The Bots and the Bees

"The Bots and the Bees" is the one hundred and fifteenth episode of Futurama and the first of the seventh production season and the ninth broadcast season. It aired on 20 June 2012 on Comedy Central. Planet Express gets a new soda machine and Bender impregnates it.

Act I: "You have the nerve to call yourself a beverage machine?"
Professor Farnsworth sends a signal to the Planet Express crew, and they all rush to the Planet Express building - including Fry, Leela and Bender, who are on the ship being attacked by a giant space spider. After all of the crew has arrived, Farnsworth announces that the company has acquired a new soda machine. The crew are all overjoyed at this, and Fry quickly seizes the opportunity to purchase large amounts of Slurm Loco. Bender asks the machine, who is sentient, if any alcohol is available. When she explains to Bender that people are not supposed to drink alcohol at work, Bender mocks her. Introducing herself as Bev, she takes the opportunity to mock him back. Later that day, Fry continues to drink large amounts of Slurm Loco, announcing that his urine has turned green. Meanwhile, Bender and Bev continue to trade insults, culminating in Bev criticizing his "shriveled up antenna."

Later that night, Bender is drinking at the Hip Joint, where he picks up Ruth and Esther. They attempt to have an orgy later at the Planet Express building, but are disturbed by Fry, who due to drinking too much Slurm Loco, is glowing green. Bender then kicks Fry out. Ruth and Esther ask for some drinks, but Bev refuses to make them anything. The two then mock Bev, angering her and causing her to spray soda water over them. When Bender does nothing but take photographs of them being sprayed, Ruth and Esther promptly leave. Angry that his hookers have left, Bev and Bender begin to fight with each other. However, when Bev starts to repeatedly push against the wall, the fighting turns into sex.

The next day, Bev is pouring some Slurm Loco into Fry's cup when a baby falls out. The crew inspect the baby and realize that it resembles Bender. Bender flatly denies that he is the father of the child, until the baby utters "Wipe my shiny metal ass!"

Act II: "I'm gonna call him Ben. After the first half of me, Bender!"
As Bev nurtures the child, Bender worries over his new fatherhood. When he questions how he became a father, Amy asks if his mother ever taught him about robot reproduction. When Bender reveals that his mother never taught him about robot reproduction due to her religious fundamentalism, the crew take Bender to The Rosie D. and Robbie T. Robot Teen Center "to learn about the bots and the bees". At the center, he and some teen robots watch the sex educational film Pants Full of Shame. When Bender continues to worry, Leela assures him that Bev will gain custody of the child and that all will be back to normal. Back at the Planet Express building, Bender presents Bev with a certificate of abandonment. Bev, however, refuses to take the child, stressed out over her responsibilities as a mother. She leaves Bender with the child and takes off.

Later that night at Apartment 00100100, Bender stresses himself out trying to take care of the child. When he bends a lamp post in frustration, however, he realizes the child takes delight in seeing him bend. Forming a bond over their mutual like of bending, Bender decides to name the child Ben. They spend some father-and-son time together through a series of robberies. At the Planet Express building, Bender continues to bend things for Ben, who has noticeably aged. When Bender gives Ben some "training girders", however, Ben fails to bend them. Bender, however, assures Ben that he will be able to bend. Bender reveals that the reason he is so skilled at bending is because he inherited his arm control software from his mother. This dismays Ben, as he realizes that his mother had no arms, so he has no software to inherit. Bender's second suggestion of having a bending card installed is quickly turned down after Farnsworth, upon inspecting Ben's head, discovers that there are no additional expansion slots for the bending card. Bender, however, is still convinced that his son will learn to Ben somehow.

At the Temple of Robotology, Ben, who is now 13 years old, is about to be upgraded to a Manbot. Ben gives a speech, where he thanks his father and expresses his dreams of "becoming a bender" just like him. The ceremony, however, is interrupted when Bev shows up to reclaim her son.

Act III: "I'd sacrifice any four of you if it would help him bend even a little!"
Bender refuses to give custody of Ben to Bev, pointing out that she is an unfit parent who abandoned her child. Bev, however, points out that Bender tried to abandon Ben first, showing the certificate of abandonment that he gave her earlier, and promptly whisks him away. At the Planet Express building, Bender laments that Ben is gone, and that all he has to remember him are a box of his toys. He asks Fry to help him move the box, but Fry's radioactive skin accidentally causes the box and its contents to crumble to dust. The crew shun him and tell him to get out until he becomes useful.

Later that night, Bender arrives to rescue Ben from Bev's trailer at Basura Blanca Trailer Estates. However, they later find themselves being chased by Smitty and URL on the grounds of kidnapping. Bender attempts to bend the blades of their chopper to let him and his son escape, but he fails and instead finds his arms badly mangled and unable to bend anything. They come across a dead end at a dam, but can be saved if Ben can bend a nearby set of steel bars. Ben agonizingly tries to bend the bars, but still fails. Smitty and URL catch up with the two, and Bender is handcuffed. Later, Leela and Bev show up at the scene. Leela scolds Bev for her cruel behavior, and buys a drink from her so that she can throw it in her face. When the drink is being poured out, however, another baby falls out. This baby resembles URL, and Leela realizes that Bev must have had sex with URL while he and Smitty were looking for Ben. Bev decides to allow Bender to keep Ben, as she is content with having URL's child to neglect.

