The Prisoner of Benda

"The Prisoner of Benda" is the ninety-eighth episode of Futurama, the tenth of the sixth production season and the seventh broadcast season. The Professor and Amy are cleaning up an old mind-switching machine that switches the crew members' minds, but everything goes haywire and they can't change back.

Act I: "We're just the people this Mind-Switcher was made for by us!"
Bender is watching the news, and finds out that Emperor Nikolai of the Robo-Hungarian Empire is visiting New New York in his yacht, the RMS Overkill. He plans on stealing the Emperor's crown, but he cannot get his co-workers to help him by doing specific jobs (such as Amy seducing the guards). Meanwhile, Amy and the Professor put the finishing touches on the Mind-Switcher. The Professor reveals that he had always wanted to live life to the extreme while he was young, and Amy reveals that she still has that demonic food lust from way back, despite having obtained an elegant figure since 2997. They decide to switch minds, so that the Professor could use Amy's young body to do extreme sports, and Amy could eat all she wants in the Professor's old body, since he was so thin. However, when they try to switch back into their normal bodies, they find out that the Mind-Switcher only works once with the same pair of people. They try to solve this problem by putting Farnsworth's mind in Bender's body, and Bender's mind in Amy's body. However, the Professor realizes that it wouldn't work, and Bender runs off with Amy's body to pull of the heist. Amy finds out that it is difficult to eat with an elderly digestive system, and she convinces Leela to switch bodies with her, so that Leela could get the Professor's senior discount at the movies. Fry is disgusted that Leela is in the Professor, and she claims that Fry is shallow, and had only loved her for her body. Meanwhile, Bender in Amy's body swims to Nikolai's yacht, where he ties up his guard and cousin Bassor. However, he is then caught by Nikolai.

Act II: "A man could give her a toke of her own medicine."
Bender in Amy's body proves that he is a Bending robot to Nikolai and Bassor. Nikolai reveals to Bender that he had always wanted to live the life of a normal person, without all the fame and fortune of an Emperor. Bender decides to use this to his advantage, by telling him that he could put his mind into his real Bending Unit body, and in exchange, Bender will live the life of an Emperor in Nikolai's body. The two of them go back to Planet Express where Bender finds out that the Professor, who was in Bender's body, ran off to join the Circus Roboticus as a daredevil named "Nonchalanto". Needing a robot body for the Emperor to reside in, Bender switches minds with Wash Bucket, and then switches minds with Emperor Nikolai, so that Nikolai had Wash Bucket's body, and Bender had Nikolai's body. Meanwhile, Fry decides to get revenge on Leela by putting himself in a hideous body and prove that she is shallow too. He switches minds with Zoidberg so that now Fry has Zoidberg's body and Zoidberg has Fry's body. Nikolai in Wash Bucket's body thinks that Zoidberg in Fry's body is his human friend as Bender said, and Zoidberg pretends to be Fry so that he could have a companion. Fry in Zoidberg's body confronts Leela in the Professor's body. In order to prove that neither of them are shallow, they both decide to go on a date at Elzar's Fine Cuisine. Leela finds out that her body is getting ruined by Amy, who is making it obese by eating butter. Hermes Conrad agrees to switch bodies with her, so that Hermes would be in Leela's body. Meanwhile, Bender is enjoying life as an Emperor, but is shocked when Nikolai's fiancée Princess Flavia and Bassor pull out guns and swords to assaninate him.

