Love and Rocket

"Love and Rocket" is the fifty-seventh of Futurama, the third of the fourth production season and the fourth of the fourth broadcast season. It aired 10 February, 2002 on FOX. It guest stars Sigourney Weaver as the Planet Express Ship and reprises Lucy Liu as herself in a jar. Bender finds himself in a love affair with the new software personality in the ship, but Bender is not a one woman robot.

Act I: U-R-2 Cute
Shortly before Valentine's Day, Bender and the Planet Express Ship are having major differences. Meanwhile, Planet Express lands a big contract with Romanticorp and is able to afford some modifications to the ship, including an improved personality (female) software for the Planet Express Ship, whom Bender immediately falls in love with.

Act II: I Wuv U
Meanwhile, Fry tries to find the perfect pickup line from the huge load of conversation hearts they are supposed to deliver in order to impress Leela with it. Bender has become tired of the Planet Express ship, and starts to date cheap floozies on the side. This arouses the ship's suspicions and makes her jealous. Bender keeps stalling the Planet Express Ship, and makes her more suspicious.

As the crew delivers a load of conversation hearts to Omicron Persei 8 as a peace offering from Earth's government, the Omicronians get mad at the 'I Wuv U' hearts and chase the crew off the planet, and then attack them with a fleet of Omicronian fighters. Bender picks this moment to break up with the ship, because he likes a dump to be as devastating as it is memorable. The Planet Express Ship screams and shuts down its engines, as it starts to sob. Seeing the opportunity for a fatal blow, the Omicronians fire several missiles, which leave the ship in ruins.

Act III: U leave me breathless
The ship is surprisingly unharmed, save her feelings, and despite Leela's best efforts to console her, is still deeply depressed. Losing all hope to get together with Bender, the ship decides to fly into the nearest quasar to unite her and Bender into a quantum singularity. The crew tries to stop the ship, which disables life support and artificial gravity. Bender offers to merge his programming with the ship's to distract it, while Leela tries shutting down the ship's brain.

While Fry and Leela are in the brain room, Fry continues looking for the ultimate heart line while Leela is busy shutting down the ship's brain. As Fry is searching, he notices that Leela's oxygen is running out. Unaware of the situation, Leela ignores Fry, thinking he is trying to give her a conversation heart. Fry secretly plugs his oxygen supply into Leela's helmet. Meanwhile, Bender is being chased around the matrix-like world of the ship's computer by her personality icon, but cannot evade merging their programming. Leela succeeds in shutting down the computer, which brings life support and gravity back online. This also stops the ship from flying into the quasar. Leela, cautiously optimistic, speaks to Fry, who does not respond. She discovers that he sacrificed his own oxygen for her. She attempts to resuscitate Fry, who has lost consciousness. While pounding on his chest to make him breathe, Fry coughs up the candy heart he has been searching for U leave me breathless. Bender separates himself from the computer's consciousness, but seems to have ingested part of her personality.

The crew dumps the now useless conversation hearts into the quasar, causing a mystical love radiation spreading across the universe, destroying many, many planets--including 2 gangster planets and a cowboy world. Earth, however, was exactly the right distance away to see the romantic rays, but not be destroyed by them.

Trivia

 * The title of the episode may be a reference to the English alternative rock band "Love and Rockets"
 * Much of the episode is inspired by the epic Sci Fi movie "2001 - A Space Odyssey", like the computer's eye (HAL 9000) and Bender singing "Daisy Bell".
 * According to the DVD commentary, Leela lights a vanilla-scented candle on the bridge while consoling the ship and feeds it several buckets of ice cream - her standard method of coping with romantic problems, judging from her feelings expressed by Bender in I Second that Emotion.
 * Leela's comment about Six Flags is a reference to a Coca-Cola promotion where specially marked cans would give the drinker a free ticket to Six Flags.

Goofs

 * Bender crosses a diode in the chase sequence, meaning he supposedly can't go back across it. However the diode is actually pointing the wrong way. Pointing the way it does in the episode, he should have been blocked from crossing it in the first place.
 * The quantity of candy hearts are referred to as "trillions," then "20 billion," and finally "millions."

Quotes

 * Farnsworth: Remember, we've got to show these people we're not bitter husks of human beings who long ago abandoned hope of finding love in this lifetime. Leela, you'll have to do some acting. Leela: Check!
 * Zoidberg: Clothing, delicious clothing!
 * Bender: Call me old-fashioned, but I like a dump to be as memorable as it is devastating!
 * Leela: Look, Ship, if I learned anything from my mutual breakup with Shawn that was totally mutual, it's that happiness can only come from within you. Planet Express Ship: (crying) But Bender IS within me!
 * Planet Express Ship: I'm afraid I can't do that, Leela.
 * Lrrr: This is ancient Earth's most foolish program. Why does Ross, the largest friend, not simply eat the other five? Ndnd: Perhaps they are saving that for sweeps.
 * Lrrr: Eugh! These candies are chalky and unpleasant. Ndnd: And what is this emotion you humans call "wuv?" Lrrr: Surely it says "love?" Ndnd: No, "wuv". With an Earth "W". Behold! Lrrr: This concept of "wuv" confuses and infuriates us!!

Inside References

 * Some items in Fry's and Bender's cabin refer to earlier episodes, among them are: a sword (probably nicked from Alcazar) leaning on the wall, a DOOP uniform on the ground, a model of the Titanic on a shelf, the helmet Fry wore in When Aliens Attack, a Mars University pennant on the wall and a suitcase. The same gadgets are already there in The Deep South, and some of them can be seen in other episodes as well, like the sword in Kif Gets Knocked Up a Notch. The pink cloth on the hilt of the sword looks suspiciously like Gender Bender's tutu from Raging Bender.

Characters

 * Amy
 * Bender
 * Professor Farnsworth
 * Fry
 * Debut: Gwen
 * Hermes
 * Leela
 * Lrrr
 * Lucy Liu
 * Ndnd
 * Planet Express Ship
 * Debut: Sheldon
 * Zoidberg

Episode Credits

 * Writer
 * Dan Vebber
 * Director
 * Brian Sheesley
 * Voice Actors
 * Billy West
 * Katey Sagal
 * John DiMaggio
 * DVD Commentary
 * Matt Groening
 * David X. Cohen
 * Rich Moore
 * Dan Vebber
 * Brian Sheesley
 * Billy West
 * Maurice LaMarche
 * Guest Stars
 * Sigourney Weaver
 * Lucy Liu