The Route of All Evil

"The Route of All Evil" is the forty-fourth episode of Futurama, the twelfth of the third production season and the third of the fifth broadcast season, being the episode airing furtherest from when it was produced. It aired 8 December, 2002 on FOX. Cubert and Dwight form a competing business to Planet Express.

Act I: We can all fight when we're drunk!
When Fry, Bender and Leela are unable to decide on which beer to buy, Leela suggests that they brew their own. Meanwhile, the Professor, Hermes and LaBarbara are yelling at Cubert and Dwight for being expelled from boarding school for salting a bully. While the crew brew beer in Bender, the kids wander the office. After Cubert and Dwight trick the crew into wasting a week on a fake delivery to Dogdoo 8 (which, unlike Dogdoo 7, doesn't exist), Hermes and the Professor force them to get jobs. They start a delivery company, Awesome Express.

Act II: Those newspapers won'ts delivers themselves!
The company is little more than a paper route. The kids order a space ship from a magazine for use on the deliveries. Bender is now swollen with beer. Sal drops off the papers for delivery and the boys get to work. A montage later and they are very successful.

Act III: We don't work for you anymore.
Awesome Express is now more profitable than Planet Express. After failing to impress their fathers, they decide to crush them. The crew have been made a better offer and have started working for Awesome Express. The fathers hope to fight back with their loyal dregs. Due to the Professor having been declared legally dead three years ago, Cubert inherits the company and renames it Awesome Express.

Act IV: You rotten kids!
Hermes and the Professor leave the building, depressed. Bender "gives birth" to an ale (Benderbrau). Dwight and Cubert's failure to actually deliver the newspapers becomes apparent, they go to their fathers, who had been feeling sorry for themselves, for help.

Act V: We'd like to have a word with your daddy.
The four gather up the undelivered papers and deliver them. They head to the Blob household to apologise for breaking the window. Hermes and the Professor fight H. G. and take a severe beating, ending up in hospital. H. G. visits them to apologise, and Brett learns to be more like his father.

Trivia

 * The commentary for this episode was recorded before it aired on television, due to the actor who played Dwight being out of the country. They had to wait for his return to re-record some lines.

Quotes
Professor Farnsworth: I am? That's not good news at all!
 * Cubert (with Farnsworth's voice): Good news everyone: I'm a horse's butt!
 * Cubert: Plus, they're making bootleg beer inside company property! Bender: Lies! Lies and slander! Farnsworth: Accusing gentle Bender of a misdeed? That's the last straw!
 * Zoidberg: What's going on? Is this angry yelling or busted hearing aid yelling? Hermes: I'm afraid it's both. Farnsworth (shouting): What?
 * Dwight: I heard alcohol makes you stupid. Fry: No I'm... doesn't.
 * Cubert: Hey, Leela, help me apply these flame decals I got in my cereal; they'll make the ship go faster. Leela:... and what's your scientific basis for thinking that? Cubert: I'm twelve.

Outside References

 * The prince on the small asteroid, who is later knocked out by paper and speaks French is a reference to the The Little Prince.
 * The dog chasing Dwight and Cubert (Awesome Express) as they fly through an asteroid field is eaten by a giant space slug extending from a asteroid, a parody of a scene in Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back, in which the Millennium Falcon flies out from inside a similar beast as it tries in vain to re-eat the ship.

Goofs

 * The periodic table seen on Dwight's lunchbox has been outdated since 1997 when the elements Hassium and Meitnerium were added; whoever was responsible obviously wasn't aware of the additions. Further elements have been added since the episode was made, and at least one of the many scientists on staff would have been aware of the growing nature of the table, so perhaps they chose to omit these elements.

Characters

 * Amy
 * Bender
 * Brett Blob
 * Cubert
 * Dwight
 * Fry
 * Hermes
 * H. G. Blob
 * LaBarbara
 * Leela
 * Professor Farnsworth
 * Sal
 * Scruffy
 * Zoidberg

Episode Credits

 * Writer
 * Dan Vebber
 * Director
 * Brian Sheesley
 * Voice Actors
 * Billy West
 * Bumper Robinson
 * Dawnn Lewis
 * Katey Sagal
 * Kath Soucie
 * John DiMaggio
 * Maurice LaMarche
 * Phil LaMarr
 * Tress MacNeille
 * DVD Commentary
 * Dan Vebber
 * Maurice LaMarche
 * John DiMaggio
 * Billy West
 * Matt Groening
 * Rich Moore
 * Brian Sheesley
 * David X. Cohen