"The Cryonic Woman" is the nineteenth and final episode in season two of Futurama. It originally aired in North America on December 12, 2000.
Plot
In an attempt to entertain themselves, Fry and Bender borrow the Planet Express Ship. Unfortunately, the ship is anchored to the building using an unbreakable diamond tether. As the ship is piloted on a round-the-world joyride, the building is dragged behind it, smashing into a number of landmarks, including the Gateway Arch in St. Louis and the Great Wall of China (which allows the Mongols to invade). Professor Farnsworth has Hermes Conrad fire Fry and Bender for taking the ship, and fires Leela as well for leaving the keys in the ship.
Leela re-implants her and Fry's old career chips, but she mixes them up. Fry gets hired for Leela's old cryogenics counselor job; Leela is forced to be a delivery boy while Bender has the hand and the career chip from the Prime minister of Norway. Fry thaws out Pauly Shore, who was supposed to be thawed out in Hollywood, California. When Fry goes to greet the next thawed person, he is shocked to find that it is his old girlfriend, Michelle (played by Sarah Silverman).
Fry introduces Michelle to the world of the year 3000, but she has problems adapting. She re-freezes both herself, and Fry, for another thousand years. They awake in a desolate wasteland. They try to make a new life in the world of the future, and join a society of feral adolescents. When the children are picked up for Hebrew lessons by an adult woman in a heavily armored SUV, a confused Fry, tired of Michelle's nagging, leaves her and wanders through the wilderness on his own.
After wandering through a cloud of green mist, Fry finds himself standing in front of Grauman's Chinese Theater. The Planet Express ship lands in the street, and the crew explains that Fry is in Los Angeles, in the year 3000. Fry was in Pauly Shore's tube, and when the delivery crew discovered en route to Hollywood that Pauly Shore wasn't in the tube, they tossed it overboard. A limousine passes by, revealing that Michelle has hooked up with Pauly.
As the Planet Express ship flies home, Bender remarks that Fry was the one who ruined the spaceship and started the whole dilemma and reminds the Professor about his anger with him earlier. He hits a red switch, a trapdoor Fry is standing over opens and he falls through the aperture onto the ground, leaving him stranded there (he made his way back only because he dumped him over New New York). As he hits the ground, the credits roll.
Quotes
- Terry: "Remember, when the tube opens, say..." [melodramatically] "Welcome to the world of tomorrow!"
Fry: "Hey, I was frozen. I think I know what people wanna hear when they first wake up." [the freezer pings and opens. A man walks out, clutching his head. Fry points.] "Bathroom's that way."
References Explained
- The title for this episode is a pun on the title of the '70s TV show The Bionic Woman.
- The circumnavigation of the globe by the Planet Express Ship passes by some notable landmarks: the Golden Gate Bridge, the St. Louis Gateway Arch, and the Leaning Tower of Pisa. After the ship smashes a gap in the Great Wall of China, an invading Mongol horde immediately passes through it.
- Gangs of savage children and adolescents are found throughout science fiction, including "Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome", the "Escape from New York" and "Escape from L.A." films, "Logan's Run", and the Star Trek episode "Miri". Predating all of these, and notable as the decline into savagery is the entire subject of the book, is "Lord of the Flies" by William Golding. It is interesting to speculate whether the Lost Boys of J.M. Barrie's "Peter Pan" play and books fit into this category.
- The painting tattooed on Sal's stomach, which was previously shown in Fry's apartment in "A Fishful of Dollars", is done in the style of 1980s pop-artist, Patrick Nagel.
- While Fry is deciding which celebrity to unfreeze for his amusement, "Weird Al" Yankovic can be seen in the middle capsule. Yankovic regularly shows this clip in his concerts.
- The 30th C sign on the building of the Museum of Modern Art reads "Museum of Really Modern Art".
- The handprints on the Avenue of the Stars include some real 20th C actors: Clark Gable, Calista Flockhart, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and James Mason, the last possibly an ironic reference to the fact that James Mason was thrice nominated for an Oscar but never won one; imaginary 30th C celebrities from other Futurama episodes are also represented: Slurms MacKenzie and Calculon.
Goofs
- As well as being voiced by a different voice actress, in "Space Pilot 3000", Michelle's hair was black. In this episode, her hair is changed to brown.
Foreshadowing
- Fry mentions that in the 30th century, "brains flew through space". Brainspawn, levitating brains, are introduced into the series in the episode "The Day the Earth Stood Stupid".