The Sting

Production Number: 4ACV12 Title Caption: A BY-PRODUCT OF THE TV INDUSTRY First Aired: June 1, 2003

The Story
While on a mission to retrieve some honey from space bees, the crew narrowly escapes with their lives to the ship with a baby queen that Leela suggests they use to create their own hive for more honey. However, the baby queen attacks them leaving Fry dead with its stinger through his stomach. Leela begins having dreams about Fry and losing her mentality. She decides to eat some of the space honey they brought back in order to go into an eternal sleep so she can be with him.

Act I: "Leela, let's turn back. There's absolutely no shame in wussing out."
The Professor calls for a dangerous mission: collecting honey from vicious giant space bees, a task that claimed the previous Planet Express crew's lives and the old Planet Express ship. Even the Professor thinks it too dangerous for the crew, as they are nowhere as good as the old crew, but Leela insists on doing the suicidal mission out of fear of being ashamed of herself. Fry tries to weasel out, but is dragged along. The bees are said to possess a very dangerous neurotoxin that can kill anyone easily, and that is only if you are not allergic. The crew reaches the bees' nest and manages to get the honey, finding the remains of the old Planet Express crew and ship in the process. Leela even captures a baby bee queen to build her own hive. Bender insults the bees who chase the crew out of the hive, and they manage to escape. Once outside, the baby queen turns on Leela and Fry throws himself protectively in front of her. The queen stings right through Fry and wounds Leela, after which Bender manages to throw the bee out of the ship. Leela is only marginally wounded, but Fry is dead.

Act II: "Pawning all the stuff in Fry's locker helped give me closure."
Fry's funeral is held at the Orbiting Meadows. Afterwards, Leela keeps dreaming about Fry and is getting hints that he might be still alive - he tells her that he left something for her in his locker, which turns out to be true (the only item Bender did not pawn). Increasingly weird things begin to happen, and Leela feels like she is loosing her mind or going crazy. She tries some of the space honey they brought along, which is said to be useful in smaller doses but can put you in an eternal sleep if you take more than two spoons. Every time she dreams of Fry, he tells her to wake up, which she always does, only to find her hope that he might still be alive disappointed.

Act III: "Why am I sticky and naked? Did I miss something fun?"
Every time Leela wakes from dreams of Fry, which turn ever more romantic, she experiences weird things which grow steadily more unnerving. Finally she believes that she is going crazy and decides that she will take enough space honey to put her in the eternal sleep so that she can be in her dreams with Fry forever. Just as she is about to take the final spoon, Fry's picture on her bedside table tells her to stop and that she cannot give up. He urges her to fight it. Leela's confusion is now complete; she does not know anymore what is happening to her and pleas to Fry to tell her how to get out of this. He tells her once more to wake up - and she does, finding herself in hospital, with Fry sobbing beside her. She has been in a coma for two weeks, as the sting of the baby queen went right through Fry and Leela caught all the poison. Fry never left her side while she was unconscious and kept talking to her in the hope that a familiar voice would guide her back. Apparently some of it got through into Leela's dreams. The final shot shows Leela and Fry hugging each other...he probably deserved it.

Trivia

 * This episode was nominated for an Emmy in 2004 for Outstanding Animated Program (For Programming Less Than One Hour).
 * In Space Pilot 3000, the Professor produces career chips from his previous crew from an envelope labeled "Contents of space wasp's stomach," rather than the space bees depicted in this episode. While the writer admits in the commentary their research found no relationship between bees and wasps, some wasps do invade bee hives to host their larvae.
 * In this episode Fry is stung by a giant bee. Billy West, the actor who voices Fry, is also known as the voice of the Honey Nut Cheerios spokesbee, Buzz.
 * This episode is similar in some ways to the episode "Goodbye" in Katey Sagal's other show 8 Simple Rules. The episodes aired only five months apart.
 * In the funeral scene, many characters from past episodes appear. These include the still-fossilized Seymour, Terry from Applied Cryogenics, Chester A. Arthur (head-in-jar), Leo and Inez Wong, a few of Santa Claus's Neptunian aides, Guenter, a few Trisolians and the women (and the radiator) that Fry has slept with.
 * This is the only time we see the old Planet Express Ship.
 * On the funeral, many characters are wearing special mourning clothes. For example, the Professor is wearing a black lab coat, Bender has a veil around his eyes, Leela uses dark-purple lipstick and so on.
 * Among the many wreaths at the funeral, Bender's is easily the most obvious: "R.I.P. Meatbag", and still shows his typical focus on himself, as his name is larger than that of Fry.
 * Leela's box with "Memories of Fry" contains: the flower he gave her in The Why of Fry, a can of Slurm, a coronation spoon with him as Emperor of Trisol on it, a can of π-in-1 oil last seen in Insane in the Mainframe, the conversation heart from Love and Rocket ("U leave me breathless"), a fake moustache (possibly from The Cryonic Woman) and a refrigerator magnet from Luna Park (The Series Has Landed).
 * Leela uses only half a tissue to wipe away her tears, but not because she has only one eye: it is an inside reference to David X. Cohen who had a bad cold at the time the episode was written and was fearing to run out of tissues, so he halved each one to make them last longer.

