While fans of the hit show Friends prepare for the HBO Max Reunion Special, now is an excellent time to revisit the original series, which aired for ten seasons from 1994 until 2004. It is also time to admit that Ross and Rachel never should have ended up together. During the series finale, Rachel and Ross slept together, and Ross realized he's still in love with Rachel. However, Rachel had plans to move to Paris for a dream job with Louis Vuitton. Her intention was to use their night together as a way to say goodbye. Rachel was right, and that should have been the end for Ross and Rachel, but she got off her plane to get back together with Ross instead.
While they are one of the definitive versions of the "will-they-won't-they" couples on television, ultimately, they should have stayed apart. Early in the series, they seemed like a good match. The chemistry and romantic energy between the pair was dynamite and engaging. Then, they actually got together, which was rewarding for fans to see two beloved characters find the happiness they were looking for.
Then Rachel got a job working with Mark, and Ross' jealousy corrupted their relationship. He was so possessive and clingy that it drove a wedge between them. Ultimately, Rachel decided the only thing to do was take a break from their relationship. Ross didn't want to be on a break, but when he heard that Rachel was hanging out with Mark the same night she asked for a break, he felt betrayed and slept with a woman who worked at the copy store.
Next came their infamous fight about whether or not they were on a break when Ross slept with another woman -- a fight that fans have continued even long after Friends' conclusion. But that wasn't the end of Ross and Rachel. They rekindled their relationship in the Season 4 premiere. However, the reunion was short-lived. Rachel wrote Ross an 18-page letter where she asked him to take responsibility for their breakup in the first place and acknowledge that he was in the wrong when he slept with the woman from the copy place.
Ross fell asleep reading her letter and lied to her, saying he read the entire letter. As such, they rekindled their relationship. Then Ross refused to accept the responsibility Rachel asked him to and stayed adamant that they were on a break and therefore, he did nothing wrong. They ended things again, seemingly for good.
Though the potential for a reconciliation never really disappeared, which was an intriguing aspect of the series' later seasons, especially after a one-night stand between them resulted in Rachel becoming pregnant with their daughter Emma. Ross planned to propose to Rachel in the hospital just after she gave birth, but when she said yes to what she thought was a proposal from Joey, she and Ross ultimately decided that they should just co-parent and not be in a relationship.
Despite their years of not being together, Ross still had an obsessive possessiveness over Rachel and her dating life, despite feeling no personal guilt over his own active dating life -- including that time he tried to kiss his cousin. He even tried to control Rachel's professional life up until the very end. Late in Season 10, Rachel got fired from her job, which allowed her to reconnect with Mark, leading to a job with Louis Vuitton in Paris. Ross then meddled in her life. He manipulated the situation behind her back, enticing her to stay at a job that no longer served her to keep her around.
And Rachel should never have given up her dream job to be with a man she hadn't dated in well over six years. They weren't even able to make a relationship work when they had a baby. As such, she never should have gotten off the plane, making a decision that undercut her character development.
She started Friends as a spoiled woman who never worked for anything and grew into a woman who put her career first and became an expert in her field. She should have been given the opportunity to define herself as the independent person she'd grown to be over the previous ten seasons instead of being pigeonholed by a relationship she had long outgrown.
While the Ross and Rachel relationship is undeniably iconic, they should never have gotten together at the end of Friends. The relationship's potential was strong at the beginning of the series, but by the end, Ross had become too possessive, and Rachel grew too independent for either of them to be the right match for each other anymore. It's time to admit that Ross and Rachel should have stayed broken up.