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Futurama Reviews: S11E06 -"Late Bloomers"

As much as I love Futurama for its outrageous concepts and sense of humour, the episodes that have always resonated the most for me have been the sweet ones. Silly though they may be, I really love these characters and I like seeing them in contexts that are a little more earnest, revealing, that connect you more to their humanity -even the ones who aren’t human. “Late Bloomers” does that, specifically with two characters, and while it goes down a couple strange paths, it comes for the heart. And it makes you feel good.
The episode is in fact a direct follow-up to two previous shows, starting with “Planet Espresso”. That episode ended with Hermes’s father reincarnated as a coffee bean plant, and here we see he is living with the Conrads -though only speaks to Hermes. Badrick as it turns out is dying from some plant disease, and Hermes not wanting to go through the death of his parent again, especially now that they are on better terms, is desperate to save him somehow.
This leads into referencing the other show this episode is a sequel to, when Zoidberg reveals he knows someone who might be able to help Hermes’s dad -his old girlfriend Marianne. Marianne, as fans may recall, was Zoidberg’s love interest back in “Stench and Stenchibility”, the penultimate episode of the Comedy Central run -an episode that paid homage to City Lights and ended on a cute note that suggested a rare happy ending for our downtrodden crustacean. And I’m sure I wasn’t the only fan a bit disheartened by her absence in the Hulu run thus far. At last this episode (written by Eric Horsted, who also wrote the earlier one) chooses to bring her back, and though Zoidberg indicates that things are complicated between them since they’ve been on a break for her botanical education, the episode thankfully doesn’t depict them on bad or disintegrating terms. In fact Marianne is just as bubbly and adorable towards Zoidberg when she turns up -and it is revealed that at least since “Stench and Stenchibility”, Zoidberg’s impoverishment has been due to him paying her tuition, which elevates a lot of the gang’s attitude towards Zoidberg.  Having not seen her in a while though, Zoidberg is uncertain of Marianne’s feelings towards him.
But as to the urgent matter of Badrick, Marianne takes everyone to a large space greenhouse charmingly modeled on the ship from Silent Running where they meet the ever irate biologist, now working with plants. Badrick is diagnosed with mocha blight, so they plant him in a shady area of the greenhouse and apply some mocha spray. Meanwhile, Marianne becomes fixated on an exotic corpse flower from a distant corner of the universe that only blooms once a century. Naturally it blooms that night and the gang comes out to see it. It releases pores of a foul scent that repulses everyone but Zoidberg and Marianne, who are allured by it and when everyone else goes to bed, make love next to it. Still, Zoidberg feels insecure by how much Marianne seems to be enamoured with the plant, especially once on a deeper scent the two find they can actually communicate with “Corpsey”. The Professor assuages him by likening Marianne’s interest less with infatuation than simply her plant nerd excitement. It culminates with Zoidberg flat-out asking Marianne about her feelings and she reveals she is in love with Corpsey… but also with Zoidberg. And before you know it, both of them are in a polyamorous relationship with the plant. A weirder development, but not unheard of in Futurama - though it comes across as impulsive and rushed, and in Corpsey’s behaviour a little unsettlingly reminiscent of Yivo in The Beast with a Billion Backs.
It distracts a bit too from what’s going on with Hermes, who that morning discovers his father is in worse condition and continuing to wither. A part of his situation implied to be emotional, Badrick is despondent and resigned to his fate, though Hermes is not. And it’s remarkable that while the storyline is coloured by Badrick’s stereotypical personality and accent, it evokes a touching sincerity in Hermes’s reluctance to let go. Eventually, Badrick has a heart-to-heart with Hermes, expressing pride with his son in lieu of his own fatherly failings and has him promise to brew one last pot of coffee with his beans. The next day LaBarbara and Dwight arrive, and the gang prepare to memorialize Badrick.
At the same time, Corpsey reveals to Zoidberg and Marianne, who in a ridiculously short span of time had grown attached to their “loving committed three-way floral arrangement”, that they have fallen in love with another -breaking up with them in favour of Badrick, their love having rejuvenated him and cured his blight. It is a brazenly convenient way to coalesce both plots and resolve them -the timeline for Corpsey and Badrick coming together is even more swift than it was for the threesome, and it robs the episode a little bit of the necessary catharsis of Hermes having to grieve the loss of his father, which would have been a very poignant and mature theme for the show to include. Yet, it finds a way to capture a vestige of another emotional note, as Badrick sweetly thanks Hermes for not giving up on him. “I couldn’t just leave you here to die.” “No, but you can leave me here to live.”
A bizarre plant wedding ensues that the biologist reluctantly officiates with a moving George Washington Carver quote, and Zoidberg and Marianne cordially let go of their relationship to Corpsey. Zoidberg then addresses his relationship to Marianne seriously, assesses its history and sweetly referencing the wedding they’ve witnessed, asks if she wants to continue their romance. Honestly, even for a big crab monster, the earnest sentiment would be hard to turn down. The episode ends with a wedding reception set to a lovely cover of Futurama’s favourite song, “Walking on Sunshine” as Corpsey and Badrick’s roots intertwine underground.
There are bits of “Late Bloomers” that could’ve been done better, and the bit specifically with the three-way plant relationship kind of got away from itself and distracted from the episode’s core. But it did well by both Zoidberg and Hermes, and ultimately, this may have been the most wholesome episode of the Hulu revival -at least since “All the Way Down” it has been the most touching. When Futurama wears its heart on its sleeve, it can be pretty wonderful.
Time for some stray observations:
  • It’s a shame the show couldn’t bring back Emilia Clarke to reprise Marianne from thirteen years ago. Caitlin Gallogly takes it on and does a pretty good job. However Clarke’s absence does speak again to the lack in Futurama’s power these days (or perhaps just the budget Hulu affords them) when it comes to guest stars. It doesn’t have the celebrity pull that it once did. I don’t think it’s a coincidence we have yet to see a head in a jar this season.
  • On learning what Zoidberg has been doing for Marianne, Amy comments “suddenly, he’s kind of hot!”
  • The biologist hates when the humidifier is set to Gainesville. Fry and his frazzed hair doesn’t seem to mind. I feel like I have to go to Florida to really get that joke.
  • One beat that goes a little under the radar is Hermes thanking Zoidberg for contacting Marianne and bringing them to the greenhouse. Given Hermes’s antagonistic history towards Zoidberg it’s really nice to see a genuine moment like that between them.
  • “It’s got everything it needs.” “Except a reason to live.” “Pfft, even I don’t have that.”
  • Gotta appreciate the various Audrey’s from Little Shop of Horrors. Between that and Silent Running, this was a very good show for smart, unexpected reference points.
  • “He’s gone to that big arboretum in the sky.” “Isn’t this a big arboretum in the sky?”
  • Fry and Leela are minor characters this episode, but I’m glad they got their own really cute moment. “I’m crying at a wedding for plants -why?” “Because you’re awesome.”
  • “You’re kind words are the best wedding gift I could receive, and also the least expensive.” Corpsey is a little sassy. Very relieved the episode didn’t end on Marianne leaving Zoidberg for Corpsey the way Colleen left Fry for Yivo.
  • “Marianne, stuff happens. Sometimes people meet, sometimes they fall in love, sometimes they separate for college, then try a plant thing they both wanted and it doesn’t work out. But if you’re honest and kind and keep trying, someday you get this. And you are honest and kind, do you want to… keep trying?” One of the nicest monologues of the show, genuinely.

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