Roswell That Ends Well
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Roswell That Ends Well (Production number 3ACV19) was an episode of the TV show Futurama. The episode originally aired on December 9, 2001. It won an Emmy in the Outstanding Animated Program category.
Synopsis
In this episode, the crew is sent back to the year 1947 when Fry puts metal in the ship's microwave while they watch a supernova explosion. The ship lands in the past in Roswell, New Mexico, and becomes the famous UFO crash that brought Roswell, Area 51, and the related conspiracy theory into popular culture.
The U.S. military captures Dr. Zoidberg, and takes him to Area 51 to conduct various experiments, including an alien autopsy. Meanwhile, Fry encounters his grandfather, who is stationed at the base. When Professor Hubert Farnsworth tells Fry about causality, Fry becomes obsessed with protecting his grandfather Enos from any possible harm. He is even more alarmed when Enos exhibits signs of closet homosexuality, making it look unlikely that he will father Fry's father. Inadvertently, Fry brings about Enos's death, by leaving him in a "safe" house on an A-bomb test range.
Fry then consoles his would-be grandmother Mildred, who was at the time engaged to his grandpa. He deduces (incorrectly) that since he is alive, then the man who died in the nuclear blast could not have been his grandfather, and thus Mildred could not be his grandmother. Mildred then seduces Fry and they end up sleeping together. The next morning, Fry disovers that she is indeed his grandma Mildred when he recognizes his grandma's mannerisms in Mildred's behavior. By sleeping with his grandmother, Fry becomes his own grandpa!
The episode concludes with the crew discovering a way to return to their own time by using a microwave dish. They rescue Dr. Zoidberg, destroy most of Area 51, and then travel back to the future. Bender's head falls out of the Planet Exress ship, and is left behind in the year 1947, however, it is quickly found in the same physical location in the year 3000, and re-attached to his body. (This was probably a parody of the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Time's Arrow" in which Data's head is detached in the 19th century and found in an archeological dig in 2368.)
Connections with other episodes
This episode provides an important link in the story arc of Philip J. Fry. By becoming his own grandfather, Fry received a genetic abnormality which caused him to lack a certain brain wave , believed to be present in all living things (and robots). This genetic defect made Fry immune to the influence of the creatures known as the Brain Spawn, who travel through the Universe, eliminating all forms of thought and intelligence. Fry was able to defeat the Brain Spawn in the episode The Day the Earth Stood Stupid, but it was not until the Season 5 episode The Why Of Fry that Fry's abnormality was explained.
See also: Predestination paradox
External links
Episode capsule (http://www.gotfuturama.com/Information/Capsules/3ACV19.txt)