Act III: "This is for Big Bertha."
Fry in Zoidberg, and Leela in the Professor go for a meal at Elzar's, both trying to repulse the other as much as possible with their new bodies. They both try to prove to eache other that they are not shallow by making out on the table at the restaurant, as Amy in Hermes' body, and many others, assist. Meanwhile, Fry's real body, occupied by Zoidberg, takes Nikolai in Wash Bucket's body to Fry and Bender's apartment, despite the fact that neither of them had ever been there. Zoidberg pulls out a stove which creates a gas leak. Nikolai asks Zoidberg to light his cigar and they blow up the apartment. As this is happening, Bender in Nikolai's body manages to get back to the mainland of New New York, with Bassor and Flavia shooting at him from behind. He is chased into the United Nations building where Nikolai was supposed to give a speech. However, Bassor runs in after him with a sword and attacks him on live television. Meanwhile, Wash Bucket in Amy's body finds Scruffy in his quarters and confesses her love to him. She wants the two of them to move to another city and live together, but Scruffy says no, because in the back of their minds they would know that it wouldn't be right. Professor Farnsworth, still in Bender at the Circus Roboticus, watches the fight at the UN on the TV Robot. He wants to help Bender, but cannot get there in time. A howitzer named Big Bertha volunteers to shoot him there, but is badly injured because of the size of Bender's body. The Professor lands on the United Nations building roof. With his own sword, he starts a swordfight with Bassor before he could do any harm to Bender in Nikolai. Meanwhile, the making out of Fry and Leela, in Zoidberg and the Professor, had moved back to Leela's place. After having sex, the two of them are surprised to see Bender's body fighting with Bassor on TV. The Professor in Bender's body wins by opening his door and revealing twenty Robot Clowns, all wielding swords of their own, and they kill Bassor. Later, at Planet Express, Bubblegum Tate and Sweet Clyde use math to find out a way to get everyone in their original bodies, as shown below. They use it and the episode ends with everyone back to normal and Bender realizing that he forgot the crown in Nikolai's compartment.

Production
According to David X. Cohen, writer Ken Keeler penned a theorem (and proof thereof) based on group theory, then used it to explain a plot twist in this episode.

Writer Eric Rogers calls "The Prisoner of Benda" his favorite Futurama episode alongside "Jurassic Bark", "because it may be the epitome of what this series attempts to do every week: the perfect blend of science fiction and bust-a-gut humor".

The inversion
Keeler uses the method outlined in the proof to restore all minds to their respective bodies. Here are his transpositions. He uses thirteen switches total, which is the least possible number of switches in this scenario.


 * Fry's body (receiving Sweet Clyde's mind) ↔ Sweet Clyde's body (receiving Dr Zoidberg's mind)
 * Dr Zoidberg's body (receiving Bubblegum Tate's mind) ↔ Bubblegum Tate's body (receiving Fry's mind)
 * Sweet Clyde's body (receiving Bubblegum Tate's mind) ↔ Dr Zoidberg's body (receiving Dr Zoidberg's mind)
 * Bubblegum Tate's body (receiving Sweet Clyde's mind) ↔ Fry's body (receiving Fry's mind)
 * Professor Farnsworth's body (receiving Bubblegum Tate's mind) ↔ Sweet Clyde's body (receiving Leela's mind)
 * Washbucket's body (receiving Sweet Clyde's mind) ↔ Bubblegum Tate's body (receiving The Emperor's mind)
 * Sweet Clyde's body (receiving Hermes's mind) ↔ Leela's body (receiving Leela's mind)
 * Bubblegum Tate's body (receiving Bender's mind) ↔ The Emperor's body (receiving The Emperor's mind)
 * Hermes's body (receiving Hermes's mind) ↔ Sweet Clyde's body (receiving Amy's mind)
 * Bender's body (receiving Bender's mind) ↔ Bubblegum Tate's body (receiving Professor Farnsworth's mind)
 * Sweet Clyde's body (receiving Washbucket's mind) ↔ Amy's body (receiving Amy's mind)
 * Bubblegum Tate's body (receiving Bubblegum Tate's mind) ↔ Professor Farnsworth's body (receiving Professor Farnsworth's mind)
 * Washbucket's body (receiving Washbucket's mind) ↔ Sweet Clyde's body (receiving Sweet Clyde's mind)

The proof


First let π be some k-cycle on [n] = {1 ... n} WLOG [without loss of generality] write: π = 1 2  ...  k  k+1  ... n    2  3  ...  1  k+1  ... n

Let  represent the transposition that switches the contents of a and b. By hypothesis π is generated by DISTINCT switches on [n]. Introduce two "new bodies" {x,y} and write π* = 1 2  ...  k  k+1  ... n x  y      2  3  ...  1  k+1  ... n x  y

For any i=1 ... k let σ be the (l-to-r) series of switches σ = (  ... ) (  ... ) () ()

Note each switch exchanges an element of [n] with one of {x,y} so they are all distinct from the switches within [n] that generated π and also from . By routine verification π* σ = 1 2  ... n x  y        1  2  ... n y  x

i. e. σ reverts the k-cycle and leaves x and y switched (without performing ).

