Line #50 Recap/FuturamaS8E2ChildrenOfALesserBog


1	[[quoteright:1000:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/videoscreenshot_disneyplus_futurama_631_1.png]]
2	[[caption-width-right:1000:"We welcome these new beings of the land."]]
3
4	''[[CouchGag Anything happen while we were out?]]''
5
6	[[Recap/FuturamaS4E1KifGetsKnockedUpANotch After twenty years]], Kif and Amy's children finally emerge from the alien swamp they were deposited in, and Amy now must deal with the challenges of motherhood.
7	----
8	!!Tropes in this episode:
9	* AdoptionAngst: A variant focused on the adoptive parent's perspective. Due to the means of conception, the children's biological parents are Kif, Leela, and Scruffy -- not Amy, their adoptive mother, despite her having initiated Kif's ability to conceive. Amy spends most of the episode worried that, due to her exhaustion while Kif is on duty, she isn't a good enough mother to her children. This gets worse when the kids get along with Leela, and Amy becomes jealous and worried they like their biological mother better. In light of this conflict, the Grand Midwife challenges Amy to prove her parental rights to her kids, but she easily passes by saying she loves them more than she thought she could ever love anything.
10	* AndThisIsFor: Kif declares "This one's for Axl, Mandy, and little What's-His-Name" as he's about to shoot some more of the Tardigrade Bears. He lets them off, however, when the Bears turn out to have children of their own.
11	* AssholeVictim: Kif uses the Biologist - a short tempered, judgemental and spiteful man who teases the animals he looks after - to lure the highly aggressive Tardigrade Bears away from himself.
12	* BackForTheDead: Amy's and Kif's children return in this episode, and all but three of them are killed off by swamp predators within less than a minute. Possibly also the whale/bear biologist, whose fate is left ambiguous.
13	* BaitAndSwitch: Bender adds some treacle to his NutritionalNightmare, to remind him of his late Aunt Juanita... who drowned in treacle.
14	* BearsAreBadNews: Tardigrade Bears on an outpost planet attack Zapp and drag him away, requiring Kif to come and save him.
15	* BizarreAlienBiology: Despite being born at the same time, Amy and Kif's kids are in different stages of development with the eldest being a teen, the middle child a pre-teen and the youngest a toddler. Hermes calls attention to this fact, to which Kif explains their kids must have spend the last 20 years in different water temperatures, hence they developed at different rates.
16	* BlackComedy: Remember the dozens of tadpoles Kif birthed? It turns out they have to go through "the Winnowing", which resembles [[NatureIsNotNice the early lives of frogs, turtles, or most R-selected species in general]]: they're eaten by various predators, one of whom is ''Zoidberg'', until only four... no, wait, three and a half remain.
17	-->'''Amy:''' The Winnowing? What does that mean?\
18	'''Kif:''' It means don't start naming them yet.
19	* BullyingADragon: The Biologist taunts the Tardigrade Bears on the balcony in the cave with different food items that he doesn't want to give them. This prompts Kif to shoot the balcony with him on it to divert the bears from him, resulting in the Biologist getting mauled.
20	* TheBusCameBack:
21	** Kif and Amy's children make a return 20 years after their birth in "[[Recap/FuturamaS4E1KifGetsKnockedUpANotch Kif Gets Knocked Up a Notch]]", now being developed enough to emerge from the swamp. The parrot-dragonflies and poisonous froad from the same episode also return to prey on the kids.
22	** The Whale Biologist from "[[Recap/FuturamaS4E16ThreeHundredBigBoys Three Hundred Big Boys]]" makes a return, now having shifted to studying bears because of his hatred of whales.
23	* ButForMeItWasTuesday: Bender doesn't remember the birth of Kif and Amy's children, and Leela doesn't remember that their kids have her DNA. Somewhat understandable considering this plotline hasn't been picked up again until this point 20 years later, both InUniverse and out.
24	* ButLiquorIsQuicker: Discussed -- when Leela misinterprets the reminder that she's the one who got Kif pregnant, she remarks, "I must have been ''super'' drunk."
25	* CallARabbitASmeerp: The giant tardigrades are referred to as bears due to "water bear" being one of the alternate names for them.
26	* TheCameo: A poisonous froad is among the predators in the swamp.
