I Second That Emotion (Futurama)
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| Futurama episode | |
| "I Second That Emotion" | |
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| Episode no. | 14 |
| Prod. code | 2ACV01 |
| Airdate | November 21, 1999 |
| Writer(s) | Patric Verrone |
| Director | Mark Ervin |
| Opening subtitle | Made From Meat By-Products |
| Opening cartoon | "Fresh Hare" (1942) |
| Season 2 November 1999 – December 2000 |
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| List of all Futurama episodes... | |
"I Second That Emotion" is episode one in season two of Futurama. It originally aired in North America on November 21, 1999.
Contents |
[edit] Plot
Bender, annoyed with Nibbler, flushes the animal down the toilet. Leela is distraught at the loss of her pet and angered by Bender's inability to understand the emotions of others. Professor Farnsworth proposes a solution: installing an empathy chip in Bender's head that will cause him to feel other people's emotions. After forcibly installing the chip, the chip is tuned to pick up Leela's emotions.
After a night of experiencing Leela's feelings, Bender flushes himself down the toilet in pursuit of Nibbler. Fry and Leela enter the sewers, and quickly find Bender. Unfortunately, they also find a crowd of mutants. The mutants introduce them to their subterranean civilization. They also reveal that a monster called El Chupanibre has been terrorizing the mutants.
Leela, thinking that Nibbler is the monster, offers herself as a sacrifice. Unfortunately, El Chupanibre is actually a very large reptilian monster. Leela is forced to contain her emotions so that Bender can fight off the fearsome creature.
In the end, El Chupanibre is flushed into the sub-sewers. The professor removes Bender's empathy chip and discovers it was running at triple capacity. Bender still retains his 'in-your-face' attitude, meanwhile Leela learns that adopting Bender's attitude is better than being nice.
[edit] Foreshadowing
- In one scene where Fry, Leela, and Bender are surrounded by the mutants, Leela's real mother and father (who are not introduced until season four), are clearly visible in the crowd. Some fans take this as evidence that Leela's background as a mutant was planned as far back as this episode, which is confirmed in the DVD commentary. However, these are obviously early models because Leela's father doesn't have a sideways mouth, and Leela's mother has normal arms instead of tentacles.
- In this episode, Planet Express celebrates Nibbler's so-called 5th birthday. However, this is proven wrong by "The Day the Earth Stood Stupid" and "The Why of Fry", which shows Nibbler is at least a thousand years old, and possibly older than the universe itself. However it is indicated in this episode that the method of determining Nibbler's age is not reliable because the method used is about learning how old a tree is.
- During this episode Bender whistles the Harlem Globetrotters theme song, "Sweet Georgia Brown," and spins his head like a basketball. It is later revealed that Bender is a lifelong Globetrotters fan.
[edit] Cultural references
- Placing an empathy chip in Bender's head is similar to the Star Trek: Generations plot where an emotion chip (also running on overdrive) is installed in Data's head.
- One of the animals in the vet's office is a rust monster from the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game.[1][2]
- The bottle that Bender breaks in the vet's office is labeled 'Goose Laxative', a humorous euphemism for diarrhea, i.e. "That stuff will make you s*** like a goose!"
- The name of the "sub-urban legend" El Chupanibre is a reference to the "urban legend" El Chupacabra.
- The only books in the sewer are porn and Ayn Rand books, flushed down the toilet by the upper world.
- The picture on the entrance to the sewer is a reference to the PJ's.
- The mutants worshiping an atomic bomb is a reference to the movie Beneath the Planet of the Apes.
[edit] References
- ^ Freeze Frame: I Second That Emotion. Got Futurama. Retrieved on February 19, 2007.
- ^ Film References. Retrieved on February 19, 2007.
