[S4E1] Roswell That Ends Well

"Roswell That Ends Well" is the 19th episode in the third season of the American animated television series Futurama. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on December 9, 2001. The plot centers on an accidental time travel event that results in the main characters participating in the Roswell Incident in 1947.[1]

[S4E1] Roswell That Ends Well

Meanwhile, the microwave oven needed to return to the future has been destroyed and a replacement is not yet commercially available. A microwave antenna from the army base would work as a viable alternative, but Professor Farnsworth warns that stealing it could change history. He likewise warns Fry against visiting his grandfather, Enos, who is stationed at the base, as he might kill Enos and erase his own existence. However, Farnsworth's advice has the opposite effect; Fry becomes determined to seek out Enos and encourage him to pursue a sexual relationship with his fiancée Mildred. After several bumbling attempts to keep Enos safe (as well as discovering that Enos is a latent homosexual), Fry resorts to locking him in an abandoned house. The house turns out to be located in the middle of a nuclear weapon testing range, and Enos is killed in a bomb test.

With time running out, Farnsworth decides that secrecy is no longer important and the crew storm Roswell Air Base by force to get the microwave dish, throwing the entire complex into disarray. Fry and Leela rescue Zoidberg from an alien autopsy while Farnsworth grabs Bender's body. As the ship leaves Earth's atmosphere and triggers the microwave dish for the time jump, Bender's head falls out and has to be left behind in 1947. Back in the 31st century, Fry laments the loss of Bender, until he realizes that his head must still be where it landed in New Mexico. The crew return to Roswell's ruins with a metal detector and dig up the head, still intact and functioning. They attach it to Bender's still-mangled, hovering, "UFO" body and return to New New York, content that their misadventures in 1947 have not changed history in any way.

The episode won an Emmy Award in the Outstanding Animated Program (Programming Less Than One Hour) category in 2002,[6] marking Futurama's first win in this category. Rich Moore also won an Annie Award for "Directing in an Animated Television Production" in 2002[7] and in 2006, IGN ranked the episode as the sixth best Futurama episode.[8] In 2013, they reassessed the list and upgraded it to third best.[9] In 2001, executive producer David X. Cohen noted that this was one of his favorite episodes of the series.[10] Sci Fi Weekly gave the episode an "A" grade and noted that it was "a half hour of pure entertainment".[11] Zack Handlen of The A.V. Club gave the episode an A.[12] This episode is one of four featured in the Monster Robot Maniac Fun Collection, marking it as one of Matt Groening's favorite episodes from the series.[13] Claudia Katz, producer of Futurama, has also stated that this is one of her three favorite episodes of the series.[14] In 2013, it was ranked number 5 "as voted on by fans" for Comedy Central's Futurama Fanarama marathon.[15] Although the episode was well received by critics, it continued to do poorly in its time slot. The original airing was in 83rd place for the week with a 3.1 rating/5 share.[16]

"Roswell that Ends Well", originally titled "All's Well in Roswell", is the fifty-first episode of Futurama, the nineteenth of the third production season and the first of the fourth broadcast season. It aired on 9 December, 2001, on Fox. Travelling back to July 1947 to Roswell, New Mexico, the Planet Express crew causes the famed Roswell incident, and Dr. Zoidberg is captured by the U.S. military. Meanwhile, Fry accidentally kills his paternal grandfather Enos Fry.

Return to the future is only possible as long as the hole in the time-space continuum punched by the supernova remains open, which leaves exactly 24 hours. The crew has several tasks to complete: acquire a new microwave and rescue Zoidberg and Bender's body, all without upsetting history. Things become more complicated as Fry mentions that his grandfather Enos Fry is stationed at Roswell, which presents the danger of time paradoxes as he is the only one who can infiltrate the military base without arousing suspicion, as he is the right age to be a soldier, male and two-eyed. The Professor warns Fry not to go anywhere near Enos for fear of upsetting history, as well as the fact that any changes to Enos' timestream could result in Fry being erased from existence, but this has the opposite effect in making Fry paranoid about Enos' safety.

Meanwhile, Leela and the Professor order lunch at the diner, confusing Mildred by ordering future food then ridiculously outdated food. Leela remarks that they might as well settle in, since without a microwave they're trapped in 1947; the Professor complains that, among other things, they'll have to endure the Big Bopper's horrible music and tragic death. Leela spots a radar dish in the air base, which would suffice as a substitute for a microwave as it emits the same radiation; but the Professor vetoes her proposal to steal it, insisting that they must not interfere with history. On that note, Fry arrives with the grim news that he has accidentally killed his grandfather, and everyone is puzzled why he (or, given their kinship, the Professor as well) did not vanish. Since he and the Professor are still alive, Enos must have already gotten Mildred pregnant (though nobody in the crew arrives at such a conclusion) or something else is going on here........

