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{{Template:Tab
 
|title = A Bicyclops Built for Two
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}}
 
{{Infobox television episode
 
{{Infobox television episode
 
| title =A Bicyclops Built for Two
 
| title =A Bicyclops Built for Two
 
| image =[[File:Futurama 213 - A Bicyclops Built for Two.jpg|250px]]
 
| image =[[File:Futurama 213 - A Bicyclops Built for Two.jpg|250px]]
 
| image_size =250px
 
| image_size =250px
| episode =9
+
| episode =22
 
| season =2
 
| season =2
| airdate =March 13, 2000
+
| airdate =March 19, 2000
 
| runtime =30 minutes
 
| runtime =30 minutes
 
| director =[[Susan Dietter]]
 
| director =[[Susan Dietter]]
Line 11: Line 14:
 
| writer =[[Eric Kaplan]]
 
| writer =[[Eric Kaplan]]
 
| storyboards =
 
| storyboards =
  +
| subtitle = This episode has been modified to fit your primitive screen
| preceded_by =''[[Raging Bender]]''
 
| followed_by =''[[A Clone Of My Own]]''
+
| preceded_by = "[[Raging Bender]]"
  +
| followed_by = "[[A Clone of My Own]]"
 
}}
 
}}
   
'''"A Bicyclops Built for Two"''' is episode nine in [[Season Two]] of ''[[Futurama]]''. It originally aired in North America on March 13, 2000.
+
'''A Bicyclops Built for Two''' is episode nine in [[Season Two]] of ''[[Futurama]]''. It originally aired in North America on March 13, 2000.
   
 
== Plot ==
 
== Plot ==
  +
[[Professor Farnsworth]] brings [[Good news, everyone!|good news]]; after several years of trying, he has finally logged onto the internet via AOL. The [[Planet Express crew]] gets into their [[Net Suits]] and visits the internet in a virtual reality simulation. Chased by ads, the crew finds refuge in different pornography websites, including an adult chat room populated by children and a website [[Bender]] created using [[Amy]]'s head on [[Leela]]'s body. Disgusted by the men visiting the Filthy Filthy Chatroom, the women, accompanied by Bender, go into the Filthy Chatroom.
   
  +
Thanks to the Internet, the crew becomes bored with sex. So they pander to their lusts for violence instead and play ''Death Factory III, the legend of Death Factory II''. [[Fry]], an accomplished video game player, dispatches all of the crew easily, including a one-eyed man Leela had been happily chatting with. Leela is furious that Fry has ruined her one chance to learn who she is.
[[Professor Hubert Farnsworth|The Professor]] opens the episode by bringing the crew great news: several years ago he had tried to log onto AOL, and it finally connected. He sends the crew into the internet for fun. While playing ''Death Factory III, the legend of Death Factory II'', [[Leela]] meets the only other cyclops in the known universe, but [[Fry]] dispatches him before she can find out who he is and where he comes from. The crew is sent on a delivery mission to bring popcorn to [[Cineplex 14]], so Leela can't take the time to find him, but he recorded her screen name and sends her a video mail. Leela abandons the delivery, and heads off to the coordinates provided. Unfortunately, when she jettisoned the cargo, it missed by a margin and hit the sun, creating a popcorn nebula.
 
 
The cyclops reveals himself to be [[Alkazar]], sole survivor of the destruction of the planet [[Cyclopia]]. He claims that Leela was sent away as a baby when the blind moles of [[Subterra 3]] launched missiles in every direction, hitting forty planets including Cyclopia. Luckily, before the crash, Cyclopia's smartest scientist managed to save a baby that was possibly Leela. Alkazar was employed as a pool cleaner and was spared from the chaos while fishing out a dead opossum. Leela decides that it is her duty to help rebuild the Cyclopian civilization, which primarily includes marrying Alkazar. While Bender loots everything of value, Fry tries to find out "what makes the [[Forbidden Valley]] so forbidden", and stumbles right into the dungeon. While he is in the dungeon, Fry tries to convince Leela to dump Alkazar. Alkazar was being abusive to Leela by ordering her around and making a fool out of her in front of his rat and pig friends. Leela had planned to dump Alkazar, but she accepted his offer of marriage in order to save her race.
 
