'Futurama' Season 9, Episode 2 Recap - 'A Farewell to Arms'

Opening Credits Gag: "Ask your doctor if Futurama is right for you."

The Highlights: A "Simpsons"-esque opening shows Fry attempting to show Leela romantic gestures--all of them involving her taking his hand--only to see them all go awry... and eventually leading to another plot point entirely. When Fry pursues a badger down a hole to retrieve his pants (yeah, there's a bit of narrative meandering), he discovers a cave with ancient markings.

It's Amy who identifies the markings on a giant stone tablet in the underground pyramid: it's Martian writing, and it warns that the world will end in the year 3012. And that's this year!

It turns out the pyramid is actually an electronics-free ship, able to fly through the ensuing apocalyptic solar storm, but it can only hold a certain number of people. Those who are eligible is determined by a machine, and Fry is sure he won't be sent with the crew, seeing as he has no essential skills or anything (and his hygeine is suspect, considering he wore the same pants for the last 1,000 years).

But Fry is chosen, and Leela isn't. And that's where this episode's Heartstrings begin.

The Heartstrings: In his last romantic gesture, Fry fakes an ID for Leela by pasting her picture on his own ID, sacrificing himself to send her to Mars instead. But before you say "awwww," there's a catch: when everyone gets to Mars, the last remaining Martian tells everyone that Amy read the prophecy wrong, and that it's actually Mars that's going to be destroyed, not Earth.

So, in a pretty strange turn of events, Mars ends up getting thrashed by solar flares, which ignite underground gas packets and send Mars hurtling toward Earth. Yeah, this episode gets a little fuzzy on the science. More so than usual.

Mars ends up passing so close to Earth that the crew can just jump and enter Earth's gravitational field, landing safely in New New York. But Leela has a broken leg from Fry's last attempt to save her, and can't jump... so she has to take Fry's hand once again.

His first attempt to pull her to safety rips her arm off. The second attempt rips his arm off. Thankfully, Scruffy has a ladder.

So, everything is okay. And as one final, very strange "aww" moment, we see Fry's and Leela's disembodied arms, still holding hands, floating off through space. It's a bit "aww" and also kinda "eww."

In the pantheon of Fry/Leela episodes, it's nowhere near Fry writing a love note to Leela in the sky, or Leela leaving a message in a limestone cave for Fry to find millions of years later... but it's cute in its own way.

Notes & Quotes:

- Nice gag with The Great Revealo. That guy sucks.

- "It's not mutant language, we use much more profanity. Oh &@$^!"

- Every time the snakes fall out. Why is that so funny?

- The Professor playing the world's tiniest violin. Yes.