The Mutants Are Revolting

Futurama celebrates its 100th episode with this episode about the mutants who are forced to live in the sewers beneath New New York City, and like the sewers, it's a mess. The episode delivers a sharp allegorical critique of upper-class attitudes towards the poor and some nice character-building moments for Fry and Leela, but the backstory and the resolution of the episode are very poorly constructed.

The episode begins with the crew making their 100th delivery to one Mrs. Aster, a wealthy woman whose husband was aboard the "Land Titanic" when it sank into the sewers. Aster turns out to be a patronizing benefactor for a college fund that is designed to keep the sewer mutants in docile servitude to and segregated from the surface people. After Leela gets into an argument with Mrs. Aster, Fry accidently blows Leela's cover, and Leela is deported to the sewers. After the crew inadvertently reveal that they have been sheltering Leela for the last ten years, they are sentenced to dwell in the sewers for two weeks, and Leela delivers Fry a harsh rebuke after Fry foolishly tries to comfort Leela by claiming that two weeks in the sewers will help him sympathize with her.

Overcome with guilt, Fry jumps into the mutagenic sewage lake and emerges as a horrible-looking creature. Inspired by Fry's actions and a concert by the mutated members of Devo, Leela leads the sewer mutants in a revolt against the surface people. They begin redirecting sewage back up to the city and emerge in front of City Hall to demand the same rights as the surface dwellers. Aster and Mayor Poopenmeyer attempt to force the mutants back into the sewers, but when Fry produces evidence that Aster's husband saved the life of a mutant child aboard the Land Titanic -- who subsequently reveals herself to be Leela's grandmother -- Aster and Poopenmeyer relent. The original Fry then reemerges from his mutated form, which reveals itself to be the mutated Mr. Aster; it turns out that Aster fell into the lake when the Titanic capsized and only reemerged after Fry fell into his mouth.

The first 10 minutes or so of the episode are a critique of the patronizing attitude that well-to-do people often display towards poor people and nations, and Fry's comment about having to live in the sewers is a devastating swipe at celebrities, wealthy students and other voyeurs who think that slumming it for a couple weeks will make them better people. But unlike these people, Fry goes way beyond the call of duty or sanity by attempting to turn himself into a mutant. Once again he demonstrates that his imprudence is his greatest weakness and his greatest strength; he does whatever his heart tells him without considering the consequences because he simply doesn't fear them. Where the episode has real problems is in the actual conflict between the mutants and normals. The sewer mutants have been a part of the Futurama universe since the second season of the show, and it is extremely dissatisfying that so much of the conflict hinges upon a secret about a one-time character. It may not be a complete deus ex machina ending, but it is just as unnatural and uninspired. Fry emerging from the mutant Mr. Aster's mouth is also less than credible, even by Futurama's fantastical standards -- it's a little hard to believe that he didn't realize that he was still in his original body all the time. Producers David X. Cohen and Matt Groening wanted Futurama's 100th episode to be something special and thought that an episode resolving the tension between the mutants and surface dwellers would commemorate the milestone, but an episode and subject of this much importance deserves a plot that is more natural.

So this episode of Futurama is an important one, in which we see a permanant series change to where the mutants from underground in the sewers are given unlimited access to the surface. From the looks of it, being the 100th episode of the series (including the movies), The Mutants Are Revolting was a good episode focusing mainly on the plot, but has some good gags too.

The episode focused on Leela being found out by the surface police that she was a mutant and being sent to the sewers. Fry and the others also get thrown down for keeping her up there while knowing about it. Fry decides to become a mutant to understand Leela better by jumping into the mutated waters, and everyone decides to strike against the surface people. In the end, the mutants win after a good plot twist reveals more about Leela. In a nutshell, the episode's plot was the strongest point about the episode, and I liked the start of it mentioning their 100th delivery, and it just goes to show that Futurama can still do it!