Futurama: S02E07: Put Your Head On My Shoulders

There’s some really good animation concerning perspective and in the panoramic landscape shots. It really does make you forget you’re watching a cartoon at times. This felt like another one of those filler episodes, just something seasonally appropriate for that time and slightly amusing. You could miss this episode and not miss a single plot point. But seeing as I’m a Futurama fan and this is a cute episode, I wouldn’t recommend it.

Fry, Bender, Amy and Leela are watching TV together. A familiar theme, no? A local car dealer’s commercial for their President’s Day sale inspires Amy to spend a little of her parents’ fortune on a new car. Bender has to take his ass in for servicing after getting a recall notice, so he and Fry tag along with Amy and Leela. Amy, not the sharpest tack in the jar, spends almost double the sticker price on a Beta Romeo, despite Leela’s valiant efforts to haggle. Bender heads to the service department to have a bumper installed so his ass won’t explode during a rear end collision. Unfortunately, the new bumper looks like human buttocks and Bender will have none of that. He demands his buttocks be restored to their former glory. The mechanic tries to warn him, “ . . . sooner or later, that ass is gonna blow and when it does, I just pray you’re not mooning someone you care about.” Bender decides to go ahead with the restoration and stay at the back of conga lines for the time being.

Back at the office, Hermes reminds Fry that Valentine’s Day is around the corner. He asks Leela out, beginning with the phrase, “Well, since neither of us have a date . . . “. It goes downhill from there. Smooth, Fry, real smooth. She doesn’t have plans, but doesn’t particularly take kindly to Fry’s assumption. Amy interrupts before Leela can reply, asking them to go with her on a test drive to Mercury; Fry is the only taker. They use every luxury feature her car has, using up all the fuel in the process. After calling for help, they wait a couple of hours for a tow. They talk about their lives and parents and discover they have quite a bit in common. They pass the time on the tow back by hopping into the back seat and having sex.

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The next morning, after Hermes covers the new and old business, they announce they’ve gotten “close”. Most of the staff thinks it’s cute, and Zoidberg’s claim that he’d pay anything for some companionship inspires Bender to start his own business. After he gets arrested for pimping (We all saw that coming.), he opens a computer dating service. Things are going great between Fry and Amy, until Amy tells Fry how much she enjoys hanging out. Well, that sends Fry into a tailspin, being a stereotypical commitment phobic male. Leela tells him he’s overreacting, but he generally freaks out because things are getting way too serious.

Amy invites him on a romantic picnic to Europa and he invites Zoidberg along as a buffer. Every word out of Amy’s mouth freaks Fry out more. She brings up their Valentine plans and he decides to break it off right then. He has Zoidberg take the wheel (Will Fry never learn?) and retires to the backseat with Amy to have “the discussion”. Before Fry can fumble out a coherent sentence, Zoidberg literally takes the wheel, right off the steering column. Fry’s last view is of a mountainside as they crash into it. He wakes up, full of questions, to find that the crash has damaged his body and Zoidberg has grafted his head onto Amy’s shoulder.

Zoidberg and the Professor take Fry’s body in for servicing at the lab for a few days. Amy wants to continue their discussion, so he goes ahead and breaks off the relationship. She isn’t terribly heartbroken. In fact, she decides to make a date for Valentine’s Day. Meanwhile, Leela visits Bender’s new place of business. She beats around the bush, but eventually asks him to find her a date. Based on the money in that ever-changing chest cavity of his, Bender’s had plenty of clients. Unwilling to be a third wheel on Amy’s dare, Fry catches Leela shortly afterward and asks her out. When he finds out that he’s too late, he too takes advantage of Bender’s services.

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That evening, all of Bender’s clients gather in the same restaurant, along with Amy, Fry and her date. Amy and her date are getting on VERY well. Fry desperately scans the entrance for his date. Bender finally introduces him to a toothless older lady of dubious virtue ( I guess the toothless thing helps in the dubious virtue department). Leela’s date is a scruffy, indifferent fellow with little interest in romance. When someone announces the departure of the 9:30 bus, all of the computer matches take their leave. Using his customary sensitivity and attention to detail, Bender rounded up all the dates at the bus station. Amy and her date are a gnat’s nut from leaving and doing the nasty, much to Fry’s horror. Leela notices his plight and comes over to distract Amy’s date with shop talk.

The next morning, Fry gets reattached to and reacquainted with his body. He and Amy get things straight and part as friends after he thanks her for the use of her shoulder. Next, Leela drops in to inquire about his newly reunited self. He shows her the tender spot that, when touched, causes him to kick his own ass. Seems unimportant, but wait. He thanks Leela for coming to his rescue; she’s just glad they ended up spending Valentine’s together instead of with strangers. Bender strolls in and takes credit for things working out so well. Leela calls him on it, but he tells them Valentine’s Day is all about packaging love and pocketing the money. They grudgingly agree and walk out together. Bender pats Fry on the back, activating his nerve and getting a kick in the ass. Bender’s ass explodes in a fiery display. I guess it’s instant karma for his cynical views on love.

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Cupid wings his way in and grants a rating of 6.7 out of 10.

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Futurama reviews are © 2006 – 2019 Chrystal Litchford.
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

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