My Three Suns

"My Three Suns" is the seventh episode of Futurama and of the first season. It aired 4 May, 1999. Fry becomes the emperor of Trisol through random lucky occurrences, at the expense of Leela's displeasure with Fry's reckless behaviour. This episode also establishes Bender's dreams of becoming a chef.

Act I: "Goin through the bot wash..."
Bender goes through an automatic robot wash, much like a typical car wash, while dancing and singing a modified version of the  Rose Royce's song "Car Wash". After he gets out, however, it starts to rain.

Act II: "A Mouthwatering Neptunian slug!"
Fry and Leela catch Bender watching Elzar's cooking show on the TV at Planet Express and he admits he wants to become a chef. Later, Hermes tells him he noticed that they're paying him to do nothing but loaf about on the couch and has to start doing something or he's fired, so Bender decides to be the cook of the ship. He takes Fry and Leela down to Little Neptune to buy ingredients for his first meal. Fry is distracted by an "organ dealer" and wants to buy some gills, which apparently means he won't need his lungs. When he's about to start cutting Fry, Leela kicks the dealer and they get out of there. When they get back, the professor sends them with Amy and Zoidberg on a mission to the planet Trisol in the Forbidden Zone, deep in the heart of the Galaxy of Terror. On the way Bender prepares a meal full of salt, which the crew finds inedible. When they arrive, Fry is sent to deliver the package to a castle, but it is too far and the three suns of the planet make him thirsty. When he gets to the castle he drinks a strange bottle of blue liquid - which turns out to be an Emperor.

Act III: "You drank our emperor!"
Having accidentally assassinated Bont, the Emperor of Trisol, Fry thinks the Trisolians will kill him but instead they make him the new Emperor. Fry appoints Bender as his Prime Minister, and refuses to leave despite Leela's warnings. During his coronation ceremony Leela takes Fry to a hall with portraits of the former emperors on the walls. Leela tells him that every emperor was killed by the next and that one becomes the new emperor, which means Fry will soon be killed by one of the Trisolians to be the new emperor of the planet. Despite this, Fry doesn't care and Leela leaves the palace. When the ceremony finishes, the triple sunset of the planet begins and all Trisolians start to glow, including the former emperor who speaks from Fry's stomach. The Trisolians attack Fry, intending to cut him apart to free the Emperor. He flees with his friends, and they lock themselves in the Emperor's chambers.

Act IV: "Fry must die!"
As the Trisolians attempt to break through the door, Amy, Zoidberg and Bender try to make Fry cry the Emperor out, though Fry is unable to cry. The Trisolians prepare a giant juicer that will shred Fry until the emperor gets out. Bender calls Leela for help while she is kicking a Fry photo in the ship. She seems to refuse but outside she comes to fight the Trisolians. Bender makes Fry believe Leela needs help until he finally crys a few tears of the emperor thinking it's his fault. Then she comes and starts to kick Fry with the others to make him continue crying. After a long time everyone is tired but the emperor finally gets out of Fry's body and thanks him for crying him out, then hits him with a chair, and Bender wants to do that too.

Trivia

 * This episode was rated TV-PG V on FOX, yet it was rated TV-14 on Adult Swim.
 * Trisol is probably a compound of "tri-" (three) and "sol" (sun).
 * This is the first episode in which Professor Farnsworth utters his famous catchphrase "Good News, Everyone!".

Allusions

 * Bender's apron, which reads "To Serve Man," is a reference to an episode of "The Twilight Zone", in which the statement's apparent meaning, being servile to man, is in fact wrong. The statement is actually the title of a cookbook, thus serving man for dinner.
 * The entire scene in Little Neptune seems to be a somewhat vague reference to Chalmun's Cantina scene in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope. Both seem seedy, have a menagerie of robot and alien denizens, and both feature the main characters going into a place that sell food. Also, the scene where Fry is saved by Leela from the Organ Dealer and his accomplice is similar to when Obi-Wan Kenobi saves Luke Skywalker from Cornelius Evazan and Ponda Baba.

Goofs

 * In Little Neptune, a Neptunian is seen haggling with the Number 9 Man, and he only has two arms.
 * At the pre-coronation gala, Fry pours a drink for a Trisolian and says, "There you go," but his lips don't move.

Alien Language Sightings
Time:03:06

Location: poster

Language: AL1

Translation: boxing

Time:03:24

Location: head shop sign

Language: AL1

Translation: (below open sign) open

Time:03:24

Location: head shop sign

Language: AL1

Translation: (under the doorbell) ring

Time:03:29

Location: Televideo machine

Language: AL1

Translation: (on the number pad) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

Time:03:29

Location: Televideo machine

Language: AL1

Translation: (underneath the machine) televideo

Time:03:43

Location: Shop Sign

Language: AL1

Translation: ?arket

Time:09:09

Location: Sign

Language: AL1

Translation: don't drink the emperor

Characters

 * Amy
 * Bender
 * Debut: Bont
 * Debut: Crack Addict
 * Dr. Zoidberg
 * Debut: Elzar
 * Debut: Florp
 * Debut: Gorgak
 * Fry
 * Hermes
 * Leela
 * Debut: Murg
 * Debut: Neptunian store clerk
 * Number 9 Man
 * Debut: Organ Dealer
 * Prof. Farnsworth
 * Debut: Trisol guards

Episode Credits

 * Writer
 * J. Stewart Burns
 * Directors
 * Jeffrey Lynch
 * Kevin O'Brien
 * Voice Actors
 * Billy West
 * Katey Sagal
 * John DiMaggio
 * Dave Herman
 * Phil LaMarr
 * Maurice LaMarche
 * Lauren Tom