Obsoletely Fabulous

"Obsoletely Fabulous" is the 68th. episode of season 4 of Futurama.

Summary Edit

Mom's Friendly Robot Company reveals their latest product: Robot 1-X, an extremely helpful Robot. Professor Hubert J. Farnsworth is impressed and acquires one for Planet Express. Bender Bending Rodríguez does not take well to Robot 1-X, which "scares" him. The crew persuades him to undergo a compatibility upgrade.

Bender is anxious as he waits in line and eventually breaks out of the upgrade center. Unsure of where to go, Bender paddles out into the (assumed) Atlantic Ocean. Eventually washing up on an island, Bender discovers that it is populated with a variety of obsolete robots. Bender finds joy in the simplified, anti-technology lifestyle. He goes through a downgrade process, which results in his body being converted almost exclusively to a wood chassis.

Bender then decides to lead a raid against mankind, taking his fellow obsolete robots back to the mainland on a mission to crush technology wherever they find it. When they reach the Planet Express building, Bender attempts to have their catapult destroy Robot 1-X. The attempt knocks a support from the Planet Express ship, which catches the crew partly underneath a wing. Fuel leaks out and catches fire, circling the crew in flames. Bender attempts to save them, but his wooden body turns out to have developed a termite infestation. Then, while attempting to stretch his arms, they fall out of their sockets. Inching himself toward his friends, his new wood body catches on fire. Bender then instructs Robot 1-X to save his friends (and Zoidberg). Robot 1-X does so, which leaves Bender praising the usefulness of the robot. At this point, it becomes clear that Bender has just experienced the compatibility upgrade and his entire escape/time at the island/raid on technology has all been part of his imagination. Bender leaves the upgrade center with the thought that "reality is what you make of it."

Ongoing ThemesEdit

InjuryEdit

• Farnsworth and Wernstrom have a fistfight at the Roboticon trade show.
• A stage prop crashes into Bender's head, knocking him to the floor and causing the contents of his torso to spill out.
• Bender roughly makes out with Nibbler against Nibbler's will.
• Bender flings himself out the window of a multi-story building and crashes face-first into the ground.
• An angry duck bites Bender on the finger.
• A coconut falls from a tree and lands on Benders face.
• Robot 1-X clobbers himself on the head a few times with a sledgehammer.
• Bender slaps Robot 1-X in the faceplate.
• The entire crew except for Bender and Robot 1-X are trapped under the wing of the ship and are in danger of burning to death.
• Wooden Bender's leg breaks from termite damage.
• Wooden Bender's arms fall off when he tries to extend them.
• Wooden Bender burns to ash except for his eye and mouth assemblies.

DoppelgängersEdit

• Bender rebuilds himself from wooden components.
• The entire story of Bender's downgrading adventure turns out to have been a dream induced in Bender by the upgrade process.