Futurama is here. It has new episodes on Disney. It seems a lie but yes. Disney bought 20th Century Fox and, looking at the catalog of intellectual properties known to the public, came across Futurama, the comedy that Matt Groening created and that premiered in 1999 with the duty to be popular like The Simpsons, the cartoonist’s previous work. It had been canceled twice (first by Fox in 2003 and then by Comedy Central in 2013) but it had maintained its cult status and, by having the ten seasons of the series, they could revitalize content on their streaming platforms.
The series about Philip J. Fry, a pizza delivery man who was accidentally cryogenically frozen and woke up in 2999, is not exactly a fiction that requires perseverance and a great memory. The scripts reward the most dedicated viewers but, in short, it is a comedy with independent episodes: each one tells a galactic adventure with deep doses of humor and Groening’s trademark social criticism.
However, for those who did not see the last stage of Futurama or do not remember the finally temporary outcome of the series, perhaps they should remember: it was an important episode in the dynamic between Fry and Leela. It remains to be seen to what extent it will be relevant in this new stage, which in its original version has the usual original voices such as Billy West, Katey Sagal or John DiMaggio as Bender.
In Meanwhile, the episode in question, Fry was scared to death: he thought that Leela had died in one of his excursions through space. Realizing that he had wasted the opportunity to have a life with her, confessing her love in a serious proposal, the protagonist decided to ask her for marriage. And, to carry out the most ideal marriage proposal in history, he stole the professor’s latest invention: a button that allowed him to go back in time. It would serve to have an eternal sunset while the request lasted.
The device had a very particular function: it allowed us to go back in time for only ten seconds. Who used it, in addition, did not have the ability to go back ten seconds compulsively until they reached the point in the past that they wanted. The contraption needed ten seconds to charge in order to perform another timeskip, so its owner could only ever go back those same ten seconds in the past even if he pressed it endlessly. The only ones who were aware of these jumps were also those who entered the button ratio.
Fry, then, went on to use that button for any detail that was convenient for him. Who wanted a spectacular ring? The button allowed him to steal it without spending a penny. That in the first attempt at a request for a hand, Leela literally ended up losing her hand? He would go back those ten seconds to avoid it. And, when asking Leela to give him an answer in the Vampire State building, he had a moment of confusion: from going back in time so much, Fry’s clock was fast, and believing that Leela had stood him up, he opted to jump from the top of the skyscraper.
Seeing Leela about to enter the building in mid-free fall, Fry realized his mistake, and with the help of his companions, the pair managed to prevent Fry’s inevitable death. Of course, by accidentally breaking the device, Leela and Fry collapsed space-time, finding themselves alive in a frozen reality. How did they decide to pass the time? Symbolically marrying and spending decades upon decades enjoying each other’s company and traveling the planet into old age.
“Life has been beautiful,” Leela told him on top of the Vampire State building where they were celebrating all that life they spent while the rest of humanity was paralyzed. “But lonely, maybe?” Fry asked. “I haven’t felt alone, not even for a moment,” Leela replied, her glass of champagne in hand. And, when they thought they were at the end of that common life, the professor appeared, who had been wandering the margins of time.
The professor, of course, was able to fix the button. “He will get us out of this impasse and take us back to before he invented the time button,” he explained to them. “Of course, we won’t remember anything that happened to us,” he warned them. “What do you say? Do you want to repeat it?”, Fry consulted Leela, aware that they would lose that ideal existence just for two. “Yes, I do,” she told him, willing to forget everything if it meant that she could enjoy a whole new life next to the man she loves, even without being guaranteed to end up together.
Futurama, therefore, said goodbye with a brief, highly melancholic summary about a love that only those two people who lived through it could understand. It was a kind of Up to end that stage of the series, although without having the same musical impact. And, now, the viewer has the incentive to see if Fry and Leela will ever recover those memories or if they will somehow be able to relive that idyllic romance that lasted a lifetime.