Love and Rocket

Production Number: 4ACV03 Title Caption: WHEN YOU SEE THE ROBOT, DRINK! First Aired: February 10, 2002

Act I: U-R-2 Cute
Shortly before Valentine's Day, Bender and the Planet Express Ship are having major differences. Meanwhile, Planet Express lands a big contract with Romanticorp and is able to afford some modifications to the ship, including an improved personality (female) software for the Planet Express Ship, whom Bender immediately falls in love with.

Act II: I Wuv U
Meanwhile, Fry tries to find the perfect pickup line from the huge load of conversation hearts they are supposed to deliver in order to impress Leela with it. Meanwhile, Bender is already tired of the Planet Express ship and starts to date cheap floosies on the side, arousing the ship's suspicions and jelousy. Bender is stalling the Planet Express Ship, which gets more and more suspicious and starts acting strange. As the crew delivers a load of conversation hearts to Omicron Persei 8 as a peace offering from Earth's government, the Omicronians get mad at the misspelled hearts and chase the crew off the planet, which results in a space battle. Bender picks just this moment to break up with the ship, which breaks down in despair, causing Omicronian torpedoes to impact.

Act III: U leave me breathless
They manage to escape the Omicronians somewhat dented, but the ship is still taking the breakup hard despite Leela's best efforts to consolate it. Loosing all hope to get together with Bender, the ship decides to fly the nearest quasar to unite it and Bender with the massive gravity pull of the Black Hole inside. The crew tries to stop the ship, which disables life support and artificial gravity. Bender offers to merge his programming with the ship's to distract it, while Leela tries shutting down the ship's brain. While Fry and Leela are in the brain room and she is busy, he is still looking for the ultimate heart line and notices that Leela's oxygen is running out. As she is not to be disturbed in her job, he secretly plugs his own oxygen supply into her personal life support system, risking suffocation. Meanwhile, Bender is chased around the matrix-like world of the ship's computer by her personality icon and cannot evade merging their programming. Leela succeeds in shutting down the computer, and life support and gravity return. She stops the ship from flying into the quasar, but has to reanimate Fry who ran out of oxygen - and found the perfect heart line to express his feelings for her. Bender seperates from the computer's consciousness, but seems to have ingested part of her personality. The crew dumps the now useless conversation hearts into the quasar, causing a mystical love radiation spreading across the universe - just in time for Valentine's Day.

Trivia

 * Much of the episode is inspired by the epic SF movie "2001 - A Space Odyssey", like the computer's eye and bender singing "Daisy Bell".
 * According to the DVD commentary, Leela lights a vanilla-scented candle on the bridge while consolating the ship and feeds it several buckets of ice cream - her standard method of coping with romantical problems, judging from her feelings expressed by Bender in I Second that Emotion.

Quotes

 * Farnsworth: Remember, we've got to show these people we're not bitter husks of human beings who long ago abandoned hope of finding love in this lifetime. Leela, you'll have to do some acting. Leela: Check!
 * Zoidberg: Clothing, delicious clothing!
 * Bender: Call me old-fashioned, but I like a dump to be as memorable as it is devastating!
 * Leela: Look, Ship, if I learned anything from my mutual breakup with Shawn that was totally mutual, it's that happiness can only come from within you. Planet Express Ship: (crying) But Bender IS within me!
 * Planet Express Ship: I'm afraid I can't do that, Leela.
 * Lrrr: This is ancient Earth's most foolish program. Why does Ross, the largest friend, not simply eat the other five? Ndnd: Perhaps they are saving that for sweeps.
 * Lrrr: Eugh! These candies are chalky and unpleasant. Ndnd: And what is this emotion you humans call "wuv?" Lrrr: Surely, it says love? Ndnd: No, wuv with an Earth "W". Lrrr: This concept of "wuv" confuses and infuriates us!!

Inside References

 * Some items in Fry's and Bender's cabin refer to earlier episodes, among them are: a sword (probably nicked from Alcazar) leaning on the wall, a DOOP uniform on the ground, a model of the Titanic on a shelf, the helmet Fry wore in When Aliens Attack, a Mars University pennant on the wall and a suitcase. The same gadgets are already there in The Deep South, and some of them can be seen in other episodes as well, like the sword in Kif Gets Knocked Up a Notch. The pink cloth on the hilt of the sword looks suspiciously like Gender Bender's tutu from Raging Bender.

Characters
(In alphabetical order)
 * Amy
 * Bender
 * Professor Farnsworth
 * Fry
 * Hermes
 * Leela
 * Zoidberg
 * Lrrr
 * Ndnd
 * Debut: Planet Express Ship
 * Debut: Sheldon
 * Debut: Gwen

Episode Credits

 * Writer
 * Dan Vebber
 * Director
 * Brian Sheesley
 * Voice Actors
 * Billy West
 * Katey Sagal
 * John DiMaggio
 * DVD Commentary
 * Matt Groening
 * David X. Cohen
 * Rich Moore
 * Dan Vebber
 * Brian Sheesley
 * Billy West
 * Maurice LaMarche
 * Guest Stars
 * Sigourney Weaver
 * Lucy Liu