Hi! I'm Ellie! And just like virtually everyone else with a Netflix account, I've spent much of the last year rewatching Friends.
The other day I was watching season seven, most of which centres around the build up to Monica and Chandler's wedding, and noticed a pretty glaring plothole. In fact, it blows apart the huge freak out Chandler has which almost leads to the wedding being called off.
So, in episode 10, Monica and Chandler have a conversation in which he asks her whether she's going to change her name to "Bing" after they get married.
Without missing a beat, Monica says: "No," because "Bing's weird."
Which is pretty clear confirmation that Monica would remain a Geller even after she and Chandler were married, right?
Well, fast-forward to episode 23 — the one before the wedding. As Monica and Chandler head off to their rehearsal dinner, the phone rings. Chandler lets it go to answerphone, but then hears that Monica has recorded a new message.
In the message, she says if the caller is reaching them "after Saturday," then they'll have reached "Mr and Mrs Bing."
And Chandler proceeds to freak the hell out.
Before literally upping and leaving, leaving a note apologising for jilting Monica.
In fact, when Phoebe and Ross manage to track him down on the morning of the wedding, he specifically says it was hearing Monica refer to them as "The Bings" which led him to freak out.
But if Monica was never intending to take his name, as she said in episode 10, then they never would have been referred to as "The Bings," and she likely wouldn't have recorded the voicemail in the first place. And so Chandler's entire freak out becomes redundant.
All of which would mean that their wedding would never have been in jeopardy, Rachel wouldn't have had to go to extreme lengths to distract Monica, Phoebe and Ross wouldn't have been running around New York trying to locate the groom and Chandler could have just looked forward to marrying the woman he loved.
