Futurama season 13 has been available for binging on Hulu for a full week now. While the episodes are overall very strong, the season finale, “The White Hole,” skyrockets into all-time classic territory, perfectly encapsulating the show’s ongoing fascination with brutal failure and ridiculous chaos—plus plenty of sci-fi shenanigans, of course.
“The White Hole” begins as an anomaly appears in the sky over New New York. It’s so bright it disrupts Bender’s attempt at burglarizing the courthouse for reasons we never learn (does Bender ever need a reason?), and it is promptly dubbed the “Brightmare” by Futurama’s reliably hysterical newscasters.
Professor Farnsworth, of course, knows what the mysterious light is: the white hole promised by the episode title. It’s the opposite of a black hole, blasting out energy, matter, and time rather than vacuuming them in—and this one has a very specific purpose. It’s a portal inviting representatives from all the various universes to witness the birth of a new universe.
Naturally, the Planet Express crew—numbering eight, the exact amount specified for the invited group—expects to get the gig. But just this once, no amount of bribing the President of Earth can butter up Richard Nixon’s head in a jar. The team, especially the ancient professor, is just too old to survive the epic journey.
It’s disappointing. But when the hand-picked group of young children fails to reach their destination—they bounce back after aging 80 years (“Our bodies withered and our lives wasted,” the leader says sadly as the professor cackles)—a solution comes into focus: “a crew in stone-cold storage for 10 million years.” Cue the black-and-white newsreel sending the Planet Express gang on their glorious mission.
Once we get aboard the rocket, the professor explains how this will actually be possible. While the team—which also includes Fry, Leela, Bender, Hermes, Amy, Zoidberg, and Scruffy—slumbers while frozen in “carbonana,” a 3D bio-printer will be on standby, ready to craft duplicates of any of them should the need arise. A hologram of the professor’s head is also on standby, ready to deliver instructions.
These are strictly temporary copies, mind you. The bulk of “The White Hole” transpires on the journey, as crises small (a spill that requires Scruffy’s mop) and huge (a sentient yogurt monster that sprouts from Fry’s discarded snack cup) arise, requiring the services of replicants who exist for just five minutes before dissolving into a pile of bones.
The comedy escalates as the cycle of duplicates continues; it’s like a time loop, except the characters expire as soon as they complete whatever task they’re needed for. At one point, Amy Number 31 complains, “I keep getting created just to cheer people up before they disintegrate!”
Having such specific, silly, and short-lived purposes soon breeds resentment as the millions of years tick by; eventually, this round-robin of disposable life forces the characters into a state of mind that evokes Severance’s innies versus outies tension or the woe felt by the clones of Moon or Mickey 17.
“The originals” are the only versions that matter. They’re snoozing through the journey so they can emerge at just the right moment to gasp in awe at that new galaxy coming into existence. But existence itself is the true “glorious reward,” to paraphrase the professor. When the ship reaches the “reverse event horizon,” the duplicates decide to rebel.
Rather than waking up their originals, they decide they should get to see the newborn universe instead. After all, only the real humans will get to journey home—after only a brief time has actually passed on Earth, thanks to the white hole’s time-space oddities—and bask in the glory of their success.
“We did the work… we deserve the glory,” Leela Number 1,218 declares. “I mean, technically, we didn’t do the work, but we still deserve the glory!”
The originals do successfully return home, to fanfare conducted by a mechanical arm operated by the preserved, disembodied head of John Williams, but none of them get to witness a single wink of that dazzling new universe.
As a result, the Planet Express crew obviously can’t share what they saw with anyone on Earth. It’s a huge letdown for everyone who was waiting a good 15 minutes for them to take 10 million years to fly there and back. “Shut up and take your medals,” Nixon growls as the white hole in the sky blinks itself away forever.
The Futurama characters are perpetually sabotaging themselves, then bouncing back in spite of their actions. But this familiar arc has rarely been accomplished with such well-ordered narrative synchronicity. They may have been screwed out of witnessing a miracle by their own jealous counterparts—but they all survived to wonder what the hell happened and to live another day.
Futurama season 13 is streaming on Hulu.
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