The Cryonic Woman

"The Cryonic Woman"
Futurama episode
File:Futurama 303 - The Cryonic Woman.jpg
Episode no.	Season two
Directed by	J. Stewart Burns
Written by	J. Stewart Burns
Original air dates	December 12, 2000
Episode features
Opening cartoon	Unknown

The Cryonic Woman is the 19th and last episode in series 2 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 spaceship. 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. Professor Farnsworth fires Fry and Bender for taking the ship, and fires Leela as well for leaving the keys in the ship.

Leela reimplants her and Fry's old career chips, but she mixes them up. Fry gets hired for Leela's old cryogenics counselor job, and Leela is forced to be a delivery boy. 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.

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 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.

The Planet Express ship returns to New New York, bringing Fry home... But not before dropping him to his doom.

Quotes

• Fry: So you're saying these aren't the decaying ruins of New New York in the year 4000?
  Professor Farnsworth: You wish. You're in Los Angeles!
  Fry: But there was this gang of ten-year-olds with guns.
  Leela: Exactly, you're in L.A.
  Fry: But everyone's driving around in cars, shooting at each other.
  Bender: That's L.A. for you.
  Fry: But the air is green, and there's no sign of civilization whatsoever.
  Bender: He just won't stop with the social commentary.

• Zoidberg: Goodbye, friends. (After they leave) Feh, good riddance, now Zoidberg's the popular one!
  Professor: Yes, let's all talk to Zoidberg.
  Amy: What's up Zoidberg?
  Hermes:How you been?
  Professor: So, what's new?
  Zoidberg: Oh, you know.

• Bender: That Probulator sure knows how to please a man.

• Fry: These are my friends: Leela (Michelle screams), Bender (Michelle screams again), Professor Farnsworth (Michelle looks at Fry, who nods, and screams yet again), Hermes and Amy (they shake hands), and Zoidberg.
  Zoidberg: AAAAAAAAAUUUUUUGGGGGHHHH!!!!!!!! (he runs out the door).
• Fry: Michelle, I don't regret this, but I both rue and lament it.

References

• The title for this episode comes from the 70s TV show The Bionic Woman.
• The "post-apocalyptic" gang may have been inspired by Mad Max and the Escape from New York - Escape from L.A. films.
• The language in which the girl counts to three before the "deathrolling" is Hebrew, which makes sense considering Butch's mother comes to pick the kids up for Hebrew school.
• When Fry and Bender are choosing which of the patients to defrost, they pass a frozen "Weird Al" Yankovic, circa 1980s, in one of the cryogenic tubes and choose not to defrost him. This may be related to the fact that Pauly Shore's movie Bio-Dome was mocked in the song "Albuquerque", which was on Weird Al's album Running with Scissors, released earlier that year.
• This episode marks the second time that Professor Farnsworth's unbreakable diamond tether is used in the series (after "The Deep South"). Again, it manages to get the crew into trouble.

Foreshadowing

• Fry mentions that in the 30th century, "brains fly through space". In the episode "The Day the Earth Stood Stupid", the flying brains will be introduced.