27	* ConstellationsAsLocations: Ursa Major is described as a physical region of space where a planetoid populated by water bears the size of actual bears is located.
28	* ContinuityNod:
29	** Kif and Amy still have eyePhones from "[[Recap/FuturamaS6E3AttackOfTheKillerApp Attack of the Killer App]]".
30	** Mandy reads a picture book featuring Ladybuggle called "Go, Ladybuggle Go!", which previously appeared in "[[Recap/FuturamaS6E21YoLeelaLeela Yo Leela Leela]]" (another episode Eric Horsted wrote).
31	* CustodyBattle: An unintentional one; when Amy and Kif's kids start bonding with Leela, Amy suspects Leela is trying to take the kids away from her since, while Amy may have been the Smizmar, it was Leela who impregnated Kif. Things get worse when the Grand Midwife witnesses this, and decides Amy has to be put through a trial to see whether she or Leela will officially become the kids' mother. However, it's all a big misunderstanding since Leela never intended to take the kids from Amy, and the trial ultimately is nothing more than Amy admitting that she loves the kids, which is good enough for the Midwife to give her custody.
32	* DeathOfAChild: Despite the sheer amounts of tadpoles that Kif deposited in the swamp, many of them don't make it out thanks to the predators of the swamp (and Zoidberg) eating them. By the end, only three of them survive.
33	* EatsBabies: Most of the tadpoles get eaten by local wildlife and Zoidberg.
34	* EverybodyCries: Near the end of the episode, all of the characters that were there for Amy and Kif's trial cry in happiness for them, with Bender even pouring out treacle for them.
35	* ExtraParentConception: Not only do Kif and Amy's children have Kif and Leela's DNA, they also somehow have Scruffy's.
36	* ForgotFlandersCouldDoThat: Lieutenant Kif Kroker is frequently seen as a BeleagueredAssistant, a DistressedDude, or otherwise PatheticallyWeak and InTouchWithHisFeminineSide. In this episode, he is ''Lieutenant'' Kif Kroker, and he pulls off several feats of badassery without hesitation.
37	* FullFrontalAssault: Kif Kroker takes on the Tardigrade Bears in the nude so that his camouflage ability will be more effective.
38	* FreezeFrameBonus: Amy's calendar provides a couple of blink-and-you-will-miss-it entries, including "Hypnotoad Trivia Night", "Call Mom About Mom", and "Reassure Kif".
39	* GenerationShip: Amy's babysitter says she'll get the next generation ship home from Kepler-10b.
40	* GreenEyedMonster: Amy grows jealous as her children start bonding with Leela, which is not helped by the fact that Leela was the one who impregnated Kif.
41	* HehHehYouSaidX: Axl laughs at the word "bone", [[BaitAndSwitch instead of "sex"]].
42	* InvisibleStreaker: Kif makes use of his camouflage ability to rescue Zapp from the Tardigrade Bears, ensuring his invisibility is effective by removing his clothes before getting near the beasts.
43	* JerkassRealization: Amy gets angry when her kids start bonding with Leela, suspecting she's trying to take them away due to being the one who impregnated Kif, and she goes as far as to accuse Leela of calling the Grand Midwife to officially become the kids' mother. She realizes it's all a misunderstanding, as the Grand Midwife is only there to test her on being the kids' true mother and Leela never intended to take them away from her, and apologizes for being jealous.
44	* KickTheDog: The Biologist taunts the tardigrades with salmon while calling them stupid. This prompts Kif to use him as live bait for the tardigrades.
45	* MagicalSecurityCam: Amy's able to bring up footage from "Kif Gets Knocked Up A Notch" on her [=eyePhone=].
46	* MixAndMatchCritters: The swamp predators preying on Kif and Amy's children include dragonflies with parrot beaks, crocodiles with neck spines like a bearded dragon, and placoderms with tailfins of ray-finned fish.
47	* MonsterIsAMommy: When attempting to save Zapp from Tardigrade Bears, Kif discovers that some of them are trying to protect their children. Whilst the episode initially suggests that they were killed anyway, it is later revealed that he spared them.
48	* NoOneGetsLeftBehind: Played for laughs. When Kif tries to leave Zapp to the Tardigrade Bears, Zapp insists to Kif that they never leave a man behind.
49	-->''"Not when I'm the man!"''
