That Time David Schwimmer Accidentally Gave Us the Plot Twist of a Lifetime

This is also true of the iconic I Take Thee Rachel scene, and we have David Schwimmer to thank (or to blame?) for it!

In the season 4 episode, The One With Ross' Wedding, Ross and Emily are standing at the altar and saying their vows, but Ross seems to have difficulty repeating the sacred words after the minister.

When the time comes to say the "I dos," he has arguably the worst slip of the tongue of his lifetime. Instead of "I take thee, Emily," Ross goes, "I take thee, Rachel," which leaves everyone gasping in shock.

Believe it or not, this was not originally scripted!

A clip from an old interview has resurfaced on Instagram – one of the Friends writers, Greg Malins, shares the story behind the scene that made us all go bananas at the time.

In the interview, the writer talks about how they couldn't come up with the perfect ending for the wedding episode, and then David Schwimmer's (un)fortunate mistake during a taping gave us the best plot twist we could have asked for.

Turns out, there was a taping of a different scene, where Ross was supposed to walk into the room and say, "I have the cab waiting downstairs, Emily." Apparently, David had a Freudian slip and instead went, "I have the cab waiting, Rachel."

Schwimmer realized his mistake, apologized, and ran back out to redo the scene properly, but it was too late – the writers had now figured out how to end the wedding episode.

Imagine if David had never flubbed his line, and we would never have had that show-defining moment!

This scene marked the downfall of Ross and Emily's relationship (and we can't really blame Emily for that) and served as an important milestone in Ross and Rachel's love story (though it still took them six more years to circle back to each other).

Anyway, thank you, David Schwimmer for messing up the taping. Without it, things could have turned out very differently for our favorite lobsters.

Source: Instagram