After two summers full of Futurama, the resurrection of the series by Disney and Hulu comes to a temporary end with Otherwise, an amazing finale written by veteran author Ken Keeler under his Nona di Spargement pseudonym. It’s an emotional, funny and exciting science-fiction adventure picking up on the events of the Comedy Central finale Meanwhile from eleven years ago involving Fry and Leela’s continuing love story. A wonderfully written episode that embodies everything that’s good in Futurama, this is the best season finale you could hope for.

We seemingly have to say goodbye to the Planet Express ship in the episode opener when Fry gets strange flashbacks that continue when he proposes to Leela. Going on with their business in a sleek shiny new ship, strange ghost ships appear and threaten our heroes. Of course the episode ends with a big surprise twist, but until then it really keeps the viewers on their toes and tugs heavily at the heartstrings. But it’s not an emotional soap opera – the gags fly hard and fast and almost every joke sticks. Ken Keeler also really knows his Futurama lore down to every last detail and includes references to many past episodes down to the very first one.

While Otherwise is primarily a Fry and Leela story, it’s also a masterfully written ensemble piece that includes the core crew and even gives Bender a little subplot and also does not forget Zapp Brannigan and Kif, who are an integral part of the plot. Professor Farnsworth is also a driving force and while Amy, Hermes and Dr. Zoidberg are not really necessary for the story, they are still there to lend a hand. At the same time, the episode is very frugal when it comes to additional characters to concentrate on the regulars – there are a few welcome return appearance like Janos the restaurant vampire and newscasters Linda and Morbo, but otherwise the episode is very good at not overcrowding the cast.

Otherwise is also a visual feast pulling out all the stops in the animation department. Wrecking the poor Planet Express ship and replacing it with a new sleek but soulless space cruiser has been executed brilliantly. The old ship with it’s familiar teal interior will (small spoiler!), of course, continue to exist but seeing the colourful crew in a strange new environment that seems to be largely monochrome was a bold move that worked out well. At least the Planet Express headquarters are still there in their old, slightly worn glory. While there are no huge space battles like in the four movies, we do get more than a few brilliant scenes in space around the ship graveyard that look impressive, even though you can see all the stars in the background – possibly deliberately to actually have something nice to look at in the background. This episode looks impressive without overdoing it, something the animation has been very consistent with this season.

There are no guest stars in this episode, so the original actors have to do all the hard work they have been doing for literally a quarter of a century. Especially Billy West is brilliant as Fry, Professor Farnsworth, Zoidberg and Zapp Brannigan – with all his characters appearing at once he has almost more to do in this episode than all of the other actors together. In comparison, Katey Sagal is “only” the voice of Leela, but her distinct performance is once again the real star of this episode and especially her scenes with Billy West sound like they recorded their lines together to create some heartfelt emotion. John DiMaggio is his usual sarcastic self as Bender and Lauren Tom, Phil LaMarr and David Herman inhabit their characters perfectly. In a nod to the actors hard work, Professor Farnsworth even announces that he has hired the “world’s greatest voice actor Tress LaMarche” for the voice of his new ship – of course it’s Tress MacNeille who provides the slightly sarcastic computer voice.

This time it’s not goodbye even though Otherwise could very well be an open-ended season finale like Meanwhile was in 2013. Ken Keeler has written the perfect final episode for the first two years of Futurama in the streaming world, but the tagline “We’re not out of networks yet” was fortunately not really necessary. Twenty new episodes have already been ordered by Disney and Hulu and a return of Futurama next summer is as good as guaranteed. It still feels like the circle has closed between the 2013 and 2024, but the writers made sure that no doors have been closed and there can still be many more adventures of the Planet Express crew.