Recap / Futurama S 2 E 19 The Cryonic Woman

Not a Substitute for Human Interaction

After Fry and Bender get fired for hooking the Planet Express building to the ship and flying all around the world (along with Leela, who should have stopped them), they get jobs at Applied Cryogenics (at least Fry and Bender do. Leela gets a job as a pizza delivery girl), where Fry discovers that his girlfriend Michelle froze herself as well.

Tropes:

• All Take and No Give: Michelle has been on both sides of this equation. Her ex-husband used her to pay for law school and dumped her as soon as he graduated. In the future, Michelle makes unreasonable demands of Fry starting from knowing he fits in and she doesn't, culminating in forcing Fry to fight for power in the supposed 40th century tribe they're stuck with.
• Ascended Extra: Michelle first appeared as a throwaway character illustrating how sucky Fry's life was in the 20th century. Now she's the focus of an episode.
• Bad Job, Worse Uniform: Leela as a pizza delivery girl with her degrading pizza hat.
• Bedsheet Ghost: Bender wears this with a white sheet over his head to scare Fry and Michelle while they were kissing.
• Bilingual Bonus: When the children's mother picks them up, she says they have to go to Hebrew school. Right before the death rolling, Butch's girlfriend counts in Hebrew.
• Blood Sport: Deathrolling. "It's just like skateboarding, except half the time somebody dies."
  Fry: Oh, so it's a little safer than skateboarding.
• Book Ends: The pilot introduces Michelle by having her drive past Fry in a cab with someone else. The episode ends with her doing the same thing.
• Bowdlerization: After the Norway terrorist attacks in 2011, some versions of this episode are re-animated so that the chip on the dismembered arm Bender uses is from a chainsaw juggler instead of the Prime Minister of Norway. Netflix used to have the original "Prime Minister of Norway" take, but when they added the last half of the series (from "2-D Blacktop" to "Meanwhile"), they changed it to the edited "Chainsaw Juggler" version.
• Challenging the Chief: Encouraged by Michelle, Fry challenges the kid chief.
• Continuity Nod:
  • The plot starts because Leela tied down the ship with the unbreakable diamond filament, from "The Deep South".
  • Leela held onto the career chips from "Space Pilot 3000" and uses them to at least get Fry a job at Applied Cryonics, after she summarizes the events of that episode.
• Cue the Falling Object: When Bender and Fry return from their joy ride, they look into the angry faces of their crew mates. Then the wall behind them topples.
• Distinction Without a Difference: Fry, on describing his and Michelle's restarted relationship.
  Fry: Before, she was demanding and possessive. Now, she wants me to do things, and stay with her all the time.
• Early-Installment Weirdness: Michelle claims that Fry's parents were so indifferent to his disappearance that they thought a police search would be a "waste of tax-payers money." Later episodes like "Luck of the Fryrish", "Cold Warriors", and "Game of Tones", would show that all Fry's relatives cared for him deeply despite their oddness and seeming jerkishness.
  • Perhaps Michelle lied (or at least exaggerated) to scam Fry into going along with her?
• Easily Forgiven: By the end of the episode, the Professor takes the trio back in, because he's forgotten why he fired them in the first place. Then Bender reminds him.
• Exact Words:
  • The Professor angrily declares he should fire Fry, Leela, and Bender after what they did, but he's not cold-hearted enough. He then immediately turns to Hermes, who is cold-hearted enough.
  • Michelle tells Fry they should go to the year 4000 and not regret it. On waking up in the apparent wasteland of the 41st century, Fry informs her he doesn't regret it, but he does "rue and lament" it.
• Faked Rip Van Winkle: Fry and Michelle think they stayed frozen until an apocalyptic 41st century, but are just in 31st century Los Angeles.
• Fish out of Temporal Water: Michelle does not handle the 31st century well at all, which leads to an observation of how well Fry handled the 31st century but did not fit into the 20th century.
• Foreshadowing: At one point, the camera pans toward, and briefly focuses on, a sign that says "Highway On-Ramp," which is a clue as to the true nature of the "future." This is a reference to the "Freeway Entrance" signs that are posted at on-ramps in California.
• Freak Out: Michelle has a few of these concerning the weird things of New New York. And inverted when she meets Zoidberg, since he's the one that freaks out.
• Guilt by Association Gag: Leela gets fired along with Fry and Bender when they take the Planet Express ship (along with the building) out for a joyride. The Professor justified this by saying she left the key in the ignition.
• Hellish L.A.: It turns out that Fry and Michelle didn't wake up in a post-apocalyptic wasteland — that's just what Los Angeles is like in the 31st century.
• Hero of Another Story: Amy, Hermes and Zoidberg's adventure in the fantasy planet (where everyone's fantasies come to life) goes completely unseen. All we hear about it is that it was "great" (Amy), "organized" (Hermes) and that it let Zoidberg live life as a grandmother.
• Ignored Epiphany: You'd think after Michelle was used and discarded by her boyfriend she would've learned a little more empathy when it comes to how she treats Fry. She instead forces him to make sacrifice after sacrifice until he finally has enough and calls her out on how she almost ruined his life (which she ignores).
