'Futurama' Season 9, Episode 13 Recap - 'Naturama'

Opening Credits Gag: "Tell Your Parents It's Educational!" Hey, I learned some stuff today.

The Highlights: It seems that the tradition now is to end the season with an episode that splits into three minisodes. Last season ended with an episode that used three different animation styles, but this one is a little simpler: they're all just nature documentary parodies.

Yes, Mutual of Omicron presents these Wild Universe installments that show us the mating habits of a few different species on Earth. Each time, the characters of "Futurama" are anthropomorphized versions of each animal.

The first episode focuses on salmon and their mating habits. We learn that very few of the salmon make it to the ocean, and even fewer make it back upstream to mate. Also, as the Morgan-Freeman-esque narrator tells us, it was all for nothing: "Why did they live, and why did they die? No reason," he muses at the end of the minisode. Dark, man. That's dark.

The second minisode is a bit sad, too. This one takes place on the Galapagos islands, and focuses on a penta-island tortoise that looks and sounds an awful lot like Hubert. He is convinced by his Galapagos finch buddies (who are adorable, as portrayed by Fry, Leela, Amy and Hermes) to travel across the island to mate with the only other tortoise of his species.

Of course that turns out to be Mom, and the two of them birth Mom's three boys, who immediately get squished by a rock. "In the end, nature is horrific and teaches us nothing," says the nihilistic narrator.

The third minisode is a little more lighthearted, and talks about the elephant seal. Apparently these guys battle for supremacy on the beach, and the biggest, fattest elephant seal (in this case, Bender) becomes the beachmaster and gets his own harem of about 15 to 20 females. The rest of the males (in this case, Fry, Kif, Hermes and Farnsworth) have to either beat the beachmaster or else be a "sneaky male" and try to mate with one of the females when he isn't looking.

That's what seal Kif tries to do when he spots seal Amy, and he even dives down to retrieve a Zoidberg meal for her. Unfortunately Bender catches on and makes Kif back off... but when Kif challenges Bender to a duel, Bender squashes him pretty completely, and Kif becomes seagull food. Sad. At least the other males got to mate.

The Heartstrings: They all happen in the first episode, as Fry and Leela meet as young salmon in the ocean and fall in love. The problem, though, is that they were spawned in different streams and can't go with one another to mate. Fry doesn't let that stop him, though, and manages to jump over to Leela's pond to fertilize her eggs, and then die with her. It's cuter than it sounds.

Notes & Quotes:

- Mutual of Omicron: Insuring your world, and its destruction.

- "You haven't ignored the last of me!"

- "I'm going to crack that hussy open like a slutty brazil nut!"

- "Yeah, you'd better topple!"

- "Harem, I can barely see 'em!"

- "No one ever goes walrus."