Summary
An early holiday episode delivers the usual helping of Futurama’s self-referential weirdness and a dose of Christmas horror.
This recap of Futurama Season 11 Episode 6, “I Know What You Did Next Xmas”, contains spoilers.
Futurama delivers an early holiday horror special in “I Know What You Did Next Xmas”, an episode that is somewhat hampered by it being late August, but I suppose one can’t help but get in the Christmas spirit with enough provocation.
Besides, a Futurama Christmas special isn’t exactly a traditional one, hence the inclusion of murderous Robot Santa, time travel, and many more shenanigans besides.
Futurama Season 11 Episode 6 Recap
Things get weird immediately when Bender receives a card in his stocking reading, “I know what you did next Xmas.”
Who is Robot Santa?
After Fry and Wong-Kroker family did down to watch a Xmas special we get some background on Robot Santa, a high-powered mechanical Santa developed by the Friendly Robot Company in 2801 and intended to determine who receives gifts and who receives punishment using a naughty/nice sensor which promptly malfunctioned, leading to a trail of brutalized families.
The Professor has an idea for how to fix an ever-vigilant Santa by traveling back to 2801 using the upgraded time machine and switching the polarity on his naughty/nice sensor during his first delivery, which took place at PlanEx. The professor intends to time travel alone, but you know how that goes.
After reversing the sensor’s polarity, the Professor accidentally travels back through time even further, settling on the idea of just using the timeline’s circularity to eventually arrive back where he started, which to be fair will be a treat for longstanding Futurama fans since snippets of both past and future are littered with cameos and ideas from previous seasons and episodes.
Who kills Robot Santa?
After Farnsworth returns and gives everyone the week off, the PlanEx crew all enjoy the holidays in various configurations. The most notable one is Bender and Zoidberg, who get drunk and decide to use the time machine to kidnap Santa from last Christmas, so he won’t be able to deliver any presents to their stupid friends.
They pull off the kidnapping, but in a subsequent kerfuffle, Santa is accidentally killed by electrocution. Before they get rid of the body, they notice “I still know what you did next Xmas” written on the frosty window, before trying various ways of despatching Santa’s body, including dumping him in the river, flushing him down the toilet, and turning him into sausage.
The rest of the PlanEx crew arrive to surprise Bender and Zoidberg just as they’re bickering and trying to settle on whether or not to eat Santa’s dead body. They instead settle on turning him into party equipment and furnishings.
Futurama Season 11 Episode 6 Ending Explained
However, just as the festivities are getting underway, Santa arrives, out for blood. The Professor realizes that it was he who made Santa murderous in the first place by reversing the polarity on the sensor when it was already correctly calibrated. However, Bender and Zoidberg can only look on as they arrive in the time machine and kidnap Santa. They didn’t take the time machine to last Christmas, but next Christmas – in other words, this Christmas.
Bender and Zoidberg are forced to confess but as it turns out, thanks to the Professor’s blunder, they actually saved everyone by killing Santa. In a final twist, a message on the control room ceiling reading “I’ll ALWAYS know what you did next Xmas” reveals Santa is been blackmailing Bender, who feeds Santa’s head Amy’s phone.
The episode ends with a tribute to Coolio as Kwanzabot’s ship travels away into space.
You can stream Futurama Season 11 Episode 6, “I Know What You Did Next Xmas”, exclusively on Hulu.
