The Sting

Act I: "Bad news everyone! You're not good enough to go on your next mission."
As Fry and Bender are playing virtual golf, the Professor comes in and explains that they are not good enough for their next mission. The two boys celebrate, but Leela seems to take this personally, and demands to know why. The Professor explains that it is a task that claimed the lives of the previous Planet Express crew and the old Planet Express ship; the Professor thinks it too dangerous for the crew, as they are nowhere as good as the old crew. Though Fry and Bender have absolutely no problem with this, Leela insists that they are just as good and asks for the assignment: collecting honey from space bees, who's neurotoxic stings can kill anyone instantly (those allergic to them would also have their insides boil out of their eye sockets). Leela scoffs at this, saying that it would take more than "deadly, deadly bees" to stop them, and that she is more afraid of disappointing herself; Fry tries to weasel out, but is dragged along.

The crew reaches the space bees' hive and paints Bender's body like a bee, giving him a bee language cartridge that will allow him to communicate with the other bees to distract them while they venture deeper into the hive. Fry repeatedly tries to convince Leela to turn back, but Leela ignores him. They eventually come across the remains of the old Planet Express ship in the process, discovering on the crew's black box that they were in fact led to their doom because of the captain's arrogance, much like Leela; however, Leela's pride forces the group to keep going anyway.

The crew eventually reaches the honeycomb stockpile, where they begin collecting the honey. There, they also come across a flow of royal jelly, which the bees feed to the queen. Fry accidentally falls into the pool of jelly, but is quickly saved by Leela. Upon this moment, Leela comes across a baby queen bee. She decides to take the queen with them not only because she succumbs to her adorability, but also so that the crew can build its own hive in the future, and takes some jelly to feed her with. Suddenly, Bender's bee language cartridge appears to malfunction as he accidentally insults the bees, including the current queen, causing the enraged bees to chase them. Eventually the crew reaches the ship and escape the hive all in one piece.

Once outside, Fry mildly chastises Leela for her recklessness, saying that they only escaped through luck, and that he fears for her safety. While Leela comments on herself, saying that she can take care of herself, the baby queen turns on Leela and threatens to kill her. Fry throws himself in front of Leela in defense, challenging the queen to go through him if she is to reach Leela. The queen thrusts forward, but Fry selflessly holds his ground and is impaled in the lower abdomen with the stinger, which mildly stabs Leela as well, and he and Leela are both knocked down. Bender picks up the defensless dying queen and throws her into the air lock, ejecting her into space (where she is hit and killed by a space truck). Leela gets up with a marginal wound from the stinger and thanks Fry for trying to save her. However, there is no response; upon further examination, Leela is horrified to discover that Fry is dead.

Act II: "It was all my fault! He died because of me!"
Fry's funeral is held at the Orbiting Meadows, where many old acquaintances come to mourn. However, none is more woeful than Leela, who believes that it was her own hubris that caused Fry's death, and is wracked with utter remorse. Towards the end of the processions, Fry's coffin is ejected to the outer reaches of space. Back in her apartment, Leela remains sorrowful as she goes through all of the belongings that Fry had given her. Having kept some of the space honey from the mission, she takes two spoonfuls to ease the pain and, after having a brief laughing fit, quickly falls into a deep sleep. She then finds herself floating in space with Fry, who is alive. Leela is not entirely certain, so Fry decides to prove he's alive by telling her that he left something for her in his locker, which only he would know. He then tells her that he wants her to wake up; it turns out that this experience was only a dream.

Leela tells the others about her dream and what she was told, explaining that if it's true, then he must still exist in some form or another. When she opens his locker, she is disappointed to find that it is completely empty. Bender then comes in, saying that he pawned most of the stuff in Fry's locker for closure, keeping only one item because it turned out to be a present for Leela: a one-eyed stress-relieving doll. Leela marks this as proof that Fry is still alive and is communicating to her in her dreams. However, a quick brain scan leads the others to conclude that Fry told her about the present before his death, and that she subconsciously blocked it out in her grief. In other words, they begin to think that Leela might be going crazy.

