Review: Futurama ‘Meanwhile’
Avenge Us…
Spoilers Below
Planet Express heads to Luna Park aka the place where Fry and Leela had their first delivery. Unfortunately, one ride in and Leela gets sucked into outer space after an accident, but Moon Patrol finds her. This causes Fry to reevaluate his future so he decides to propose to Leela and heads to the jewelry store to pick up an engagement ring. Equipped with Farnsworth’s latest invention, Fry gets the RING of the century, but when he tries to give it to her with a big huge clam the mouth chops off Leela’s arm.
Fry’s new little toy allows him to rewind 10 seconds into the past, but only after it charges for 10 seconds. SO, guess what? Leela’s arm thing?? Never happened! Fry gives Leela the ring, but the groom to be has a hard deadline of 6:30 pm being a yes…any time after that is a no! Surprisingly enough, Leela doesn’t show up so Fry jumps off a tall building only to find out that his watch was running fast because of the time machine which means Leela was actually on time. The rest of the Planet Express crew are in a time shelter and have no way of saving Fry who is constantly rewinding his fall off of the building. Eventually, the Express crew show up but its too late because Fry falls asleep mid-air and SPLAT all over the concrete!
Leela grabs the time machine and rewinds to before Fry dies, but she kills the Professor. Problem is Fry keeps dying because Leela can’t figure out the machine. Bender steps in and puts out a mattress for Fry which causes him to bounce right on top of the time machine which smashes and freezes time all over. No matter what, a wedding is to be had, so Fry and Leela try and make the best of the situation and put forth a wedding ceremony and of course the subsequent honeymoon. The couple ends up growing old together and they even knock out a bucket list before the Professor shows up and fixes the time machine! Farnsworth fixes the machine and zaps the couple to a time before he had the time machine which sounds just fine with Fry and Leela.
For months I’ve struggled with the notion that I may never see these animated characters again …but thanks to The Simpsons that isn’t the case.
I selfishly thought the show should come back with brand new episodes even beyond this one. However, after watching tonight’s episode I couldn’t come up with a better way to end the series. Yea the episode had its laughs, but what might now make this the single best achievement in animated history is the heart this series finale showed. Some might point to a sort of Inception-like ending, but Futurama is the show that gets to lay claim to the time travel trophy because God Damn it, they perfected it!
Some might have joined up with Matt Groening and the gang over on the Nerdist podcast to get some post-game analysis and I won’t sully this review with my thoughts on that. Instead, I wanted to remember finishing up my journey aboard Planet Express with savoring the finale for Futurama which featured a plot all about time travel. Weirdly enough, I too thought that I had gone back in time because right after the ‘Meanwhile’episode aired “Space Pilot 3000” did too and as a result I felt like I was 14 again. A time where I didn’t have to think about wars or the Twin Towers going down or whether or not I can pay my bills on time. Nope, I was taken back to a time where for 30 minutes, I was able to sit in my chair, put on a seat belt, and just blast to New New York. Tonight I had to unbuckle said seat belt albeit a bunch more satiated than when the other Futurama season finales hit and somehow learn how to move on and I think maybe it’s time for US as a Futurama fan base to move on too.
Check back in next week for the entire season review.
