Review: Futurama ‘Stench and Stenchibility’

Spoilers Below

Zoidberg’s got a big date and Bender gets the attention of a talent scout named Randy for his tap dancing abilities. Zoidberg’s date is someone that he only really got to know via internet, so when she shows up she starts getting grossed out by the way he smells. Poor Zoidberg tries to get a refund on his flowers, but when a robot tries to rob the flower lady he opens up his repellant and scares away the bad guy which seems to attract the young lady. Turns out this girl’s name is Mary Anne and she has NO sense of smell which is ironic given her profession. The two go on a few dates and eventually get a kiss…yep Zoidberg’s gotta lady!

Randy decides to get a bunch of contestants together, but Bender’s BIGGEST competition is a 6 year old girl named Tanya with a pace maker. Back at the office, Zoidberg introduces Mary Anne to the staff but when he hears about a revolutionary surgery to save her sense of smell he decides against telling her about it so that she doesn’t take off when she smells him. Eventually Mary Anne starts to long for the ability to smell flowers so Zoidberg tells her all about the surgery because he wants her to be happy. Meanwhile, Bender is looking to do a bunch of shit to destroy Tanya’s chance at winning the tap dancing competition, but this little girl ain’t one to fuck with.

Bender gets bandaged up as a result of the little girl’s heresy, and Zoidberg successfully performs the surgery for Mary Anne. At the dance competition, Tanya and Bender go head to head right in front of the crowd, but when Tanya wins she suffers a heart attack Bender brings her back to life. Mary Anne wakes up and likes the way Zoidberg smells, but not the smell of flowers!

Its very seldom that we see Futurama split plots as the show typically works best as an ensemble cast, but this one worked rather well. Zoidberg’s premise was a little stale with an ending that you could see light years away, but he’s so damn goofy that you can’t help but spot the adorable qualities he brings to the show. Emilia Clarke as Mary Anne was a stunning and charming addition to the cast, and had the show not been sentenced for cancellation, I would have hoped to see more of her. The real winner tonight was the Bender story line. Oh dear God, my sides are still hurting from laughing so hard. Like when he cuts all of these promos on Tanya, only for this chick to go cray cray and try to win the contest dishonestly. Also, Bender zapping himself, losing, then watching Tanya die, only for Bender to tap dance all over her body was the stuff that makes babies cry. I was moved to laughing tears and maybe some sad ones, too because there’s one more episode of Futurama left and I’m not sure if I’m ready to see the series go.