Futurama Wiki
Register
Advertisement
Futurama Wiki
Episode
References
Appearances
Transcript
Goofs
Gallery

"I remember. I remember! This is what traumatised me. Such a meal to got to waste! And, with that... I have closure."
Dr. John Zoidberg

"Möbius Dick" is the 15th episode of the sixth season of Futurama. It first aired August 4, 2011.

Synopsis[]

Leela hunts a mysterious four-dimensional whale.

Plot[]

Professor Farnsworth is mourning the loss of his first Planet Express Crew, it having been exactly 50 years since they were lost, with Dr. Zoidberg as the only survivor of the incident. Zoidberg was so traumatized by the event that he suffered short-termed amnesia and grew white hair. To commemorate the anniversary, Farnsworth orders the current crew to pick up a memorial and fly it back to Earth. However, on the way back, there is the Bermuda Tetrahedron, which is thought to have destroyed many spaceships which have attempted to travel through it. But Leela insists that they should fly through anyway.

In the spaceship graveyard inside the Bermuda Tetrahedron, the crew spots the old Planet Express Ship, which they find deserted. However, inside the old ship, the crew is attacked by a four dimensional space whale (which Leela refers to as 'Möbius Dick'), and they flee to their current ship. The whale re-attacks them, eating their monument and engine, but leaves the ship adrift.

Leela orders the crew to set the solar sails to replace the spaceship engine. But instead of fleeing the Bermuda Tetrahedron and telling Farnsworth what went wrong, Leela decides to hunt down the whale and does not listen to any of her shipmates' warnings. Her obsession with killing it eventually means the crew (with the exception of Zoidberg, who went back to Farnsworth in an escape pod to tell him what happened (only to forget again)) is eaten by the whale; Leela attacks the behemoth with a cheese knife, where upon the whale consumes her. Inside, she finds the first and the current crews swimming around in the whale's colon. The only one who isn't is Lando Tucker, the captain of the first Planet Express, drained of his vitality and fused to its belly. He explains to Leela that the whale feasts on obsession, especially on spaceship captains obsessed with killing it. Leela denies his claims, even as he tells her that the whale is obsession, and she is the whale, as she too is fused to its belly.

Back on Earth, Farnsworth is forced to go ahead with the memorial. However, the whale suddenly appears over Planet Express, lands in the hangar, and out of its mouth steps Leela. She explains to everyone that while the whale fed on her obsession to kill it, an overriding obsession to complete her delivery enabled her to take control of it. On cue, she commands the whale to launch the statue out of its spout, accidentally crushing a vendor. She then releases all of the whale's victims, who hadn't aged a day within its colon. Despite acknowledging that the space whale is not a monster, as it merely follows its instinct, everyone proceeds to kill the whale out of revenge for swallowing them.

Trivia[]

  • One of the survivors bears striking visual resemblance to the Fourth Doctor

Ongoing Themes[]

Fry & Leela[]

  • Leela accuses Fry of insubordination.
  • Leela attempts to marry Fry to Zoidberg. Though this may be due to the distraction of the space whale, it seems unlikely that she's force Fry to marry Zoiberg if she, and Fry were, at that time, dating.

Hermes & Zoidberg[]

  • Hermes, in particular, is surprised to find out that Zoidberg was once popular.
Advertisement