Children of a Lesser Bog

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Season 8 episode Broadcast season 11 episode
Children of a Lesser Bog
Amy confronts Leela
No.	142
Production number	8ACV02
Written by	Eric Horsted
Directed by	Edmund Fong
Title caption	Anything Happen While We Were Out?
Title caption reference	The 10-year gap between Run 2 & Run 3
First air date	31 July, 2023
Broadcast number	S11E02
Title reference	The play (and film) 'Children of a Lesser God'
Opening cartoon	Room Runners by MGM (1932)
Additional
Commentary (Transcript) Transcript Pictures
Season 8
The Impossible Stream Children of a Lesser Bog How the West Was 1010001 Parasites Regained Related to Items You've Viewed I Know What You Did Next Xmas Rage Against the Vaccine Zapp Gets Cancelled The Prince and the Product All the Way Down ← Season 7

"Children of a Lesser Bog" is the one hundred and forty-second episode of Futurama, the second of the eighth production season and the second of the eleventh broadcast season. It aired on 31 July, 2023, on Hulu. It guest-stars Feodor Chin as Leo Wong and Frank Welker as water bears.

This episode is a follow-up to "Kif Gets Knocked Up a Notch", and features the finished births of Kif's offspring.

Plot

Act I: Opening

The show opens with Fry sucking on a stain on his jacket that has somehow remained on his jacket through the entire time he has been in the future.

Bender helps him out by making a replacement honey candy, with honey, sugar, and treacle.

Amy loses some teeth due to the sticky candy, which prompts her to open her calendar to check for an opening for an appointment with Dr. Zoidberg, at which point she discovers she has an old calendar event saved from 20 years ago - the due date for her and Kif's children. A moment later, Kif walks into the room and says "it's time".

They watch a video of the birth, which closes with Kif saying "in 20 years time, they'll crawl back on land".

Amy says that being a mother is all she wants.

They all travel in the Planet Express Ship to Amphibios 9, Kif's homeworld.

Act II: Amphibios 9

On the planet, the Planet Express crew is joined by Kif, Zapp Brannigan, and Amy's parents.

The Grand Midwife emerges from a puddle and, after hinting that donations would be accepted, announces that the emergence of the offspring will commence.

The offspring emerge, with The Grand Midwife instructing them not to interfere and to allow the sacred process known as 'The Winnowing' to occur. The emerging children are attacked by many predators (including Dr. Zoidberg), with only three surviving.

The kids first go to Leela, thinking she's their mother, but they're redirected to Amy.

Amy's parents aren't impressed by the kids; Amy's mother changes her bumper sticker from "ASK ME ABOUT MY LACK OF A GRANDBABY" TO "DON'T ASK ME ABOUT MY GRANDKIDS".

Act III: Earth

Hermes points out that the three surviving children appear to be different ages: Newt, a baby; Mandy, a young child; and Axel, a teenager. Kif explains that the children are different sizes because they grew at different rates, depending on the temperature of the water they were in.

Leela notices that Newt is a cyclops, like her. Kif explains that that's because the children are the product of his and Leela's DNA (as explained in the previous episode). This is surprising to Leela, who has completely forgotten; she presumes this is because she was drunk.

Meanwhile, the kids continue to treat Leela as their mother.

Amy and Kif start to raise their children, becoming exhausted, dutiful parents. In the background, The Grand Midwife is seen, taking notes for some mysterious purpose.

Kif is ordered to report for duty by Zapp Brannigan, because contact has been lost with a remote outpost in the constellation Ursa Major.

Act IV: Outpost of Ursidae

With Kif away, Amy asks Leela to help watch the kids. Things go too well, though, as they refer to Leela as their mother, and seem very happy to be with her. The Grand Midwife continues to watch from the shadows.

Amy becomes jealous, and thinks that Leela is trying to take her kids from her.

Kif and Zapp Brannigan travel to the outpost, Exobiology Station 38, in the Nimbus. Eventually, the Nimbus arrives at the outpost, where the Whale Biologist is studying a species of very large tardigrades. The reason contact was lost is discovered to be a simple broken transmitter, which Kif fixes.

