The Inhuman Torch
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"The Inhuman Torch" is the eighteenth episode in the seventh
season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's axial tilt, tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperat ...
of the American animated television series ''
Futurama ''Futurama'' is an American animated science fiction sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company and later revived by Comedy Central, and then Hulu. The series follows Philip J. Fry, who is cryogenically preserved for 1 ...
'', and the 132nd episode of the series overall. It originally aired on
Comedy Central Comedy Central is an American Cable television in the United States, cable television channel, channel owned by Paramount Global through its Paramount Media Networks, network division's Paramount Media Networks#MTV Entertainment Group, MTV Ente ...
on July 10, 2013. The episode was written by Dan Vebber and directed by Frank Marino. In the episode, Bender becomes a
firefighter A firefighter (or fire fighter or fireman) is a first responder trained in specific emergency response such as firefighting, primarily to control and extinguish fires and respond to emergencies such as hazardous material incidents, medical in ...
, and ends up housing a
solar flare A solar flare is a relatively intense, localized emission of electromagnetic radiation in the Sun's atmosphere. Flares occur in active regions and are often, but not always, accompanied by coronal mass ejections, solar particle events, and ot ...
who wants to blow up the
Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to Planetary habitability, harbor life. This is enabled by Earth being an ocean world, the only one in the Solar System sustaining liquid surface water. Almost all ...
from the inside.


Plot

At a
helium Helium (from ) is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol He and atomic number 2. It is a colorless, odorless, non-toxic, inert gas, inert, monatomic gas and the first in the noble gas group in the periodic table. Its boiling point is ...
mining facility on the
sun The Sun is the star at the centre of the Solar System. It is a massive, nearly perfect sphere of hot plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core, radiating the energy from its surface mainly as visible light a ...
,
Zapp Brannigan This article lists the many characters of ''Futurama,'' an American Cartoon series, animated science fiction sitcom created by Matt Groening and developed by Groening and David X. Cohen for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series follows the ad ...
causes a
cave-in A cave-in is a collapse of a geologic formation, mine or structure which may occur during mining, tunneling, or steep-walled excavation such as trenching. Geologic structures prone to spontaneous cave-ins include alvar, tsingy and other ...
that traps 15 miners inside the sun itself. Fry, Leela, and Bender venture to save the miners. When Bender attempts to abandon Fry and Leela and return to the ship, he inadvertently saves one of the miners. Prompted by Morbo, who is covering the breaking story on location, Bender goes on to rescue all of the remaining victims. He is hailed as the hero of the day, while Fry and Leela are recognized as his minor accomplices. A fire breaks out at their award ceremony. As Mayor Poopenmeyer explains, the
fire department A fire department (North American English) or fire brigade (English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English), also known as a fire company, fire authority, fire district, fire and rescue, or fire service in some areas, is an organi ...
was sold to pay for Bender's
medal A medal or medallion is a small portable artistic object, a thin disc, normally of metal, carrying a design, usually on both sides. They typically have a commemorative purpose of some kind, and many are presented as awards. They may be in ...
. Fry, Leela, and Bender put out the fire, although Bender is very showy about it and once again receives most of the credit. Mayor Poopenmeyer decrees that the Planet Express crew are now the city's fire department. After some time as successful
firefighter A firefighter (or fire fighter or fireman) is a first responder trained in specific emergency response such as firefighting, primarily to control and extinguish fires and respond to emergencies such as hazardous material incidents, medical in ...
s, the other crew members notice that Bender was present just before every one of the fires they extinguished. They ask themselves whether Bender might be setting these fires deliberately in order to inspire continued hero-worship. Their suspicions are confirmed when, while on the videophone with Bender, they see a fire break out in the shop just behind him. When he returns to headquarters, they confront him and kick him off the team. As Bender cleans out his locker, a strange, blue flame erupts from his shoulder. He tries to extinguish it, but the flame deliberately dodges his attempts and takes on the look of a shadowy face. The flame introduces himself to Bender as a "being of pure solar energy", a member of a race that inhabits the Sun's photo-sphere. Billions of years ago, the creature was imprisoned for treason, but Bender had unwittingly transported him to Earth. When he announces his plans to ignite the Earth and rule over it, Bender realizes that this creature is the source of the fires for which he has been blamed. When Bender accidentally leads the creature to the sub-basement and the lava pit, the creature realizes that he can go to Earth's core and transform the Earth into a miniature Sun. To prevent this, Bender captures the creature, whom he begins to refer to as "Flamo", within his compartment of mystery and flees to an ice floe in the Arctic Ocean, where there is nothing flammable. At home, Fry accepts a package that contains Bender's hero medal, badly damaged in the fire at the Vampire Bank where Bender had kept it. Fry realizes that Bender never would have set a fire that would risk harm to this prize, and flies to the Arctic to retrieve and apologize to Bender. But when Bender tells Fry about Flamo, an angered and disbelieving Fry returns to headquarters alone. Unbeknownst to Fry, Flamo escapes from Bender and attaches himself to Fry's pants. At headquarters, he leaves Fry and ignites the Planet Express building itself. The crew is unable to extinguish the fire, as Flamo eludes their hoses. As the others flee the doomed building, Bender arrives to witness Fry hanging from the balcony and in need of rescue. Only Fry knows of his presence, and Bender quietly pulls him to safety. Fleeing with a reluctant Fry in hand, Bender falls through the weakening floor, ending up in the sub-basement near the lava pit. As Fry scolds Bender, Flamo arrives and dives into the lava pit, forcing Bender to dive into the lava to capture him. Before Fry can leave, a strange light draws him back into the room. Two large flame creatures appear, announcing that they are the "mystic aldermen of the Sun". They await Bender's return, thank him for his heroism in capturing their escapee, and depart with a bound Flamo. Finally understanding the truth, Fry promises to vouch for Bender to the rest of the crew, but Bender advises him not to, as the crew would only blame Bender for starting the fire if they knew he was there.


