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"On the count of three, you will awaken feeling refreshed, as if Futurama had never been cancelled by idiots, then brought back by bigger idiots!"
Bender
"Move over, God! Prepare for rebirth!"
Professor Farnsworth

"Rebirth" is the 1st episode of the sixth season of Futurama and the premiere of the second run. It is the first episode of the series to air on Comedy Central.

Plot[]

Rebirth - Official Promo 2

Promo image for this episode.

Fry walks into the lab where Professor Farnsworth is, asking him why his "Fry-fro" is all frizzy and he is covered in severe burns. The Professor explains what happened after the final movie ended: the wormhole they passed through to escape Zapp Brannigan was actually the Panama Wormhole, a sort-of "Comedy Central Channel" for shipping. Unfortunately, the Nimbus went through too and critically damaged the Planet Express Ship. Realizing that they were about to crash, the crew activated their safety spheres. However, the Professor's sphere covered his whole body while everyone else's shielded only their heads (because of the Professor's selfishness). The ship then crashed and exploded right outside Planet Express (followed shortly by the Nimbus), with only Fry and the Professor surviving, while everyone else was killed and reduced to skeletons from the neck down.

The Professor drops the deceased members of the Planet Express crew into a machine filled with stem cells (which he had plucked from healthy adults he had murdered himself) in an attempt to revive them. Hermes, Amy and Zoidberg emerge regenerated from the machine, followed shortly afterward by the rest. Zapp is not dropped in and is still hanging, but he is still alive despite having most of his body reduced to bones. Bender experiences complications with his rebirth, as his power supply is shot. Farnsworth quickly shoves one of his various Doomsday devices, the Spheroboom, into Bender's chest cavity. However, the device's output is too powerful for Bender's body. He has to burn off the excess energy as fast as it's produced by continuously partying, otherwise the energy will build up and he'll "explode and kill everyone here in a fireball of melted gears and splattered bowels!".

Rebirth (Main Episode) - 263

The Cyclophage attacks the crew at Leela's funeral.

Fry then tries asking Leela out for a date, only to notice that she hasn't emerged from the rebirthing machine. When she does, she doesn't wake up, even after the Professor pokes her with a stick. The Professor announces to the stunned crew that Leela is in an irreversible coma. Fry, depressed about Leela's state, goes to a Build-a-Bot store and builds a robot duplicate of Leela. However, it doesn't act like her, so Hermes uploads her memories and appearance, taken from security camera footage. The robot Leela acts like her when she was last alive, but soon finds out about her robotic nature when a hostile Nibbler takes a bite out of her arm, exposing her wiring and causing her to freak out for an entire day. Uncertain about herself, robot Leela and Fry decide to just be friends.

After determining that the real Leela can't be woken up (despite repeated attempts of hitting her with blunt objects and blasting loud noises at her), the crew travel to a jungle planet to give Leela a funeral. Once there, they read out her last will: that she be fed to the wild Cyclophage in the event of an irreversible coma. As the beast approaches, Bender's incessant and inappropriate behavior causes Leela to suddenly awaken and tell him to shut up. Leela is initially relieved... until she sees her robot duplicate kissing Fry. After escaping from the Cyclophage, which unknowingly latches onto their ship, they return to the Planet Express Building where the two Leelas confront each other and Fry. They both scold him and run away, confused and angry. Later that night, Fry proclaims his true motive for building the robot Leela, while the real Leela listens, hidden away. She forgives him, only to be interrupted by her robot duplicate. The two Leelas fight each other, which the entire crew comes to watch. Amy hands Fry a ray-gun and tells him to shoot one of the Leelas. Both Leela identify which one is which, but Fry is slow on the uptake, causing them both to call him an idiot. Fry then puts the gun down, but accidentally shoots himself and reveals that he is actually a robot.

Rebirth (Main Episode) - 366

The robot Fry accidentally kills Leela.

The Professor explains that Leela didn't actually die in the crash, due to Fry's body shielding her. The Professor tossed Fry's obliterated remains into the rebirthing machine, but nothing happened. Distraught, Leela built a robot duplicate of Fry. Unfortunately, the robot Fry malfunctioned due to Leela putting too much copper wadding in its stomach, resulting in Leela being fatally electrocuted and the robot Fry suffering horrible burns (as well as erasing both of their short-term memories). The Professor retrieved Leela's corpse for rebirth, just as the robot Fry walked in on him.