Later that night, Leela has another dream in which Fry is still alive. She is convinced, however, that Fry must still be alive, since he treats her very romantically, and that she couldn't be treated any more so by her own imagination. When Fry takes her sleigh-riding on the ice fields of Hyperion, he gives her his jacket before telling her to wake up once again. Leela is reluctant to accept that this is just another dream, but wakes up anyway. Her hopes are once again dashed until she discovers that, although she is very much awake, she is still wearing Fry's jacket. Since Fry was buried in this jacket, she is once again convinced that Fry is truly alive.

Act III: "Fry's alive! I have proof!"
Leela comes to the headquarters the next day to show the others the jacket, but it turns out she has her own jacket. Leela admits that she may be freaking out (especially after hearing Amy speaking with the Professor's voice, and Bender with Amy's), and decides to take some more space honey. After hearing this, however, the others warn her that she must not take too many spoonfulls; one helps a person calm down, two help a person get to sleep, but three can place a person into a sleep from which they can never awaken.

As Leela cautiously takes a couple of spoonfulls of space honey, she becomes drowsy and accidentally knocks over the jar of royal jelly (which she also kept from the mission) onto the couch. All of a sudden, the jelly begins to take some sort of solid form, eventually transforming into Fry, who is completely naked and covered in jelly, but apparently very much alive. Leela presents Fry to the others; after examining him, the Professor concludes that Fry's DNA was imprinted into the jelly when he fell into it, and that a new body was formed when the imprint merged with his DNA in the couch. Leela is relieved that everything can return to normal and that she no longer has to carry the burden of guilt for his death, until Fry tells her to wake up again; it turns out that Leela merely fell asleep again after eating the second spoonfull.

Leela realizes that she is comfortable in her dreams while her mind plays tricks on her when she's awake. This is evidenced when Leela hallucinates the crew into performing a musical number, which each member exploding after being stung by a bee. Afterwards, Leela decides to go out into space to find Fry's coffin and keep it in her room to remind herself that he's really dead, which means dealing with her guilt again. When she finds it, however, she finds herself in her room once again, with the others' faces on the walls and floor, chanting the accusation that she killed Fry. After tearing the faces down, Leela finally believes that she is now insane.

She decides that she will take enough space honey to put her in the eternal sleep so that she can be in her dreams with Fry forever, as that is when she does not feel guilty. Just as she is about to take the final spoon, Fry's picture on her bedside table comes to life and tells her to fight her impulses, but Leela is so confused as to what to do that she breaks into tears. Fry continues to bolster her, saying that she's stronger than this. As Leela attempts to overcome her irresolution, a small space bee starts flying around the room. Leela throws the jar of space honey at it, causing it to turn into an entire swarm of smaller bees. With Leela hopelessly scared and confused, Fry admits his love for Leela and begs for her to wake up once more&mdash;and when she does, she finds herself lying in a hospital bed, with Fry sitting beside her.

It turns out that when the sting of the baby queen went right through Fry's body, Leela caught all the poison in her seemingly mild wound, putting her into a coma that lasted for two weeks; it is clear now that Fry was not killed by the sting (though his spleen required a transplant). Fry never left her side while she was unconscious and kept talking to her in the hope that a familiar voice would guide her back, which came to her in her "dreams". The final shot shows Leela and Fry hugging each other... he probably deserved it.

