A Bicyclops Built For Two

"A Bicyclops Built for Two" is the ninth episode in the second season of the American animated television series ''Futurama''. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on March 19, 2000.

Plot

The Professor announces to the Planet Express crew that he has finally logged onto AOL after years of trying and sends them into the Internet for fun. While playing the video game ''Death Factory III'', Leela meets another cyclops, but Fry blasts his virtual form before she can find out who he is and where he comes from. The crew is sent on a mission to deliver popcorn to Cineplex 14. However, the other cyclops recorded her screen name beforehand and sends her a video message. Leela abandons the delivery and heads off to the coordinates provided.

The cyclops introduces himself as Alcazar, sole survivor of the destruction of the planet Cyclopia. He shows Leela some of the capital city's landmarks, including the sacred Forbidden Valley, before bringing her to the castle where he lives. He says Cyclopia was destroyed by a missile launched by the blind mole people of Subterra 3. Before the destruction, Cyclopia's smartest scientist sent away a baby who Leela concludes must have been her. Alcazar was employed as a pool cleaner and was spared from the chaos while fishing out a dead possum. Leela decides it is her duty to help rebuild the Cyclopian civilization, primarily by procreating with Alcazar. Now that Leela is committed to Alcazar for the good of their race, he becomes abusive towards her, demanding she carry out menial work and humiliating her in front of his friends. While Bender loots everything of value, Fry, feeling suspicious of Alcazar, tries to investigate the Forbidden Valley, only to stumble into a trap door leading to a dungeon. When Leela visits Fry in the dungeon, she reveals she hates Alcazar for the way he treats her, so Fry convinces her to dump him; she almost dumps him until he proposes marriage. Wanting to extend their race, Leela reluctantly accepts.

When Leela refuses Fry's entreaties to let him out of the dungeon, he escapes and breaks into the Forbidden Valley with Bender. They discover four other castles, identical except that the decorations depict different species. They return and interrupt Leela's wedding, bringing with them four women, each of a different species, and each scheduled to be married to Alcazar on the same day as Leela. Alcazar, flustered, involuntarily reveals his true form as a shapeshifting, cricket-like alien. After the women beat him into submission, he explains that he played with their emotions in order to get free labor for his castles, and that he had to stage all the weddings on one day because tuxedos that change shape are expensive to rent. As Leela leaves with the rest of the Planet Express crew, the Professor tries to reassure her she will find her true home, but she disconsolately wonders "How many planets could there be?" as she looks out at a vast, starry space.

Cultural references

The new look that Leela takes on to please "Al" parodies voice actor Katey Sagal's role as Peggy Bundy (with husband Al) on '' Married... with Children''. The scene also lampoons the show's dysfunctional family sitcom style and marriage/sex related jokes.

In the beginning of the episode, when Bender opens the portal to the Internet, Fry's exclamation of "My God...it's full of ads!" is a reference to Dave Bowman's line "My God...it's full of stars!" in the novel '' 2001: A Space Odyssey'' and the film ''2010''. As the portal opens, the characteristic theme "Also Sprach Zarathustra

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