• Inspirational Insult: Michelle tries to motivate Fry by saying "My mother said you'd never amount to anything, now get out there and prove her wrong!"; Fry's response is a very hurt "Beth said that?"
• It's All About Me: Michelle makes it clear she hasn't changed at all since she dumped Fry, with their relationship consisting of her making bigger and bigger demands of Fry while doing practically nothing for him in return.
• Jerkass Has a Point: The Professor lumping Leela in with Fry and Bender for destroying their building does appear to be spreading the blame a bit too far, but he correct to point out the whole thing would never have happened if Leela hadn't left the keys in the ship's ignition. It is basic vehicle security to keep keys on you or in a safe place whenever they aren't needed, and definitely not where anyone can get access to them, including a pair of reckless idiots like Bender and Fry. Leela even casually admits how she left the keys on the ship, so she her negligence does warrant punishment.
• Lampshade Hanging: When Leela brings up the career chips, Fry has completely forgotten them, because the concept had completely fallen by the wayside right after the pilot.
• Laser-Guided Karma: It's shown Michelle treating Fry like crap in the past came back to bite her when her new boyfriend basically used her to pay his way through law school and then dumped her on graduation day. Michelle's then cryogenically frozen only to discover the 31st Century terrifies her, and she sticks out like a sore thumb specifically because she did fit in during the 20th Century.
• Monumental Damage: Fry and Bender joyride across the world with the Planet Express ship hitting the Leaning Tower of Pisa upright then knocked down completely with the Planet Express building being tethered behind the ship. The building also crashes through the Great Wall of China.
• Mundane Utility: Fry uses a cryonic chamber as a freezer for his drinks.
• Mythology Gag: Fry and Michelle are seen taking a ride on a hovering scooter similar to one that Fry and Leela were seen riding in promotional material for the series.
• Negative Continuity: Leela tells Bender not to beg for money because they're "not veterans" even though they fought for Earth in combat in "When Aliens Attack" and "War is the H-Word".
• Not So Remote: Fry mistakes contemporary Los Angeles for a post-apocalyptic wasteland left in the wake of New New York.
• Not Where They Thought: Not only do Fry and Michelle think they've gone a millennium forward in time when they haven't, they also think they're still in New New York (or what's left of it), when actually they're in LA.
• Overshadowed by Awesome: Parodied, as one the trio are fired, Zoidberg rejoices that he will now be the popular one. Sure enough, everyone starts taking an interest in Zoidberg.
• Parental Neglect: Fry mentions that his parents took him out of school in order to save taxpayers' money, while Michelle claims that they called off the search for him for the same reason.
• Pop-Culture Pun Episode Title: The episode title is a pun on The Bionic Woman.
• Reset Button: Subverted (doubly-so if you count the Snap Back in the following episode). Fry asks for his job back, and while the Professor briefly considers giving it back to him, not even remembering why he was fired to begin with, Bender jogs his memory. Cue the episode ending with Farnsworth telling Fry to get lost and dropping him through a Trap Door.
• Sequel Episode: The episode is essentially a sequel to the pilot episode (showing how far Fry's come, reminding us of what his life was like before he was frozen and showing how someone might suffer for being a Fish out of Temporal Water in his situation). They even pointed this out in the DVD commentary.
• Shout-Out: Before unfreezing Pauly Shore, Fry declines to unfreeze "Weird Al" Yankovic, who is seen wearing his "Eat It" costume. Al has yet to appear on the series.
• Stupidest Thing I've Ever Heard: Fry about his own suggestion on how to get hold of money after they have been fired.
  "Well, what do you suggest? A daring daylight robbery of Fort Knox on elephant back? That's the dumbest thing I ever heard."
• Take That!: Fry asks his friends how they ended up in the Post Apocalyptic hellhole; they tell him that it's just modern-day Los Angeles. He keeps describing how awful it was, and the others keep saying "That's because it's Los Angeles"; eventually Bender lampshades it by saying, "He just won't stop with the social commentary."
• Teenage Wasteland: Subverted. Fry thinks this is the case with the kids who capture him and Michelle... until their mothers come to pick them up for Hebrew school.
• Tilting Tower of Pisa: During Fry's and Bender's joyride, the Planet Express ship collides with the Tower, tilting it into a normal upright position, pissing off the locals. Then the Planet Express building, which the ship is dragging behind it, collides with the now-upright Tower, tilting it the other way. Finally, the Tower falls over on a crowd of onlookers who'd gathered to gawk at its new tilt.
• Trap Door: The Professor has one to dispose of Fry in the last scene.
• Ungrateful Bitch: Fry does everything Michelle asks him to, such as sacrificing his life in the 31st Century so they can be in a time where she is comfortable, and all she does is demand more before coldly ditching him once again.

---