The Farnsworth Parabox
Parallel universes collide when a forbidden box is opened.
The 69th episode of Futurama, and the fifteenth of its fourth season, is "The Farnsworth Parabox." Directed by Ron Hughart and written by Bill Odenkirk, it debuted on Fox on June 8, 2003. The story follows the Planet Express crew into parallel universes.
Quick Facts
- Director
- Ron Hughart
- Writer
- Bill Odenkirk
- Airdate
- 8 June 2003
- Opening caption
- Beats A Hard Kick In The Face
Facts from the source article.
Plot
Professor Farnsworth decided to get rid of a dangerous experiment sealed inside a yellow box by launching it into the sun. He told the Planet Express crew not to open it, and Hermes put Leela in charge of watching it. Leela felt curious and flipped a coin to decide if she should peek inside. The coin came up in her favor, so she looked, fell into the box, and ended up in a parallel universe where she met alternate versions of her coworkers. The Leela from that universe ordered everyone from the original universe to come through, because the parallel Professor thought they were evil. The two Farnsworths figured out that the original Farnsworth had accidentally created a box holding a parallel universe, and the parallel Farnsworth had done the same thing with a box containing the original universe. They also learned that coin flips always give opposite results in the two universes, which was why the parallel Leela had never opened the box she was guarding. Fry and Leela found out that their counterparts were happily married, because both Leelas had once flipped a coin to decide whether to go on a date with Fry. The Professors realized nobody was evil, and the two groups became friendly. Right before the original crew went home, the parallel Hermes showed up to destroy the box that held the original universe. The crew understood that this meant the original Hermes was about to do the same to the box holding the parallel universe. They tried to go back through the box to stop him, but it was gone—the two Zoidbergs had stolen it. The two Farnsworths attempted to rebuild the original box but accidentally made a huge number of boxes, each containing a different universe. The Zoidbergs ran into the boxes, and everyone chased them across many dimensions. They finally caught the Zoidbergs, and everybody jumped into the box containing the original universe just in time to stop Hermes from destroying the box with the parallel universe. The two crews said goodbye and returned to their own universes. To keep both universes safe, the Farnsworths swapped their boxes by pulling each one through the other, so each now paradoxically owned a box that contained its own universe. Fry asked Leela out. She flipped a coin, then chose to say yes without looking at the result.
Broadcast and reception
In 2006, this episode was ranked 17th on IGNs list of the top 25 episodes of Futurama. The episode was noted for its humor as a standalone episode and in particular for Universe #420 where Professor Farnsworth tells his hippie counterpart to get a job. The 2013 revision of the list bumped the episode up to number 16, reassessing it as better than several previously higher-ranked episodes. The reassessment praised the episode's study of alternate Futurama realities. In 2013, it was ranked number 6 as voted on by fans for Comedy Central's Futurama Fanarama marathon.
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