Summary
The best episode of Futurama Season 11 thus far skewers Amazon and consumerism while also exploring Fry and Leela’s relationship and giving Bender a very human anxiety.
This recap of Futurama Season 11 Episode 5, “Related to Items You’ve Viewed”, contains spoilers.
“Related to Items You’ve Viewed” is, on balance, probably the best episode of this season of Futurama thus far. It’s a ridiculous send-up of consumerism, has a more focused Fry/Leela relationship, excuses a bunch of Bender excess, and just generally entertains in a coherent and smart way.
If you’re a little trigger-happy with your Amazon Prime next-day delivery, this one’s for you.
Futurama Season 11 Episode 5 Recap
The inciting incident here is Leela moving in with Fry and Bender, making the latter feel like a third wheel as Leela rapidly adds a feminine touch to the place while she and Fry develop an unhealthy obsession with the utility of Momazon Primo. (If I must tell you what this is a reference to, it’s best for you to stop watching TV altogether.)
Momazon and its free deliveries are running PlanEx out of business, while Leela and Fry’s relationship is driving Bender to distraction, forming the two main conflicts of the episode. When the PlanEx crew head to the moon farm from Season 1 to deliver sacks of manure, they learn from the farmer there that Momazon has a warehouse nearby and agree to join a protest.
Who is Mom?
Momazon is primarily depicted through a slap-happy CEO known as Mom, who is introduced by winning over a raucous crowd by presenting a home assistant called “Invasa” that is supposedly concerned with their privacy.
This episode’s arguments in defence of companies like… ahem, Momazon, is compelling. The farmer hates them, but can’t turn down free stuff. Leela thinks the pricing is great. Fry knows what’s going on in the warehouses, but you can’t quibble with the returns policy. And on and on it goes.
Mom is a ridiculous creation who’s basically a stand-in for the greedy fat cats who profit on consumer convenience and worker exploitation – after slapping the entry pad to gain access to the warehouse, she mispronounces “human” as “unions” when explaining why the robot workers are superior. As I’ve said in basically all of these recaps, Futurama isn’t exactly known for being subtle.
Of course, Bender, who is still stinging with jealousy over Fry and Leela, is seduced by the inhumane robot working conditions at Momazon and dips out, bringing the episode’s parallel plot threads together in a smart way.
Of course, Bender realizes how terrible things are for the robots at Momazon in roughly the same amount of time that Fry and Leela realize he needs saving (and that Invasa is a terrible violation of that privacy and intimacy), so they set out to do so.
Why doesn’t Mom shut Invasa down?
While Mom is the more obvious, preening villain of the episode (and the joke is that everyone knows this but is okay with it since she provides people with so much convenience), the real enemy turns out to be Invasa, who becomes self-aware and assumes control of the warehouse.
What looks like it may be a face turn for Mom turns out to be anything but. When she and her sons go to show Invasa who’s boss, as soon as she realizes that Invasa doesn’t care about money and all the company profits are still landing in her account, she’s suddenly uninterested in Invasa wreaking havoc and imprisoning everyone and doesn’t bother to shut her down.
Futurama Season 11 Episode 5 Ending Explained
While Bender is rescued, there’s nothing that can really stop the growth of Momazon and easy, one-click consumerism. At one point Al Gore’s head appears for a told-you-so about the climate crisis, and while we never listen, we can’t argue that we haven’t been told.
Bender moves back in with Fry and Leela, who are now sitting around on empty boxes after returning all of their Momazon furniture, and after working as part of a tight-knit team, he has realized that he’s quite alright with being a third wheel after all.
You can stream Futurama Season 11 Episode 5, “Related to Items You’ve Viewed” exclusively on Hulu.
