Stench and Stenchibility

"Stench and Stenchibility" is the twenty-fifth episode of the seventh season of the animated sitcom Futurama. It originally aired on Comedy Central on August 28, 2013. The episode was written by Eric Horsted and directed by Crystal Chesney-Thompson. It is the last episode to use the full intro sequence. Dr. Zoidberg falls in love with a human flower-girl while Bender competes in a deadly tap-dancing contest.

Plot

Dr. Zoidberg manages to make a date with an alien woman from an online dating site, and goes to meet her in person, despite the other Planet Express crew members warning him that his date will be repulsed by his disgusting stench. After buying flowers, it turns out the crew was right, and Zoidberg's date is driven away by Zoidberg's horrible armpit odor. Depressed that he has once again failed at a relationship, he returns the flowers to a flower-girl, Marianne (Emilia Clarke). Suddenly, a robber appears and tries to rob Marianne and Zoidberg, but the latter's odor chases away the robber. Marianne is grateful towards Zoidberg, who is surprised Marianne was not disgusted by his stench. Marianne reveals she has no sense of smell, and the two date, leading to a happy relationship. The Planet Express crew are surprised that Zoidberg managed to go out with a normal woman, and encourages him to use his medical knowledge to give Marianne a sense of smell, though Zoidberg is afraid she will reject him like many others have. After Marianne expresses her desire to smell flowers, Zoidberg decides to go with a nose transplant that will give Marianne the ability to smell, much to the latter's joy. Later, Marianne receives a new nose, but is repulsed by the smell of flowers and attracted to Zoidberg's odor, reasoning that she never learned what are supposed to be good or bad smells, and that "likes [his] smell because [she] likes [him]". Zoidberg is happy with this and continues his relationship with Marianne, who becomes a dump truck driver and "dumps" Zoidberg out of his home dumpster.

Meanwhile, Bender, in a panic, steps on several bugs crawling all over him and incidentally tap dances as a result. A tap dancer sees this and invites Bender to his tap dance competition. Bender agrees to feed his ego, but finds that he is rivaled by a young girl with a heart condition. Bender attempts to sabotage the girl, but the latter turns out to be just as malevolent as the robot, and breaks his leg. Bender recovers quickly and dances against the girl, who wins but suffers a heart attack and dies. Insensitive, Bender tap dances on her body, but his taps restarts her heart and brings her back to life, much to his dismay. Later, Bender and the girl decide to join forces to rob people under the guise of street performers.

Reception

Bubbleblabber gave this episode an 8 out of 10 saying: "It's very seldom that we see Futurama split plots as the show typically works best as an ensemble cast, but this one worked rather well".^[1] The A.V. Club gave this episode a B−, remarking: "It's an okay episode with a shaky start that works largely because the end is near; and it'd be nice to see the final credits roll knowing that all these characters will go out with a smile".^[2]

References

1. ↑ REVIEW: @FUTURAMA ‘STENCH AND STENCHIBILITY’, Bubbleblabber, John Blabber, August 29, 2013.
2. ↑ “Stench and Stenchibility” | Futurama | TV Club | TV | The A.V. Club

External links

• "Stench and Stenchibility" at the Internet Movie Database
• "Stench and Stenchibility" at the Infosphere, the Futurama Wiki.