Stench and Stenchibility

Dr. Zoidberg meets the love of his life while Bender squares off in a deadly tap-dancing competition.

Act I: "It won't be long, Johnny cakes. My space bus gets in at four thirty."
Zoidberg has been "video-dating" the hideous creature named Zindy for four years, and they've finally made plans to meet in person. As Zoidberg prepares for her arrival by cleaning up the dumpster in which he lives, Bender attempts to help by dropping in a bug bomb. All of the evacuate the dumpster and infest Bender instead, resulting in a serious attack of the willies on Bender's part. He quickly sheds all of the bugs, but compulsively and meticulously stomps every one of them into mush. Arriving in time to observe this "performance", Randy invites Bender to compete in a local tap-dancing competition. Bender accepts the invitation, suddenly discovering his "brand-new dream of being the greatest tap-dancer in all the world!...Of all time!"

On his way to meet Zindy, Zoidberg stops to use his life savings of $3 to purchase half a bouquet of daisies from Marianne, a street vendor who has parked her flower stand next to Planet Express. When Marianne has difficulty cutting the flower stems due to dull shears, Zoidberg charms her by cutting them with his claw. He then goes to meet Zindy, who is sickened by a terrible smell that turns out to be Zoidberg's normal scent. Zindy runs away saying, "I can't see you any more. Something's come up&mdash;it's vomit!"

Act II: "Can I have a refund now?"
Heartbroken, Zoidberg attempts to return his half-bouquet of now-wilted daisies for a refund. Already devastated over Zindy, he is crushed further when Marianne responds that she can't afford to refund the $3 that was his life savings. When Zoidberg breaks down in tears, she is moved, saying, "I can't stand to see a living thing cry." Zoidberg is charmed when she confirms with him, "You are a living thing, right?" Roberto appears and attempts to mug them, but Zoidberg finds that he has reached rock bottom. He carelessly confronts Roberto, even inviting Roberto to kill him. Gesticulating, Zoidberg happens to raise his arms, blasting Roberto with his horrible body odor and driving him away. Marianne is very impressed with Zoidberg having been so "brave and frugal". Zoidberg is confused that she isn't repulsed by his stench; Marianne explains that she was born with no sense of smell. After a montage of enjoyable dates, they find themselves having, as Zoidberg later puts it, "a wonderful night of lovemaking in my dumpster!"

At the tap-dancing competition, Bender meets his opponents, notably six-year-old Tonya, a with a heart condition that requires her to live with a pacemaker. Tonya is over-the-top cute, and everyone is taken with her, except Bender.

When Zoidberg introduces Marianne to the, everyone is amazed at Zoidberg's luck. After Marianne takes her leave, they ask the obvious question. When Zoidberg describes her defect, Hermes laments the lack of a cure. Farnsworth asserts that a skilled surgeon could indeed cure Marianne with a nose transplant. Zoidberg is genuine: he becomes excited while contemplating her happiness without realizing the sad consequence until the others bring it to his attention. With their encouragement but with terrible chagrin, Zoidberg decides he must forever keep the cure secret from Marianne.

As weeks pass, while Zoidberg and Marianne get to know each other, the tap-dance competitors are eliminated one by one until only Bender and Tonya are left. When Randy presents them to the audience, Tonya reminds everyone how over-the-top cute she is, and Bender announces, "I'm gonna kick your ass, little girl!" Later, arguing with Leela, Bender attempts to disabuse her of her notions about Tonya with, "I've looked into her eyes and seen her soul. She's a ." When Fry and Leela leave, Tonya suddenly appears. She clubs Bender in the left knee with a police baton and runs away. Bender's leg is in need of repair or he won't be able to dance.

While Zoidberg and Marianne have been enjoying each other's company, Zoidberg has often been painfully reminded of his duplicity. After weeks of this, while on a picnic, Zoidberg describes the smell of a flower for Marianne. She responds, "I'd give anything to be able to smell a flower like that." Zoidberg is stricken. He reveals his secret and offers to give her the transplant. She joyfully accepts, as Zoidberg stoically takes on the weight of his new sorrow.

Act III: "Smell you later."
Zoidberg is preparing for Marianne's nose transplant as Bender limps in, asking Zoidberg for help with his badly injured leg. Zoidberg is wrapped up in his own issues and has no time for Bender. As Zoidberg sits at her bedside as Marianne is prepared for the procedure, she is unaware that for him, this is a goodbye. He starts to break down for a moment, but he pulls himself together and proceeds with the operation.