50	* NutritionalNightmare: The honey candies from Fry's time are no longer available because they were reclassified as industrial glue. Bender cooks up a new batch that has so much honey that it causes a diabetic seizure in Farnsworth, which prompts Fry to add in a bagful of sugar to lessen the sweetness, and so sticky that Amy loses two teeth from chewing on one. Zapp uses them as an alternative to hair wax.
51	* OnceMoreWithClarity: When Zapp flees from the cave of the Tardigrade Bears while Kif stays behind to fight them off, several gunshots are heard from inside the cave, implying Kif killed the bears. Later however a flashback shows the events from Kif's perspective, and it's revealed he instead shot down a ceiling mounted platform that the biologist was standing on.
52	* PetTheDog: Zapp Brannigan offers to be "[[HonoraryUncle Captain Uncle]]" to Kif and Amy's kids, and he sheds TearsOfJoy with everyone else when Kif and Amy reunite with their kids at the end of the episode.
53	* PunBasedCreature: Since tardigrades are also known as "water bears", the Tardigrade Bears are as big as actual bears and behave like them.
54	* RealMenWearPink: Fry wears a frilly pink apron with hearts on it when he is seen making the clump o' honey candy with Bender.
55	* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: The Grand Midwife looks into the issue of Amy not being the biological parent because that's what she's supposed to do. When Amy assures her she loves the children with all her heart the Midwife grants her legal custody with no further questions.
56	* {{Retcon}}: The previous episode's ExplodingCalendar implied the show had jumped from 3023 to 3024. However, this episode takes place exactly 20 years after "Kif Gets Knocked Up a Notch," which Amy's calendar shows was set in January of 3003 (the original episode aired in January of 2003).
57	* RunningGagged: After 20 years of badgering Amy to [[IWantGrandkids give them grandkids]], the Wongs finally get them... only to become so disgusted by them that they pretend they don't exist from that point onwards.
58	* SecretTestOfCharacter: The real purpose of the custody challenge is just the Grand Midwife making sure that Amy loves the kids, biological or not.
59	* SequelEpisode: To "[[Recap/FuturamaS4E1KifGetsKnockedUpANotch Kif Gets Knocked Up a Notch]]", focusing on Kif and Amy's children born at the end of that episode emerging from the swamp they were deposited in.
60	* ShoutOut:
61	** The giant tardigrades might be a reference to ''Series/StarTrekDiscovery'', which had one.
62	** The Grand Midwife refers to Kif and Amy's children as "[[Film/CreatureFromTheBlackLagoon young creatures of the Black Lagoon]]".
63	** Fry's jacket having a spot of honey that's still fresh after a thousand years may be a reference to the ''Series/LifeAfterPeople'' episode "The Last Supper", which hypothesizes that preserved honey would last for millennia.
64	* ShownTheirWork: Fry adding a bag of table sugar to the batch of honey candy to make it less sweet. Honey is actually sweeter than sugar.
65	* StatusQuoIsGod: Subverted and defied in this episode. With the whole challenge plotline, it looks as if Amy and Kif were going to somehow lose their children but as they both establish themselves to be legitimate parents to their children, it changes the show’s status quo in regard to both their family and their relationship.
66	* StockStarSystems:
67	** The bear sanctuary is in Ursa Major, a reference to the fact that the constellation is known as the Great Bear.
68	** The babysitter Amy hires accidentally goes to Kepler-10b, the first extrasolar planet discovered.
69	* TakeThat:
70	** To rum raisin ice cream when Mandy says it "tastes like caterpillars".
71	** To Bit-O-Honey, for which the way-too-sweet, tooth- (and chest hair) ripping "honey candy" is an Expy.
72	* VillainBall: The Biologist suddenly starts to taunt the Tardigrade Bears with food he doesn't want to give them while Kif was surrounded by the bears in the cave, when beforehand he was careful with how he handled food around them, just to give Kif the motivation to use him as bait for his escape.
73	* VocalEvolution: Amy's voice becomes noticeably deeper once she starts taking care of the children, though that could be chalked up to her spending a majority of that time either exhausted or crying.
74	* WantingIsBetterThanHaving: Amy's parents finally get the grandkids they've been hounding her for all show. Only to take one look at them, decide they didn't want them ''that'' bad, and promptly leave.

Context Recap / FuturamaS8E2ChildrenOfALesserBog