--- title: 'Friends' Fans Have Theory That Series is Dream By Rachel description: Fans of 'Friends' are theorizing that the entire series is just a dream of Rachel Green, thanks to the visuals for season 4. canonical: https://time.com/4850058/friends-fan-theory-rachel-dream/ author: Cady Lang article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-07-07T21:15:20.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:45:13.739Z og:title: This Friends Theory About Rachel Could Change Everything og:description: It comes from a major clue from season 4 og:url: https://time.com/4850058/friends-fan-theory-rachel-dream/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte6dfb43f63ea8d3a/6988d4f3fb4eac8c77892d17/rachel-green-dream-friends-fan-theory.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2000 og:image:height: 1125 og:image:alt: Friends - Season 1 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: This Friends Theory About Rachel Could Change Everything twitter:description: It comes from a major clue from season 4 twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte6dfb43f63ea8d3a/6988d4f3fb4eac8c77892d17/rachel-green-dream-friends-fan-theory.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # This Crazy _Friends_ Fan Theory About Rachel Would Change Everything > Sponsored content. 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Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically.  by [Cady Lang](https://time.com/author/cady-lang/)  ## Cady Lang Jul 7, 2017 9:15 PM UTC  FRIENDS -- "The One Where Monica Gets a Roommate" Episode 1 -- Aired 9/22/1994 -- Pictured: (l-r) Courteney Cox as Monica Geller, Lisa Kudrow as Phoebe Buffay, Jennifer Aniston as Rachel Green, David Schwimmer as Ross Geller -- Photo by: NBCU Photo Bank FRIENDS -- "The One Where Monica Gets a Roommate" Episode 1 -- Aired 9/22/1994 -- Pictured: (l-r) Courteney Cox as Monica Geller, Lisa Kudrow as Phoebe Buffay, Jennifer Aniston as Rachel Green, David Schwimmer as Ross Geller -- Photo by: NBCU Photo Bank NBC—NBC via Getty Images  by [Cady Lang](https://time.com/author/cady-lang/)  ## Cady Lang Jul 7, 2017 9:15 PM UTC Fans of the sitcom [_Friends_](http://time.com/4385256/friends-reunion-will-never-happen/) have come up with a new theory about the popular series thanks to the visuals for the fourth season of the show. In the picture used for the box art of for the season, [_BuzzFeed_](https://www.buzzfeed.com/christianzamora/the-one-where-rachel-dreamed-it-all?utm%5Fterm=.luJYJ3Ozj#.qg8k3Opoe) reports that all the [beloved cast members](http://time.com/3399544/friends-20-years-anniversary-cast/) except for[ Jennifer Aniston (who plays Rachel Green)](http://time.com/4774267/jennifer-aniston-on-friends-today/) are sleeping, while Aniston, front and center makes eye contact with viewers. Twitter user @thetedfox posed the question online that everyone was thinking: Why is Rachel the only one looking? And as might be expected, the Internet had plenty of theories as to why Rachel is the only one awake in the shot, even going so far as to name the inquiry #Friendsgate. > [](https://twitter.com/thetedfox/status/883342869674766336) His query was answered as seriously as it was posed. > [](https://twitter.com/lovetherobot/status/883379164388175873) But really, people believe that the whole series was a dream of Rachel’s. > [](https://twitter.com/TheUSResistance/status/883365386690994176) > [](https://twitter.com/ElleLatham/status/883381564385755137) For what it’s worth, the episode of this story could be called “The One Where Rachel Dreamed 10 Seasons of _Friends_ into Existence.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4850058/friends-fan-theory-rachel-dream/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4850058/friends-fan-theory-rachel-dream/"},"headline":"This Crazy Friends Fan Theory About Rachel Would Change Everything","datePublished":"2017-07-07T21:15:20.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:45:13.739Z","description":"It comes from a major clue from season 4","url":"https://time.com/4850058/friends-fan-theory-rachel-dream/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Television","viral","Bizarre"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte6dfb43f63ea8d3a/6988d4f3fb4eac8c77892d17/rachel-green-dream-friends-fan-theory.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Cady Lang","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/cady-lang/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte6dfb43f63ea8d3a/6988d4f3fb4eac8c77892d17/rachel-green-dream-friends-fan-theory.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Friends - Season 1","caption":"Friends - Season 1","creditText":"NBC—NBC via Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4850058/friends-fan-theory-rachel-dream/","name":"This Crazy Friends Fan Theory About Rachel Would Change Everything"}}]}] ```