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The Brilliant Revelation Behind Why The 'Friends' Couch Was Always Free

Great, now we're gonna need to re-re-watch.

Now that every episode of "Friends" has officially hit Netflix, eager re-viewers have done some serious sleuthing, proving our mid-90s brains simply weren't up to the task of keen observation the first time around.

Our favorite mind-blowing re-watch revelation comes from Tanya Ghahremani over at Bustle, who asked the hardest hard-hitting question we New York residents never seemed to pick up on: how the heck is the Central Perk couch always free for the "Friends" gang?

It's a tough revelation to un-wonder – any New Yorker knows it's nearly impossible to find a seat at your local coffee house, let alone the same seat every time for ten straight years.

So Ghahremani is our new hero, because she figured it out during a recent Netflix binge: the couch is permanently reserved for Rachel, Ross, Phoebe, Joey, Chandler and Monica.

And she laid out the photographic evidence to prove it, saying, "Once you see it, it’s sort of difficult not to see it during most episodes where the coffee table is visible." Here's just one of her many annotated examples:

Giphy/NBC

Friends Couch

Feeling silly for missing this not-so-minor detail entirely for 10 straight years of "Friends" airtime? Ghahremani isn't gloating (though she should – she really, really should). Instead, she explains, "If you haven’t noticed it before, don’t feel bad — after all, the show ended in 2004, and I’m just now noticing it myself! But it does make a lot of sense, when you think about it: Most of the gang lived right upstairs, and Rachel worked there for a lengthy period of time, so they were clearly all tight with the owner and various employees."

We salute you and your powers of observation, Tanya – there's a permanently-reserved spot for you in the coffee table of our hearts!

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