NBCNetflix: a blessing and a curse.
We sure have enjoyed the past 11-or-so months of watching and rewatching and even occasionally just listening to Friends, but the ease of access comes at a price, and that price's name is widescreen.
Now that we can see more of our favorite dysfunctional New York twenty-somethings than ever before, we can also notice more mistakes than ever before, including unknown faces lurking in Monica's apartment.
We're not just talking about those mysterious guests who arrive for every party, despite the fact that the group appears to have no other friends. We are, in fact, talking about that time that some woman other than Jennifer Aniston played Rachel Green for the splittest of seconds.
Someone over at RecentlyHeard.com recently discovered this anomaly in the season nine episode, "The One with the Mugging." Near the beginning of the episode, Rachel runs over to Monica's to tell Joey that his agent called to tell him he got an audition with Jeff Goldblum/"Leonard Hayes."
Rachel looks like this:
Then, moments later, as Joey is getting all riled up about the potential of a monkey also being at the audition, there's a literally half-second shot in which half of Rachel's body looks like this:
Yeah, not Jennifer Aniston. That's not even the same shirt!
While we would first assume that this was just a simple case of having to re-shoot parts of the scene when Aniston was not available, we have another theory. We think that perhaps this one shot is a quick glimpse an alternate universe in which this plaid-clad woman actually played Rachel Green and is therefore that universe's version of Jennifer Aniston.
This shot is not even the only evidence of that alternate universe. There's also a much longer scene from season eight in which Monica is definitely not Courtney Cox:
Your mind is blown, right? But that's not all!
In fact, Fake Rachel is not even the only glitch in "The One with the Mugging."
Just take a look at the drinks that Joey gets out of the fridge later on in the episode:
Now, see what drinks he's holding just a moment later:
What does the alternate universe have against Tropicana?!
Over its ten seasons, Friends is positively littered with moments like these. Some call them mistakes, but we prefer to refer to them as proof that Fringe and The Flash are totally right about everything.
Here are just a few more of Friends' most glaring goofs evidence of Earth 2. Head over to Netflix to see if you can spot them while we ponder if Central Perk on Earth 2 serves almond milk or not.
Season 2, Episode 7: Rachel's necklace mysteriously disappears and reappears
Season 10, Episode 14: Earth 1 Mike ties his scarf while Earth 2 Mike does not
Season 2, Episode 4: Background cups change colors!
Season 9, Episode 2: Even baby Emma (and her hat) isn't safe
Season 1, Episode 12: Earth 2 don't need no paper towels
Happy Friday, everyone. Stay safe out there.