At the Mars Day celebration at the Wong Ranch, the Wongs' buggalo are stolen by rustlers under cover of storm. Kif Kroker sees this as the perfect chance to prove himself to Amy's parents and gets on the search, with Fry, Leela, and Bender along for the ride. Things get tricky when the rustlers turn out to be Native Martians, who aren't too happy with how their ancestors were cheated out of their land by the Wong family long ago.
Tropes
- Actually Pretty Funny: Leela admits she finds the idea of the Martians handing over the planet for a bead funny, but she's still not going to laugh about it.
- Ambiguously Jewish: The Martian chief talks like a cross between a stereotypical Jewish man and every Wild West movie Indian ever. note "Land, schmand! This place is a dump!"
- Authentication by Newspaper: The Native Martians send the Wongs a picture of Amy holding a newspaper with a headline about her own kidnapping.
- Chekhov's Gun: The "bead" the Martians traded Mars for.
- Chekhov's Skill: Inverted: it's Kif's inability to smoke properly that comes up again near the end of the episode, when the Native Martians need him to smoke their peace pipe.
- Cloudcuckoolander: Zoidberg takes the concept of making oneself at home waaaay too far, to the point where he considers the Wongs to be his parents and calls their home Ranch Zoidberg.
- Crying Indian: Parodied; A Native Martian sheds a tear when Zapp carelessly tosses a Slurm can on the ground, but not because of the disrespect to Mother Mars, but because a loved one once drank Slurm.
- Damsel in Distress: Halfway through the episode, Amy is kidnapped by the Native Martians. When the crew eventually come to rescue her, she's not in any serious danger, and the Martians are pretty willing to hand her back over.
- Dating What Daddy Hates: Discussed. At the end of the episode, Kif laments that Amy's parents will never like him. Amy replies that if they liked him, that means that she wouldn't.
- A Day in the Limelight: For Kif, as the episode focuses on his relationship with Amy.
- Did the Earth Move for You, Too?: Kif is about to kiss Amy when they are interrupted by a buggalo stampede. Kif thinks that means they had sex.
- The Ditz: Fry is somehow incapable of noticing Olympus Mons, the largest mountain in the entire solar system, when he's right in front of it.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: The Native Martians' plight is all too similar to that of the Native Americans.
- Foreshadowing: The Martians are surprisingly eager to leave once everything's settled... it turns out that there was a good reason for that.
- Ghost Story: The gang tells them while camping at night, but Fry keeps blurting out the endings.
- Gold Digger: Implied with Inez, who demands a divorce when Leo states he’ll go broke without the Buggalo.
- Hayseed Name: The DJ at the Mars Day party will have you know his name's Mixmaster Festus.
- Hypocritical Humor:
- After the Wongs finally kick Zoidberg out, he complains that "money doesn't make good people" despite having spent most of the episode freeloading off them and generally being a nuisance.
- Leo Wong can identify the Martians as Amy's kidnappers because "they no use good grammar."
- Immediate Self-Contradiction: "I am the Man With No Name. Zapp Brannigan at your servive."
- Man With No Name: Parodied. "I am the Man with No Name. Zapp Brannigan at your service."
- Mundane Ghost Story: Bender's campfire story.Bender: ...and even though the computer was off and unplugged, an image remained on the screen. It was... the Windows logo!
Fry: Pfft! That's not scary.
Bender: It is if you're a laser printer. - Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Kif manages to successfully smoke the peace pipe... only to then accidentally choke and blow the smoke into the Martian Chief's face after the latter pats him on the back.
- Noodle Incident: A Martian sadly notes that "Cynthia used to drink Slurm."
- Not Helping Your Case: If the Native Martians give Amy back, Zapp offers to carve a bunch of Earth presidents into their sacred mountain.Martian Chief: You waste words.
- Oh, Crap!:
- Leo Wong, when Zoidberg informs him he fertilised the Wongs' caviar... which Leo is eating at that very moment.
- Kif, when he realizes the Wongs are going to call in Zapp to help.
- Bender has a positive version of this when he examines the "bead" and is left stammering from incomprehensible joy upon realizing how much said "bead" is worth.Bender: Oh Chief, you've made me the happiest girl in the world!
- Or Are You Just Happy to See Me?:Amy: Is that your camouflage reflex or are you just happy to see me?
- Peace Pipe: The Martians would spare the gang and return the buggalo if Kif smokes a peace pipe. He chokes, and is sentenced to death.
- Pun: There's a sign in front of the Wong ranch that says "You've come to the Wong place".
- Racist Grandpa: Downplayed. The Professor claims the Western Hemisphere is the best Hemisphere on Earth, after Leo Wong tells him Mars' Western Hemisphere is the best Hemisphere (he owns all of it), even though the Wongs are ethnically Chinese which means their ancestors come from the Eastern Hemisphere. Leo doesn't seem offended though.
- Running Gag:
- Kif trying to inform everyone how he doesn't have bones, only for them to ignore him.
- Farnsworth noting that the quest to recover something is dangerous and could get somebody killed, before volunteering Fry, Leela and Bender for the task.
- Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!: When Leo asks if anyone is considering suing, Farnsworth comments that he feels hurt. When Leo states that he's friends with every judge on Mars, Farnsworth backs off.
- Screw the Rules, I Have Money!: When the Martians learn that their "bead" is actually a huge diamond, their leader says they'll buy a new planet and claim it to be sacred and says nobody will challenge the claim because they're rich.
- Screw This, I'm Out of Here!: Once everything's settled, the Martian chief declares the Martians are going to leave Mars, because they hate it.We don't wanna live on this planet. It's a dump. We'll just buy a new planet, and act like it's sacred. With cash like this, who's going to argue? Nobody, that's who!
- Series Continuity Error: Amy's parents are incredibly hostile and disapproving to Kif, despite them being the ones who introduced Kif to Amy in "A Flight to Remember". It could be because that he was demoted back to Zapp's Number Two rather than being a Captain anymore.
- Shout-Out:
- The title is based on the line "where the buffalo roam" from the song "Home on the Range."
- While travelling across Mars, Bender sings a little song to the theme of Bonanza.
- Take Me to Your Leader: Zapp says this after the Martian Chief introduces himself.Chief: ...Moving on...
- The Thing That Would Not Leave: Zoidberg, for the Wongs. He spends the entire episode breaking their property, vandalising their artworks, and just generally being a nuisance.
- Worthless Yellow Rocks: Spoofed; In backstory, the Wong family got their land from the Native Martians for a single bead. At the end of the episode, it turns out that the "bead" is actually a giant diamond big enough to crush a man under its weight. The present Native Martians assumed their ancestors were cheated because they had no idea of property and believed the diamond to be worthless. A diamond that big (and apparently flawless, judging by Bender's ecstatic response) probably really is worth Mars.