After Leela manages to finally calm Fry down (mostly by smacking him around) the Professor decides that secrecy is no longer viable and that they must steal the radar dish and get back to the future before they can cause any more damage; history will just have to take care of itself. The PE ship attacks Roswell Air Base, inflicting considerable damage and throwing the entire complex into disarray. The crew rescue Zoidberg, beating up President Truman in the process, and Bender's body and steal the radar dish. As the ship leaves the atmosphere, Bender's head falls out of the cargo hatch, and there is no time to retrieve it as the supernova hole is almost closed; the PE ship narrowly gets through it and returns to the future.

Fry is left mourning the fact that Bender is trapped 1,000 years in the past, until he realizes that Bender's head should still be where it fell. Fry, Leela, and the Professor again travel to the remains of Roswell Air Base and search for Bender's head, eventually locating it and reuniting it with his still saucer-shaped body. With Bender recovered and no apparent ill effects from Fry's literal screwing with history, it's all's well that ends well.

Roswell that Ends Well is the 51st episode of Futurama. This episode won the 2002 Emmy for Outstanding Animated Program (For Programming Less Than One Hour), winning the show its first Emmy.

The crew is sent back to the year 1947 when Fry puts metal in the ship's microwave while the rest of the crew is watching a supernova explosion. The resultant reaction causes the ship to vanish into a tunnеl, where they pick up a number of clocks before exiting out a portal. Confused, the crew decides to head back to Earth, only to find no space traffic. Worse, there is no receiving signal, so they crash land in Roswell, New Mexico, causing an unsecured Bender to be thrown through the forward viewport and fly to pieces. While everyone else, including Bender's head, heads back to the ship, Zoidberg is left picking up the pieces. However, at night he is found by the United States military. The next day, the crew realizes that the famous crashed UFO that brought Roswell, Area 51, and the related conspiracy theory into popular culture was in fact them. The Professor then explains that the microwave's radiation and the gravitons and graviolois from the supernova blasted them through time itself.

While the crew looks for another microwave, which can't be purchased at Sears in 1947 Roswell, Fry and Bender's head infiltrate the army base. Philip I then encounters his grandfather, Enos Fry, who is stationed at the base. As Professor Farnsworth had previously warned Philip I about causality and the fact that if his grandfather dies, then he will never exist, Philip I becomes obsessed with protecting Enos from any possible harm. However, his fear and paranoia result in him overreacting to minor threats and putting Enos in far more danger than he would have been otherwise. He is even more alarmed when Enos exhibits signs of latent homosexuality, making it look unlikely that he will actually father Philip I's father Yancy Sr. Inadvertently, Philip I brings about Enos's death, by leaving him in a "safe" house on a nuclear weapon test range.

Leela notices that there is a microwave dish at the Roswell Airbase and suggests that they steal it, but the Professor says that they can't screw up the past in any way. Philip I then turns up to inform everyone that he killed Enos. Leela points out that if Enos is dead, then why is he (or given their kinship, Hubert as well) still in existence, a question that Philip I can't figure out. He then consoles his would-be grandmother Mildred, who at the time was engaged to his grandfather. She asks him to walk her home. Once there Mildred mourns the death of Enos, however, she hugs Philip I and soon comes onto him making him nervous. He tries to talk her out of sex by asking her to bake him sugar cookies but Mildred rips open her dress and asks lustfully, "How about theses cookies sugar?!" (flashing her bra covered breasts to seduce him.) Though disgusted at the thought of incest, Philip I begins to deduce that since he is alive, the man who died in the nuclear blast could not have been his grandfather. This leads him to believe that Mildred could not be his grandmother. Before he can finish his thoughts, Mildred passionately kisses him and the two have sexual relations on the couch and later the bedroom. The next morning, Philip I and Mildred are asleep in bed and are discovered by his disgusted crewmates. With the prompting of Hubert, Philip I learns (to his horror) that Mildred is indeed his grandmother, due to the fact that she now looks and acts like an old lady. Philip I actually became his own grandfather and is now the father of his own father Yancy Fry, Sr., making him freak out (though this saves Philip I and Hubert and keeps them in existence). 041b061a72