NOW let π be an ARBITRARY permutation on [n]. It consists of disjoint (nontrivial) cycles and each can be inverted as above in sequence after which x and y can be switched if necessary via , as was desired.

Reception
In its original American broadcast, "The Prisoner of Benda" was viewed by an estimated 1.774 million households, down 150,000 viewers since A Clockwork Origin.

Allusions

 * The title of the episode and Bender's plot of posing as an emperor is a reference to the 1894 novel (as well as its numerous adaptions).
 * The title caption refers to, which is a black hole. If nothing can escape from a black hole, then clearly anything that happens in Cygnus X-1 will stay in Cygnus X-1.
 * Leela makes several mentions of movies, possibly the  series.
 * Bender in Amy's body convinces Emperor Nikolai that he is a robot by dancing 's famous.
 * Hermes says that Amy (in the body of Leela) "makes look like normal Albert".
 * Big Bertha, a robot with a cannon stomach, is a reference to the German.
 * The idea of one-way-mind-swapping-machine is very similar to the one in the Season Two episode "Holday". However, in that instance, the limitation related to consciousnesses rather than bodies.
 * The concept of a member of royalty temporarily switching lives with an ordinary person is similar to the story.
 * The UN Conference is portrayed as nightclub act in Vegas with the opening act delivered by "Peaches and Herzegovina" which is a play on both the name of Eastern European nation and American disco/soul duo "".
 * An occurrence of mind switching was seen in the original series in a third season episode called . James T. Kirk's body is forcefully taken by Dr. Janice Lester (a former lover of Kirk's) and Kirk is forced to use Lester's body to convince the crew members of the mind change. Among other issues, Lester's and Kirk's voices remain in their respective bodies, so swaying crew members' beliefs of the switch proves difficult.

Trivia

 * This is the third episode of Season 6 to use a cold opening (alongside "Rebirth" and "That Darn Katz!"). Cold openings were previously used most prominently in Seasons 1 and 2.
 * This is the third animated TV show in which a character voiced by John DiMaggio switches bodies with someone and the voice moves with the character into the new body. The other two were the "Kim Possible" episode "Mind Games", which originally aired in 2002, with DiMaggio voicing Dr. Drakken and the "Penguins Of Madagascar" episode "Roger Doger", aired in 2009, with DiMaggio voicing Rico.
 * When Amy (in the Professor's body) is eating ribs, she says "I have died" in Cantonese.

Continuity

 * This is the third time Leela has shown concern about her eye, the previous being "The Cyber House Rules" and "Bender's Big Score".
 * Yet again Amy's childhood obesity is a theme, previously mentioned in episodes such as "Teenage Mutant Leela's Hurdles" and "Into the Wild Green Yonder".
 * Bender claims he is sixty percent storage space. A recurring joke is that someone claims Bender is a certain percent of something, with the total by now adding up to much more than 100%.
 * Fry seems to be excited by the idea of Leela's mind in Amy's body, a revisiting to the Fry-Amy relationship.
 * The Professor calls Bender's body invincible, though only a few episodes earlier ("Lethal Inspection") we found out that it wasn't.
 * Of course, in comparison to the Professor's old and decrepit body, he may be feeling like he is invincible in Bender's (as it can certainly stand up to much more punishment than his own 170+ -years-old body). It could simply be a matter of perception, not actual "invincibility".
 * If you remember, in "Rebirth", Bender was blown up by one of the Professor's doomsday devices. He also had 2 bombs detonate inside his compartment in "War Is the H-Word." Another display of the bending units durability is in "Bendless Love", Flexo was crushed under an unbendable gurter and later stated that if he had remained crushed he would have died in hundreds of years, proving that the bending units are very near invincible. The only known way being via his self-destruct button which is located on his body as revealed in "A Head in the Polls".
 * The episode brings a big step in the Fry-Leela relationship, as they have sex for the first time known, though it should be noted that neither is in their own body at the time.
 * This is the first time the two have had intercourse in canon, but in "Anthology of Interest I", during the simulation "Dial L For Leela", Leela was forced to keep Fry silent about the recent murders she committed by having sex with Fry, while in their own bodies. However, "Anthology Of Interest I" can't be regarded as canon as it was during a "what-if" scenario.
 * The Professor had invented a mind-switching device back in Bender's Game, but is seen here as only having just completed it. However, it may have been operational, just not perfected at that time.
 * The piles of dead monkeys the machine created during testing (and discussed by Amy and the Professor) had to have come from somewhere.
 * The Employee of The Year photos show Hermes as Planet Express employee of the year in 2998, even though he is shown working at Mom's Friendly Robot Company in that year in "Lethal Inspection".
 * There is no such year designation for Hermes working for Mom in "Lethal Inspection".
 * Bender was four years old in 3002, as in Season 3, episode 6 "Bendless Love" he reveals that he was built "four years ago" and says to Fry's surprise "Precocious little scamp, ain't I?". It was revealed in "Lethal Inspection" that Hermes quit working for Mom after he approved Bender as Inspector #5. So it is actually possible that Hermes could have been working for the Professor as early as 2998. He could have quit at Mom's early in the year.
 * Hermes could have held two jobs for a few years, before resigning from Mom.
 * Amy is shown as Planet Express Employee of The Year in 2992 and 2997, but she has only been the Professor's intern since 2998.
 * Amy could have been working as a different employee for him before becoming his intern.
 * Someone in the crowd shouts, "I LOVE YOU, YOUR MAJESTY!!!" Bender, in the Emperor's body, replies, "Shut up, Madame Ambassador, I know it." This is a callback to a similar gag in "Put Your Head on My Shoulder".

