“One factor we take delight in at Futurama is that now we have quite a lot of follow writing final episodes ever.”
When David X. Cohen sat down for an interview with Polygon final week, that is what he mentioned concerning the present’s newest “final episode ever,” titled “Last Ending: The Final Conclusion.” Nonetheless, regardless of the episode title, we already know that that is not the official ending of the sequence and that Futurama will launch three animated specials someday subsequent 12 months.
Nonetheless, “Last Ending: The Final Conclusion” was written as a possible sequence finale — the sixth such time within the present’s historical past that this has occurred. However till we get one more “final episode ever,” it’s price rating the finales now we have so far on the standards of simply how good of a finale they’re (versus how good the episode itself is).
6
“Overclockwise” (2011)
Futurama has 4 foremost eras. First there have been the 4 seasons that aired on Fox, then there have been 4 straight-to-DVD motion pictures, then 4 seasons on Comedy Central, and eventually, 4 seasons on Hulu. “Overclockwise” got here in direction of the tip of the second Comedy Central season, when it was unclear if any future seasons could be ordered. Consequently, “Overclockwise” was written as a “simply in case” season finale by Ken Keeler, who wrote a number of different episodes on this checklist.
“Overclockwise” is usually a Bender (John DiMaggio) episode about Bender’s manufacturing facility settings being overclocked by Cubert (Kath Soucie), inflicting Bender to turn into an all-powerful supercomputer. In response, Mother (Tress MacNeille) takes Professor Farnsworth (Billy West) to courtroom for voiding his guarantee on Bender. In the meantime, Leela (Katey Sagal) is feeling stressed in her relationship with Fry and she or he leaves the Planet Categorical firm. She finally returns and the episode ends with the 2 of them studying a report ready by Bender when he was a god-like being, which tells the couple what their future holds.
Bender is my favourite character and this can be a good story for him, however “Overclockwise” is definitely the worst “sequence finale” as a result of it doesn’t actually really feel like a finale in any respect. Futurama is Fry’s present first. He’s the hero and any finale has to place him front-and-center. Whereas the second with Fry and Leela studying about their future is touching, the principle character can’t be relegated to a B-plot for the sequence finale.
5
“The Satan’s Fingers Are Idle Playthings” (2003)
I can already hear the opposition to this episode being so low on this checklist, however please enable me to clarify. Additionally written by Ken Keeler, “The Satan’s Fingers Are Idle Playthings” is an glorious episode. I’d even say it is the most effective episode on this entire checklist, however as a finale it’s solely fairly good.
The episode is a touching story about Fry making an attempt to study a hologram-projecting musical instrument often called the holophonor with a purpose to impress Leela. On Bender’s recommendation, Fry seeks assist from the Robotic Satan (Dan Castellaneta), who affords him a deal to commerce arms with any robotic on this planet. By coincidence, the randomly-selected robotic finally ends up being the Robotic Satan himself, and the 2 swap arms.
Fry turns into an knowledgeable on the holophonor, and he writes an opera to impress Leela, however in the long run, the Robotic Satan will get his arms again and the episode ends with a candy, crude hologram projection made by Fry’s earnest but sub-par holophonor expertise.
Most on-line Futurama sources say that this episode was supposed to be a finale, however that’s not fully appropriate. Within the unique DVD commentary of the episode, showrunner David X. Cohen said, “we thought there was in all probability a 50/50 probability [this was the final episode], so we type of needed to hedge our bets and never have everybody actually wave goodbye on the finish, however to no less than exit on a candy notice.”
The episode is extremely candy, however I’d argue you possibly can really feel that they had been hedging their bets right here. Whereas Fry’s live performance felt like a milestone reminiscence for him and Leela, it didn’t really feel like a conclusion of something. As somebody who watched Futurama from day one again in 1999, I bear in mind seeing this episode dwell and feeling prefer it left me wanting extra Futurama, not that the present had come to some satisfying conclusion.
4
“In any other case” (2024)
“In any other case” got here on the finish of the second Hulu season and it was written by Ken Keeler to, as soon as once more, hedge their bets with a perhaps/perhaps not ending as they didn’t know if Hulu was going to need extra seasons.
Previous to this episode, it had been recommended in different episodes that the Planet Categorical crew we’re watching might not at all times be the identical variations of the characters. As an alternative, there’s a huge Futurama multiverse and we could also be seeing completely different variations of them at completely different instances. This helped to clarify away among the present’s continuity errors through the years and felt like a high-concept wrap up, with a great chunk of its time devoted to the occasions of different episodes. To be clear, it’s not a clip present, it simply acknowledges a handful of different episodes, particularly the earlier finale, “In the meantime,” which seems larger on this checklist.
Whereas I do know among the bloom is off the rose for multiverse tales, I assumed Futurama was particularly adept at enjoying with these concepts and I appreciated among the housekeeping concerned, even when that made for an attention-grabbing idea with a so-so story. Additionally, the episode felt prefer it lived absolutely within the shadow of “In the meantime” — even the title is type of related — due to that, it doesn’t actually arise by itself two toes.
