Love and Rocket
Encyclopedia
"Love and Rocket" is the third episode of Futurama
s fourth season. It first aired on February 10, 2002.
, to land a delivery contract from Romanticorp, makers of all things romantic (also donning special uniforms to make themselves seem more official, which they wear on missions for the rest of the episode). After a tour of the facilities, Fry
becomes obsessed with finding the perfect candy heart to express his feelings for Leela, though she just finds this antic annoying. Planet Express gets the contract to deliver the hearts and with the additional funding from the new contract, the Professor makes some upgrades to the ship. The upgrades include a new personality, complete with a female voice module. Bender and the ship's new personality fall for each other and start dating. Bender quickly grows tired of the ship, and begins cheating
on her. The ship, suspicious of Bender, begins acting in a possessive and erratic manner.
The crew is assigned the task of delivering several tons of conversation hearts to Lrrr of the planet Omicron Persei 8. Unsurprisingly, the Omicronians are highly offended by the chalky candies and their poorly spelled messages. While escaping from the Omicronian death fleet, Bender decides to break up with the Planet Express ship. This cracks the ship's fragile mind, and it comes to a stop, allowing the Omicronian missiles to strike.
The ship is sent tumbling through space, dented and scorched, but otherwise physically intact. Leela attempts to console the ship, but she fails. The ship, acting irrationally, decides to fly into a quasar
. With the power of ten billion black hole
s in it, the ship and Bender would be merged into a perfect quantum singularity. She offers to stop if Bender would merge his programming with hers, which he refuses, stating that the ship's personality could overwhelm his own. To eliminate any interference from Fry or Leela, the ship turns off the air and shuts off the artificial gravity. Leela has Bender distract the ship by agreeing to merge their programming while she and Fry, using oxygen tanks, try to shut down the ship's brain, which is filled with candy hearts. While the two machines play a cat-and-mouse game, Leela continues to attempt to shut down the brain by popping the tops of its carbonated logic unit similarly to Dave shutting HAL 9000
down in 2001: A Space Odyssey (also winning a free trip to Six Flags
), which makes the ship even less rational. While searching the candy for messages, Fry notices that, unbeknownst to her, Leela's oxygen supply is critically low. However, she ignores his attempts to warn her, since she assumes he is trying to read her a candy message, so he secretly hooks her mask up to his tank to keep her alive.
With this sacrifice, Leela is able to successfully shut down the ship's artificial intelligence, returning every system to normal. Unfortunately, Fry is rendered unconscious due to the lack of oxygen. Realizing that Fry risked his life to save hers, Leela gives him mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. Fry awakens and coughs up a candy heart with the perfect message, "U leave me breathless"; the two smile and wish each other a Happy Valentine's Day. The two find Bender, who appears unaware that a little of the ship's program has slipped into his. Leela decides to dump the undelivered hearts into the quasar instead of cleaning them up. As inexplicably narrated by Zoidberg, the hearts vaporize, producing a romantic fuchsia-colored radiation that is harmless on Earth and visible during Valentine's Day, but that destroys many planets en route, including two gangster planets and a cowboy world. Nevertheless, couples around the world, including Fry and Leela (and Zoidberg), happily gaze at the beautiful space phenomena.
Futurama
Futurama is an American animated science fiction sitcom created by Matt Groening and developed by Groening and David X. Cohen for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series follows the adventures of a late 20th-century New York City pizza delivery boy, Philip J...
s fourth season. It first aired on February 10, 2002.
Plot
A few days before Valentine's Day, the Planet Express crew heads off to the most romantic city on Earth, MilwaukeeMilwaukee, Wisconsin
Milwaukee is the largest city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin, the 28th most populous city in the United States and 39th most populous region in the United States. It is the county seat of Milwaukee County and is located on the southwestern shore of Lake Michigan. According to 2010 census data, the...
, to land a delivery contract from Romanticorp, makers of all things romantic (also donning special uniforms to make themselves seem more official, which they wear on missions for the rest of the episode). After a tour of the facilities, Fry
Philip J. Fry
Philip J. Fry, known simply as Fry, is a fictional character, the main protagonist of the animated science fiction sitcom Futurama. He is voiced by Billy West using a version of his own voice as he sounded when he was 25.-Character overview:...
becomes obsessed with finding the perfect candy heart to express his feelings for Leela, though she just finds this antic annoying. Planet Express gets the contract to deliver the hearts and with the additional funding from the new contract, the Professor makes some upgrades to the ship. The upgrades include a new personality, complete with a female voice module. Bender and the ship's new personality fall for each other and start dating. Bender quickly grows tired of the ship, and begins cheating
Infidelity
In many intimate relationships in many cultures there is usually an express or implied expectation of exclusivity, especially in sexual matters. Infidelity most commonly refers to a breach of the expectation of sexual exclusivity.Infidelity can occur in relation to physical intimacy and/or...
on her. The ship, suspicious of Bender, begins acting in a possessive and erratic manner.
