Meanwhile

Writer: Ken Keeler
Director: Peter Avanzino
Production Code: 7ACV26 
Original Air Date: September 4, 2013
Guest Voices: N/A

Avenge Us

While making a delivery on the moon, Fry, Bender, and Leela enjoy the amusement park on the moon. Bender eats too many corndogs before getting on the mecha-hexadecapus ride and gets sick spewing bolts and lugnuts in all directions which cause the gears of the mecha-hexadecapus to stop throwing Leela in to outer space. When security returns only with the stuffed bear she had earlier it appears that Leela is gone forever causing Fry to lament that he never got to tell her that he loved her when she was paying attention. Luckily for Fry and Leela she has gone Han Solo on her teddy bear and used a balloon animal replica of herself for oxygen and is still alive.

Meanwhile back at Planet Express the Professor has invented a time button that can send the user 10 seconds in to the past unless they are in a the Professor's time shelter (coated with anti-chromiton resistant grout). Demonstrating the button gives Fry and idea on how to use the button. He uses it to steal diamonds from a local diamond market to make Leela a ring so that he can ask her to marry him. At a dinner date Fry pops the big question, presents the ring (which opens up a whole can of clams - thank God for the 10 second reset button) and tells Leela he will await her answer at the top of the Vampire State Building at 6:30pm. If it is a yes, show up, if a no don't show up. When 7pm comes and goes Fry believes all hope is lost and throws himself off the top of the building. Too late to realize that on the way down since he used the time button so often his own watch was now thirty minutes fast and he sees Leela entering the building right on time. Fry quickly hits the reset button but it is not enough as it sends him back just shortly after leaping from the Vampire State Building, causing him to continuously use the button in order to save his own life.

The Professor realizes that the button is being overused and gathers everybody in to the time shelter to devise a plan to stop the time button from being used but first they must find Fry. When they find him they realize what has happened and why Fry has used been using the button so much. They try explaining it to him but not before Fry goes splat all on the sidewalk. Leela then takes the button and begins resetting every 10 seconds in order to try and find a way to save him but sacrifices the Professor in the meantime to be lost forever. Bender remembers he has an installed air bag and rushes under Fry and orders the rest of the crew to ram his shiny metal ass at approximately 40mps in order to activate the air bag. When he does, the air bag deploys and Fry lands safely on the bag and then falls on the time button breaking it and causing the entire universe to be stuck in time.

Fry and Leela then live out the rest of their lives together and all alone in their frozen world. We see a montage of them getting married, traveling the world, and spending the rest of their lives together. They finally come back to the top of the Vampire State Building to drink the champagne Fry had intended to share with Leela upon hearing her yes answer when the Professor suddenly reappears. He has been spending all this time trying to get to the correct instant that Fry and Leela are in so that he can set things right. Fry tells the Professor he has broken the time button further but the Professor fixes the button and tells Fry and Leela he has set it to the time when he invented the button so that he can not invent the button thereby setting everything straight. The only drawback is that Fry and Leela will not have remembered a thing and their memories of their life together will be gone forever.

You got to hand it to the writers on the show being able to produce multiple series ending episodes but yet still leaving the door open should the show come back and keeping it on its original premise. The time button also has the feeling of the recently released Futurama Comics 68 by Patric Verrone and wonder if the two are somehow connected.

Anyways, another great way to end the series (?) but still give us hope. The time skip segments were a lot of fun in trying to keep track of what is going on, who knows what, and how it all plays in together. If this is truly the end it certainly has left us all with a great feeling to be part of this show.

Congrats to all involved with Futurama - you did good!!!