Goofs

 * Fishy Joe says there can barely fit twelve Robot Clowns in the car, but there are actually only nine.
 * That's per cubic meter. If the clown car was less than a cubic meter in volume you could achieve 12 Robot Clowns per meter with only 9.
 * Fry and Bender's apartment looks much different from earlier appearances (as in "The Late Philip J. Fry"). While previously being a small apartment (Bender's room) with a giant sideroom (Fry's), it now does not have the small apartment and it includes a kitchen. (The kitchen had been seen previously, such as in Bender's Game.)
 * It could have been rebuilt.
 * Zoidberg was in Fry's body at the time he entered the apartment and had no idea where he was going. He could have chosen the wrong one.
 * Leela's building had been destroyed by the alien scammers in Bender's Big Score to make room for a Panda preserve.
 * It could have been rebuilt.
 * It was established in the episode "Why Must I Be a Crustacean in Love" that, once a male Decapodian releases his male jelly, he dies. However, in this episode, Fry, who was in Zoidberg's body, wound up having intercourse with Leela, who was in the Professor's body, and did not die.
 * It could be that, to die, a Decapodian needs to mate with another Decapodian.
 * It could be that, Leela was keen to use her new appendage, therefore it would be Farnsworth's male jelly, not Zoidberg's, that was released.
 * Mating and having sex are not necessarily the same thing for all species. The releasing of male jelly might be voluntary.
 * It is also possible that he did not release his reproductive "male jelly", however. The male jelly may only be able to be released inside a female, perhaps, or Zoidberg may have another pouch that releases when he orgasms, but not the same pouch that releases the male jelly for reproduction.
 * Zoidberg's male jelly may only be produced during his mating season. Making it so that there was nothing to release. As for the male jelly in "Why Must I Be a Crustacean in Love", his body probably broke it down and reabsorbed it as in nature.
 * After everyone swaps back into their original bodies, Hermes is as fat as usual.
 * Given how abnormally fast he lost the weight originally, he could have gained it back just as fast.

Characters

 * 21st Century Girl
 * Amy
 * Debut: Bassor
 * Debut: Big Bertha
 * Debut: Chainsaw Robot
 * Bender
 * 'Sweet' Clyde Dixon
 * Ethan 'Bubblegum' Tate
 * Fry
 * Hermes
 * "Fishy" Joseph Gilman
 * Debut: Japanese UN Diplomat
 * Leela
 * Linda
 * Morbo
 * Debut: Emperor Nikolai
 * Debut: Flavia
 * Professor Farnsworth
 * Richard Nixon's head
 * Debut: Robot Acrobat
 * Debut: Robot Clowns
 * Scruffy
 * Debut: TV Robot
 * Debut: Wash Bucket
 * Zoidberg