"Meanwhile" is the twenty-sixth and final episode in the
seventh season of the American
animated
Animation is a method by which still figures are manipulated to appear as moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited on film. Today, most ani ...
television series
A television show – or simply TV show – is any content produced for viewing on a television set which can be broadcast via over-the-air, satellite, or cable, excluding breaking news, advertisements, or trailers that are typically placed be ...
''
Futurama'', the 140th episode of the series overall, and the finale of the second run. The episode was written by
Ken Keeler
Ken Keeler is an American television producer and writer. He has written for numerous television series, most notably ''The Simpsons'' and ''Futurama''. According to an interview with David X. Cohen, he proved a theorem that appears in the ''Fut ...
and directed by
Peter Avanzino
Peter Avanzino (born May 26, 1962) is an American animation director. He has directed several episodes of ''Futurama'', and served as supervising director on the 6th and 7th seasons of the series. Avanzino works for Rough Draft Studios in Glendal ...
. It premiered on
Comedy Central
Comedy Central is an American basic cable channel owned by Paramount Global through its network division's MTV Entertainment Group unit, based in Manhattan. The channel is geared towards young adults aged 18–34 and carries comedy programmin ...
in the United States on September 4, 2013, along with ''Futurama Live'', a special preshow and aftershow for the occasion.
Set in a
retro-futuristic
Retrofuturism (adjective ''retrofuturistic'' or ''retrofuture'') is a movement in the creative arts showing the influence of depictions of the future produced in an earlier era. If futurism is sometimes called a "science" bent on anticipatin ...
31st century, the series follows the adventures of the employees of Planet Express, an interplanetary delivery company. As the conclusion to the series, the episode revolves around the romantic relationship between
Fry and
Leela. The plot involves
Professor Farnsworth
Professor Hubert J. Farnsworth, commonly referred to in-show as either Professor Farnsworth or simply Professor, is a fictional character in the American animated television series ''Futurama''. The mad scientist proprietor of the Planet Express ...
inventing a device that allows the user to travel backwards in time by ten seconds. However, it is stolen and abused by Fry, who wants to use it to prolong the sunset during a romantic dinner after his marriage proposal to Leela.
Due to the recurrently uncertain production status of ''Futurama'', "Meanwhile" is the fourth episode written to serve as an ending to the series. It follows "
The Devil's Hands Are Idle Playthings
"The Devil's Hands Are Idle Playthings" is the eighteenth and final episode in the fourth season of the American animated television series ''Futurama'', and the finale of the original run. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United St ...
", "
Into the Wild Green Yonder", and "
Overclockwise", all of which were also written by Ken Keeler. "Meanwhile" was watched by 2.21 million people in its original broadcast, making it the 5th most watched episode ever to originally air on Comedy Central, and it received acclaim from television critics.
Despite it being the
series finale, the series was announced in 2022 that it will return on
Hulu for new episodes in 2023.
Plot
After Leela is ejected into space and nearly killed due to a ride malfunction during a package delivery run to Luna Park, Fry becomes worried that he may lose her again and decides to propose to her. Back at the Planet Express building, the Professor announces two new inventions: a time button that causes the entire universe to jump backward 10 seconds in time, and a shelter that shields people from the button's effects. Fry takes the button and uses it to repeatedly steal candidate diamonds for an engagement ring with Bender's help. After presenting the ring to Leela, he invites her to meet him atop the Vampire State Building at 6:30 pm if she agrees to marry him. If she does not arrive, he will infer rejection. He repeatedly uses the button to prolong the sunset, but she has not arrived by the time his watch reads 7:02. Heartbroken, he jumps off the roof in a suicide attempt, but sees her approaching and notes that the building's clock reads 6:25; his watch has continued to run normally throughout all his uses of the button. He tries to undo the jump, but is unable to return to the rooftop because the device takes 10 seconds to recharge between uses and he has been falling for longer than that time. As a result, he continually loops falling toward the ground from several feet below the roof, never able to reach safety.
