User Reviews

Fry is feeling down; Leela is off on a date with the Mayor's Aide and he is left taking Nibbler for a late night walk. Feeling useless he sits down and starts talking to Nibbler and much to his surprise Nibbler replies. It turns out the Nibblonians need him once again; this time he must save the universe from the Giant Brains. They are constructing the Infosphere a giant depository of all knowledge and once they have finally recorded everything they will destroy the universe to stop more knowledge being created. Because Fry lacks the Delta brainwave he is the only person who can infiltrate the Infosphere and destroy it! There is one think the Nibblonians didn't think of though... the Brains inform Fry that it was the Nibblonians were the ones responsible for Fry getting frozen in the first place and they can send him back so he can stop himself getting frozen!

This was another fine episode and an important one too as it gives us more details about his past; not only do we learn that Nibbler froze him we also learn that Fry's strange brain is related to the events shown in 'Roswell that Ends Well'... or as Fry puts it 'He did the nasty in the pasty'! One of the highlights of this episode is the way in links back to events in previous episode; it also links back to the very start of the story. It was good to see the Nibblonians again; Nibbler is fun enough when he is pretending to be Leela's pet but it is funnier when they are talking seriously while being overly cute. The subplot involving Leela and the Mayor's Aide provided a few chuckles and it was great to see her response when he refused to share the ice rink with a group of orphans.

The pilot has hidden in its first scene a shadow under the table. It generally goes unnoticed, but go back after seeing this and you'll know what to look for. The master plan is here concluded, in what was at the time the final season. (We know three seasons followed, but still...)

If you recall "The Day The Earth Stood Stupid" you'll be familiar with the truth about Fry's brain but if you're not this episode manages to get you up to speed quickly enough. The storyline sees Fry and the Nibblonians working to stop an army of brains that are seeking to destroy the universe, having acquired knowledge about all of it. Fry is tasked with blowing up the Infosphere (using a Scooter-Puff Jr.) and does so. The explosion ends up taking it out of the universe.

Immediately before that he learnt something interesting about his past. The Big Brain knows everything, including something extremely interesting about how Fry REALLY came to the future and sends him back in time to the eve of the year 2000 giving him the chance to not get frozen (Ignore "Anthology Of Interest I" when we already saw what would happen, it's all irrelevant to this far superior episode).

Cue the biggest shock twist in the whole series: He was frozen by... NIBBLER!!! We are then presented with the emotional climax all the best of Futurama has. This time it's about whether he should let himself get frozen or not, knowing that Leela will have to defeat the brains if he doesn't do it. He ultimately decides to let himself be frozen in an act of sort-of self-sacrifice and leaves Nibbler with some parting words: "That Scooty-Puff Jr. Sucks...!" Cut back to the future where Fry this time uses a Scooty-Puff Sr. and escapes the brains, never learning the truth about himself.

Season Four is easily the best of the seven and this is one of the highlights of it. Probably the best episode of the show, or certainly up there. 10/10

In the original pilot of Futurama, there is a shadow briefly shown as Fry's chair tips over into the cryo chamber. It looks a bit like an owl, not really like Nibbler which it was later utilized as. Clearly the writers had something in mind there, but the Nibblonians ended up as raccoon-cats rather than owls. The shadow also appears in other episodes, sometimes with Fry's shadow as well.

The creepy thing is, if you think about it, original Fry was still trapped in the alternate dimension with the flying brains. Maybe they could revisit him someday, check in and see if he's gone totally nuts by now.

So the Fry who ends up with Leela isn't "our" Fry but that's okay because later on, due to a time travel mishap, the new Fry loses original Leela, then loses another Leela in the next iteration of the universe, and finally ends up with, well, some Leela or other.

Maybe original Leela can somehow find her way to the flying brains parallel universe and be reunited with original Fry? If the current terrible season 11 hasn't killed this series off, then that might actually justify a season 12.