Onstage at the tap-dancing competition, Tonya projects her cute image to the audience as she and Bender trade barbs under their breath. Because they have so much in common, Bender mentions that they could have been friends in another universe. She rebuffs him sharply. After their dance, while awaiting the judge's decision, Bender vows to Fry and Leela that he will dance on Tonya's grave. Tonya wins the contest and receives an award, but suffers a fatal "cute little heart attack" in the middle of her acceptance speech.

Marianne wakes from her anesthesia as Zoidberg sits sadly beside her bed. He offers her flowers so she can enjoy the scent for the first time, but she hates the smell. Zoidberg assumes that he is the source of the smell she finds offensive, but she discovers otherwise. She really does hate the smell of flowers, and she really does enjoy Zoidberg's stench.

To the horror of onlookers, Bender decides not to wait for Tanya to be buried, and he dances on top of her dead body, unwittingly dancing on her chest cavity. To Bender's horror, his dance restarts Tonya's heart. She sits back up and seems perfectly fine. To Bender's further horror, the previously horrified onlookers swarm him in order to congratulate and praise him.

Bender and Tonya are found later, having joined forces, tap dancing on the street with a hat on the ground for donations. When Hattie McDoogal arrives and drops money into their hat, they mug her and run away. Back at Zoidberg's dumpster, Marianne drives up in a dumpster truck as Zoidberg has a morning cup of dumpster juice. She explains that she had to get a job, and with Zoidberg's permission, dumps him and his dumpster into her truck. The two are last seen sitting together in the front seat and driving away.

Production
On 11 2012, Futurama writer Eric Rogers revealed that "[this episode and "7ACV26"] now [had] stories".

On 5 2013,  released a preview clip for the tenth broadcast season, which contained footage from the episode.

On 22 August, Geek released a 50-second preview clip featuring Fry, Leela, and Bender at the NNY Recreation Center.

By 23 August, a one-minute preview clip featuring Zoidberg meeting Marianne had been released.

Trivia

 * The episode premiered on the day that "Futuramarutuf" was released.
 * Both this episode, which is the second-to-last episode of the tenth broadcast season, and "Viva Mars Vegas", which was originally planned to be the second-to-last episode of the ninth broadcast season, have Zoidberg as the main character.
 * The title caption for the episode &mdash; "Not The Episode With The Dead " &mdash; is presumably a reference to Seymour &mdash; Fry's dog. The episode referred to is most likely "Jurassic Bark", in which Seymour famously debuted.
 * Zoidberg says that Zindy will arrive just in time for the "all you can stand" buffet at Chizzler. A called Chizzler was previously mentioned in "The Problem with Popplers".
 * Emilia Clarke plays in the T.V. series Game of Thrones. She and Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane, who guest-stars in "Game of Tones", another episode of the season, used to date.
 * The blonde woman in the pink dress, seen at the NNY Recreation Center, resembles Stephanie.
 * Marianne mentions a "falafel guy". This may be the falafel cart man.
 * This episode is reminiscent of the Spanish novel . In the novel, a blind man is led around by an ugly girl who everyone hates due to her ugliness. When his sight is restored through an operation, the man realizes it is her only as she dies of a broken heart and is upset. The same happens in this episode except with the sense of smell and without ending in death.
 * In a deleted scene, Tinny Tim is selling s announcing the end of World VIII.