Outside Referrences

 * Scruffy is wearing a complete Scottish oufit and plays the bagpipes, possibly Amazing Grace - a spoof of Star Trek II - The Wrath of Khan (Spock's funeral), complete with Scruffy playing the bagpipes like Scotty did. Fry's funeral song is an arrangement of "Walking on Sunshine", which was established as Fry's favorite in Jurassic Bark. He also sings/hums it briefly in War is the H-Word and The 30% Iron Chef.
 * The scene where Leela looks into Fry's coffin in space and sees a colourful tunnel of light (to the music Also sprach Zarathustra) is a parody of the scene in 2001: A Space Odyssey, where Dave Bowman encounters the Monolith and it opens into the same Stargate sequence as in the end of 2001.
 * The song "Bee Happy" is a spoof of the early 90's hit "Don't worry be happy".
 * Multiple references are made to Honeycombs Cereal, such as the Honeycomb Hideout.
 * The scene where the queen bee wriggles its stinger in the Planet Express Ship's cargo bay could be a reference to Aliens.
 * When Hermes sees that Leela is awake, he exclaims, "Sweet Three-toed Sloth of Ice Planet Hoth! She's awake!", referring to the ice planet of Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back.

Quotes

 * Leela: What's the mission? Farnsworth: Collecting honey. Ordinary honey. Leela: That doesn't sound so dangerous. Farnsworth: This is no ordinary honey! It's produced by vicious space bees. A single sting of their hideous neurotoxin can cause instant death! Hermes: And that's if you're not allergic! You don't wanna know what happens then, oh no no, God no. Farnsworth: Your insides with boil out of your eye sockets like a science fair volcano! Hermes: I didn't want to know! (cries)
 * Leela: Fry? *gasps* He's...he's dead! Bender: Oh, who will make Bender waffles just the way he likes them now?
 * Fry: Leela, no! Listen to me! You don't wanna lie in bed like a vegetable and do nothing the rest of your life. I've tried it. Bedsores hurt!
 * Leela: (twitching) I'll find Fry's coffin, get his corpse and keep it under my mattress to remind me that he's really dead. That'll prove I'm not insane!
 * Leela: Is this some sort of brain scanner? Professor: Some sort, yes. In France, it's called a "guillotine".
 * Father Changstein el Gamahl: I barely knew Philip, but as a clergyman, I have no trouble telling his most intimate friends all about him. (general sobbing) Hermes: Soothe us with sweet lies...
 * Amy: He's walking on sunshine now...

Characters
(In alphabetical order)
 * Amy
 * Bender
 * Fry
 * Hermes
 * Leela
 * Professor Farnsworth
 * Zoidberg
 * Morgan Proctor
 * Terry
 * Seymour Asses
 * Leo and Inez Wong
 * Cubert
 * Guenter
 * LaBarbara Conrad
 * Father Changstein el Gamahl
 * Dwight
 * Sal
 * Scruffy
 * Michelle
 * Petunia
 * Thog

Episode Credits

 * Writer
 * Patric M. Verrone
 * Director
 * Brian Sheesley
 * Voice Actors
 * Billy West
 * Katey Sagal
 * John DiMaggio
 * Maurice LaMarche
 * Tress MacNeille
 * Lauren Tom
 * Dave Herman
 * DVD Commentary
 * Matt Groening
 * David X. Cohen
 * Rich Moore
 * Patric M. Verrone
 * Brian Sheesley
 * John DiMaggio
 * Billy West
 * Maurice LaMarche