“It could kill millions, or nobody. I suppose it might even bring a few people back to life! Anything is possible in science. – Professor Farnsworth
There has been a lot of speculation as to whether Futurama would be able to rise to the occasion of its renewal and prove itself capable of operating at the same level of quality as its previous seasons. Though it has certainly had its kinks to work out, it seems the show hasn’t missed a beat in the past few weeks. Although it took a couple of re-watches, this week’s episode complements the rest of the season nicely, picking up a few themes and conventions that have been explored already, while getting us in the mood for next week’s canonical finale.
Even though he makes some monumental mistakes that often threaten the well-being of certain species, planets and sometimes even all of existence, I would say that Fry has adjusted fairly well to the next millennium – it’s everyone else in the cosmos that need to adjust to him. As the only survivor from the twentieth century, Fry has had the common cold virus lying dormant inside of him, waiting to be reawakened by an ice-fishing trip. The virus isn’t the only thing stirred by the trip, however; through flashbacks, we’re given glimpses into Fry’s childhood memories of his father and a particularly important science fair.
It doesn’t take long for Fry’s cold to spread, quickly contaminating the Planet Express, and, thanks to Bender, all of Manhattan. Due to a shortage of piranhas and the absence of a vaccine, Zapp Brannigan, Dr Wernstrom, and President Nixon make the executive decision to quarantine Manhattan in shrink wrap, dig it out from the Earth’s crust, and send it into the sun. Convinced that he can harvest an un-mutated virus from Fry and engineer a vaccine, Farnsworth prepares to puree his delivery boy.
Fry’s flashbacks to the year 1988 also start out with an ice-fishing trip; more specifically, with him falling into the ice and catching a cold. While confined to bed rest, Fry learns about the upcoming science fair, where the winning experiment is sent into space. Fry’s dad is a tough-love army man, and though he recognizes his son’s absence of competence, he doesn’t give him any special consideration or treatment. He doesn’t even think Fry can amount to delivering pizzas like that guy Barack in the background.
Unfortunately – or perhaps very fortunately – Fry’s idea to send the common cold into space is stolen and refined by his nerdy arch-nemesis, who is not only the favorite to win the science fair, but the object of Fry’s father’s attention. Even though Fry remembers about the satellite and retrieves a fully intact sample for Farnsworth to create a vaccine out of, he still has his misgivings about not proving himself to his father while he had the time. Leela gives Fry the same solace any of us would want, telling him to remember the moments they did get a chance to share.
The episode felt off to me for one reason only – it didn’t make sense, at least at first. One minute, Fry, Leela, and the Professor were all bed-ridden with cold-like symptoms, and the next, they’re flying to a moon entirely symptom-free.
And then it hit me: this episode wasn’t about making a parody of epidemic scares; it wasn’t about making fun of the upcoming movie, Contagion, either. It was easy to get caught up in the characters’ panic – Farnsworth was hilariously pristine in responding to the mayhem – but easier still to lose sight of Fry’s motives. In the back of my head, I never expected Fry’s science experiment to be the winner, but I didn’t really pay attention to why he wanted to win. We’re all looking for someone’s approval – both from others and ourselves. Though it wasn’t as impactful of an ending as say, “Jurassic Bark” this week’s episode proved that Futurama doesn’t have to be entirely heart-breaking to explore the emotional side of its characters. Fry’s dad wanted to prepare him for the preposterous – well, we have six seasons – worth of preposterousness that shows that Fry’s been keeping his father’s memory alive.
Some stats and info about Futurama, “Cold Warriors”
TV SHOW – Futurama
SEASON/EPISODE – Season 6, Episode 24
NETWORK/STREAMING SERVICE – FOX/Comedy Central
GENRE – Comedy, Animated Shows, Science Fiction
CREATED BY – David X. Cohen, Matt Groening
This review was originally published on TV Geek Army.