Surfing SF: Futurama – “Lethal Inspection”
“You have a rectangular mass in your colon.”
“That’s a calculator. I ate it to gain its power.”
This particular episode of Futurama was a bit of an odd duck. It was certainly funny enough, but it spent most of its running time with only two of its characters. It was Bender and Hermes, of all combinations. But while the episode wants you to think it’s about Bender, it is at least as much about Hermes. There were a lot of jokes this week, but like “Jurassic Bark”, “The Sting”, and other past episodes, this one worked better when it took itself seriously.
Bender’s discovery of a fatal design flaw that would one day lead to his death was played for laughs like everything else (Fry: “Thanks to denial, I’m immortal!”), but it led to a climactic scene in which Bender breaks down and starts punching a wall, utterly emotionally crushed, that struck really close to home. And only Hermes, Bureaucrat with Limbo-based superpowers, could help him see that even if it ends, life is worth living anyway, and that Bender’s search for the inspector that approved his design (a metaphor for raging at God, really) is all about the journey rather than the face-punching.
And so we get eventually to one of the series’ signature twist endings, which is that Hermes was the very inspector who approved Bender in the first place, despite knowing that he was flawed. He then quit his job at Mom’s Robots and went to make his way in the world… While this ending has more complexity to it than the gut-punches at the end of a couple of previous Futurama adventures, I think it worked pretty well. I’m not sure what to make of the completely random nursery rhyme-esque music track playing in the background while this is happening, though.
Bits:
-So, I realize that Bender’s last name is “Rodriguez”, but did we know before this that he had been made in Tijuana? It felt like it was something I was already supposed to know but had just forgotten.
-The giant Rubix Cube of cubicles might have been my favorite joke of the night, especially Bender noting that “I always thought giant cubes were exciting.”
-Hermes got to look cool (“He’s not looking at that explosion happening right behind him! He’s a hero!”), but perhaps the episode’s biggest nod to him came when he and Bender returned to Planet Express to find the place essentially a post-apocalyptic ruin due to all the paper-work that’s built up while Hermes has been away. (Insane Leela: “Too much papers, not enough hiding plants!”)
-I don’t have much more to say about this one, so here are two more great quotes: “A pile of dead bears can only mean one thing, but what can it be?” “Welcome to Mexico, Silver Medal Winner, Mexican-American War”
Until next time, All Glory to the Hypnotoad!
Affiliates
