Futurama: S02E01: I Second that Emotion
Starting out with Benders hatred for can openers and a few well-placed zingers to a defenceless animal, Nibbler chips a fang (by biting Bender’s shiny metal ass). They take him to the vet, Fry notices the rings in nibbler’s old tooth which shows his age (5) which leads to his birthday party, at that time Bender gets jealous, due to the fact no one is paying attention to him.
Nibbler sneaks in and devours the cake Bender has made, so he decides to send Nibbler down the toilet. That makes Leela especially upset and since Bender is void of remorse so the professor “installs” an empathy chip on bender tuned into 
Leela’s emotional frequency so he can understand what he’s done.
After Bender gets the picture he dismantles and flushes himself down the toilet to save Nibbler. Fry and Leela go in after Bender through a manhole cover. (Queuing up for one of many PJ’s manhole cover sight gags) To get to the sewers.
They hook up with bender, loose their way out, and run into the mutants (this is the first episode they show the sub terrain (under Old New York) all 
with their own church with an un-exploded nuclear bomb (Under the Planet of the Apes reference). And a little something added for a future episodes (Spoiler Hint…. Look at the group as they first surround the mutant with the guitar.)
They continue to explain the legend for the El Chupanibre, which the group is blamed after Leela explains some of the similarities for Nibbler and El Chupanibre. Leela gets to be a “snackrifice” for the beast. When the beast arrives Bender is useless due to the empathy chip still installed. She is forced to not care so Bender can be free from his “emotional bonds” and can save everyone from the beast by flushing him down the sub sewer.
When they return to the surface the professor makes an astonishing find oh… no he doesn’t, never mind.
All and all, not a good way to start out the second season. But not too long after that it really rolls out with some great episodes.
This episode gets a 4 out of 10.
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This Futurama review is © 2006 Barabbas.
Not for reproduction without the authors express permission
Futurama names, characters and everything else associated with the series are the property of Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp.
Images courtesy of ‘The Leela Zone’
