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Futurama episode
"Parasites Lost"
Episode no.	34
Prod. code	3ACV02
Airdate	January 21, 2001
Writer(s)	Eric Kaplan
Director	Peter Avanzino
Opening subtitle	If Not Entertaining, Write Your Congressman
Opening cartoon	Ub Iwerks "Aladdin and The Wonderful Lamp" (1934)
Season 3 January 2001 – December 2002
Amazon Women in the Mood Parasites Lost A Tale of Two Santas The Luck of the Fryrish The Birdbot of Ice-Catraz Bendless Love The Day the Earth Stood Stupid That's Lobstertainment! The Cyber House Rules Where the Buggalo Roam Insane in the Mainframe The Route of All Evil Bendin' in the Wind Time Keeps on Slippin' I Dated a Robot A Leela of Her Own A Pharaoh to Remember Anthology of Interest II Roswell That Ends Well Godfellas Future Stock The 30% Iron Chef
List of all Futurama episodes...

"Parasites Lost" is the second episode in season three of Futurama. It originally aired in North America on January 21, 2001.

While making a pit stop at an interstellar truck stop, Fry buys and eats an egg salad sandwich from a vending machine in the restroom. On returning to Earth, Fry and Bender are assigned the task of fixing the plasma fusion boiler, which promptly explodes. Bender is not damaged, but Fry is impaled by a large pipe. Fry's damaged body repairs itself in seconds and the crew discovers that Fry is infested with microscopic worms.

To eliminate the infestation, Professor Farnsworth makes miniature robotic versions of the crew, except for Fry and Leela. Because the worms would defend themselves if they knew about the mission, Leela is assigned to distract Fry. Controlling the micro-droids using virtual reality gear, the crew board a miniature Planet Express ship, and enter Fry's ear. Throughout the travel, the crew discover that the worms were making Fry's intelligence and strength greater than before.

The crew make their way into Fry's bowel, and fight their way to the pelvic splanchnic ganglion, intending to cause a massive bowel movement to expel the worm society. Meanwhile, Leela is enchanted by the now intelligent and muscular Fry. He then reveals that he loves her but only recently was he able to articulate his thoughts. She realizes that the worms are responsible for this, and sets out to stop the Professor. Her micro-droid reaches the nerve, and hacks the rest of the micro-droid crew to pieces with an axe. The Professor tells her that the worms will burrow so deep into Fry's body, he'll be stuck with them forever.

Fry is informed of what has been happening, but is more interested in romancing Leela than clearing the worms out of his body. Leela tells Fry that she loves the new him. Worried, Fry tells her that he needs to find out something, leaves, and using his own micro-droid, enters his own body.

When Fry meets with the worm leader, he blackmails the worms into leaving by threatening to kill himself. With the worms gone, Fry returns to Leela's apartment, intent on finding out if Leela can love him as he is. Fry explains to Leela about the worms, and his decision to dispose of them. His awkward attempts at being romantic end when he mentions having sex with Amy Wong. The next scene is him being thrown out. Back at his apartment, Fry begins to re-learn the Holophonor, starting with a crude image of Leela.

While infested with the parasites, Fry is able to play the holophonor, a difficult instrument which produces both music and holographic pictures. This ability is lost by the end of the episode; however, in the episode "The Devil's Hands are Idle Playthings", it is revealed that Fry still aspires to learn the Holophonor and win back Leela's love.

The storyboard artist for this episode, Rodney Clouden, was honored with an Emmy award in 2001 for "Individual Achievement in Animation".^[1] This episode is also a fan favorite and in 2006 IGN named it as number four in their list of the top 25 Futurama episodes. IGN, praised the episode for both its humor and the deepening of Fry and Leela's relationship, particularly the scenes where Fry is willing to "hurt himself and lessen what he has become for Leela".^[2] In 2007 Entertainment Weekly named Futurama number 21 on their list of the top 25 sci-fi movies and TV shows of the last 25 years (1982-2007). In the article, this episode was identified as the "best bit" of the series.^[3]

Route Root 66, homage to Route 66

• The title for this episode comes from Paradise Lost by John Milton.
• The concept for the episode is largely borrowed from the 1966 film Fantastic Voyage.
• At the beginning of the episode, a sign displays "√ 66", a reference to historic Route 66.
• When Leela is cleaning the Planet Express ship, she is seen wiping off a large space bug (much resembling a dragonfly), a small planet and the Voyager 2 spacecraft.
• The virtual reality suits the Planet Express crew use to control their miniature robot duplicates resemble those in the Red Dwarf episode "Gunmen of the Apocalypse".
• The Holophonor played by Fry directly references the Visi-Sonor, a similarly hard-to-play hologram-producing musical instrument in the Isaac Asimov novel Foundation and Empire.
• When the crew enters the bowel the scene closely resembles the exit Will Smith and Jeff Goldblum made at the end of the movie Independence Day.
• The head worm asks if Fry knows what makes the special sauce so special. This is a reference to the old Big Mac commercials that marketed its special sauce. The secret was Thousand Island dressing.
• The worms may be a homage to Hiroaki Samura's graphic novel Blade of the Immortal which features sacred bloodworms that make the main character immortal.

• There are two hidden Alienese messages in this episode. In the beginning, there is a message written on a tank in space that translates to "HUMAN MILK". Later, when Fry and Leela are by the construction site, there is writing on the wall that translates to "WATCH OUT FOR FALLING HUMANS".

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Parasites Lost