Episode Number: "4ACV01"
Title: "Kif Gets Knocked Up A Notch"
Original Airdate: January 12, 2003
Special Guests:
Intro Promotion: "BIGFOOT'S CHOICE"
Intro Cartoon:
Directed by: Wes Archer
Assistant Director: Jess Espanola
Written by: Bill Odenkirk
Storyboard Artist: Bob Bowen
Plot
Amy flies into the lounge on her party board, having came back from another party. She learns that Kif had called but Bender had failed to report it. The Professor then comes in, telling the crew that they will be delivering large pain pills to a planet near where Kif is stationed. Amy asks to accompany the crew but the Professor states that this is a delivery company, not a taxi service and goes upstairs to vent in the angry dome. Nonetheless, Amy sneaks on board the Planet Express ship and takes control while everyone else is sleeping, directing it towards the Nimbus. When Zapp Brannigan sees the ship, he allows them to dock. He then appears in Leela's room, attempting to seduce her again, only to be slapped. Meanwhile, Kif shows Amy the Holo-shed to show her what life would be like with him in different scenarios. However, the shed malfunctions and the holograms (Attila the Hun riding an evil Spirit (the horse), Jacker the Ripper, Professor Moriarty, and evil Lincoln) become real and follow the couple to the bridge. Zapp threatens to fire a laser gun. Attila warns him "No shoot fire stick in space canoe. Cause explosive decompression!" but Zapp doesn't listen and blasts a hole in the wall. The holographic characters get sucked through the hole, while Zapp and the Planet Express crew hold onto each other like a chain. But Kif gets sucked towards the hole; everyone attempts to grab him but are unsuccessful. Luckily, the holographic moon from the HoloShed plugs up the hole, stopping the decompression. At the infimary later, the doctor is announced that Kif is pregnant.
Bender, furious that his understanding of how organics mate is corrupted, attempts to attack Kif but is restrained. Kif explains that whenever his species feels love, it stimulates their nerve, enabling them to through touch. Though it is initially believed that Amy is the mother, Fry points out, everyone on the ship touched Kif, it is unclear who the mother is. Back on Earth, the Professor uses an invention of his, the Maternifuge, to determine who is the real mother and discovers it is Leela. Kif realizes that she had touched his ungloved hand during the decompression but doesn't care, as his species see the "smizmar" as the stimulus, which happens to be Amy.
Later on, the crew having a baby shower at Fry and Bender's apartment. Her parents are most excited to finally have grandchildren. But they remade Amy's party board into an ironing board, which they describe as a wave of responsibility. Amy decides she can't go through with this and runs away, leaving Kif just as his babies are about to be born.
Planet Express escorts Kif to the planet where he was born, Amphibios 9 and just as Kif is about to give birth, Amy appears, saying she wants to be with him. After Kif gives birth, the babies, in a tadpole-like state, are nearly attacked by predators but Amy fends them off. The kids are left to swim about until they grow up in twenty years. Two of Kif's babies collide in the water, exhibiting Amy's klutzy behavior; then one swims in front of the camera and blinks a cyclopean eye. This suggests that in truth Leela and Amy both contributed their DNA.
References
- The HoloShed (and its frequent malfunctions turning holograms "real") are parodies of the holodeck from Star Trek: The Next Generation.
- The animation of the Planet Express Ship entering the Nimbus' cargo hold may be a visual reference to the film Moonraker, although a similarity to several shots from You Only Live Twice is also apparent.
- Kif's ability to climb walls is similar to that of several types of gecko.
- Among the holographs who become rampant are Professor Moriarty, Attila the Hun, Jack the Ripper and an evil version of Abraham Lincoln. Professor Moriarty actually "came alive" in two episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation while Jack the Ripper and Lincoln appeared in the Star Trek: The Original Series; "Evil Lincoln" is a specific reference to the episode "The Savage Curtain", where aliens pit some of history's most iconic heroes (including Lincoln) against its most hated villains.
- The sick bay scene is a parody of that from Star Trek: The Original Series, complete with sound effects. The sign references a creature from the series called a Horta, which gives severe acid burns. The sick bay's doctor is an obvious parody of Dr. Leonard "Bones" McCoy, and is named "Veins" in a deleted scene.