Friends: 25 Greatest Episodes
9. The One Hundredth (S5E3)
The Episode
Phoebe goes to the hospital to give birth to the triplets. Joey has kidney stones. Chandler thinks he and Monica are "just goofing around".
Why It's Great
Friends brings up its century in style, with an episode full of comedy, surprises, and emotion.
Phoebe is often the outsider in Friends, not just because she's the 'kooky' one, but since she's not dating or related to any of the others, nor living in one of the two main apartments (for the most part, anyway). So it's great to see her take centre stage in the 100th episode, and do so in a way that should prove any Phoebs nay-sayers wrong.
There's a lot of great comedy in this episode, from the doctor who loves Fonzy, to Ross coaching Joey through the kidney stones while Phoebe is in labour, and Frank Jr's hilarious announcement of each birth, especially "Chandler's a girl!"
But it's really special at the end, when Phoebe takes a moment of quiet reflection as it fully dawns on her she has to give them up, in what is one of the most touching, affecting scenes Lisa Kudrow gets on the show - and she absolutely nails it.