What Happened To Emma At The End Of Friends?
TV babies are notoriously tricky to keep track of. A character's pregnancy and labor are often major plotlines, but the child we all watch them deliver (from a tasteful angle, with minimal realism) is just as often never mentioned again. Or they're one of those mythical babies that's always sleeping when their parents want to do something.
"Friends" was no stranger to this issue, to the point that you could be forgiven for forgetting that Ross (David Schwimmer) even had a son called Ben (played in later seasons by Cole Sprouse from "The Suite Life" and "Riverdale.") Ben's absence became such a proverbial elephant on the TV show that fans and even actors have come up with multiple theories as to the real reason Ross' son disappeared on "Friends," mostly revolving around Ross just not being a great parent.
Followers of Ross Geller's "Friends" timeline know that Ross got a second chance at parenting when he and Rachel (Jennifer Aniston) had their daughter Emma (twins Cali and Noelle Sheldon), conceived during a drunken one-night stand in Season 7. Emma's childhood gets marginally more screen time than Ben's — but what happened to her at the end of the show?
Emma was supposed to move to Paris with Rachel
At the end of "Friends" Season 10, the group faced several massive shake-ups. Monica (Courteney Cox), Chandler (Matthew Perry), and their baby twins were leaving New York for — gasp — the suburbs, while Rachel was preparing to move to Paris for a new job with Louis Vuitton, with Emma in tow.
In the last episode, Rachel boarded her plane while Emma stayed with Rachel's mother Sandra, ready to follow a while later. In keeping with his lackadaisical approach to dad-ing, Ross didn't seem super bothered about being separated from his youngest child by the Atlantic Ocean and steep airfares. But he was devastated enough at the thought of losing Rachel that he went on an expensive, two-airport chase to try to stop her from leaving.
Thanks to the miracle of cell phones, Rachel got Ross' message of undying love and forced her way off the plane, turning up at Ross's apartment. It's implied that they got back together, although who knows with these two.
We don't actually see Emma again, but presumably, Rachel got in contact with her mom to tell her not to take the one-year-old to Paris. (Hopefully, she didn't leave it to Ross — if so, Emma is definitely still in Paris.) Theoretically, with Ross and Rachel back together, Emma has gone from an amiable if uneven co-parenting situation to having both of her biological parents in one household. But the last time Ross and Rachel tried to raise her in the same apartment, Rachel and Emma ended up moving in with Joey (Matt LeBlanc). There's a reason the show is called "Friends" and not "Parents."