Episode Title: "The Mutants Are Revolting"
Writer: Eric Horsted
Director: Raymie Muzquiz
Previously on "Futurama":
Leela (Katey Sagal) took it upon herself to help Lrrr, the overlord of Omicron Persei 8 overcome his midlife crisis through reasoned advice and counseling. However, Lrrr preferred the advice of Bender (John DiMaggio) and immediately bought a new sports car, fancy clothes and plastic surgery on his horns. Lrrr even had a brief fling with a girl named Grrrl until he found out that she was just a human girl with an Omicronian fetish.
The Planet Express crew staged a mock invasion of Earth to fool Lrrr's wife Ndnd into taking him back. Unfortunately, it fooled Earth's military as well and the planet surrendered. Forced by Leela to admit the truth to Ndnd, the Omicronian queen presented an ultimatum to Lrrr: kill Leela or herself. Lrrr ultimately chose to shoot Leela with a disintegration ray, but Fry (Billy West) leaped in front of her and took the blast before he disappeared.
The reconciled Omicronian rulers left Leela distraught, until she realized that the disintegration ray was actually one of the Professor's defective teleport guns. The crew found Fry alive and well back at the Planet Express building. Then Leela rewarded his bravery with a kiss.
Story:
Following their 100th successful delivery to an elderly (and extremely wealthy) widow named Mrs. Astor, the Planet Express crew attend Mrs. Astor's fundraiser for mutant education. Leela is deeply offended when she realizes that Astor and her rich friends look down upon the mutants and want to keep them under the surface and away from the rest of the human population. As Leela tries to leave the party, Fry inadvertently reveals that she is a mutant to the crowd, which leads to her immediate deportation to the sewers. When Fry and the crew appeal to the mayor for Leela's return, Fry once again reveals that they knowingly harbored a mutant for years, leading to their banishment as well for a period of two weeks. Only Bender escapes punishment by not being present at the meeting with the mayor.
Back at the Planet Express building, Bender throws an epic party to celebrate their 100th delivery, but finds it to be an empty experience without his friends. Bellow the surface in Old New York, Leela angrily confronts Fry for outing her and accuses him of not understanding what it's like to be a mutant. Humbled by her words, Fry resolves to jump in the toxic lake and mutate himself to better understand Leela's plight. Before she can stop him, Fry follows through with his plan and emerges as a hideous creature without a defined shape. Even Leela can barely stand to look at him without throwing up.
However, Fry proves instrumental in Leela's plan to rally for Mutant rights. He even finds the Land Titantic that Mrs. Astor's husband was killed in several decades prior. As the mutants sabotage the sewer system in preparation for their uprising, Fry recruits Bender for their cause. Despite Fry's hideous appearance, Bender is so happy to see him that he actually gives him a hug. As the streets of New New York are overrun by garbage and sewage, the mutants emerge and demand equal rights. Mrs. Astor blocks them with heavy firepower and is unmoved by their struggle. But Fry reveals that he learned how her husband died on the Land Titanic: he gave up his seat on a life car to a mutant woman and her daughter, who would grow up to be Leela's grandmother.
Finally moved to near tears, Mrs. Astor tells the mayor to give the mutants their civil rights. In celebration, Fry and Leela kiss, which causes Fry's grotesque body to melt away and reveal itself as Mr. Astor; who states that Fry was only stuck in his mouth and not a mutant. After his happy reunion with Mrs. Astor, the Planet Express building return home where Bender admits that the epic party wasn't any fun without them. The crew then launch a second less epic party to celebrate the milestone and their victory.
Breakdown:
I hate to say it, but "Futurama" ended its season on a pretty lackluster note.
For starters, the civil rights angle was explored earlier in the season during the "Proposition Infinity" episode and the Titanic was used way back in the first season of the show. While "Proposition Infinity" had a great deal of humor mixed into it, this episode felt like it was more about the social message than the story, jokes or the characters. On "The Simpsons" we have a name for shows like this: "Lisa-centric episodes."
It is kind of concerning to see "Futurama" repeating itself so early in its run. "The Simpsons" had eight great seasons before it started to slide in quality. Obviously, I'd prefer that to never happen to this show. But honestly, I don't think the writers and producers have fully recaptured the magic that made "Futurama" such a great series to begin with. There were definitely a few gems this season — "The Late Philip J. Fry" for example, was one of the best episodes of the entire series — but it feels like the show is missing the spark of originality that carried it through the previous five seasons.
However, there were still some good moments in this episode. Leela's reaction to Fry's new body was amusing and showed that even she can be somewhat shallow about physical appearance. I also have to give the animators credit for designing a mutated form for Fry that is actually so grotesque that it was hard to look at. Although someone should have made the argument that Fry wasn't much worse off than when he was in Zoidberg's body.
Mrs. Astor had a few funny moments of her own. She was essentially an older and evil Mary Poppins type of character. Even inanimate objects like an exploding soufflé wouldn't dare to cross her.
I thought Bender actually had some of the stronger character moments here when he realized just how much the other crew members mean to him. It seemed like Bender was softened a little bit this season, as he actually seemed more altruistic at times (like when he saved Fry and the Professor from death in the da Vinci episode) but he still had enough of the old Bender for the mindswap caper show.
Despite some relatively small issues with this season, I'm still glad "Futurama" was able to come back once again from the oblivion of cancellation. This may be the last episode (aside from the Christmas special) to hit this year, but there's a least another 13 episodes waiting for us in 2011.
And that is definitely, "Good news everyone!"
Crave Online Rating: 7 out of 10.