Trivia

 * This episode was nominated for an Emmy in 2004 for Outstanding Animated Program (For Programming Less Than One Hour).
 * (Aside from Primary characters) Leo and Inez Wong, Michelle, Petunia, Sal and Scruffy appear at the funeral. Many of the women that Fry had previously been romantically linked with attend the funeral and sit in a group together.
 * Cameos are listed in the Continuity section.
 * In, the Professor produces career chips from his previous crew from an envelope labeled "Contents of space wasp's stomach," rather than the space bees depicted in this episode. While the writer admits in the commentary their research found no relationship between bees and wasps, some wasps do invade beehives to host their larvae.
 * In this episode Fry is stung by a giant bee. Billy West, the actor who voices Fry, is also known as the voice of the Honey Nut Cheerios spokes-bee, Buzz.
 * This is the only time we see the old Planet Express Ship.
 * At the funeral, many characters are wearing special mourning clothes. For example, the Professor is wearing a black lab coat, Bender has a veil around his eyes, Leela uses dark-purple lipstick and so on.
 * Atomic Raygun Attack made an album entitled 'The Sting' in which they wrote 6 tracks taking moments from the episode. They are available for free download.
 * All the bees striking the ship were in 3D, while the other ones were not.
 * They do not use the correct colour of Royal jelly. This is because Royal jelly is a creamy-white colour and it was thought that colour would not work well.
 * Among the many wreaths at the funeral, Bender's is easily the most obvious: "R.I.P. Meatbag", and still shows his typical focus on himself, as his name is larger than that of Fry.
 * Leela uses only half a tissue to wipe away her tears, but not because she has only one eye: it is an inside reference to David X. Cohen who had a bad cold at the time the episode was written and was fearing to run out of tissues, so he halved each one to make them last longer.
 * This episode is one of four featured in the Monster Robot Maniac Fun Collection, reflecting its popularity with both fans and the creators of Futurama.
 * This episode was named #24 on IGN's list of Top 25 Futurama episodes.

Continuity

 * Terry from Applied Cryogenics appears at the funeral.
 * The refrigerator magnet from Luna Park is in Leela's "Memories of Fry" box.
 * The unamed girl from the '21st Century' appears at the funeral.
 * A couple of Trisolians appear at the funeral.
 * A coronation spoon with Fry as Emperor of Trisol on it is in Leela's "Memories of Fry" box.
 * Guenter appears at the funeral.
 * (Presumably) the winning Slurm can is in Leela's "Memories of Fry" box.
 * The radiator appears at the funeral.
 * Morgan Proctor appears at the funeral.
 * Fry's first Moustache is in Leela's "Memories of Fry" box.
 * Kug appears at the funeral.
 * A couple of Santa Claus's Neptunian aides appear at the funeral.
 * Orbiting Meadows reappears.
 * Chester A. Arthur (head-in-jar) appears at the funeral.
 * A can of π-in-1 oil is in Leela's "Memories of Fry" box.
 * A couple of Cygnoids appear at the funeral.
 * Father Changstein El-Gamal hosts the funeral.
 * The conversation heart ("U leave me breathless") is in Leela's "Memories of Fry" box.
 * Bender's comment, "You were in the best coma I've ever seen!" may be a reference to his inability to act out being in a coma in All My Circuits.
 * The still-fossilized Seymour appears at the funeral.
 * The flower Fry gave Leela is in her "Memories of Fry" box
 * A couple of Santa Claus's Neptunian aides appear at the funeral.
 * Orbiting Meadows reappears.
 * Chester A. Arthur (head-in-jar) appears at the funeral.
 * A can of π-in-1 oil is in Leela's "Memories of Fry" box.
 * A couple of Cygnoids appear at the funeral.
 * Father Changstein El-Gamal hosts the funeral.
 * The conversation heart ("U leave me breathless") is in Leela's "Memories of Fry" box.
 * Bender's comment, "You were in the best coma I've ever seen!" may be a reference to his inability to act out being in a coma in All My Circuits.
 * The still-fossilized Seymour appears at the funeral.
 * The flower Fry gave Leela is in her "Memories of Fry" box
 * Father Changstein El-Gamal hosts the funeral.
 * The conversation heart ("U leave me breathless") is in Leela's "Memories of Fry" box.
 * Bender's comment, "You were in the best coma I've ever seen!" may be a reference to his inability to act out being in a coma in All My Circuits.
 * The still-fossilized Seymour appears at the funeral.
 * The flower Fry gave Leela is in her "Memories of Fry" box
 * Bender's comment, "You were in the best coma I've ever seen!" may be a reference to his inability to act out being in a coma in All My Circuits.
 * The still-fossilized Seymour appears at the funeral.
 * The flower Fry gave Leela is in her "Memories of Fry" box
 * The flower Fry gave Leela is in her "Memories of Fry" box
 * The flower Fry gave Leela is in her "Memories of Fry" box