It is then that the real Fry pops out of the machine, asking where his shoes are. The robots then declare their love for each other before shedding their skin and leaving, speaking with Arnold Schwarzenegger-esque accents. The real Leela is visibly confused over what just happened, but Fry assures her that he will wait for her. Bender decides that he is fed up with constantly partying and begins to vibrate from the excess energy. The Cyclophage suddenly emerges and attempts to eat Leela, but Bender's severe vibrations cause one of his eyes to fall out and the Cyclophage swallows him, believing Bender to be a cyclops. The doomsday device explodes, killing the creature. Bender emerges intact and the Professor declares that Bender has expended his excess energy. The crew leave in order to celebrate as Zapp Brannigan emerges from the rebirthing machine, ending the episode.

Ongoing Themes[]

Real-life pop-culture references[]

Bender, Fry and Leela visit Studio 122133. Mathematically, 122133 is 54, which is a reference to Studio 54, a popular New York nightclub from 1977 to 1981.

Identity[]

  • The entire crew except for Professor Farnsworth are killed, as well as Kif Kroker and Zapp Brannigan. They are soon revived via the Professor's rebirthing machine. They seem to remain the same persons they were before, that is to say they aren't obviously zombies or anything strange.
  • Leela made Robot Fry and Robot Fry made Robot Leela. Both robots spend some time believing that they are the originals. Twice during this episode, Robot Leela can be found musing on the meaning of identity and the nature of consciousness.
  • When the Professor finally tells the whole story and Leela learns that Fry is dead, she says "My god, I can't believe I'll never see that particular Fry again!".
  • The Fry who appears at the end of the episode isn't as simply revived as the others were. Their heads stayed intact, so they are presumably the same persons as before. Although Fry's head did not stay intact, all the components of his brain necessary for his "rebirth" did, as evidenced by the fact that the revived Fry retained his memories and personality. He, too, is therefore the same person as before.

Fry and Leela[]

Fry and Leela pick up where they left off in the previous movie, only more so. When Fry proves to be unrecoverable, Leela is so grief-stricken that she creates a robot Fry. This is a surprise, given Leela's historical cool-headedness about their relationship. Perhaps losing him has intensified her newly-warming feelings for him. It is no surprise that Robot Fry creates a Robot Leela.

Fry appears to have not changed much: he shows more than once and finally announces explicitly that he loves "any" Leela. Robot Leela turns out to be slightly more cool-headed than Leela: Leela was so grief-stricken that she created a fake Fry, while Robot Leela wants to cool their relationship while she tries to sort out her confusion over her own identity.

Fry expresses his feelings more vehemently than ever before, saying "I love Leela, always and forever". Hearing Fry say this, Leela unambiguously expresses love for Fry for the first time.

Fry shows that he has in fact grown a little, when, after the robots run away together, he tells Leela "I waited a thousand years for you. I can wait a little longer". This is precisely the sort of thing Leela has always been hoping to hear: a sign of maturity with a touch of romance.

Character Arcs[]

  • Professor Farnsworth pronounces "whooping" correctly.

Injury, Dismemberment and Death[]

  • At the beginning of the episode, Fry is covered in horrible burns, nine of the eleven major characters are dead and their corpses are hanging over a vat filled with stem cells. As we learn later, although these crewmembers are "revived" in some sense, the Fry we see at the beginning is actually a robot and the real Fry is dead.
  • The Professor receives a huge electrical jolt when he attempts to activate the rebirthing machine.
  • The Professor slaps both Hermes and Amy on their buttocks when they emerge from the rebirthing machine.
  • Zoidberg accidentally cuts off Hermes' "umbilical cord".
  • Bender's antenna pokes Robot Fry in the eye.
  • Bender almost dies after emerging from the rebirthing machine.
  • Robot Leela punches Robot Fry in the face.
  • Leela spends some time in a coma and a funeral is held for her.
  • Bender causes various unspecified injuries on a dance floor at a bar and is thrown out into the street.
  • Leela's comatose body takes a beating during the Professor and Fry's final attempts at reviving her.
  • The two Leelas have a karate fight over Robot Fry.
  • Robot Fry accidentally shoots himself in the chest with a ray-gun.
  • Leela is fatally electrocuted when she kisses a malfunctioning Robot Fry.
  • Excessive vibrations lead to one of Bender's eyes falling out when he decides to finally stop partying.
  • Bender explodes inside the Cyclophage, killing it.
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