The One With The Monkey. As you may have guessed from the title, a monkey enters the lives of the friends as Ross’s pet. This episode is just before New Year’s and the gang makes a pact that none of them will have dates. Obviously one by one each member breaks this promise except for Ross, who ends up bringing his pet monkey, Marcel, instead.
A life lesson that can be taken from this episode is: sometimes even what seems like true love may not work out. Before we get into the nitty-gritty stuff, I just want to say that the way David is introduced is absolutely hilarious and showcases the brilliancy of the writers. I mean, Phoebe is yelling at him for talking during her performance, and then he comes back with saying that she’s the most beautiful woman he’s ever seen. These two are totally meant to be together, and they are definitely one of the more genuine couples on the show. Okay, now we can get into the struggles of love. Phoebe and David love each other so much, but sadly David is a scientist who also really cares about his job. He and his co-worker, Max, are supposed to go to Minsk to be able to do more research on their project but, initially David (with the help of Phoebe) decides to stay because he’s too in love. This is such a sweet decision and it definitely strengthens their relationship, but it begins to tear apart David’s career as well as his relationship with Max. Phoebe sees this problem, and even though she really wants him to stay, she tells him that he should go to Minsk because his work is very important. The moment they share before David has to leave is beautiful and heartfelt, and it totally breaks our hearts as well as theirs. They didn’t break up because they weren’t in love, they broke up because careers are important too, and David had been working really hard to get the grant so he and Max could go to Minsk. Even though this is probably true love, the relationship didn’t work out and it was honestly sad to see, but the decisions they made were probably the right ones with respect to their futures.
The Squinting Observer 