Loyal viewers of the smash NBC sitcom Friends were taken on an emotional rollercoaster ride
over the course of 10 seasons.
In addition to the laughs, the show served up plenty of devastating developments, too,
and a lot of moving performances.
Here are the most heartbreaking moments on Friends.
Remember Mr. Heckles?
Played by Larry Hankin, the eccentric neighbor lived just below Monica and Rachel, and he'd
often pop 'round to complain about noise or otherwise cause trouble.
No, he wasn't the friendliest man…but it was still a total bummer when he passed away
in the aptly titled Season 2 episode, "The One Where Heckles Dies."
As you may recall, Heckles leaves the contents of his apartment to Monica and Rachel, or
as he calls them, "the two noisy girls upstairs."
Finally, the gang gets to see what Mr. Heckles was like before he became a hoarder and a
hermit.
The experience is particularly jarring for Chandler, who realizes his picky ways might
make him turn out just like Mr. Heckles one day.
Just try not to be moved as Chandler turns off the apartment lights for one last time,
telling the empty room:
"Goodbye, Mr. Heckles.
We'll try to keep it down."
Throughout the series, it's abundantly clear that Ross has a serious crush on Rachel, and
he's been madly in love with her ever since they were awkward teens.
In the Season 2 episode "The One with the Prom Video," we get to watch a young Ross
demonstrate his undying love for Rachel in a way that's cute but admittedly rather upsetting.
And it's all thanks to the titular videotape, which features footage of Rachel and Monica's
high school prom night.
Watching the video as adults, the gang sees Ross get himself all dressed up, fully prepared
to step in and be Rachel's date, because the guy who was supposed to take her was apparently
a no-show.
But just as Ross is about to surprise Rachel, she runs out the door…because her date has
finally arrived!
Ross is left all alone in his suit, holding flowers, looking altogether heartbroken.
You gotta admit: It's a super-sad moment.
Then again, all's well that ends well.
Monica's relationship with Richard was iffy from the start.
After all, he was her dad's best friend and he watched her grow up.
Still, the complicated May-December relationship seemed like the real deal.
That's why it's so tough to watch the couple break up in the Season 2 episode "The One
with Barry and Mindy's Wedding."
There's no big fight leading up to the decision.
In fact, the whole exchange is entirely cordial.
"You're the most wonderful man."
Nevertheless, the characters come to realize that they're both at different places in their
lives.
Monica wants to have children, but Richard is already a father and grandfather, and he
doesn't want to start all over again.
As they dance slowly, knowing full well that they're splitting up, fans must have shed
a few tears.
It's one of the most famous break-up scenes in television history.
It's also easily one of the most heartbreaking.
When Ross sleeps with another woman, mere hours after putting things on pause with Rachel,
it totally ruins their relationship.
All this drama goes down in the Season 2 episode "The One Where Ross and Rachel Take a Break,"
and the aftermath is far from cute.
"I don't cheat.
Right?
That's not me.
I'm not Joey."
"Whoa!"
Unless you have a heart of stone, or happen to have already memorized the episode after
seeing it a million times in syndication, you're sure to shed a tear or two as Ross
begs Rachel to forgive him for his mistake.
And you'll likely be bawling when she tells him that she can never look at him in the
same way again.
"No Ross, don't.
You can't just kiss me and think you're gonna make it all go away, okay?
It doesn't work that way.
It doesn't just make it better, okay?"
"Okay.
Okay."
Five of the six main Friends characters come from stable, even privileged, households,
and Phoebe is the sole exception.
Throughout the show, it becomes clear that her childhood was far from normal, and her
home life was really quite traumatic at times.
In the Season 4 episode "The One with the Cat," a wayward feline abruptly enters Central
Perk like she owns the place, and Phoebe comes to believe the sprightly creature is actually
the reincarnated spirit of her mother, who took her own life.
It's a deeply silly, yet oddly moving plot development, as you can clearly see:
"This is the spirit of my mom Lily, the one that killed herself."
Ross, the ever-skeptical scientist, just can't accept this idea…and he tells Phoebe his
thoughts on the matter in no uncertain terms.
She responds by asking him how many parents he's lost... and he has to admit, he hasn't
lost either of his parents.
The scene culminates with Phoebe saying,
"I believe this is my mother.
Even if I'm wrong, who cares?
Just be a friend, okay?
Be supportive."
Sure, Ross apologies to the cat, but it's already too late: By that point, we're sure
viewers have already been reduced to piles of quivering, sobbing jelly.
In the Season 5 episode "The One-Hundredth," Phoebe decides to carry a baby for her brother
and sister-in-law, and it unexpectedly ends up being triplets.
Sadly, it soon becomes abundantly clear that Phoebe had no idea just how hard it would
be to give all these babies up.
And here's a small detail that only adds to all this heartbreak: In the episode "The One
With Phoebe's Uterus," Phoebe's biological mother presents her daughter with a scrappy
puppy…in the hopes of teaching her a lesson about how hard it can be to lose something
you love.
But Phoebe goes through with the pregnancy anyway, and after giving birth, she has to
give up the newborns.
Clearly producers are really tugging at the heartstrings here, particularly when Phoebe
cradles the babies in her arms and says,
"Everyone said labor was the hardest thing I'd ever have to do but they were wrong.
This is."
And to think, this sad-making scenario takes place during Friends 100th episode!
