'Futurama' Season 9, Episode 10 Recap - 'Near-Death Wish'

Opening Credits Gag: "There's No Bismuth Like Show Bismuth." Oddly enough, not the only shout-out to Bismuth in this episode.

The Highlights: The really fun thing about the most recent seasons of "Futurama" is that we keep finding out new stuff about our characters. Hermes did Bender's inspection, Farnsworth saved Zoidberg's life, etc. In this episode, we learned a bit more about Farnsworth. A lot more, actually.

Fry is disappointed that Farnsworth doesn't show up to see him win his Clippie award for Best Delivery Boy - Miscellaneous, and laments that he doesn't have any other relatives in the future. Zoidberg proves him wrong, however, noting that the Professor's parents are both still alive and in their virtual retirement home (it's like The Matrix) on the Near-Death Star.

Remember that place? Just last week we visited the Bot Planet, and now we're back to the Near-Death Star. Callbacks galore!

When Fry, Leela and Bender get there, Fry is delighted to find that he has two living "grandparents" (of course they're actually his great-great-great-whatever-grand niece and nephew or something, but never mind that). He loves them so much, in fact, that he brings them back to Planet Express to show the Professor.

Farnsworth is livid, however, and tells them he hates them and shuns them for the rest of the week. Leela and Amy pry for an answer, and find that young Hubert's parents prevented him from going to MIT at 14 and instead moved him out to (gasp!) an idyllic farm in Queens.

But when Farnsworth tells his parents how he feels, they reveal a shocking truth: he had an older brother who was also a scientist and went crazy and ended up in a mental institution.

We quickly find out, though, that it was in fact Hubert who they were talking about, and he did in fact go to a mental institution for 25 years. That explains a lot. His brother Floyd is still out there somewhere, as an apparently homeless rodeo clown.

The Heartstrings:

The sweet parts came in two parts: one, we realize that Hubert's parents were too tired to play with him because they were always up all night reading the periodic table to him to calm him from his nightmares. That's cute enough, but even more endearing are the modifications that Hubert makes to his parents' retirement simulation: instead of the run-down old apartment, he puts them on their farm and makes them appear young again, even putting himself in as a young boy so that they can play one more time. Aww.

I'm glad they went there, too, because I was wondering why the retirement home had to be so crappy if it was all a simulation.

Notes & Quotes:

- "And the fish sticks were limp!"

- "You could really bash a skull in with this thing!" "I know, right?"

- "Good work, writer of The Matrix!"

- "It's not just safe, it's 40% safe!"

- "Hasn't changed a bit." "Put on your glasses, sweetie." "AAAHHH!"

- "How can I put this delicately...." "HE WAS A CRAZY-ASS NUT JOB!"

- The name of the retirement home, "Trop Vieux Manor," means "Too Old Manor" in French.