Random Thoughts.....What Are You Thinking?

On the first viewing, you see it from Leela's perspective. You as the viewer know that Fry can't really be dead, and they keep faking you out that he comes back. But then it always ends up being a dream, and you're stuck there thinking "OK so when are they actually going to bring him back to life", all the while Leela's guilt is eating away at her to a point where she wants to never wake up again. But every time she tries to dream, Fry tells her to wake up and jolts her back awake.

But then in a really well-written twist at the end of the episode, it turns out she was never awake. Nearly the entire episode was her dream, and it's a constant battle between her wanting the comfort of the bees' royal jelly and Fry's voice waking her up. You, as the audience, suddenly realize that her eating the royal jelly in her dream is her driving herself deeper into a coma, and Fry's constant attempts in the real world is literally the only thing that stops her from never being able to wake up again. It's made known to us that three spoonfuls of the jelly is enough to "fall asleep forever".

I'd argue it's the best-acted episode in the entire series, it has great animation with surreal visuals, a fun call-back to the first episode, and a twist that's actually worthy of spoilers. Because on the first viewing, it seems like any other episode. On all subsequent viewings it's an emotional rollercoaster. Jurassic Bark (the one with the dog) makes me cry at the end, but this one makes me cry almost all the way through. It's a rare example of the "it was all just a dream" trope where it isn't a waste of time because the characters still grow from it, and because there are consequences even in the dream world.