A Bicyclops Built for Two

Infobox Futurama episode
episode_name = A Bicyclops Built for Two


caption = Leela meets Alkazar.
episode_no = 22
prod_code = 2ACV09
airdate = March 19, 2000
country = USA
writer = Eric Kaplan
director = Susan Dietter
opening_subtitle = This Episode Has Been Modified To Fit Your Primitive Screen
opening_cartoon = Hollywood Capers
season = two

"A Bicyclops Built for Two" is episode nine in season two of "Futurama". It originally aired in North America on March 19, 2000.

Plot

The Professor opens the episode by bringing the crew great news: several years ago he had tried to log onto AOL, and it finally connected. He sends the crew into the internet for fun. While playing "Death Factory III", Leela meets the only other cyclops in the known universe, but Fry dispatches him before she can find out who he is and where he comes from. The crew is sent on a delivery mission to bring popcorn to Cineplex 14, so Leela can't take the time to find him, but he recorded her screen name and sends her a video mail. Leela abandons the delivery, and heads off to the coordinates provided. Unfortunately, when she jettisoned the cargo, it missed by a margin and hit the Sun, creating a popcorn nebula.

The cyclops reveals himself to be Alkazar, sole survivor of the destruction of the planet Cyclopia. He claims that Leela was sent away as a baby when the blind moles of Subterra 3 launched missiles in every direction, hitting forty planets including Cyclopia. Luckily, before the crash, Cyclopia's smartest scientist managed to save a baby that was possibly Leela. Alkazar was employed as a pool cleaner and was spared from the chaos while fishing out a dead opossum. Leela decides that it is her duty to help rebuild the Cyclopian civilization, which primarily includes marrying Alkazar. While Bender loots everything of value, Fry tries to find out "what makes the Forbidden Valley so forbidden", and stumbles right into the dungeon. Now that Leela is committed to Alkazar for the good of their race, he becomes abusive to her, demanding she carry out menial work and humiliating her in front of his friends, an anthropomorphic rat couple and a pig. While he is in the dungeon, Fry tries to convince Leela to dump Alkazar; he almost persuades her when Alkazar proposes marriage. Flattered, she accepts.

As the wedding begins, Fry and Bender break into the Forbidden Valley to find out Alkazar's secret, and discover to their amazement four other castles, identical except that the decorations show different types of aliens. They arrive back at Leela's wedding just before she is about to say "I do," and bring a surprise—four other women, each the last of her species like Leela. Alkazar, flustered, tries to reason with the women, shapeshifting each time to match their form; the women quickly beat him into submission, and he takes his real form, a green cockroach-like alien. He explains that he played with their emotions because he wanted to "make it with five weirdos" and get them to become his personal maids, and that he had to stage all the weddings on one day because tuxedos that change shape are expensive to rent. All five of the women reject him, and Leela goes home with the rest of the Planet Express crew. The episode ends with Leela sadly contemplating her desire to find her true species, wondering "How many planets could there be?" as she looks out at a vast, starry space.

Future planets

Future planets which appeared in this episode:
*Cyclopia is a planet which surface area appears to be in ruins. There is some doubt whether this is the actual name of the planet, or if the name was changed to accommodate Alkazar's ruse.