The crew is assigned the task of delivering several tons of conversation hearts to Lrrr of the planet Omicron Persei 8. Unsurprisingly, the Omicronians are highly offended by the chalky candies and their poorly spelled messages. While escaping from the Omicronian death fleet, Bender decides to break up with the Planet Express ship. This cracks the ship's fragile mind, and it comes to a stop, allowing the Omicronian missiles to strike.
The ship is sent tumbling through space, dented and scorched, but otherwise physically intact. Leela attempts to console the ship, but she fails. The ship, acting irrationally, decides to fly into a quasar
Quasar
A quasi-stellar radio source is a very energetic and distant active galactic nucleus. Quasars are extremely luminous and were first identified as being high redshift sources of electromagnetic energy, including radio waves and visible light, that were point-like, similar to stars, rather than...
. With the power of ten billion black hole
Black hole
A black hole is a region of spacetime from which nothing, not even light, can escape. The theory of general relativity predicts that a sufficiently compact mass will deform spacetime to form a black hole. Around a black hole there is a mathematically defined surface called an event horizon that...
s in it, the ship and Bender would be merged into a perfect quantum singularity. She offers to stop if Bender would merge his programming with hers, which he refuses, stating that the ship's personality could overwhelm his own. To eliminate any interference from Fry or Leela, the ship turns off the air and shuts off the artificial gravity. Leela has Bender distract the ship by agreeing to merge their programming while she and Fry, using oxygen tanks, try to shut down the ship's brain, which is filled with candy hearts. While the two machines play a cat-and-mouse game, Leela continues to attempt to shut down the brain by popping the tops of its carbonated logic unit similarly to Dave shutting HAL 9000
HAL 9000
HAL 9000 is the antagonist in Arthur C. Clarke's science fiction Space Odyssey saga. HAL is an artificial intelligence that interacts with the astronaut crew of the Discovery One spacecraft, usually represented as a red television-camera eye found throughout the ship...
down in 2001: A Space Odyssey (also winning a free trip to Six Flags
Six Flags
Six Flags Entertainment Corp. is the world's largest amusement park corporation based on quantity of properties and the fifth most popular in terms of attendance. The company maintains 14 properties located throughout North America, including theme parks, thrill parks, water parks and family...
), which makes the ship even less rational. While searching the candy for messages, Fry notices that, unbeknownst to her, Leela's oxygen supply is critically low. However, she ignores his attempts to warn her, since she assumes he is trying to read her a candy message, so he secretly hooks her mask up to his tank to keep her alive.
With this sacrifice, Leela is able to successfully shut down the ship's artificial intelligence, returning every system to normal. Unfortunately, Fry is rendered unconscious due to the lack of oxygen. Realizing that Fry risked his life to save hers, Leela gives him mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. Fry awakens and coughs up a candy heart with the perfect message, "U leave me breathless"; the two smile and wish each other a Happy Valentine's Day. The two find Bender, who appears unaware that a little of the ship's program has slipped into his. Leela decides to dump the undelivered hearts into the quasar instead of cleaning them up. As inexplicably narrated by Zoidberg, the hearts vaporize, producing a romantic fuchsia-colored radiation that is harmless on Earth and visible during Valentine's Day, but that destroys many planets en route, including two gangster planets and a cowboy world. Nevertheless, couples around the world, including Fry and Leela (and Zoidberg), happily gaze at the beautiful space phenomena.
Cultural references
- The ending sequences with the quasar is a reference to the ending sequence of 2010: The Year We Make Contact, in which Jupiter explodes and everyone around the world gazes at the new sun in the sky.
- The song "Daisy BellDaisy Bell"Daisy Bell" is a popular song with the well-known chorus "Daisy, Daisy/Give me your answer do/I'm half crazy/all for the love of you" as well as the line "...a bicycle built for two".-History:"Daisy Bell" was composed by Harry Dacre in 1892...
" sung by Bender during the first montage for his love of the ship is a reference to 2001: A Space Odyssey2001: A Space Odyssey (film)2001: A Space Odyssey is a 1968 epic science fiction film produced and directed by Stanley Kubrick, and co-written by Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke, partially inspired by Clarke's short story The Sentinel...
. "Daisy Bell" was the earliest memory by the HAL 9000, sung in 2001 by HAL while he is being deactivated by Bowman.
- Lrrr and Ndnd are watching FriendsFriendsFriends is an American sitcom created by David Crane and Marta Kauffman, which aired on NBC from September 22, 1994 to May 6, 2004. The series revolves around a group of friends in Manhattan. The series was produced by Bright/Kauffman/Crane Productions, in association with Warner Bros. Television...
when the Planet Express crew arrive to make the delivery, and Lrrr comments that it is a "Joey heavy episode"
Production notes
- Lucy Liu's lines in this episode were recorded during "I Dated a RobotI Dated a Robot"I Dated a Robot" is the fifteenth episode in season three of Futurama. It originally aired on May 13, 2001.-Plot:After the crew sees an episode of The Scary Door, Fry decides to do all the things he always wanted to do and the Planet Express crew obliges...
" for use in a future episode.
External links
- Love and Rocket at The Infosphere.