After that experience, Hermes (with Bender's help) heads down to the murkier area of the city, where he engages in some black market "body augmentation". At first, he starts simple, with a chest harpoon. But as Hermes continues to find himself inadequate in comparison to Mark 7-G, he adds more and more robot body parts: from an extendo-arm to a cylon eye. Before you know it, nearly all of Hermes' body has become robotic, save for his brain. (Bender is alternatively amazed - "A machine that can bend? No way!" - and teed-off - "Nice shiny metal ass!")
Now, that's a pretty straightforward premise in itself, especially given Futurama's love for all things robotic... but Futurama deserves credit for crafting a helpful B-plot out of the main story's literal remains, as Zoidberg starts stockpiling Hermes' disposed body parts. Despite the heaping helpings of hatred doled out to him by Hermes, Zoidberg unfathomably misses the 'old' Hermes, whose insensitivity disappears along with his human body parts. The initial scene of Zoidberg and "Hermes" in the dumpster is creepy/funny in itself... but the eventual sight of a nearly-complete Hermes - save for his brain and hair, which is replaced with a goofy blue baseball cap! - is priceless. And then, Dr. Zoidberg unveils his master plan - to turn Hermes' stitched-up body into an actual meat puppet, for the purposes of a (largely successful) ventriloquist act called "Dr. Zoidberg and Little Hermes"! Now, I should be disturbed at how playful the show was about Hermes' "corpse", but the sheer lunacy of what the story was accomplishing won me over.
Ultimately, Mecha-Hermes decides that he needs to take the final step to become a complete robot: by getting a robot brain implant. But, even the shady black market surgeon refuses to do such a controversial procedure. Fortuntely, Professor Farnsworth knows no such bounds! And so, we proceed to the Robot Cemetery in order to retrieve a brain from a fresh robot corpse. Unfortunately, said brain belongs to the recently buried body of Roberto. The plot resolutions were alternatively weird - Mecha-Roberto dies from eating a slice of Hermes' ultra-spicy skin - and weirdly logical - regular Hermes is revived by simply slapping Mecha-Hermes' brain back into Little Hermes.
As bizarre as it sounds, the body parts/surgery stuff really livened up this episode for me: the "Monster Mash"-esque scene in which Zoidberg plays with Hermes' brain gave me some flashbacks to The Simpsons' "Treehouse of Horror" episode in which Mr. Burns transplants Homer's brain into a robot. And the way that the episode played on Zoidberg's dysfunctional relationship with Hermes was amusing as well. All in all, this was an episode that surpassed my initial expectations... after all, we all know how darn hilarious bureaucracy can be, and fortunately, the episode found enough inventive stuff to justify its existence. Now, let us celebrate with a hearty meal of Goat Helper!
Random notes:
- I noticed that one of the tombstones in the Robot Cemetery was Roomba. Darn you, ricin cigarette!!!
- Also, while they were at the cemetery, I had a brief suspicion that the grave that was dug up would be Calculon's... since we haven't heard any resolution from his Shakespearean death in the July 4th episode.
- I was happy to hear Dan Castellaneta reprise his role as the Robot Devil... even if only for 15 seconds or so.
- Some fun wordplay on display this week: the "FIRED" stamp seamlessly becoming a "REHIRED" stamp, as well as Hermes' wife's speech that played on the uses of "commence".
- "Hey, Bender, you should become an executioner! You could kill humans and wear a cool hood!" "Nah, I like my victims to know who did it!"
- "I said, 'Not now!'"
- Next week: Fry falls into a meat grinder and becomes hot dogs. Will the episode be tasteless... or tasty? Find out here next week!
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