3
“Last Ending: The Final Conclusion” (2026)
The latest finale, written by Margot Pyrceman, is excellent, so don’t misread its placement right here, both. General, the episode offers with a narrative about Fry seeing his first PG-13 film along with his brother again within the late twentieth century. However, they’re kicked out of the film earlier than the ending and now Fry actually needs to know the way it ended, so he’s on a journey to search out what is likely to be a wholly misplaced movie. In the meantime, the Professor places forth a concept about how desirous to know the ending of tales is an evolutionary trait. Cohen defined this in his current Polygon interview, when he mentioned the next:
“It is primarily based on this concept I’ve that human beings truly developed to wish to know the ends of tales,” mentioned Cohen. “The instance I am going to provide you with is, lots of of 1000’s of years in the past, when early people began telling tales, if somebody began to inform a narrative a few forest, among the folks within the troop needed to listen to the remainder of that sentence, and a few did not care. Nicely, those who needed to listen to it may discover out if there was a bear within the forest who was going to maul them to loss of life, or if there was a tree that was coated with nutritious mangoes. So, I believe that’s an developed want, like consuming and respiratory and replica, that people have, to listen to the tip of tales.”
Apart from Fry and the Professor’s tales, a handful of different ending-related tales happen within the episode, which clearly relate to the “thought” of endings general. There’s additionally a major nod to “In the meantime” on this episode.
Versus the extra emotional entries on this checklist, this can be a extra high-concept thought about finales, as a lot as it’s a finale itself. As such, it is not probably the most satisfying story on this planet, which can be true of “In any other case.” The primary distinction between the 2 is that multiverse shenanigans are one thing that we’ve seen in quite a lot of completely different sci-fi TV exhibits and flicks, whereas Cohen’s musings on finales appears like a wholly unique thought born out of getting to do a complete bunch of sequence finales.
2
“Into the Wild Inexperienced Yonder” (2009)
“Into the Wild Inexperienced Yonder” was the final of the 4 direct-to-DVD Futurama motion pictures. Additionally written by Ken Keeler, the episode noticed Fry get twisted up in an historic battle between two of the universe’s oldest races, the life-preserving Encyclopods and the life-destroying Darkish Ones.
The factor to grasp about Futurama’s direct-to-DVD period is that every of the 4 motion pictures was designed to even be damaged up into 4 regular-length TV episodes. As such, there are some structural points with every of them, with odd act-breaks and a few smaller tales which really feel like they’re solely there to fulfill these calls for. That mentioned, I believe Futurama is the uncommon TV present that might be scaled as much as movie-length tales, because the present did small tales in addition to huge, end-of-the-universe type of tales, too.
What I like about “Into the Wild Inexperienced Yonder” is that it feels huge. It feels just like the present may have ended right here and whereas it could not have been the right finale, the dimensions of the story felt grand sufficient to conclude the sequence.
Happily, it was not the tip, in any other case we might not have gotten the present’s best-ever “final episode ever.”
1
“In the meantime” (2013)
“In the meantime” is the most effective of Futurama multi function tight, 22-minute story. It has the center of “The Satan’s Fingers Are Idle Playthings,” the grandiosity of a Futurama film, and a high-concept concept that retains you pondering lengthy afterwards.
After Leela has a near-death expertise, Fry decides it is time he proposes to her. In the meantime, Professor Farnsworth invents a “Time Button” which permits an individual to return in time by ten seconds. The episode has a complete bunch of time journey shenanigans to it which might be quite a lot of enjoyable, however they finish when Fry breaks the Professor’s invention, freezing time for everybody besides he and Leela. The 2 then develop previous collectively in a touching sequence with the 2 of them in a frozen world.
On the very finish of the episode, the Professor arrives and explains that he’s been tunneling by time looking for the lacking time button. He shortly repairs the button and explains that they’ll all return to the purpose simply earlier than the button broke, fixing every little thing, and inflicting Fry and Leela to revert to their youthful selves, with out even a reminiscence of the frozen lifetime they spent collectively.
The episode is gorgeous and poignant, whereas nonetheless being humorous and Futurama-y because of the high-concept thought. It is also the one finale that doesn’t appear in any respect like they’re hedging their bets in hopes of a late renewal. Whereas the Professor does find yourself undoing the occasions of the episode, he couldn’t erase the way in which it made us really feel.
A decade later, Futurama did return, however “In the meantime” was the one time the place Futurama ended and it felt like, perhaps, it ought to finish. Whereas I’ve loved the present’s revival and sit up for subsequent 12 months’s episodes — together with one other finale — I actually don’t assume the present will ever be capable of out-do “In the meantime” and by the way in which the following finales have acknowledged the episode, it appears the Futurama writers comprehend it too.
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