Spoiler alert: robots and whatnot
When Leela breaks out in suction cups, beginning what Dr. Tenderman refers to as squidification, Fry is sent to sell the Planet Express ship to pay for an operation that will, at most, only delay the symptoms a few months. The ship is bought for two giant, magic beans by a con artist, and the beans grow into a beanstalk that lead up to Mom's genetic engineering facility. Now Fry and Bender have to rescue Leela from Mom.
Tropes
- Achievements in Ignorance: Bender is able to bend a wooden door, on the grounds that the door was too stupid to realize how flexible it isn't.Fry: You can't bend a wooden door.
Bender: (whispering) I know that and you know that. But this door looks pretty stupid. - Big Damn Kiss: Fry after he promises he loves Leela unconditionally. He kisses her to show he is serious and she returns it, even doing a foot pop with her tentacles.
- Body Horror: Leela when she fully undergoes squidification. Fry tries to be supportive but is unable to hold back his scream when she first pulls off the sheet and reveals what she's become. Bender's reply "That is nasty."
- Brick Joke: Leela leaves a manhole cover off when she's distracted by the giant beanstalk before going into the sewers. Fry later falls into the open manhole while he's also distracted by the beanstalk.
- Call-Back: This episode expands on Mom's genetic splicing research for profit established way back in "A Fishful Of Dollars".
- Celebrity Cameo: Adam West and Burt Ward invert the Batman (1966)-style cameo.
- Comically Missing the Point: When Leela is attempting to end her and Fry's relationship, he thinks she's talking about goulash.Leela: Listen, Fry, whatever it was that you and I had together...
Fry: Goulash?
Leela: No! Well...I dunno...maybe it was goulash... - Continuity Nod:
- The Professor calls the Planet Express ship Bessie, the same name he gave it in "2-D Blacktop."
- Leela's locker has her blernsball uniform and Oktoberfest chicken hat.
- Crossover Cameo: The crew find Jake and Finn trapped in Mom's floating Genetics lab.Jake: What time is it?
Bender: Time for you to shut up! - Cursed with Awesome: Leela's tentacled body makes her amazingly strong, agile, elastic, and capable of clinging and climbing to any surface with rapid speed.
- Doppelgänger Crossover: Bender meets Jake from Adventure Time. Both are voiced by John DiMaggio.
- Exact Words: Bender declares that if he doesn't set a new club record on the bucking bronco, he'll eat his hat. He gets knocked off in 0.4 seconds, setting a club record for shortest ride ever, shortly tied by Farnsworth. Bender is happy enough with this result and doesn't eat his hat (Zoidberg does though).
- Fairy Tale Episode: The episode is a parody of Jack and the Beanstalk, though it also references other fairy tales like Rapunzel and Chicken Little.
- Foot Popping: When Fry reassures Leela he still loves her even if she's become a writhing mass of tentacles, he kisses her and she pops about six tentacles.
- Foreshadowing: The chamber the Giant is held in contains a lot of things that make it look more like a place of residence, including a giant-sized recliner, table, chair, can of Slurm and mug full of pencils. It's an early sign that he's not a prisoner being held against his will for Mom's cruel experiments, but a patient being accommodated for while he undergoes an experimental medical procedure.
- Freakiness Shame: Leela, even more so than usual. She sounds devastated by her condition, certain her life is over and that she'll never be loved again. Fry, who was always supportive of her, continues to be so in this episode, even after she fully undergoes squidification. He promises that he'll love her no matter what and does. She's clearly touched.
- Genetic Engineering Is the New Nuke: Inverted with Mom's genetic engineering that actually has benefits such as curing various diseases and improving crop yields. But the only problem it's banned on Earth for unspecified reasons.
- Green Aesop: Parodied. While it's shown that Mom's biotechnological agribusiness holdings are run purely for her own greed rather than any sort of charitable motivation, they have managed to cure various diseases and breed fast-growing crops (which, by the end, have totally blanketed New New York).
- Headbutt of Love: Fry and Leela do this when Fry tells Leela that he will always love her no matter what.
- Hypocritical Humor: Leela is outraged by Mom's genetic experiments and absolutely refuses to see the good they can bring despite all evidence to the contrary. Then she's told they can be used to cure her, and she's immediately onboard.
- Kindness Ball: Mom of all people wants to help the poor by creating plants big enough to stop world hunger and using genetic engineering to cure diseases. While she's still doing it for profit, she specifically emphasizes that the plants would be cheap to the point where the poor could still afford them.
- Literal Metaphor: Mom's genetic engineering lab floats in the sky to make her literally above the law.
- Out-of-Character Moment: Since when does Mom behave in a considerate way toward the less fortunate?
- Pet the Dog:
- Mom dabbled in genetic engineering to cure a person of being a giant and create plants big enough to feed world hunger. She still intended to profit off the latter, but emphasized that the resulting plants would be so cheap that even the poor could afford them. She also cured Leela's mutations in gratitude for (accidentally) helping her perfect her work.
- Also Fry trying to comfort her over her condition by giving her a kiss, which she sort of returns. Then later on when she tries to end their relationship, he assures her that he still loves her no matter what.
- Please Dump Me: Leela tries to convince Fry to end their relationship, saying there's no possible way he wants to have a life with her after what she's become. He refuses and says he'll always love her no matter what. She is clearly touched and thanks him for still wanting to be with her.
- Real Men Wear Pink: Fry grows marigolds, which are destroyed by Mom when she wants to demonstrate her new genetically engineered bean.
- Shout-Out: Adam West on a bat's body. He even appears during a climb up a building.
- Spanner in the Works: Although the crew thinks Fry is an idiot for giving away the ship for magic beans from a shifty salesman, the beanstalk that grows from them leads Leela to Mom's genetic engineering lab, where she eventually is permanently cured of her squidification.
- Understanding Boyfriend: Despite Leela's horrific transformation, Fry remains as loving and affectionate with her as ever. It never occurs to him a single time that he would break up with her or be any less loving to her than he always is and is surprised when she suggests they break up after her horrific transformation. He promises her that her squidification will not stop his love for her and passionately kisses her to confirm his devotion to her.
- Undying Loyalty: When Leela begins to undergo squificiation, Fry promises her that it won't change his feelings for her. When she fully transforms into a squid, he still stays by her, even kissing her to confirm his devotion to her.