Allusions

 * The episode's title is a reference to the 1811 novel .
 * Bender's bug bombs are named "Hal's Roach Bombs", a homage to American film and television producer, director, and . The front part of Bender's box reads "KILLS THE LITTLE RASCALS!", a reference to the series of short films , created by Roach.
 * Marianne's flower stand is named "The Flowering Inferno", a reference to the 1974 film .
 * The episode's plot loosely follows the storyline of the 1931 film, in which The Tramp (played by ) falls in love with a poor blind flower street-vendor and convinces her that he is rich and handsome. Upon hearing of a doctor that can cure her blindness, he is initially unwilling to tell her of this discovery as he doesn't believe she will love him if she could see what he really looked like.
 * Marianne's character may be a reference to the character, from the 1912 play ' and the 1964 film ', who had a accent and sold flowers, though the plots of the episode and the play/film differ greatly.
 * Petunia's tap-dancing outfit may be a reference to the jogging ensemble of from the British sitcom , complete with lit cigarette.
 * The name "Fleur de Liz" is a play on the names "" and "". The use of "Liz" is a reference to actress, whose preserved head is seen in the bottle.
 * Bender's knee injury is a reference to the 1994 assault case where professional figure skater sustained a knee injury in an brutal attack by the ex-husband of fellow skater .  His cries of "Why? Why? Why?" match Kerrigan's reaction to the attack.
 * Band-Ape is a reference to the line of adhesive bandages . "Bend-Aid", a concert at which Bender performs in "Bendin' in the Wind", is unrelated, being a reference to a series of charity efforts, known as "", performed by numerous popular musicians during the 1980's.
 * After Bender dances on his hands, Randy says "Ew, look at him dance; he don't care!". This is likely a reference to the YouTube video. It may also be a reference to the  nobleman.
 * Bender's line "Together, we shall rule the galaxy!" is likely a reference to ''Star Wars Darth Vader's line "Join me, and together we can rule as father and son", from the 1980 film '.
 * Bender's line, "In another life, we could have been friends" is likely a reference to the Star Trek episode , in which a Romulan states "In a different reality, I could have called you friend." This same line is also referenced by Melllvar in "Where No Fan has Gone Before".
 * An image of a pony can be seen inside Tonya's locker. This is most likely a reference to , in which Tonya's voice actor, Tara Strong, voices the pony.

Continuity

 * The professor uses the F-ray, previously seen in "Fry and the Slurm Factory" and "Murder on the Planet Express".
 * In "The Six Million Dollar Mon", his previous appearance, Roberto was executed. No explanation is given for his return, although it is likely that it is due to him having a back-up unit.
 * New Jersey's stench was previously referred to in "Attack of the Killer App".
 * The professor calls Fry Orange Joe. In "Fun on a Bun", the professor asked Fry his name, and Fry told him that it was Orange Joe.
 * Randy's line "The robot has to go!" was previously spoken in "I, Roommate". Both episodes are also written by the same person.

Goofs

 * When Zoidberg says "Nope", his eyes are white.
 * Roberto runs away from Zoidberg's smell, but it was previously stated that robots don't have a sense of smell.
 * In "The 30% Iron Chef", Bender claims to have the sense of smision. Roberto might have used smision to "smell-see" Zoidberg.
 * Previous episodes have shown that Zoidberg can't tell the difference between male and female humans, yet in this episode he clearly can tell that Marianne is female.
 * He may have finally learned to tell the difference.
 * It may have been a good guess.
 * After the camera zooms out to reveal that Zoidberg and Marianne are not at Burger King but at Limburger King, there is less space to the left of the "B".
 * Zoidberg mentions "lovemaking" to Marianne in his dumpster, yet it was established in "Why Must I Be a Crustacean in Love?" that Decapodians die when they mate.
 * Actually what is said is that they die when they pass on their genes, it's possible that since he was mating outside of his species, he didn't die because he didn't pass on his genes.

Characters

 * Amy
 * Mrs. Astor
 * Bender
 * Dr. Cahill
 * Professor Farnsworth
 * Fry
 * Debut: Greg
 * H.G. Blob
 * Hattie
 * Hermes
 * Leela
 * Debut: Marianne
 * Petunia
 * Randy Munchnik
 * Roberto
 * Tinny Tim (deleted scene)
 * Debut: Tonya
 * Wash bucket
 * Debut: Zindy
 * Dr. Zoidberg

Places

 * Central Park
 * Chizzler
 * Debut: Discount petting zoo
 * Debut: The Flowering Inferno
 * Debut: Limburger King
 * New Jersey
 * Debut: NNY Bus Terminal
 * Debut: NNY Recreation Center
 * Planet Express conference room
 * Planet Express employee lounge
 * Planet Express headquarters
 * Zoidberg's dumpster
 * Zoidberg's office

Miscellaneous

 * Debut: Band-Ape
 * F-ray
 * Debut: Fleur de Liz Parfum
 * French language
 * Debut: Hal's Roach Bombs
 * Lightspeed Briefs
 * "Me, Bender"
 * Debut: Parolee's Choice Bus Lines