 
As the wedding begins, Fry and Bender break into the Forbidden Valley to find out Alkazar's secret, and discover to their amazement four other castles, identical except that the decorations show different types of aliens. They arrive back at Leela's wedding just before she is about to say "I do," and bring a surprise - four other women, each the last of her species like Leela. Alkazar, flustered, tries to reason with the women, shapeshifting each time to match their form; the women quickly beat him into submission, and he takes his real form, a green cockroach-like alien. He explains that he played with their emotions because he wanted to "make it with five weirdoes" and get them to become his personal maids, and that he had to stage all the weddings on one day because tuxedos that change shape are expensive to rent. All five of the women reject him, and Leela goes home with the rest of the Planet Express crew. The episode ends with Leela sadly contemplating her desire to find her true species, wondering "How many planets could there be?" as she looks out at a vast, starry space. However, the Professor says that she must pay up for the decades of popcorn she destroyed, then she can look for her home.
 
 
== Broadcast and reception ==
 
*Color stylist [[Bari Kumar]] won an Emmy award for ''Outstanding Individual Achievement in Animation'' for this episode in 2000<ref name="AllYourTV">{{cite web |url=http://www.allyourtv.com/awards/awardsemmys52creativewinners.html |title=2000 Creative Emmy Award Winners |author=Rick Ellis |publisher=All Your TV |date= [[2000-08-26]] |accessdate=2007-06-28 }}</ref>. [[Susie Dietter]] was nominated for an Annie Award in 2000 for "Outstanding Individual Achievement for Directing in an Animated Television Production" for this episode, she lost to [[Brian Sheesley]] for the ''Futurama'' episode "[[Why Must I Be a Crustacean in Love?]]"<ref name="AA">{{cite web |url=http://www.annieawards.com/28thannieawardwinners.htm |title=28th Annual Annie Award Nominees and Winners
 
|publisher=International Animated Film Society |date=2000 |accessdate=2007-06-28 }}</ref>.
 
 
== Trivia ==
 
*The title spoofs the song Daisy Bell and its well known line about "A Bicycle Built for Two". This song is best known for its inclusion in Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey; the song was the first information programmed into Hal 9000 the ship's computer, and he sang it as he was being disconnected.
 
*There are two additional references to ''2001: A Space Odyssey'': As Fry enters the internet, the famous 2001 theme ''Also Sprach Zarathustra'' by Richard Strauss is played and moments later, he references Dave Bowman's line "My God, it's full of stars!" from the 2001: A Space Odyssey novel by saying "My God, it's full of ads!"
 
*Parts of this episode are a spoof of ''Married... with Children'', which also starred [[Katey Sagal]], the voice of Leela. Leela dresses, does her hair like and acts like Peggy Bundy, Alkazar acts like Al Bundy (Leela in fact refers to him as 'Al' several times) and his friends act like the uproarious studio audience.
 
*One of Alkazar's four other would-be brides appears to be a member of the Great Race of Yith, a species of time-travelling body-snatchers from the H.P. Lovecraft story, ''The Shadow Out of Time''.
 
*When Fry is on the internet playing a video game reminiscent of 2-D sidescrollers, Fry jumps and shoots some crates and a Donkey Kong look-alike. When he jumps he makes noises similar to the sounds Mario makes in his 3D video games. He also quickly tucks and rolls through a small space, almost exactly like the Morph Ball from Metroid.
 
*A scene where Bender falls into a machine and slips between gears is a references to the Charlie Chaplin film, ''Modern Times''.
 
*During the video game, Bender is destroyed by being cut into a Slinky, then falling down stairs into a molten metal pit.
 
*The story about the destruction of Cyclopia and the planet's greatest scientist sending a Cyclopian baby, Leela, to Earth is a reference to the origin of Superman, where before the destruction of his home planet Krypton, master scientist Jor-El sends his only son, Kal-El (Superman) to Earth. Leela, like Superman, is supposedly the last member of her race.
 
*Writers [[Ken Keeler]] and [[Eric Kaplan]] are depicted as nerds in the chat room. The nerd Fry beats in the video game is executive producer [[David X. Cohen]].
 