At the Planet Express building, Bender throws a "welcome home" party for Ben, but Ben is still disappointed that he is unavailable to bend. Bender ponders over how Ben can bend, and Farnsworth offers a suggestion - installing a bending card into Ben. For this to happen, however, Ben must have his memory card removed, and consequently lose all memories of Bender. At Ben's surgery, a tearful Bender asks Ben a final time if he really wants to bend, and Ben replies affirmatively. Bender allows the surgery to go on, wanting Ben to be happy. After the surgery, Ben is finally able to bend - but he has lost all memories of Bender and the times he had with him. Ben states his desire to enroll at the Bending State University, Santa Cruz university, but they have only one hour to enroll before the university closes. In their trip to the university, extremely thick fog gets in their way, and they are unable to navigate to the university. Fry, however, comes to the rescue, and the crew uses his glowing body to navigate across the fog. Fry gets struck by lightning during the trip, and Ben and Bender share a laugh together as they head to the university.

Production
On 20 December 2011, Volume 6 was released and, with it, a part of the animatic for the "The Bots and the Bees" was also released, hinting that "The Bots and the Bees" was 7ACV01. In 2012, a few revelations concerning the episode were made. On 25 January, Eric Rogers revealed that the episode would air in June. On the next day, he revealed that the production team had just seen the first full-color animation for the episode, calling it, "Un. Be. Lievable." On the day after that, Aimee Steinberger revealed that the full-color animation had been screened on the Fox lot, that it received "lots of yays", that she could not go due to her work on "7ACV14", that she watched it nonetheless and that she found it "lovely". On 18 February, Eric Rogers revealed that the episode "Probably" was titled "The Bots and the Bees". On 29 February, CGEF confirmed that it was and revealed its writer to be Eric Horsted and its director to be Stephen Sandoval. On 25 April, revealed the episode's air date. On 3 May, Aimee Steinberger revealed that the episode was one of those which she had worked on.

In May, Countdown to Futurama began releasing promotional material for the episode. It has so far released ten items: A version of the part of the animatic for the episode released with Volume 6 in color, but smaller and with different music, on 1 May, two character designs for the new character Bev on 2 May, a character design for an alien pet on 3 May, two promotional pictures on 4 May, two more character designs, the first for an aging Ben and the second for both Bender and Ben, on 5 May, part of the storyboard showing the portion of the part of the animatic for the episode released with Volume 6 where Bender helps Ben rob the Bank of NNY on 6 May and part of the storyboard showing Fry and Bender cheer up Ben on 7 May.

Comedy Central's website released two other promotional pictures, the first showing Bender and Ben in a scene from the animatic and the second showing Bev, Bender and Ben in the Planet Express employee lounge.

South Coast Today published an article about the Futurama season premiere on 16 June, revealing certain details about the episode.  released another preview clip of the episode on 18 June.

Reception
In 2012, the episode was praised twice. On 30 January, Eric Rogers revealed that his favourite episode from the ninth broadcast season was either this one, "A Farewell to Arms" or "31st Century Fox". On 3 May, Aimee Steinberger said that Wanda Sykes - who Countdown to Futurama, on the previous day, revealed would voice Bev - "[had done] a great job on Bev's voice". Talking about the casting of Sykes, David X. Cohen stated: "We needed somebody who had kind of a, uh, forceful personality, who is very funny but also kind of forceful to stand up to Bender in their love scenes." Brittany Frederick of Starpulse gave the episode a positive review, writing: "This may be one of Futurama's best episodes, because it's another episode that is as moving as it is funny. The show has the ability to be both hilarious and genuinely affecting, such as in the tear-jerking story of Seymour, Fry's dog, in "Jurassic Bark". Likewise, your eyes won't be dry at the end of 'The Bots and the Bees.' If you don't get choked up by what happens to Ben, you should check yourself for a pulse."

Trivia

 * BoozMart, the market which Bender and Ben rob, was originally called "Liquors" - according to the animatic. Its final name was first seen in the video released by Countdown to Futurama.
 * During the premiere, Wanda Sykes was not credited. Also, despite having his name in the credits, Maurice LaMarche did not provide any character voices for this episode.

Allusions

 * The episode's title is a reference to the phrase "".
 * Slurm Loco may be a parody on the real drink.

Goofs

 * In this episode, it is apparent that Bender does not know how "robot reproduction" works. However, in The Beast with a Billion Backs, Bender makes a deal with the Robot Devil, trading his own firstborn for the devil's Army of the Damned.
 * Indeed, Bender seems to be completely unaware of robot sex in the first place, even though he's dealt with many a hookerbot before.
 * Once again, Hermes' shirt buttons disappear at one point.

Characters

 * Debut: Alien pet
 * Barbados Slim
 * Debut: Ben
 * Bender
 * Bender's mother (mentioned only)
 * Debut: Bev and URL's child
 * Calculon (as All My Circuits counterpart)
 * Debut: Bev
 * Documentary narrator
 * Professor Farnsworth
 * Debut: Francine
 * Fat-bot
 * Fry
 * Debut: Gerald
 * Debut: Gerald and Francine's child
 * Debut: Giant space spider
 * Hypnotoad
 * Leela
 * Monique (as All My Circuits counterpart)
 * Queen of Yonkers
 * Randy Munchnik
 * Reverend Lionel Preacherbot
 * Ruth and Esther
 * Sal
 * Scruffy
 * Smitty
 * Spotty Teen Robot
 * Tinny Tim
 * URL
 * Zoidberg