Futurama may have explored time travel in the past, but this time around, they explored the concept of only going forward.  Why?  So Fry wouldn't sleep with his own grandmother again.

In one of the strongest episodes of the season, "The Late Philip J. Fry" finally re-addressed the Fry-Leela relationship.  They are dating.  Or were dating until Fry left them for a post-apocalyptic world.  Glad to see some consistency.

From there, the show brilliantly split the episode into the alternate reality where the Professor, Fry and Bender left and Leela ran Planet Express into a successful and marry Cubert, who apparently was back for this sole purpose.

As much as we loved the various universes the boys explored, the show's brilliance came from the ending.  Spoiler alert.  The universe reset itself and the gang was able to hop in the exact spot they left.  Well at least after the second reset.

While we're sure some other sci-fi authors or scientists have explored the concept of the universe repeating itself, this is the first we've seen or heard about it and thought it was pretty brilliant.

An episode based on a clever idea, loaded with jokes and references to old characters we haven't seen in years like Cubert and Elzar?  How can we not love it.  Our favorite Futurama quotes from the episode are after the jump.

Bender: Guys, guys! Hedonismbot is finally ready to settle down and marry a house in the suburbs. | permalink

Fry: No! I can throw up on a stripper anytime. Tonight, I wanna not throw up. On you. | permalink

Leela: Has anyone seen Fry's ass? It's late for a date with my boot. | permalink

Hedonismbot: Everywhere I looked, there were piles of bodies. And then the explosion struck! | permalink

Eric Hochberger is the programmer of TV Fanatic, so please forgive his mediocre writing. His programming is far better. Follow him on Twitter and/or email him. Just don't request threaded comments. They're coming.