Meanwhile

"Meanwhile" is the one hundred and fortieth and last episode of Futurama, the twenty-sixth and last of the seventh production season and the thirteenth and last of the tenth broadcast season. It aired on 4 September 2013, on Comedy Central. Fry asks Leela to marry him, and they face their destiny together as the professor's latest invention alters the fabric of time.

Act I: "My little meatbag's growin' up!"
The episode finds Fry, Leela and Bender making a delivery to the moon and visiting the amusement park there. After a ride accident, Leela seemingly dies. Luckily, all is well. She was trapped inside a stuffed animal. The close call was too much for Fry to handle, and he announces to Bender that he's going to finally propose to Leela.

Meanwhile, Professor Farnsworth invents a device that lets him travel 10 seconds into the past. He uses it to steal money from Zoidberg. Fry takes the time machine to steal diamonds, along with Bender.

He uses the stolen diamonds to fashion an engagement ring, which he hides in a clam. When he presents it to Leela, she reaches for the ring and the clam snaps shut, severing her hand and a bloody stump.

Production
This is the fourth series finale that writer and producer Ken Keeler wrote for the show. The other three are "The Devil's Hands Are Idle Playthings", Into the Wild Green Yonder and "Overclockwise". The director of the episode &mdash; Peter Avanzino &mdash; also directed Into the Wild Green Yonder.

In 2012, Futurama writer Eric Rogers made two revelations concerning the episode. On 11 April, he revealed that " [ "7ACV25" and this episode] now [had] stories". On 20 April, he revealed that the episode was being "[pitched] out" and urged fans to buy merchandise in order for the show to "come back".

On 5 February 2013, released a preview clip for the tenth broadcast season, which contained footage from the episode.

On 22 April, it was announced that Futurama had not been renewed for an eight season, making this the series finale.

On 20 July, the cast read the episode's first act at.

By 29 August, Comedy Central had released a fifty-second preview clip featuring Fry and Leela alone in a time-frozen New New York.

By 1 September, Comedy Central had released a fifty-second preview clip featuring Fry, Leela, Bender, and Albert riding an attraction.

Reception
"Meanwhile" has received positive reviews. Max Nicholson, for IGN, wrote that "Meanwhile" was "a fitting end to a classic animated series." He gave the episode a 9 out of 10.[2] Zack Handlen, writing for The A.V. Club, said that "the first five minutes are passable but rushed, and the hook of Fry deciding he needed to ask Leela to marry him isn’t all that exciting." However, he later went on to say that "this finale settles somewhere between the "too happy" and the "oh dear God when will it end,” which makes it just about perfect. It has just about everything you could want from Futurama: there’s a nifty time-travel plot, Fry and Leela get married, Bender is a jackass, Zoidberg loses $10, there’s a nifty time-travel plot, and Fry dies." He graded the episode an A

Trivia

 * The episode aired on cast member John DiMaggio's forty-fifth birthday.
 * The episode revisits Luna Park, from "The Series Has Landed", which was also written by Ken Keeler and directed by Peter Avanzino. Another episode written by Ken Keeler and directed by Peter Avanzino is "The Six Million Dollar Mon".
 * Bender tells Fry that he told Leela that he loved her "like 140 times". This episode is the one hundred and fortieth episode of Futurama.
 * Richard Nixon's head is the only character besides Fry, Leela, Bender and Professor Farnsworth to appear in both this episode and the first episode, "Space Pilot 3000".
 * The professor says "time-space continuum", but the usual term is "".
 * The woman holding the caviar resembles Nixon's campaign manager.
 * This is the only time that Agnew appears without Nixon.

Fry and Leela's list
These appear to be locations for Fry and Leela to have sex in.


 * Front Steps ✓
 * Professor's Desk ✓
 * In the Road ✓
 * Back of Police Car ✓
 * Ice Cream Factory ✓
 * Bank Vault ✓
 * Lincoln ✓
 * Rhino Cage ✓
 * Vicinity of ✓
 * Monument Beach ✓
 * Middle of ✓
 * Big Ben ✓
 * On a Mammoth ✓
 * Random Dark Alley ✓
 * Eiffel Tower ✓
 * Random Dark Alley ✓
 * Eiffel Tower ✓
 * Random Dark Alley ✓
 * Eiffel Tower ✓
 * Eiffel Tower ✓

Allusions

 * Petunia says "I'll have what she's having", a famous line from the 1989 film .
 * The crew delivers a copy of 's .
 * A -like robot can be seen when time is frozen.
 * Fry falling on and breaking the time button is an allusion to the Twilight Zone episode "", where a man has a stopwatch that can stop time, which he proceeds to break and get stuck alone in a frozen universe.

Continuity

 * When Fry is staring at the time button, his eyes narrow. This is a reference to a scene from "The Lesser of Two Evils", which originated an internet meme.
 * Fry's tuxedo and Leela's wedding gown are both from previous episodes. The tuxedo is from "Calculon 2.0", and the gown is from "Time Keeps on Slippin'".
 * The episode features Fry and Leela's third wedding. Their first wedding was seen in "Time Keeps on Slippin'", and their second was in Bender's Big Score; when Leela was going to marry Lars, a time-paradox duplicate of Fry.
 * Leela was previously seen with grey hair in "The Late Philip J. Fry".
 * The man and woman in Paris were previously seen in "Game of Tones".

Goofs

 * In the stands at the basketball match, some characters are seen twice.

Characters

 * 20th-century lecturer
 * 21st-century girl
 * Abner Doubledeal
 * Abraham Lincoln
 * Albert
 * Amy
 * Dr Beeler
 * Mrs Beeler
 * Bender
 * Brett Blob
 * Bubblegum
 * Censored couple
 * Charles
 * Craterface
 * Curly Joe
 * Dandy Jim
 * Elzar
 * Professor Farnsworth
 * Fry
 * Globetrotters
 * H.G. Blob
 * Hattie
 * Hermes
 * Hyper-Chicken
 * Debut: János
 * Kif
 * Last clone of Agnew
 * Leela
 * Mom
 * Moon Patrol
 * Morbo
 * Nibbler
 * Nixon (on 10-dollar bill)
 * Nixon's campaign manager
 * Petunia
 * Roberto
 * Sal
 * Scoop Chang
 * Scruffy
 * Smitty
 * Space Pope
 * Sweet Clyde
 * Turanga Morris
 * Turanga Munda
 * Debut: Ultra Guy
 * Underwater-house salesman
 * URL
 * Victor
 * Zapp Brannigan
 * Zoidberg
 * Zoidberg

Places

 * Apartment 00100100
 * Big Ben
 * Debut: Bronx Zoo
 * Eiffel Tower
 * France
 * Luna Park
 * Madison Cube Garden
 * Monument Beach
 * Moon
 * Paris
 * Planet Express hangar
 * Planet Express headquarters
 * Planet Express conference room
 * Planet Express employee lounge
 * Robot Arms Apartments
 * Debut:
 * St. Koch's Cathedral
 * Debut: Taste of NNY Gourmet Food Fair
 * Debut: Ultra Guy's Custom Diamonds
 * Debut: Vampire State Building

Miscellaneous

 * Chronitons
 * Curious Pussycat
 * Currency
 * DOOP hovercopter
 * Fry-Leela relationship
 * Giraffe
 * "Hi-yah!"
 * Debut: Mecha-Hexadecapus
 * Owls
 * Spice weasel
 * Thundercougarfalconbird
 * Debut: Time button
 * Debut: Time shelter
 * Tube Transport System