Last week we the viewers of Futurama had to suffer through one of the series worst Episodes, The Duh-Vinci Code. Luckily, this week’s installment was Benter-centric and followers of the show know exactly what that means… “Party” (says morbidly obese Bender in “Anthology of Interest II”).
The episode starts off with the Planet Express crew participating in what seems like an American Civil War reenactment but is actually turns out to be a Sithal War reenactment. In which the crew takes on some poorly named individuals dressed up as Star Wars Sith. The battle of Sithal War serves as a reminder to Bender (and everyone in his general proximity) of his superiority to humans, in that, even if his body is destroyed he has a back up of his consciousness floating around somewhere that can be downloaded into a new body, BSG Cylon Style. That is until Benter has an unexpected oil leak and it is revealed that he does not have a back up system, making him imperfect. This happens, after Bender had been proudly touting his inspection card given to him at creation, indication to all that he is a perfect being (or at least a perfect robot, the distinction seems to be lost of the lovable booze swilling robot). The idea of not being the height of perfection does not sit well with Bender and starts him on a search fueled by booze and bloodlust for the one who falsely certified him as perfect, namely the bureaucrat that went by the title Inspector #5. To assist him on his quest, the only other bureaucrat that Bender knows, Hermes Conrad.
For those who pay close attention to Futurama this marks the first time Hermes and Bender have gone on a solo adventure together, which turned out pretty well for all parties. The two head to the Central Bureaucracy to discover the identity of Inspector #5, instead they find that the files are missing which forces them to head for Bender’s home land, Mexico.
During their trip south the two find themselves being hunted by Mom’s robot death squad, set in motion after a tirade of Bender’s, where he angrily expression his disgusted that MomCorp would allow a defective robot to leave one of her assembly lines; which serves as a prime example of Bender’s hilarious short sightedness.
The only issue with these mini-gun touting robots is that they have a bit of an itchy trigger finger (or button…switch?), and begin to fire wildly whenever they hear the words shoot, fire or howitzer; a running gage throughout the episode. After the surly robot and Jamaican make it to Tijuana, Mexico for their last failed attempt to find Inspector #5, Hermes manages to console Bender about his mortality. And during a final bombardment from the MomCorp’s robot death squad Hermes uses Inspector # 5’s bureaucrat computer terminal to deem Bender dead thereby ending the MomCorp’s search for him. Though it was fairly obvious from the start, it’s finally revealed at the end of the episode that Inspector #5 was a young Hermes and that Hermes had been covering his tracks during Bender and his search for… him. But, in classic Futurama style the creators of this episode managed to merge a science fiction story like a robot death squad hunting down a defective robot (Blade Runner), with endearing ideas like a young Hermes not being about to toss a baby Bender in the defective robot bin.
That is what won over most people who watch this show when it started, the comedy, the sci-fi references and its heart. Lethal Inspection was a huge improvement from last week’s episode, let’s hope to see more like it in the episodes to come.
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