Futurama really was a unique television series. Unashamedly nerdy and unafraid to engage in earnestness, the show’s writer’s room was full of sharp, capable, and clever crew members. The show’s pathos hit incredibly hard — dare I say it hit harder than The Simpsons at times?
Wait, did I say “was?” I might’ve forgotten to mention – a brand new season will be dropping on Hulu this July 24, and in celebration of its return, it’s time to take a look back at previous iterations of the franchise (I’ll be skipping over “Jurassic Bark” just because it’s so well known – and I might just get a little emotional for you). Let’s dig into the top ten most emotional moments in Futurama, shall we?
“The Luck of the Fryrish” – Season 3, Episode 4
“I love you, Philip, and I always will.”
Futurama really began experimenting with more character-driven, emotional episodes in season 3. The prior two seasons had had plenty of interpersonal conflict, but the characters had really started to show off their complexities by season 3, and “The Luck of the Fryrish” is probably one of the best examples of that.
Though season 2’s “The Cryonic Woman” had explored Fry’s feelings about having left his family and everything he knew back in 1999, for the most part, Fry was pretty blasé about the whole situation. Well, “The Luck of the Fryrish” finally delved into that topic, and it delved deep.
Throughout the episode, Fry seems to hold his brother, Yancy, in poor regard. The two were competitive as children, and Fry had always assumed his brother disliked him at the least. He’s enraged to find out that Yancy, having apparently started going by Philip J. Fry following his brother’s disappearance, ended up being the first man on Mars, married a supermodel, and had an incredibly happy life — a life Fry believes belongs to him. Fry goes so far as to dig up his brother’s grave to retrieve a lucky clover that the brothers once quarreled over.
Except, when he finally discovers the epitaph on the gravestone, he realizes that Yancy did not take his identity. No, in a touching look into the past, the audience realizes that Yancy never hated him, and missed him terribly after his disappearance. In fact, Yancy named his son, who went on to live a very lucky life, after his brother, whom he missed every day.
“The Luck of the Fryrish” is an ode to brotherhood. It can be a complicated relationship, but, at the end of the day, brothers really do love each other.
“Time Keeps On Slippin’” – Season 3, Episode 14
“Did you see it? Did you see it?”
Fry and Leela’s relationship hasn’t always been easy, that’s true. Despite that, though, it’s clear that Fry absolutely adores Leela. But Leela? In the early seasons, she found Fry to be annoying and immature, even if he was a lovable goofball.
In “Time Keeps On Slippin’,” the Planet Express crew accidentally begins unraveling the space time continuum — all because the Professor wanted Chroniton particles for his mutant basketball team (he had to, really, the Harlem Globetrotters had threatened him with the shame of defeat). As the timeline keeps jumping around, leaving characters unaware of what they did in the interim, Fry and Leela actually get married (and promptly divorced).
Fry agonizes over what he must have done to get Leela to fall in love with him, to no avail. But just as the crew is about to detonate a cluster of stars to contain the time anomalies, Fry realizes that he had rearranged the stars themselves to spell out ‘I Love You, Leela.” Unfortunately, Leela’s just a second too late to have caught the message, and Fry sadly accepts that it might never happen between the two of them.
“Leela’s Homeworld” – Season 4, Episode 2
“All I’ve ever wanted is to know you. This is the happiest moment of my life.”
The mystery of Leela’s origins was a focal point in earlier seasons. She was dropped off at the Orphanarium at a young age, and she didn’t know what species her parents might have been. But during a trip into the sewers where the mutants dwell, Leela encounters two mysterious figures that seem to know about her past — though they refuse to answer her questions. In her anger, she accuses the two of them of having killed her parents, and asks why she shouldn’t do the same today. Luckily, Fry arrives at the right time, and reveals that the mutants, Morris and Munda, are, in fact, Leela’s parents, making her a mutated human, not an alien. Leela is overjoyed and embraces her parents.
But the real tearjerker comes right after, as Pizzicato Five’s “Baby Love Child” plays over a montage of Leela growing up in the Orphanarium. Unbeknownst to her, her parents were watching from drains and sewers the entire time – keeping her safe, giving her gifts, and even tucking her in while she slept.
“The Why of Fry” – Season 4, Episode 10
“You must choose: The present or the future? To save yourself or to save Leela.”
Futurama hasn’t ever been afraid to bring lore into the narrative. “The Why of Fry” finally provided answers to questions fans had been wondering about since the first episode. Here, it’s revealed that Nibbler, the small, seemingly-primitive alien creature who poops Dark Matter, is actually a Nibblonian, a race that had already existed for 17 years when the universe came into being.
A benign and helpful race, the Nibblonians sent Nibbler to ensure that Fry would be frozen and sent into the future, so that he would be able to defeat the Brain Spawn once and for all. But Fry is indignant, horrified that he was used without a second thought.
As the New Year’s countdown nears zero, Nibbler begs Fry to allow him to do this — lest Leela die thanks to the Brain Spawn. Fry relents. As they make their way back to 31st Century Earth, Nibbler gives him a flower and erases Fry’s mind.
Unsure of what he was doing, Fry gives the flower to Leela, who tells him, “Oh. Thank you. You know what, Fry? I don’t care if you’re not the most important person in the universe. It really makes me happy to see you right now.” Fry remarks he must be the most important person in the universe, then, and the Leela kisses him.
“The Devil’s Hands Are Idle Playthings” – Season 4, Episode 18
“Please don’t stop playing, Fry. I wanna hear how it ends.”
“The Devil’s Hands Are Idle Playthings” is one of a handful of Futurama episodes that were intended to be finales, should the show not be picked up. And it’s clear that all hands were on deck for its production. The plot involves Fry once again trying to win Leela over. Though he started holophonor lessons after “Parasites Lost”,” Fry has a serious case of “stupid fingers” and just can’t master the instrument.
