Friends Side Character You Would Never Remember (Yet He Played a Key Role in a Major Storyline)

We know that Friends became an iconic cultural phenomenon for many reasons. Sure, one of them is the main cast. All of the actors just feel so organic in their roles that it's hard to imagine that anyone else could ever be there except for them.

But the main characters are just one part of the created universe. In fact, the show wouldn't be such a hit without so many great supporting characters.

One of them is Mr. Waltham, Rachel's boss at Bloomingdales. The character was played by an amazing actor, Paxton Whitehead, who sadly passed away a few days ago.

At first, Mr. Waltham's story revolved around Rachel's career opportunities when he promoted her to the position of personal shopper. At first she wasn't too excited about the job, but later she met Joshua... and that's another story.

One day, Mr. Waltham told Rachel that his niece was coming to New York from London and asked her to spend some time with her. Rachel agreed at first, but then stood Emily up because of her possible plans with Joshua.

But she had the brilliant idea to send Ross with Emily instead of going herself. And that was one of the biggest twists in the whole story.

As we know, Ross and Emily really bonded in the little time they spent together. Which later even led to a wedding (although it wasn't a long and happy one).

So basically this all means that it was Mr. Waltham who was responsible for this key point of the show's narrative. But there's a catch. After his pivotal favor, he never appears in this storyline in the show.

Emily never calls him, or even says his name, and notes that she has an uncle in the city. She also doesn't invite him to her London wedding, nor does he show up at the disastrous "going away party" Rachel throws for Emily.

This is actually one of the more controversial things about the show. Fans still don't know if it was a plot hole or if the writers decided that no one would notice a minor character disappearing.