Futurama/Bendless Love

Bendless Love
Season 3, Episode 6
Airdate	February 11, 2001
Production Number	3ACV06
Written by	Eric Horsted
Directed by	Swinton O. Scott III
← 3x05 Amazon Women in the Mood	3x07 → The Day the Earth Stood Stupid
Futurama — Season Three

Bendless Love is the sixth episode of the third season of Futurama, and the thirty-fifth episode overall. In the tradition of the previous two episodes, this episode features a love interest for Bender. When Bender starts nightbending because of a repressed desire to bend, he starts scabbing at a striking bending plant. At the factory, he realizes he must compete for the love of a fembot named Angelene with his fellow bending unit, Flexo.

Guest Stars: Byrne Offutt (Utility Player), Jan Hooks (Angleyne)

Plot Overview

At Planet Express, things around the office are being mysteriously bent. First the L unit in the ship is bent into a straight 180 degree beam, then Hermes' straight edge, Amy's javelin and Zoidberg's slinky all wind up bent or straightened. After finding that the Professor was bent into a 90 degree angle as well, Hermes goes to the surveilance tapes to find that Bender is bending all of these things in his sleep. The crew decides that Bender cannot work at Planet Express until he satisfies his pent up bending lust. Unfortunately, the Curvetti Bros. Bending Plant is under strike and the only way for Bender to get a job at the plant is to be a picket breaking scab. Bender discovers that his coworkers are Flexo, the robot he sent to prison in The Lesser of Two Evils and Angleyne, a coat hanger bending fembot who Bender instantly takes a liking to.

At the head of act 2, Bender begins to woo Angleyne with surprising success. The two decide to go out afterwork and we cut back to Planet Express where the crew is attempting to fix their bent possessions while the Professor walks with Fry, spouting off about his new philosophy. After a montage of Bender and Angleyne doing things together, Bender takes everyone out to Elzar's Fine Cuisine, only to discover Angeline at a table with Flexo.

In act 3, Bender confronts Angleyne and Flexo, who reveals that Flexo is her ex-husband. Instead of talking to her, Bender constructs an elaborate ruse to catch Angeline two-timing him at the robot dance club. While he attempts to woo Angleyne, the robot mafia sees him flashing his scrub cash which offends the don of the robot mafia. After flashing his wad a third time, the mafia decides to stage an on the job accident to befall Flexo. At the Bending Planet, Bender and Flexo fight while Clamps positions an unbendable girder above Flexo. To save Flexo, Bender musters the strength to bend it off of him, but to his dismay his ruse has shown Angeline how much she loves Flexo and leaves Bender for good.

Notes

Alien Language Sightings

• There are no alien language words in this episode.

Characters

• Bender: Bender's full name is revealed to be Bender Bending Rodriguez. It's also revealed that he's only four years old.

Referbacks

• 2x11 - The Lesser of Two Evils: Bender and Flexo first met when Flexo attempted to foil Bender's attempts to steal the crown of the Miss Universe pagent. Althought Fry believed him to be the evil twin of Bender, it turns out that Bender's the evil one. Flexo refers to the ending of this episode when he was arrested for the theft by the police instead of Bender.
• 2x17 - Bender Gets Made: The Mafia robots appeared in a previous episode where Bender joined up with their crew. It's presumed that they don't recognize him because of the magnetic goatee.

Trivia

The Show

• Opening Caption: Torn From Tomorrow's Headlines
• Bender's Background: Bender is revealed to be four years old in this episode. His full name is also revealed to be Bender Bending Rodriguez.
• Freeze Frame: While Bender is being put together, you can see Flexo's head in the box of robot heads.
• Freeze Frame: At the apartment, Fry is trimming a bonzai tree shaped like the Planet Express Ship.

Behind the Scenes

• Annie Awards: John Di Maggio won the award for Outstanding Individual Achievement for Voice Acting by a Male Performer in an Animated Television Production at the 2001 Annie Awards, a show which was hosted by Billy West.

Allusions and References

• Endless Love: The episode name is a play on Endless love, a novel made into a film starring Brooke Shields and Martin Hewitt, and the song recorded for the film by Lionel Richie and Diana Ross, later covered by Mariah Carey and Luther Van Dross.
• J'Accuse: J'Accuse is a French phrase meaning "I accuse", it is associated with the title of an Open letter that Emile Zola published to the French president in 1898 accusing him of being involved in a misscarriage of justice over the prosecution of Alfred Dreyfuss.

Bender: I bent him.
Amy: Aha!
Hermes: Bender!
Zoidberg: J'accuse!

• Bend Me, Shape Me: American Breed's song "Bend Me, Shape Me" plays during the date montage with Bender and Angleyne.
• Helping Angleyne Bend: The scene where Bender helps Angleyne bend the girder into the shape of a heart is a direct reference to the movie Ghost.
• A New Angle on Life: The song that the Professor sings towards the end of the episode is very similar to a song written by Eric Idle, originally from the Monty Python film The Life of Brian called Always Look on the Bright Side of Life.
• Just when I thought that I was out...: Bender references the famous line uttered by Michael Corleone in The Godfather Part III about his involvement in organised crime "Just when I thought that I was out they pull me back in."

Bender: I try to get out but they keep pulling me back in.

Memorable Moments

• Zoidberg attempting to fix his slinky, only for it to explode.
• Robots dancing until they shake apart at The Hip Joint.

Quotes

• Hermes: I know how to settle this. We'll check last night's surveillance tapes.
  Fry: Huh?
  Amy: What?
  Leela: Surveillance tapes?
  Zoidberg: You've seen me naked?

• Bender: You degenerate hussy! I'm disappointed in you too Angleyne.
  Angleyne: Bender, it-it's not what you think.
  Bender: Oh God, then it's worse than I think!

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