Review: "The Luck of the Fryrish" (Season 3, Episode 4)

Airdate: March 11th, 2001.

Plot: Fry has been on a streak of what seems to be bad, bad luck. He loses at the racetracks, loses every dollar at said racetrack, gets electrocuted to try and retrieve his last dollar. This makes him think back to a simpler time... 1980s New York.

It was a quirky time to be a New Yorker. The Yankees were awful. Ed Koch was asking how he was doin' as New York's mayor. And one Philip J. Fry had a tense relationship with his family, most notably, with his older brother Yancy. In a city park, Fry manages to track down a seven-leafed clover, and luck winds up on his side. After Yancy tries to steal it, Fry hides it in a record vault.

A thousand and change years later, Fry decides to retrieve the clover from the record vault. Unfortunately, it's missing, and Fry immediately suspects Yancy. Making matters worse is the fact that, after his little cryogenic incident, somebody by the name of Philip J. Fry became handsomely famous. Fry comes to the conclusion that Yancy committed identity theft.

Review: My review of "Parasites Lost" seemed to concur with the idea that Season 3 showed Futurama leap from a merely funny sci-fi show to a great character dramedy. However, you would think that those dramatic episodes would be further apart than a whopping two episodes. "Luck of the Fryrish" is another gut-wrenching episode, focusing on Fry's relationship with his family. The end result is a very, very bittersweet half-hour of television.

The glimpses that we had at Fry's past so far are actually pretty depressing. He was in a pathetic relationship with Michelle that ended abruptly, he was working in a dead-end job, and he had a crappy little apartment, living day to day wasting in front of the television. If "The Cryonic Woman" is to be believed, not only was said relationship emotionally abusive, but Fry's family seemed rather callow to his life (and disappearance.)

Here, we get to see the Fry family fleshed out. Indeed, they did come off as somewhat loutish, aloof, and focused on less pressing issues. His mother was beyond a sports nut ("The Mets win!" "Woohoo! This is the greatest day of my life!" "Here's your baby." "Yeah, OK, thanks.") His father? A paranoid, anti-commie patriot planning for the end times. And his brother - feeling displaced by Fry's birth, a sibling rivalry lights up and never really abates. Each member has their own distinct personality, their own eccentricities.

Yet, despite their apparent callousness towards Fry, they all do show some level of great familial love towards him. Unfortunately, they never showed it in front of him - it seemed like fighting and ignorance on a nonstop basis. Thus, Fry is left with a lingering disgust towards his brother, who he has now taken as a whiny, self-serving thief. He tries to rectify this by, ironically enough, defiling his grave to get his clover back. Two sides of what seems to be the same coin?

Well, here's where the episode really turns on the waterworks.

So devastated was the family after Fry disappeared that Yancy not only asked to borrow Fry's record collection for the wedding (and put it back, mind you), but named his son in honor of Fry ("who I miss every day"), and gave him the old seven-leaf clover.

And, in a way, it was the most fitting tribute.

Phillip Fry - the cousin, mind you - lived one of the most extraordinary lives ever. It's a dream life imagined by a child. What makes it work is that, in many ways, he is given Fry's spirit, his chutzpa, and his happiness. Yancy knew what his younger brother was like, and loved and respected him so much that he gave his son the seven leaf clover, not to spite him, but to keep him alive.

And Phil lived up to that mission statement.

Oh, and in some ways, Fry is lucky. Awful as it was that he's forever estranged from his family, he got a fresh start at a life that sorta sucked a little. He has a group of close friends, he has a job that's a step above pizza delivery boy, he gets to indulge in his life-long fascination with space (one that his father accidentally instilled in him), and the only reason why his living situation could be worse than before is because of Bender's, well, Bender-ish ways. The seven-leaf clover paid off quite well on all accounts.

The ending of this episode is so perfectly constructed - saving the ultimate reveal of "Phillip J. Fry" for last, Fry's only reaction is not only to read the grave over again, but to hold the seven leaf clover, and we can assume, put it back to it's rightful owner. It's among the most moving scenes in the history of the show.

Indeed, "The Luck of the Fryrish" is truly among the most moving episodes in the show. A tearjerker from top to bottom with a bittersweet ending, it fleshes out Fry's past in the best damn way possible.

When you walk on by... and you call my name...

Tidbits:

• I should also mention that this episode so fantastically fuses the comedy in with the tragedy. There are too many fantastic lines and jokes in this episode to count, but my favorites include "You changed the outcome by measuring it!", the stab at Huey Lewis and the News (a band that I actually like), and "I'm only one skull short of a Mouseketeer reunion."
• From the beginning of this episode, we see that Fry has this fascination with outer space. The mobile started it, he named his basketball move the "Spacehook", his breakdance moves revolved around science fiction concepts, etc. It's also implied (and later confirmed) that he was a Trekker.
• "On that corner, some guy with a bushy beard handed out a socialist newsletter!" "Was it poorly xeroxed?" "You better believe it." I love this joke about Brooklyn being a centerpiece of political leftism and eccentricity (Bernie Sanders was born there), and the contrast with Mr. Fry's more conservative viewpoints.

Favorite Scene: Fry realizing the true identity of Phillip J. Fry. Yeah, my eyes welled up.

Best Character: The Fry Family, as a unit, gets this award. I love how developed they are - they remain sympathetic, yet also deeply flawed.

Memorable Quote: "I'm naming you Phillip J. Fry, in honor of my little brother... who I miss every day. I love you, Phillip... and I always will." - Yancy. Even Mr. Spock would weep.

Score: 10