, drawing a clear distinction between who she was during her troubled youth and the woman she grew into.

However, she may have suffered a greater tragedy that she didn’t even realize, all in the name of helping out her family. Phoebe’s story in Friends season 4 saw her become pregnant. Instead of changing the status quo of the series by introducing a baby (as it would later do with Rachel and Ross’ baby Emily), the series instead made Phoebe a surrogate mother to triplets. If a convincing theory is the truth though, then Phoebe’s decision to let go of the three becomes far more tragic, because it may not have been the result of a surrogacy after all.

How Phoebe Became A Surrogate Mother On Friends

Phoebe’s surrogacy plotline in Friends was already one of the most bittersweet stories in the show, but a theory about her babies makes it even sadder. In season 4 of Friends, Phoebe agreed to become a surrogate mother for her brother Frank and his wife Alice. While “The One with the Embryos” was largely focused on a competition between Chandler and Joey versus Monica and Rachel for the latter’s apartment, the subplot focuses on Phoebe going through the process of becoming a surrogate. The episode ends with the reveal that the procedure has been a success and Phoebe is pregnant.

Reflecting Lisa Kudrow’s real-life pregnancy, Phoebe didn’t fly to London for Ross’ wedding. Instead, Phoebe remained pregnant until season 5 episode 3, “The One Hundredth.” Phoebe’s water breaks, leading to a rush to the hospital. Phoebe ends up giving birth to three healthy babies. “The One Hundreth’s” most heartwrenching moment comes when Phoebe inquires about keeping one of the children to raise herself. She shares a quiet and powerful cry with the three newborns while she comes to terms with the fact that she can’t separate the siblings. A pretty convincing theory actually makes the plot turn even more tragic.

Phoebe Theory Changes Everything About Her Friends Pregnancy Storyline

A theory proposed by the Cracked web series After Hours suggests Phoebe was actually the full biological mother of the triplets and they weren’t the result of the surrogacy. In the After Hours episode “How To Ruin Your Favorite Sitcoms With Simple Math,” Dan, Soren, Katie, and Michael point out holes within the logic of shows like The Cosby Show, Cheers, Fraiser, and Friends. Their Friends theory argues that the timeline for Phoebe’s surrogacy doesn’t add up. Phoebe went through the procedure in season 4, sometime after Christmas given the Christmas tree in Monica and Rachel’s apartment in prior episodes.

Phoebe took a positive pregnancy test the same day as she went through with the surrogacy procedure, which is a far more time-consuming process. Phoebe then gave birth shortly after Rachel’s return from Ross’ intended honeymoon with Emily, which would have been in May given the hastened wedding between Ross and Emily. This means if the triplets were the result of a surrogacy, they would have been the result of a four-month pregnancy. Instead, the theory argues Phoebe was already (and unknowingly) pregnant, justifying the otherwise impossibly fast pregnancy. This would mean Phoebe was the actual mother of the triplets.

Friends’ Pregnancy Theory Makes Phoebe An Even More Tragic Character

Phoebe’s tearful pledge to be a great aunt feels all the more somber when the truth might be that she could be the mother of the triplets. This theory also raises the question of who the father could be. Phoebe’s romantic timeline in Friends had a few brief love interests in season 3 like Segei the diplomat and Malcom, her sister’s stalker. Phoebe could be dating briefly outside the focus of the show. However, it’s clear none were important enough to introduce to her friends. Any of those somber possibilities adds an extra layer of tragedy to Phoebe’s surrogacy story.

This means someone Phoebe had a brief fling with doesn’t realize he has three children out in the world being raised by another family. The strain of raising triplets eventually also weighs heavily on Frank, who is so stressed by the strain of raising triplets that he inquires if Phoebe would be willing to take one back in season 10. However, Phoebe resists the temptation because she doesn’t want to separate them. This theory gives that comic beat a somber undertone, as Phoebe is unknowingly giving up another chance to be a mother to at least one of her kids.

Phoebe Was Always Friends’ Saddest Character

What’s particularly striking about the theory is how it fits very well into Phoebe’s arc on the show. Despite being a largely carefree character in her external presentation, Phoebe’s backstory is filled with tales of woe. Phoebe’s father Frank abandoned the family, and the woman she grew up believing was her mother committed suicide when Phoebe was a teenager. Phoebe often refers to her time living on the streets, where she would commit crimes to survive. Even after growing up and establishing herself as a masseuse, Phoebe’s family life was complicated by her strained relationship with her twin sister Ursula.

Despite the other major characters in Friends having their own hangups and issues stemming from their upbringings, Phoebe stands out for having survived a particularly difficult childhood. All of the pains of her youth give an extra level of poignancy to her surprised desire to keep at least one of the babies, and makes her choice to give them up so they can have the kind of stable childhood she never knew incredibly bittersweet. Making Phoebe their actual birth mother makes it even sadder, and fits well into the overall emotional pain she’s been forced to contend with in Friends.

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