Enter the Robot Devil. He offers Fry a hand swap and Fry accepts. Fry becomes an instant sensation, and he actually composes an opera for Leela. Through a serious of mishaps and manipulations by the Robot Devil, who wants his hands back, Leela becomes temporarily deaf and can’t hear the opera. With yet another deal, Leela regains her hearing in time for the finale. But that’s when the Robot Devil reveals he now has her hand in marriage — he’ll only let her go if Fry were to give up the Robot Devil’s hands. Fry does so and loses all of his talent with the instrument. Fry is once again dejected, only to discover Leela still sitting in the audience, waiting for the end of Fry’s crudely depicted story.
It didn’t represent the culmination of Fry and Leela’s relationship, but it was a perfect ending. All indications pointed to a happy ending sometime in their future, and if the show wasn’t going to be able to explore those plot lines, leaving it open-ended was probably the best compromise.
Bender’s Big Score
“He was a good man, Leela.”
“Yeah, you were.”
Though they were excited to have the show return, fans were a little disappointed to still see Fry pining after Leela all those years after “The Devil’s Hands Are Idle Playthings.” To make matters worse, a new love interest was introduced for Leela — a man named Lars. Lars seemed cool, reserved, and entirely in love with Leela, which bothered Fry to no end. Their match appeared to be kismet, and eventually, Fry ends up using a time code on his butt to escape back into the past — twice, resulting in a temporal duplicate. One duplicate stays in the year 2000, while the other freezes himself once again.
Fry’s adventures in the past are interspersed throughout the movie. He never seems to get over Leela. Unbeknownst to him, however, a malware-controlled Bender has been following Fry in the past, and he nearly kills Fry in an explosion. As Bender walks away, the past version of Fry is revealed to be Lars, suffering from larynx damage and having burned most of his hair away.
Lars later dies due to time paradoxes, but the first thought he has is to get back to Leela by freezing himself. The fact that Fry would always try to get back to her, no matter the circumstances, seems to finally bring Leela onto a near-romantic level with Fry.
Into the Wild Green Yonder
“Into the breach, meatbags.”
Another possible finale, Into the Wild Green Yonder saw Planet Express engaging in several acts of eco-terrorism to prevent Leo Wong’s callous destruction of entire ecosystems. Though initially it’s just Leela, Amy, and a few of their friends, eventually the whole crew gets in on the action.
At the end of the film, the crew is on the run from Zapp Brannigan when they come across a wormhole. Uncertain of where the wormhole might lead them, they all agree to press on forward. As they enter the wormhole, the film ends — leaving you to wonder what adventures they might find out there.
Of course, the first episode of the Comedy Central reboot ended up revealing that the wormhole was a trade route directly to Earth, but, hey, we couldn’t do a continuation of all of the series’ supporting characters were halfway across the universe, could we?
“Near-Death Wish” – Season 7, Episode 10
“I’m gonna get you! Here I come! (Laughing) I almost got you! Come here, you!”
After finally growing frustrated with Professor Farnsworth’s coldness towards him, Fry decides to visit the Professor’s very elderly parents on the Near-Death Star. There, he finds more family that he didn’t know he had — but the Professor is completely against the idea of seeing them again.
After some prodding, it’s revealed that the Professor was a problem child who eventually went mad due to his obsession with science and had to be carted off for some time. He had not seen his parents since this incident. Eventually, the three reconcile, and they’re placed back in the Near-Death Star, but not before Professor Farnsworth makes some modifications to the neural interface. Inside of a simulation, the Farnsworths find themselves young again and living on their family farm. The Professor is a kid again, and the three of them play as a happy family.
“Game of Tones” – Season 7, Episode 23
“Because this isn’t your dream. It’s your mother’s dream.”
“Game of Tones” was the first episode of the show to really focus on Fry’s relationship with his mother. The two had been implied to not have had the closest relationship, but when Fry has to go into his subconscious to recover a lost memory, he finds himself back on New Year’s Eve, 1999.
Though it’s only a dream, really, Fry has to be pulled away from his home before being able to say goodbye to his mother. He’s distraught, but his lost memory eventually surfaces and he’s able to save the world (naturally).
As thanks, Nibbler gives Fry a little gift. Fry dreams of his mother that night, but he feels dejected — it’s only a dream, after all. Nibbler appears before him and tells him that it is a dream, but it isn’t Fry’s dream. Fry is able to connect with his mother and the two have a conversation.
“Meanwhile” – Season 7, Episode 26
“What do you say? Want to go around again?”
“I do.”
“Meanwhile” might actually be my favorite of Futurama’s finales. With Fry finally set to propose to Leela, he decides to steal one of the Professor’s latest inventions — a machine that can travel exactly 10 seconds into the past. He intends to use it to propose to Leela and then relive the moment for as long as they want.
Unfortunately, Fry dies before that can happen. The time button, however, lands in Leela’s hands, and she’s able to continually save Fry. But the Professor is atomized, and the time button is broken, freezing the world around Fry and Leela.
Over the next few decades, they grow old and travel the world before ending up back where they started. Luckily, Professor Farnsworth wasn’t killed — just shifted into a time tunnel. He gives them the opportunity to fix everything with the modified time button, which will reset the timeline. They kiss as the classic Futurama title card shines on the screen.
The first time this aired, Comedy Central actually aired the first episode right afterwards — giving the impression that, if the show never returned, the series was an entirely closed time loop. Who knows what the reboot will bring? Hopefully the writers keep up the trend of injecting compelling pathos into the most unexpected episodes — they always turn out to be the best.
