The Professor’s parents un-retire from virtual retirement about the Near-Death Star and he’s not too thrilled about it.

Overview (Spoilers Below)

Fry gets kinda pissed off that Farnsworth is never there to support him and that continues with Fry’s Clippie Awards ceremony. At first Fry believes he has no other family in the future with him of which Zoidberg says otherwise and points out that Farnsworth’s parents are still alive and well in their virtual retirement home on the Near-Death Star.

Totally stoked that he has family, Fry, Bender, and Leela all plug in to the virtual retirement home that Fry’s relatives are staying at. While there, he has such a good time getting to know them, that when he wakes up he helps smuggle them out of the retirement home and back at Planet Express HQ much to the dismay of the Professor of whom he wants nothing to do with due to his parents’ lack of interest in his upbringing.

But when Farnsworth tells his parents how he feels, they drop a bomb: Professor Farnsworth had an older brother who was also a scientist and went nuts and ended up in a mental institution. However, Farnsworth quickly rebuffs that theory and claims that HE is the one who they were talking about, and that he had to go to a mental institution for 25 years. His brother Floyd is actually still out there somewhere, as an apparently homeless rodeo clown.

Our Take

This week’s episode was close to a perfect score had it not been for that somewhat murky ending that sort of reminded me of The Simpsons Treehouse special with the twin Barts. Having said that, the opening sequence having clearly been inspired by both The Matrix and Fifth Element was out of control really good and shows how good these guys are. And to make sure its not TOO intense, throw in a slinky, sneeky, and later nakey Farnsworth to help liven up and keep fresh any dull parts of the episode. The Phantom inspired Farnsworth was the funniest thing I’ve ever seen in Futurama and then when we catch him in the bathtub, then later sucking his thumb in bed. Oh, dear I was out of breath. Really, really good episode…

Score

9/10

Bubbleblabber's Review System