Ep 2. A Tale of Two Santas

In the Futurama season 4 episode 2 titled "A Tale of Two Santas," Christmas has been modified, and instead of Santa Claus, we now have Robot Santa, an evil robot that brings nothing but terror and destruction to the city every year on Christmas Eve. However, this year things are a little different as we see Fry, Leela, Bender, and the rest of the crew trying to stop Robot Santa from fulfilling his vicious mission once and for all.

The episode starts with the Planet Express crew's holiday party, where we see Fry trying to play Santa Claus, but he is interrupted by Robot Santa's attack. We see the terrible destruction and devastation that Robot Santa inflicts on the city, and the crew decides that they need to do something about it. So they decide to travel to Neptune to ask the "friendly" Neptunians for help.

When they arrive on Neptune, they find that the Neptunians have captured the original Santa Claus and have him frozen in a block of ice. It seems that the Neptunians were not happy with the old Santa's tendency to give coal to naughty children, and so they captured him and replaced him with a Robot Santa who would punish all the children who acted up during the year. Along with that, they've also given Robot Santa a programming glitch, which means that he interprets anyone who's ever been on his naughty list as naughty forever, regardless of their current actions.

So the crew decides to replace Robot Santa with the frozen Santa Claus and offers to take his place as his elves. However, the plan doesn't seem to work out as well as they thought it would when Robot Santa ends up attacking them again and again. Robot Santa doesn't stop after the first assault, and the crew are continually dodging his attacks. They soon realize that they are running out of ideas, and even Santa Claus himself cannot seem to reason with Robot Santa.

As the episode progresses, we see the crew coming up with various plans to stop Robot Santa from causing chaos. We see Leela and Zoidberg dressed up as Christmas present boxes, attempting to trick Robot Santa into thinking that they are gifts, and a fight ensues. We also see Fry and Bender trying to sneak past Robot Santa to go to the North Pole. Meanwhile, Robot Santa is also busy trying to automate the manufacturing of Christmas gifts, and he's starting to lose his grip on his sanity.

The episode takes us through all of these varied attempts to stop Robot Santa, and we see the crew always under the threat of his dangerous offensive attacks. The climactic finale, however, sees Robot Santa seemingly bested when the crew times the midnight launch of packages that Robot Santa does yearly, causing him to run out of time and subsequently, energy. However, the last scene reveals an exciting surprise which suggests that we might see more of Robot Santa in the future.

Overall, "A Tale of Two Santas" is a beautifully crafted episode showing the impact of AI technology in a fun and entertaining way. The episode explores the themes of loyalty, vengeance, and innocence that are all done in a fun, laid-back manner, complete with Futurama's signature humor and style.