Allusions

 * The space helmets look similar to the ones from 20, 000 Leagues Under the Sea.
 * This episode is similar in some ways to the episode "Goodbye" in Katey Sagal's other show 8 Simple Rules. The episodes aired only five months apart.
 * Scruffy is wears a Scottish out-fit and plays the bagpipes at the funeral - a spoof of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (Spock's funeral), complete with Scruffy playing the bagpipes like Scotty did. Fry's funeral song is an arrangement of "Walking on Sunshine", which was established as Fry's favorite in . He also sings/hums it briefly in and.
 * This episode also bears similarities to the Star Trek episode "The Tholian Web", in which Kirk is mistakenly presumed dead. Uhura sees him calling for help and thinks she is losing her mind.
 * Fry's remark, "I thought that maybe if you heard a familiar voice, it might help keep your mind together. But who knows if it really got through" is an allusion to Nan Adams, a character who appeared in "The Hitch-Hiker", an episode of The Twilight Zone.
 * When Leela picks up the baby queen bee, it seems to be a reference to Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card, when Ender finds a young bug queen.
 * Hermes proclaims that he is from Jamaica - The Show-Me Island, which is a reference to Missouri's state motto, "The Show-Me State."
 * The scene in which Fry regenerates from royal jelly that was spilled on the couch is reminiscent of Frank's regeneration in the movie Hellraiser.
 * Leela pulling Fry's jacket out of her dream is a reference to Nancy Thompson pulling Freddy's hat out of a dream in A Nightmare on Elm Street.
 * The scene where Leela looks into Fry's coffin in space and sees a colourful tunnel of light (to the music Also sprach Zarathustra) is a parody of the scene in 2001: A Space Odyssey, where David Bowman encounters the Monolith and it opens into the same Stargate sequence as in the end of 2001.
 * The song "Don't Worry, Bee Happy" is a parody of and/or homage to the 1988 hit song Don't Worry, Be Happy.
 * Multiple references are made to Honeycombs Cereal, such as the Honeycomb Hideout, and when Hermes, in reply to a comment made by Fry, Hermes says "Honeycomb's big, yeah, yeah, yeah." to which Bender replies "It's not small?" where Hermes says "No, No, No.".
 * This Zoidberg's set was inspired by the Elvis Presley Special.
 * The scene where Bender ejects the baby queen bee out of an airlock is a reference to the film Alien.
 * The scene where the queen bee wriggles its stinger in the Planet Express Ship's cargo bay could be a reference to Aliens.
 * When Hermes sees that Leela is awake, he exclaims, "Sweet Three-toed Sloth of Ice Planet Hoth! She's awake!", referring to the ice planet from Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back.
 * As Leela and Fry escape the Bee Hive a bee hits a wall, then explodes; the ensuing scene is similar to Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi when the Millennium Falcon escapes from the second Death Star.
 * This episode bears similarities to the motion picture Solaris, which featured an astronaut haunted by persistent and contradictory visions of his dead wife.
 * This episode bears similarities to Philip K. Dick's novel Ubik, in which after an explosion and narrow escape, the leading characters see evidence that they might be dead, while characters who are believed dead or in irreversible coma ("half-life" in Ubik) nonetheless participate unexpectedly.

Goofs

 * In, Guenter the monkey's hat was crushed, making him have moderate intelligence while wearing it, and he keeps it that way. When Guenter is shown at the funeral, his hat isn't crushed anymore.

Characters
(In alphabetical order)
 * Amy
 * Bender
 * Fry
 * Hermes
 * Leela
 * Professor Farnsworth
 * Zoidberg
 * Morgan Proctor
 * Terry
 * Seymour Asses
 * Leo and Inez Wong
 * Cubert
 * Guenter
 * LaBarbara Conrad
 * Father Changstein el Gamahl
 * Dwight
 * Sal
 * Scruffy
 * Michelle
 * Petunia
 * Thog
 * 21st Century girl

Episode Credits

 * Writer
 * Patric M. Verrone
 * Director
 * Brian Sheesley
 * Voice Actors
 * Billy West
 * Katey Sagal
 * John DiMaggio
 * Maurice LaMarche
 * Tress MacNeille
 * Lauren Tom
 * Dave Herman
 * DVD Commentary
 * Matt Groening
 * David X. Cohen
 * Rich Moore
 * Patric M. Verrone
 * Brian Sheesley
 * John DiMaggio
 * Billy West
 * Maurice LaMarche