"Don't kill me yet! I'm starting to come down with Stockholm Syndrome... handsome."

―Bender

Insane in the Mainframe
Episode	43
Production Code	3ACV11
Season	3
Air date	April 8, 2001
Directed By	Peter Avanzino
Written By	Bill Odenkirk
Opening subtitle	Bender's Humor by Microsoft Joke
Preceded by	Where the Buggalo Roam
Followed by	The Route of All Evil

Plot Edit

The episode opens with a celebration for Dr. Zoidberg's tenth anniversary at Planet Express. After finding out that Zoidberg's pension fund was empty because he never paid into it, Fry realizes his retirement is also in question. After blowing most of his savings, $100, on lottery tickets, Fry opens an account at the Big Apple Bank. While at the bank, Bender meets an old acquaintance Roberto, who then robs the bank.

Unfortunately Fry and Bender are arrested for the robbery, and, due to the aloof attitude of Judge Ron Whitey both are sentenced to stints in the Asylum for Criminally Insane Robots. Fry is sent there because the Home for Criminally Insane Humans was full after Judge Whitey had declared poverty a mental illness.

Once there, they both take a body test to Bender's enjoyment, but to Fry's own torture (Being stripped, prodded, drilled, X-ray, and being violently dropped into the evaluation room). The doctors refuse to acknowledge that Fry is human, due to their use of the logic that, if Fry is a patient in a robot asylum, he must be a robot. Fry is roomed with car-dealer Malfunctioning Eddie, who is undergoing treatment for his exploding problem when surprised or shocked. Fry perseveres, surviving on food coughed up by a sick 7¹¹ Robot.

But just when Fry thinks he is going to be released, Eddie gets released instead, and Fry gets a new roommate: the insane bank robber Roberto, who was captured after robbing the same bank again. The day after suffering a complete mental breakdown, Fry is released, having been "cured" of his delusion of humanity, causing him to think he's a robot. Roberto, fed up with life in the Hal Institute for Criminally Insane Robots, breaks out and takes Bender with him.

Roberto then robs the same bank for a third time to thank Bender for his help in escaping, but it's a sting and the pair flee to Planet Express to escape the police. When the Police surround the building, Roberto takes the crew hostage. Then Fry concludes that he must be a Battle Droid and attacks Roberto to save his friends. In the scuffle, Fry is cut and realizes he is not a robot but human after all.