Producers evidently wanted to give the show's dedicated fanbase an unforgettable gift...in
the form of a broken heart.
Throughout the series, fans were typically rooting for Ross and Rachel's relationship,
but let's not forget that romance also bloomed between Rachel and Joey.
At first, Rachel is totally oblivious to Joey's feelings, which really makes a whole lot of
sense: At the time, she's pregnant with Ross's baby; a plot development that certainly makes
things even more complicated.
In the Season 8 episode "The One Where Joey Tells Rachel," Joey finally admit his romantic
feelings…and Rachel is forced to tell him that she doesn't feel the same way.
The moment leaves both characters in tears, and we're sure that audiences at home were
similarly beside themselves.
"Joey please, please don't leave like this.
You cannot do this to a pregnant woman."
"Don't start doing that…"
Of course, some viewers had issues with the entire Joey-Rachel relationship from start
to finish, and some cast members reportedly felt that the romance felt kind of incestuous.
Meanwhile, People magazine writer Kelsey Miller argued that
"[Matt LeBlanc's] performance was so wrenching that it almost distracted from the ickiness
of the story itself."
Whatever your feelings on this highly divisive topic, there's no denying this episode will
give you a serious case of sad-face.
As fans probably recall, actor Paul Rudd appeared on Friends and played Phoebe's love interest
Mike Hannigan.
An irresistibly adorable pair, fans were shocked when the relationship hit a serious bump in
the road, an unfortunate turn of events that unfolds as the couple is moving in together
in the Season 9 episode, "The One With The Boob Job."
Even though they're both deeply in love, Phoebe and Mike ultimately call it quits, and it's
a break-up that no one ever saw coming.
The reason for the split?
One of them didn't see marriage in their future.
"You don't want to get married either, right?"
"Right.
Except that I do want to get married."
While their separation turns out to be temporary, to say the least, it might have been a permanent
breakup if Phoebe had ended up with Hank Azaria's character David, as was originally intended.
In 2016, Azaria told the Huffington Post:
"The plan always was kind of to bring [David] back.
I think, honestly, what happened was Paul Rudd is so awesome that they sort of found
a groove with him and [Mike] became more of just the grist for that mill as opposed to
the other way around."
It sounds like Azaria was a bit bummed by this unforeseen turn of events.
He admits:
"It actually did sting a little bit.
Whatever part of me is David the science guy who went to Minsk, which admittedly is probably
a small part of me, but that part of me wanted to end up with Phoebe.
So I was sort of sad when I didn't."
Deciding to have a baby is usually a joyous moment…but it can be emotionally draining
and downright devastating if you happen to have trouble conceiving.
Monica and Chandler face this sad situation in the Season 9 episode, "The One With The
Fertility Test."
After the couple both get their titular fertility tests, they soon find out that they're unlikely
to get pregnant.
Chandler receives the news when a doctor rings him up, and then he has to find a way to gently
tell Monica:
"It means that we can keep trying, but there's a good chance this may never happen for us."
It's absolutely heartbreaking when they apologize to one another and embrace, fearing that their
dreams of parenthood may never come to fruition.
What makes the scene even more touching is the fact that actress Courteney Cox experienced
her own fertility struggles, and had several miscarriages while filming the show.
During an interview with NBC News in 2004, while pregnant with her daughter after years
of enduring multiple miscarriages, Cox admitted,
"Oh my God, it was terrible having to be funny."
Saying goodbye to someone who's been part of your life for years is never easy, but
what about when that person dies and seems to send you messages from beyond the grave?
We've all been there, right?
Well, perhaps not, but Joey certainly has.
Soon after Joey fires his longtime acting agent Estelle Leonard, she passes away.
The bittersweet storyline plays out during the 15th episode of the show's final season,
which is artlessly entitled "The One Where Estelle Dies."
Ever the good friend, Phoebe tries to protect Joey, albeit in a characteristically misguided
way.
She attempts to shield him from the truth about Estelle so that he doesn't feel guilty
about how their professional relationship ended.
At first, she pretends to be Estelle during a phone call, but she eventually has to end
the well-intentioned ruse, and calls Joey to give him a final farewell.
"Yeah, I wanted to call and tell you that there's no hard feelings for firing me."
As you can see, there's a major twist: Joey has already learned that Estelle died, so
now he thinks he's receiving a call from her spooky ghost.
It's certainly a funny bit, but it's also rather melancholy watching him say goodbye.
Fans probably realized this was one of several ways the show was wrapping up storylines as
the series hurtled towards its inevitable end.
It's unlikely that anyone expects to watch the final episode of Friends without crying.
And in the very last scene of the last episode, it's pretty much guaranteed that anyone who
can cry will cry.
As Monica and Chandler move out of their apartment to start a new life with their baby twins,
the entire group gathers together to leave their keys and close the door for the very
last time.
While it's certainly a sad moment for the fictional friends, it was quite a brutal scene
for fans to watch, and it was apparently quite tough for the actors to go through, too.
Sitting down with Oprah shortly after filming the finale, Jennifer Aniston explained:
"I don't think we've ever taken more time in hair and makeup in between scenes."
"We kept crying all our makeup off, over and over again."
In the same interview, David Schwimmer admitted:
"I started to lose it in this ritual that we have before the show which is just a group
hug, kind of get in a little circle right before we come out."
"Just, that was the moment I was dreading for a long time."
Fans may need their own group hug after watching this heartbreaking scene.
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