The Professor notices the device has been stolen and is repeatedly looping time, and worries the universe could be damaged. He also warns that anyone leaving the shelter could be destroyed if the device is subsequently reused less than ten seconds later, because the anti-chronitons would not know where to send that person back. Bender betrays Fry's theft of the device, and, using the shelter, the crew approach the Vampire State Building to save him. By this time, Fry is tired after falling for so long and accidentally lets go of the button. He is instantly killed when he hits the ground, but Leela picks up the button from Fry's splattered remains and uses it to loop the final seconds of Fry's life. The Professor, being outside the time shelter, tries to stop her and is seemingly vaporized when Leela presses the button. After several loops, Bender engineers a method of saving Fry's life using an airbag he contains. Fry survives this time, but lands on the button, smashing it and freezing time throughout the universe for everyone and everything except himself and Leela.
With the world theirs alone, Fry and Leela conduct their wedding themselves and spend what is, for them, decades romantically wandering the stationary world. A mysterious glimmer bothers them from time to time, but otherwise, they are very happy. In old age, they go to the top of the Vampire State Building to drink the champagne Fry had laid out there before the button was destroyed. The glimmer finally reveals itself to be the Professor, who was shifted into a different time frame instead of being killed. He has been trying to find the button for decades and, since Fry has kept the pieces, is able to rebuild it with one key modification – the next press will restore the entire universe to the instant before the Professor conceived of the device and erase everyone's memory of all events since then. Despite having enjoyed growing old together, Fry and Leela both agree to relive their lives and the Professor presses the button.
Reception
The original American broadcast of "Meanwhile" on September 4, 2013 was watched by 2.21 million households, making it the 5th most watched episode ever to originally air on Comedy Central.
"Meanwhile" has received critical acclaim. Max Nicholson, for
IGN
''IGN'' (formerly ''Imagine Games Network'') is an American video game and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa distri ...
, wrote that "Meanwhile" was "a fitting end to a classic animated series". He gave the episode a 9 out of 10.
Zack Handlen, writing for ''
The A.V. Club
''The A.V. Club'' is an American online newspaper and entertainment website featuring reviews, interviews, and other articles that examine films, music, television, books, games, and other elements of pop-culture media. ''The A.V. Club'' was cre ...
'', said that, "the first five minutes are passable but rushed, and the hook of Fry deciding he needed to ask Leela to marry him isn't all that exciting". However, he later went on to say that "this finale settles somewhere between the 'too happy' and the 'oh dear God when will it end', which makes it just about perfect. It has just about everything you could want from ''Futurama'': there's a nifty time-travel plot, Fry and Leela get married, Bender is a jackass, Zoidberg loses $10, and Fry dies". He graded the episode an A.
Sean Gardert, writing for ''
Paste'', was relatively more critical and summarized that, "Not to say that 'Meanwhile' was a bad episode, as it was truly great, an epic 22 minutes that stood up to anything the show's done before. But after toeing up to that line of doing something truly impressive and revolutionary for the show, they backed away again. I was disappointed, to say the least, but I still look forward to catching this episode as a rerun, and have already written
fanfiction
Fan fiction or fanfiction (also abbreviated to fan fic, fanfic, fic or FF) is fictional writing written in an amateur capacity by fans, unauthorized by, but based on an existing work of fiction. The author uses copyrighted characters, setti ...
in my head as to what would happen were Fry and Leela allowed to return to the past with all of their memories still intact."
Indiewire
IndieWire (sometimes stylized as indieWIRE or Indiewire) is a film industry and review website that was established in 1996. The site's focus was predominantly independent film, although its coverage has grown to "to include all aspects of Holl ...
listed "Meanwhile" among their list of the best TV series finales.
References
External links
*
*
{{Futurama episodes, 7
2013 American television episodes
Futurama (season 7) episodes
Television episodes about time travel
Older versions of cartoon characters
Television episodes about weddings
Television episodes written by Ken Keeler
Television episodes about suicide