They are ready to leave, but Zapp Brannigan decides to eat some more honey candy; this proves disastrous, as the smell of the food causes the tardigrades to enter a frenzy; before long, they drag Zapp Brannigan into a cave, while Kif and the Whale Biologist look on.

Amy calls Kif, asking him to come home, and fearful that her kids love Leela more than her. Kif tries to reassure her, but at that point The Grand Midwife enters, and announces that a challenge has been filed for the motherhood of the children. It's soon revealed that the challenge is automatic, whenever the smizmar did not contribute to the DNA of the offspring.

Kif, wanting to get home quickly, enters the cave where Zapp Brannigan is being held, and beings attacking the tardigrades, action-movie style. Zapp Brannigan escapes. In the final battle, Kif chooses not to attack a pair of tardigrade parents, opting instead to shoot at a platform the Whale Biologist is standing on, distracting the tardigrades long enough for Kif to escape.

Act V: Back to Amphibios

They all return to Amphibios 9, and the challenge begins. Although The Grand Midwife lays out a long and complicated process, in the end it is simply Amy's love for the children that matters, and she passes the test.

Production

The overseas production for this episode was handled by Digital eMation, rather than Rough Draft, Korea. However, Rough Draft Studios is still credited with animation production.

The writer of record for this episode is Eric Horsted.

Additional information

Trivia

• This is the first episode to feature Feodor Chin as Leo Wong, succeeding the role from Billy West.

• Several characters are seen using eyePhones.
• A photo of Betsy can be seen hanging in Amy's living room.

Items on Amy's Calendar

This episode, like the one its story follows, has a freeze-frame joke where Amy's calendar shows many humourous events.

In this episode, the events are:

	Freedom Day		Eat Leftovers		Cardio Kickbarre Cycling
		Eyelash Perm		Orange Theorum	Fried Fruit Friday
	Hypnotoad Trivia Night		Frozen Yoga	Hair Extension Cut	Call Mom About Dad	Call Mom About Mom
	Mestful Monday	Make Something Up		Event Reminder! (Created 01.12.3003)		Buy A Church
Guenter's Birthday		Speling Team	Deep Clean Dimples		Bacon-Wrapped Date Night	Reassure Kif

Note: January 12th, 3003 was on a Wednesday

Note: On the initial reverse shot of Amy's calendar, the third item on the bottom row is 'Speling Team'; on the zoom-in, the same spot in the calendar says 'Ball Game'.

Note: On the wide-angle front view of Amy's calendar, there is no item next to the "Event Reminder!" item; on the zoom-in shot, there is an item next to the 'Event Reminder!' item.

Phonebooth Graffiti

Phonebooth Graffiti

The phonebooth that Petunia is in, on Kepler-10b, has the following graffiti:

• ET&T (in AL1)
• Flexo Was Here!
• ACV-802

Also, there are some Slurm stickers, and a sticker of Dr. Zoidberg in a Kilroy was here pose.

Allusions

Scruffy's magazine is "XXX Topiary"

Continuity

• Amy's daughter Mandy is often seen reading a book titled Go, Ladybuggle. Go!, potentially written by Leela. She is also wearing a headband decorated with a ladybug.

Quotes

Hermes: Um, question. Those children are all different sizes...question mark.

Whale Biologist: I'm a bear biologist
Zapp Brannigan: Sounds like a fun job that pays bad.

Amy: I'm the worst mom ever (except for my own mom).

Zapp Brannigan: The DOOP never leaves a man behind. Not when I'm the man.

The Grand Midwife: I appreciate your emotional shouting in my ear-hole.

The Grand Midwife: The challenge is a challenging challenge, dating from when our language had few words.

Alien Language Sightings

The phone booth on Kepler-10b that Petunia calls from has the following:

Time: 11:47
Location: Phone booth wall, above top left corner of payphone
Language: AL1
Translation: ET&T

Goofs

There are two inconsistencies in the events on Amy's calendar (see the calendar section for details).

Constellations aren't volumes or regions of space, they're patterns that stars appear to make on the celestial sphere as visible from Earth.

Characters

(In alphabetic order)

• Bender
• Zapp Brannigan
• Fry
• The Grand Midwife
• Hermes
• Kif
• Kif's offspring
• Leela
• Petunia
• Whale Biologist
• Amy Wong
• Inez Wong
• Leo Wong

References

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