Broadcast and reception

Color stylist Bari Kumar won an Emmy award for "Outstanding Individual Achievement in Animation" for this episode in 2000.cite web |url=http://www.allyourtv.com/awards/awardsemmys52creativewinners.html |title=2000 Creative Emmy Award Winners |author=Rick Ellis |publisher=All Your TV |date= 2000-08-26 |accessdate=2007-06-28 ] cite web|title=Farewell to the funny future|url=http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-14221036_ITM|author=Azrai, Ahmad|date=2004-10-31|accessdate=2008-01-10] Susie Dietter was nominated for an Annie Award in 2000 for "Outstanding Individual Achievement for Directing in an Animated Television Production" for this episode, she lost to Brian Sheesley for the "Futurama" episode "Why Must I Be a Crustacean in Love?".cite web |url=http://www.annieawards.com/28thannieawardwinners.htm |title=28th Annual Annie Award Nominees and Winners
publisher=International Animated Film Society |date=2000 |accessdate=2007-06-28 ] In "Doug Pratt's DVD" Pratt noted that this episode was his favorite of the second season. In particular he notes that the virtual reality sequence at the beginning was very witty and the overall plot was entertaining.cite book|last=Pratt| first=Douglas| title=Doug Pratt's DVD: Movies, Television, Music, Art, Adult, and More!| pages=474] This episode was rated TV-14 for suggestive dialogue (D) in the United States, the third time for "Futurama".Fact|date=April 2008

Cultural references

* The title spoofs the song Daisy Bell and its well known line about "A Bicycle Built for Two".cite book| title=Accomodating Brocolli in the Cemetary| author= Cook, Vivian| pages=128]
* Parts of this episode are a spoof of "Married... with Children", which also starred Katey Sagal, the voice of Leela. Leela dresses, does her hair like and acts like Peggy Bundy while Alkazar acts like Al Bundy.cite book|last=Booker| first=M. Keith| title=Drawn to Television: Prime-Time Television from The Flintstones to Family Guy| pages=115-124]
* One of Alkazar's four other would-be brides appears to be a member of the Great Race of Yith, a species of time-travelling body-snatchers from the H. P. Lovecraft story, "The Shadow Out of Time".
* When Fry is on the internet playing a videogame reminiscent of 2-D sidescrollers, Fry jumps and shoots some crates and a Donkey Kong look-alike. When he jumps he makes noises similar to the sounds Mario makes in his 3D videogames. He also quickly tucks and rolls through a small space, almost exactly like the Morph Ball from Metroid or Sonic the Hedgehog.
* A scene where Bender falls into a machine and slips between gears is a reference to the Charlie Chaplin film "Modern Times".
* During the video game, Bender is destroyed by being cut into a Slinky, then falling down stairs into a molten metal pit.
* There are two references to Superman in this episode: the first, the story about the destruction of Cyclopia and the planet's greatest scientist sending a Cyclopian baby, Leela, to Earth is a reference to the origin of Superman, where before the destruction of his home planet Krypton master scientist Jor-El sends his only son, Kal-El (Superman), to Earth (Leela, like Superman, is supposedly the last member of her race), and the second being when Leela asked Al to "Let the little guy out", referring to the imprisoned Fry. Alkazar replies, "Twice in one day? I'm not Superman."
* There are two references to "": as Fry enters the internet Also sprach Zarathustra is played, and moments later he references Dave Bowman's line "My God, it's full of stars!" from the novel by saying "My God, it's full of ads!" Additionally, Daisy Bell was the song sung by HAL 9000 in its famous disconnect scene.
* Writers Ken Keeler and Eric Kaplan are depicted as nerds in the chat room. In the chat room hallway, one of the doors has a Betacrypt 3 code written on it which, once deciphered, reads "codebreakers chat room". The nerd Fry beats in the video game is executive producer David X. Cohen. According to the DVD commentary, Matt Groening was also designed as one of the nerds, but was not included as per Groening's request.
* Alkazar's castle resembles Angkor Wat and the mosaic of the goddess resembles Sandro Botticelli's "The Birth of Venus".
* During the video game scene, Fry shoots a laser from his arm, much like Megaman, or Samus Aran.
* When the popcorn explodes in the sun, it forms the shape of a galaxy, possibly a reference to the symbol for Galaxy Cinemas.

Continuity

*In "Love's Labors Lost in Space", Leela said she wouldn't care how many eyes a guy had, "...as long as it's less than five". In one of his forms, Alkazar has five eyes.
*In "Bender's Big Score", one of Alkazar's wives appears as a guest at Leela and Lars' wedding.

References