Parasites Lost

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Futurama episode
"Parasites Lost"
Episode no.	34
Prod. code	3ACV02
Airdate	January 21, 2001
Where	United States
Writer(s)	J. Stewart Burns
Director	Peter Avanzino
Opening subtitle	If Not Entertaining, Write Your Congressman
Opening cartoon	Unknown
Guest star(s)	None
Season 3 January 2001 – December 2002
Amazon Women in the Mood Parasites Lost A Tale of Two Santas The Luck of the Fryrish The Birdbot of Ice-Catraz Bendless Love The Day the Earth Stood Stupid That's Lobstertainment! The Cyber House Rules Where the Buggalo Roam Insane in the Mainframe The Route of All Evil Bendin' in the Wind Time Keeps on Slippin' I Dated a Robot A Leela of Her Own A Pharaoh to Remember Anthology of Interest II Roswell That Ends Well Godfellas Future Stock The 30% Iron Chef
List of all Futurama episodes...

"Parasites Lost" is the 2nd episode in season 3 of Futurama. It originally aired in North America on January 21, 2001.

1 Plot
2 Cultural references
3 Trivia
4 Goofs
5 External links

[edit] Plot

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

While making a pit stop at an interstellar truck stop, Fry purchases and eats an ancient egg salad sandwich from a vending machine in the restroom. On return to Earth, Fry and Bender are assigned the task of fixing the plasma fusion boiler, which promptly explodes. Bender is not damaged, but Fry is impaled by a large pipe. While sitting on Dr. Zoidberg's exam table, the pipe breaks in half, and Fry's damaged body repairs itself in seconds. After an endoscopic exam of Fry's bowels, the crew discovers that Fry is infested with microscopic worms.

To eliminate the infestation, Professor Farnsworth makes miniature robotic versions of the crew, except for Fry and Leela. Because the worms would defend themselves if they knew about the mission, Leela is assigned to distract Fry. Controlling the micro-droids using virtual reality gear, the crew boards a miniature Planet Express ship, and enters Fry's ear. Throughout the travel, the crew discovers that the worms were making Fry's intelligence and strength greater than before.

The crew makes their way into Fry's bowel, and fights their way to the pelvic splanchnic ganglion, intending to cause a massive bowel movement. Meanwhile, Leela is enchanted by the now-intelligent-and-muscular Fry. He then reveals that he loves her but only recently since he was able to articulate his thoughts. She realizes that the worms are responsible for this, and sets out to stop the Professor. Taking a shortcut, her micro-droid reaches the nerve, and hacks the rest of the crew to pieces with an axe. But the Professor tells her that the worms will burrow so deep into Fry's body, he'll be stuck with them forever.

Fry is informed of what has been happening, but is more interested in romancing Leela than clearing the worms out of his body. Leela takes Fry back to her apartment, and he begins playing the Holophonor, an instrument that combines a symphony orchestra with a holographic projector. Leela tells Fry that she loves the new him. Fry leaves, and with his own micro-droid, enters his own body.

When Fry meets with the worm leader, he blackmails the worms into leaving by threatening to kill himself. The worms gone, Fry returns to Leela's apartment. He tries playing the holophonor again, but he has lost his skill. He says the wrong thing, and Leela throws him out. Back at his apartment, Fry begins to re-learn the Holophonor, starting with a crude image of Leela.

[edit] Cultural references

The title for this episode comes from Paradise Lost by John Milton.
The concept for the episode is largely borrowed from the 1966 film Fantastic Voyage.
The song at the very beginning of the episode is "Convoy", originally recorded by C.W. McCall in 1978.
When Leela is cleaning the Planet Express ship, she is seen wiping off a large space bug (much resembling a dragonfly), a small planet and the Voyager 2 spacecraft.
At the beginning of the episode, a sign displays "square root 66", a reference to historic Route 66.
The concept of worms residing in a body could have been inspired the Japanese manga "Blade of the Immortal" where the main character similarly becomes immortal through the use of body-resident, mystical worms.

[edit] Trivia

This is the first episode that the janitor, Scruffy, is identified as working at Planet Express.

[edit] Goofs

When Professor Farnsworth suggests the crew leave the examination room to grant some privacy, they enter a side room with a one-way mirror so they can still watch Fry's procedure. As they pass the mirror, Leela's reflection is wrong; her wristband is shown on the wrong arm in the mirror.