Cultural and Historical References

*The introductory tagline joke ("As Seen At The 1939 World's Fair") is a reference to the "
Futurama ''Futurama'' is an American animated science fiction sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company and later revived by Comedy Central, and then Hulu. The series follows Philip J. Fry, who is cryogenically preserved for 1 ...
" exhibit, part of the General Motors Pavilion at that fair. It showed the highway of the future (circa 1960), and gave the name to the series. *The fire alarm tones are similar to the ones in the TV series ''
Emergency! ''Emergency!'' is an American Action fiction, action-adventure medical drama television series jointly produced by Mark VII Limited and Universal Television. Debuting on NBC as a midseason replacement on January 15, 1972, replacing two situatio ...
'' *At the end of the episode, Bender is called "the greatest hero in Earth's history." In response, Bender says “Suck it,
Gilgamesh Gilgamesh (, ; ; originally ) was a hero in ancient Mesopotamian mythology and the protagonist of the ''Epic of Gilgamesh'', an epic poem written in Akkadian during the late 2nd millennium BC. He was possibly a historical king of the Sumer ...
!” Gilgamesh was a Sumerian ruler and the protagonist of ''
The Epic of Gilgamesh The ''Epic of Gilgamesh'' () is an epic from ancient Mesopotamia. The literary history of Gilgamesh begins with five Sumerian poems about Gilgamesh (formerly read as Sumerian "Bilgames"), king of Uruk, some of which may date back to the T ...
''.


Reception

''
The A.V. Club ''The A.V. Club'' is an online newspaper and entertainment website featuring reviews, interviews, and other articles that examine films, music, television, books, games, and other elements of pop-culture media. ''The A.V. Club'' was created in ...
'' gave this episode an A. Max Nicholson of
IGN ''IGN'' is an American video gaming and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa district and is headed by its former e ...
gave the episode a 7.3/10 "Good" rating.


References


External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Inhuman Torch 2013 American television episodes Futurama season 7 episodes Fiction about the Sun