*The Planet Express crew entering cyberspace could be a reference to ''TRON''.
 
*The Professor's head appearing as a giant blue hologram could be a reference to the Emperor's appearance in ''Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back''.
 
*Alkazar's castle resembles Angkor Wat and the mosaic of the goddess resembles Sandro Botticelli's ''The Birth of Venus''.
 
* During the video game scene, Fry shoots a laser from his arm, much like Megaman.
 
   
  +
The crew is en route to [[Cineplex 14]] in order to deliver desperately needed popcorn, when Leela receives an email from [[Alkazar]], the one-eyed man she met online, who invites her to his home. Leela dumps the popcorn and changes course to find where she belongs.
   
  +
Alkazar greets Leela and 'her servants' and introduces her to [[Cyclopia]] and the forbidden valley, where no one must go. At Alkazar's castle, he tells Leela the story of what happened to their people. He claims that Leela was sent away as a baby when the blind moles of Subterra 3 launched missiles in every direction, hitting forty planets including Cyclopia. Alkazar had been employed as a pool cleaner and was spared from the chaos while fishing out a dead possum. Leela decides to help Alkazar save their race and sleeps with him.
== Continuity ==
 
*In ''[[Love's Labors Lost in Space]]'', Leela said she wouldn't care how many eyes a guy had, "...as long as it's less than five". In one of his forms, Alkazar has five eyes.
 
   
  +
However, the next morning, Leela discovers that Alkazar is rude and abusive. Fry doesn't trust Alkazar and attempts to visit the Forbidden Valley, only to fall down a trapdoor and into the dungeon. Leela changes her clothes and hair in an attempt to impress Alkazar, who insults her in front of his friends, [[Pig]], [[Rat Man]] and [[Rat Woman]]. Fry tells Leela that Alkazar is a jerk and is hiding something from her, but she doesn't want to destroy the cyclops race by breaking up with him. Leela gives him a champagne. Fry tries to beat the door open with it, but the cap flies off and hits the 'DOOR RELEASE' button. He celebrates but the door starts to close so he runs under just in time. At dinner, Alkazar proposes to Leela, who accepts.
== Debut Appearances ==
 
*[[Alkazar]]
 
*[[Pig]]
 
*[[Rat Man]]
 
*[[Rat Woman]]
 
   
  +
All this time, Bender has been busy stealing the many valuable artifacts from the city, and for the first time ever manages to fill up his chest cavity, and is even hauling a large sack around. When Fry, having escaped from the dungeon, begs him to help investigate what makes the Forbidden Valley so forbidden, even trying to tempt him with the possibility of more stuff to steal. Bender merely replies that, "For the first time in my life, I feel like I've stolen enough..." but Fry slaps him, and they head for the Forbidden Valley. They discover four identical castles, each more identical than the last and having statues of different aliens.
== Alienese ==
 
*The [[Alienese]] signs read, "Plump Juicy Humans Web" and "Codebreakers Chat Room".
 
   
  +
Before Leela can say, "I do", Fry and the loot-stuffed Bender return with four women, each the last female of their species. Alkazar tries to reason with the women, shapeshifting each time to match their form; the women quickly beat him into submission, and he takes his real form, a green cockroach-like alien. He explains that he wanted to make it with five weirdos and have them scrub his five castles. Also, he explains that he had scheduled all five weddings on the same day because it's very expensive to rent a tuxedo that can also change shape.
   
  +
Leela returns with the rest of the crew to [[Earth]], sadly contemplating her desire to find her species, wondering "How many planets could there be?" as she looks out at space.
{{Episodelist}}
 
   
  +
==Ongoing Themes==
[[Category:Season Two|Bicyclops Built for Two]]
 
  +
In this episode, the crew use their virtual reality equipment for the first time. This time they use it to access the Internet and play online video games. Leela becomes involved with Alkazar and almost marries him, although her relationship with him has little to do with love, and more to do with loneliness and a desire to propagate her species. Fry tries to talk Leela out of the relationship, but his motives are pure: rather than just selfishly trying to keep Leela for himself, he sees that Alkazar is bad for Leela and genuinely wants her to be happy.{{EpisodeListBroadcastOrder}}
[[Category:Articles in need of a re-write]]
 
  +
{{EpisodeListProductionOrder}}
  +
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bicyclops Built for Two, A}}
  +
[[Category:Season Two]]
  +
[[Category:Episodes]]

Revision as of 11:16, 4 August 2014

Episode
References
Appearances
Transcript
Goofs
Gallery


A Bicyclops Built for Two is episode nine in Season Two of Futurama. It originally aired in North America on March 13, 2000.

