If you've gotten to this last episode after a long journey through every season, there is a powerful catharsis here, especially in the episode's closing moments. The relationship between Fry and Leela had been ebbing and flowing for an eternity with Fry showing his charming side and then promptly undoing any progress he'd made with his gross immaturity. "I love his boyish charm, but I hate his childishness" Leela once said and it perfectly framed their relationship.
The ending of this episode, to me, is the most beautiful piece of television I have personally seen. After all the grandeur of Fry's blossoming holophonist career, it wasn't the majesty of his opera or the dexterity of his new robot hands that brings it together. After losing those hands and regaining the "stupid fingers" that held him back, all he could produce was a crude child-like image of him and Leela kissing and walking away into the horizon for his audience of one, the only one that matters, Leela. Is this not the true crux of romance? Not the grand gestures, but the simple things that hold the most heart and the most power? It would have been so easy to ham-fistedly shoe horn a final image of Fry and Leela finally becoming an item, but the creators managed to give us the long awaited true "kiss" without giving us one at all.
I give this episode a 10/10 not because it ranks up there with the best of Breaking Bad or Game of Thrones, but because the emotions are real and that feeling of catharsis is lightning in a bottle for a beloved series, especially for an obsessive neck beard mom's basement fan.
The ending of this episode, to me, is the most beautiful piece of television I have personally seen. After all the grandeur of Fry's blossoming holophonist career, it wasn't the majesty of his opera or the dexterity of his new robot hands that brings it together. After losing those hands and regaining the "stupid fingers" that held him back, all he could produce was a crude child-like image of him and Leela kissing and walking away into the horizon for his audience of one, the only one that matters, Leela. Is this not the true crux of romance? Not the grand gestures, but the simple things that hold the most heart and the most power? It would have been so easy to ham-fistedly shoe horn a final image of Fry and Leela finally becoming an item, but the creators managed to give us the long awaited true "kiss" without giving us one at all.
I give this episode a 10/10 not because it ranks up there with the best of Breaking Bad or Game of Thrones, but because the emotions are real and that feeling of catharsis is lightning in a bottle for a beloved series, especially for an obsessive neck beard mom's basement fan.