The following contains spoilers for Futurama season 12 episode 4, “Beauty and the Bug,” now streaming on Hulu
Summary
Futurama’snewest love interest for Bender might be one of his best, and has a strength of concept that many others don’t.. Bender has been given plenty of brief love interests over the years. While they vary in origin, characterization, and role in the universe, they share a habit of being written out of the series after their episode concludes. That’s not the case for Ana Ortiz’s guest role in season 12’s “Beauty and the Bug,” which gives her a refreshing sense of agency and individuality that many others lack.
This actually bucks a pretty consistent trend forBender’s family membersand love interests inFuturama, allowing her to not only survive and thrive after her inevitable break-up with Bender but also get the last laugh for a change.It’s an exciting turn, especially given how “Bender falls in love” has become a go-to plot for the show over the years. This new approach subverts some of the ways Bender’s previous love interests inFuturama’s 12-season-long runhave felt one-note, and should hopefully influence the direction his romances go moving forward.
Futurama Season 12’s Stealth Sequel To A Classic Episode Creates A Weird Timeline Problem
Futurama’s continuation of a beloved episode feels brief but also starts to create holes in how the animated sci-fi handles the passage of time.
Marquita Is Bender’s Best Love Interest Yet
How Marquita Stands Out From Over A Decade Of Different Love Interests
Bender’s season 12 love interest Marquita is a unique character withinFuturama, and avoids many of the problems that haunt Bender’s other major love interests from across the course of the show.Marquita is introduced in “Beauty and the Bug” as a champion Buggalo fighter. Instantly smitten upon seeing her, Bender quickly throws himself into the sport he can spend time training with her. The pair have the kind of passionate and silly romance that Bender has often indulged in across the series. However, Marquita has some specific elements that separate her from past characters
More so than any of Bender’s other love interests,Marquita is defined by her personal agency and drive. She’s a deeply honorable fighter, with a sense of personal pride and motivation that many of Bender’s previous love interests failed to show. Marquita also ends the episode with an advantage over Bender, lashing out at him for cheating with other women and leading the Buggalo to attack him. It’s a small victory, but it gives Marquita something of a happy ending..
Bender’s Past Futurama Love Interests Have Followed A Tragic Trend
Most Of Bender’s Love Interests Are One-Off Joke Characters
On paper, Marquita follows a trend with Bender’s love interests. Many of his most prominent love interests have been played by guest stars, although a few like the Countess were played by series regular Tress MacNeille. Most of the love interests Bender gets over the course of the seriesonly appear in one episode before fading into the background. Lucy Liu is an exception, but even her second appearance was a quick gag poking fun at Bender’s inability to commit to a relationship.
Season 3’s “Bendless Love”
Head Of Lucy Liu
Lucy Liu
Season 3’s “I Dated A Robot,” Season 4’s “Love & Rocket”
Season 4’s “Love & Rocket”
Season 9’s “The Bots and the Bees”
Ana Ortiz
Season 12’s “Beauty and the Bug”
Bender’s love interests always leave by the end of their episode. Each of these stories played the love interests separation from Bender for laughs, but often removed their agency in the process. It remained Bender’s story through and through, preventing them from picking up the memorable traits that defineFuturama’s best supporting characters.Marquita is an exception to that rule, showcasing plenty of personality and talent outside of her relationship with Bender. The episode even seems to reward her sense of self by having the Buggalo find peace with her profession.
Futurama Just Cryptically Set Up The Season 12 Episode I’m Most Curious About
The title of Futurama season 12’s penultimate episode interested me as soon as I saw it, and episode 3 just enhanced my already-high intrigue.
Should Bender Have A Permanent Love Interest In Futurama?
Why Bender Works Better Without A Long-Time Romance
Some ofFuturama’s best plotlines have been love stories. Fry and Leela’s romance is central to the show’s continuity while supporting relationships between Amy and Kif or Hermes and LaBarbra have fleshed out the universe. However,Bender has only ever really had one-off love interestswho last an episode at at time. This actually benefits Bender’s role in the show as a chaotic story engine who can set off a plotline with a sudden newfound passion or attraction. This is even the case in “Beauty and the Bug,” setting off the main events of the episode.
Keeping Bender single allows him to remain more capable of jumping from extreme to extreme, without the grounding elements a relationship tends to bring to a character. With that in mind,it makes sense to give Bender one-off love interests. Marquita is a fun character, but seeing her constantly might remove some of the unique energy she brings to the episode. However, it’s still exciting to seeFuturamagiving those characters agency of their own, and hopefully that approach to his love interests becomes the standard.
Futurama
Cast
Futurama is an animated science fiction series that follows Philip J. Fry, a pizza delivery boy from late-20th-century New York City. He is accidentally cryogenically frozen for a thousand years and becomes an employee at Planet Express, a delivery service in the retro-futuristic 31st century.