Plot

Professor Farnsworth brings good news; after several years of trying, he has finally logged onto the internet via AOL. The Planet Express crew gets into their Net Suits and visits the internet in a virtual reality simulation. Chased by ads, the crew finds refuge in different pornography websites, including an adult chat room populated by children and a website Bender created using Amy's head on Leela's body. Disgusted by the men visiting the Filthy Filthy Chatroom, the women, accompanied by Bender, go into the Filthy Chatroom.

Thanks to the Internet, the crew becomes bored with sex. So they pander to their lusts for violence instead and play Death Factory III, the legend of Death Factory II. Fry, an accomplished video game player, dispatches all of the crew easily, including a one-eyed man Leela had been happily chatting with. Leela is furious that Fry has ruined her one chance to learn who she is.

The crew is en route to Cineplex 14 in order to deliver desperately needed popcorn, when Leela receives an email from Alkazar, the one-eyed man she met online, who invites her to his home. Leela dumps the popcorn and changes course to find where she belongs.

Alkazar greets Leela and 'her servants' and introduces her to Cyclopia and the forbidden valley, where no one must go. At Alkazar's castle, he tells Leela the story of what happened to their people. He claims that Leela was sent away as a baby when the blind moles of Subterra 3 launched missiles in every direction, hitting forty planets including Cyclopia. Alkazar had been employed as a pool cleaner and was spared from the chaos while fishing out a dead possum. Leela decides to help Alkazar save their race and sleeps with him.

However, the next morning, Leela discovers that Alkazar is rude and abusive. Fry doesn't trust Alkazar and attempts to visit the Forbidden Valley, only to fall down a trapdoor and into the dungeon. Leela changes her clothes and hair in an attempt to impress Alkazar, who insults her in front of his friends, Pig, Rat Man and Rat Woman. Fry tells Leela that Alkazar is a jerk and is hiding something from her, but she doesn't want to destroy the cyclops race by breaking up with him. Leela gives him a champagne. Fry tries to beat the door open with it, but the cap flies off and hits the 'DOOR RELEASE' button. He celebrates but the door starts to close so he runs under just in time. At dinner, Alkazar proposes to Leela, who accepts.

All this time, Bender has been busy stealing the many valuable artifacts from the city, and for the first time ever manages to fill up his chest cavity, and is even hauling a large sack around. When Fry, having escaped from the dungeon, begs him to help investigate what makes the Forbidden Valley so forbidden, even trying to tempt him with the possibility of more stuff to steal. Bender merely replies that, "For the first time in my life, I feel like I've stolen enough..." but Fry slaps him, and they head for the Forbidden Valley. They discover four identical castles, each more identical than the last and having statues of different aliens.

Before Leela can say, "I do", Fry and the loot-stuffed Bender return with four women, each the last female of their species. Alkazar tries to reason with the women, shapeshifting each time to match their form; the women quickly beat him into submission, and he takes his real form, a green cockroach-like alien. He explains that he wanted to make it with five weirdos and have them scrub his five castles. Also, he explains that he had scheduled all five weddings on the same day because it's very expensive to rent a tuxedo that can also change shape.

Leela returns with the rest of the crew to Earth, sadly contemplating her desire to find her species, wondering "How many planets could there be?" as she looks out at space.

Ongoing Themes

In this episode, the crew use their virtual reality equipment for the first time. This time they use it to access the Internet and play online video games. Leela becomes involved with Alkazar and almost marries him, although her relationship with him has little to do with love, and more to do with loneliness and a desire to propagate her species. Fry tries to talk Leela out of the relationship, but his motives are pure: rather than just selfishly trying to keep Leela for himself, he sees that Alkazar is bad for Leela and genuinely wants her to be happy.