Episode Recap: I Dated a Robot

Fry enters Farnsworth’s Lounge, where the group is watching television. He is excited about a colorful ball he saw, which they tell him is only a shoe store promotion. Fry is surprised that everyone in this future world is just as blasé as the people in his time. Leela decides to spend the morning helping Fry do everything he ever wanted to do. Soon after, Fry destroys a nearby planet. Then they visit the edge of the universe. At the Jurassic Kiddie Park, Fry rides a dinosaur. Later, elated Fry reveals his final two fantasies: being invisible in a chocolate factory and being romantically linked with a celebrity. Leela says he can do the latter by downloading a celebrity’s personality and appearance from the Internet into a blank robot. Soon after in Farnsworth’s lab, Leela and Fry don virtual reality helmets that transport them into the Internet. They enter nappster.com, the celebrity dating store. Fry asks the salesman for Lucy Liu, and he is happy to oblige. In Farnsworth’s lab, the downloading of Lucy Liu is successful—and the Lucy Liu-Bot has been programmed to adore Fry. Moments later, Fry is completely besotted by the Lucy Liu-Bot’s artificial flattery. Fry and Lucy Liu-Bot go everywhere together and kiss incessantly. Thinking that humans dating robots is sick, Bender and Leela decide to interfere. They show Fry a film about the evils of human-robot dating, but Fry ignores the movie and keeps on kissing Lucy Liu-Bot. Bender decides the only way to stop this is to shut down nappster.com. Soon after, accompanied by Doctor Zoidberg, Bender and Leela burst into the store, where they hear Lucy Liu’s voice, yelling that she is being held prisoner. They discover that the real name of the company is kidnappster.com. In a secret room, they find hundreds of celebrity heads,who say that kidnappster has been making illegal copies of them. They rescue the Lucy Liu head and flee. The executives of kidnappster vow to give the thieves all the Lucy Liu they can handle. Later as Doctor Zoidberg, Bender and Leela head back to the lab, they are attacked by another Lucy Liu-Bot. Bender destroys her, but soon they spot an army of Lucy Liu-Bots approaching, destroying everything in their path. Meanwhile, Fry and Lucy Liu-Bot are kissing in a movie theater. Doctor Zoidberg, Bender and Leela take refuge in the theater, carrying Lucy Liu’s head. The Lucy Liu-Bots enter the theater and attack the patrons. Fry and the others hide in the projection booth. Using popcorn kernels and the projector light, Fry’s Lucy Liu-Bot destroys the other robots, then collapses herself. The Lucy Liu head insists that Fry erase the download, which was illegally obtained. He tearfully deletes the robot’s memory. Bender and Lucy Liu’s head declare that they are in love. They kiss,and Fry growls in anger.