Law and Oracle

"Law and Oracle" is the one hundredth and fourth episode of Futurama, the sixteenth of the sixth production season and the fourth of the eighth broadcast season.

Story
After being sent on yet another prank delivery, Fry becomes disillusioned with his job as a delivery boy. At Planet Express, the crew witness officers Smitty and URL subdue Roberto, and Fry decides that joining the police force would be a more fulfilling role. He resigns at Planet Express, and applies at the Police Academy, from which he graduates. Upon joining the force, Fry is paired with URL. The pair soon make a major arrest, and are rewarded with a promotion to the Future Crimes Division. The division works to prevent crimes from occurring, by using an "oracle" named Pickles to calculate the future and predict crimes in advance.

Meanwhile, at Planet Express, the crew struggle with the loss of Fry. Leela and Bender are sent on a delivery to Pandora, the "3-D planet" (meaning that it's depicted as an anaglyph image). Without Fry accompanying them, the two find it difficult to be in each other's company. Professor Farnsworth, Amy, Hermes and Doctor Zoidberg find working at Planet Express to be boring without Fry's antics. At the precinct, Fry receives a vision of a future larceny, and discovers that the culprit is Bender. Fry questions Bender about the details of the crime, hoping to prevent him from committing it. Instead, Fry inadvertently informs Bender about the target of the crime; a priceless bottle of strong malt liquor stored in Hedonism Bot's wine cellar. Upon examining the vision in closer detail, Fry sees that he will fatally shoot Bender to prevent him from stealing the bottle. He decides that he will deliberately not shoot Bender, which causes a vision of an alternate future to be created, in which Bender escapes. The alternate vision shows that Bender will share the stolen liquor with the crew at Planet Express, poisoning and killing all of them.

Bender arrives at Hedonism Bot's mansion, and proceeds to the cellar. Bender obtains the bottle, but is stopped by an armed Fry. Bender declares that he will not steal anything, and Fry exclaims that the oracle was wrong. Suddenly, Pickles appears, aiming a gun at both Bender and Fry. Pickles reveals that both visions were a set-up to allow him to steal the liquor, and frame Fry and Bender for the robbery. Pickles states that he wants the liquor to destroy his human brain cells, as he finds his precognition to be an unbearable burden. Fry attempts to shoot Pickles, but the bullet strikes Bender, knocking him down. Pickles shoots Fry down, and proceeds to drink the liquor, successfully damaging his brain and precognitive abilities. The Chief and URL choose this moment to appear, and Fry and Bender stand up and expose their bulletproof armor. They reveal that they became aware that Pickles was intending to commit a crime, because Bender would never share anything with anyone, thus realising the vision Pickles had shared was an attempt to deceive them.

Fry receives his investigator's shield for stopping Bender, but is also fired for tipping off Bender in the first place. The Professor welcomes Fry back to Planet Express, promoting him to "executive delivery boy". Hermes notes that the "executive" title is simply a psychological trick to make Fry feel good about himself (and immediately after, the end credits show the Executive Producers).

Production
During May and June 2011, Countdown to Futurama released three items of promotional material for the episode: concept art of the police station's future crimes division on 20 May, part of the storyboard showing Fry be pranked by Ipgee, Terry and Lou on 21 May, and a video clip showing Fry and URL in a chase in Circuit City on 16 June.

Reception
In its original U.S. broadcast on 7 July, 2011, "Law and Oracle" scored a 0.7 share among adults 18-49 and 1.548 million viewers, down about 400,000 viewers since Ghost in the Machines, making it the second lowest rated episode of season 6 after "The Futurama Holiday Spectacular".

Trivia

 * The high scores on the Delivery Command video game are:
 * BBR:
 * NIB:40565
 * HJF:00254

Allusions

 * The title of the episode is a parody of the long-running legal drama television franchise .
 * Pickles, the colored balls, the screens controlled by hand movements, and the overall concept of trying people for crimes committed in the future, are all obvious references to the 2002 film .


 * The opening scene is a direct reference to the opening scene of "Space Pilot 3000".
 * The video game Delivery Command resembles .
 * The Sound Effects 5000 is a direct parody of Sgt. Larvelle Jones from the ' films. The sign in front of the police academy also states that they are not affiliated with '.
 * Bender and Leela make a delivery to the 3-D planet of Pandora, and Leela asks if they can use their avatars. This is a reference to the 2009 3-D blockbuster film , which largely takes place on a planet called Pandora.
 * Leela moves the ship back and forth as she tries to land in front of the giant tree on Pandora. This is a reference to cheap gags in some 3-D movies where objects seems to jump out of the screen at the audience.
 * At the end of the 3-D sequence, Bender throws his sandwich at the screen, to similar effect.




 * Circuit City is a reference to the American retailer of the same name,.
 * The light cycle chase scene, featuring Fry and URL in Circuit City, is an obvious reference to the 1982 science-fiction movie ' and its sequel, '.
 * The man being chased in the light cycle scene is Erwin Schrödinger, a 20th-century Austrian physicist known for his paradox.  The cat is found alive in a box inside Schrödinger's car, along with a lot of drugs.
 * Fry makes two references to "", a 1970's Hanna-Barbera cartoon similar to about a mystery-solving trio of teenagers and their talking car, Speed Buggy.
 * The Maltese Liquor is a reference to the priceless stuffed falcon known as the Maltese Falcon, which is also the subject of attempted thievery in the.


 * After Fry is named "Executive Delivery Boy", Hermes whispers to Leela that "executive" is a meaningless title that helps people with low self esteem feel better about themselves. This is a fourth-wall break that mocks the numerous "Executive Producer" and "Co-Executive Producer" credits on the show, including a direct jab at Matt Groening and David X. Cohen whose "Executive Producer" credits appear right after Hermes finished talking.

Continuity

 * The beginning of the episode is a reenactment of the cold opening of the first episode of the series, with Zoidberg in the role of the boy who calls Fry a loser and Leela replacing Mr. Panucci. Fry is once again delivering a pizza to a prank name at Applied Cryogenics, while being frustrated about his dead-end job.
 * This is the second time Roberto uses Zoidberg as a hostage, the first being in "Insane in the Mainframe".


 * This is the first time Dandy Jim is seen alone, after only having been seen with his hobo friend Gus before.
 * This is Wash bucket's first cameo appearance since her introduction in "The Prisoner of Benda". Apparantly, she still works together with Scruffy.
 * Leela had trouble with 3-D previously, in Fear of a Bot Planet. Also, this is not the first delivery Leela and Bender have done without Fry. They had a very successful delivery in The Why of Fry, even being awarded medals at some point during.

Goofs

 * Fat-bot is drawn with a closed grin on his face instead of a light-up mouth.

A couple listed as being 'wanted' at the police station is also seen walking in front of the police station obliviously.

Characters

 * Debut: Bert O'Mannahan
 * Dandy Jim
 * Fat-bot
 * Debut: Gretsky
 * Fry
 * Hattie McDoogal
 * Hedonism Bot
 * Hyper-Chicken (on sign)
 * Ipji
 * Lou
 * Debut: Chief O'Mannahan
 * Debut: Pickles
 * Roberto
 * Debut: Erwin Schrödinger
 * Scruffy
 * Smitty
 * Debut: Sound Effects 5000
 * Spotty Teen Robot
 * Terry
 * URL
 * Wash bucket