Episode Recap: A Head in the Polls

Fry and Bender watch a television program reminiscent of the old Twilight Zone show. Leela enters the Planet Express lounge and, after grabbing hold of the remote, changes the channel to a political debate. Fry and Bender are less than thrilled. As the debate gets underway, It occurs to Fry that the candidates, Jack Johnson and John Jackson, not only have similar political views, they are in fact, clones. When Fry reveals that he is not registered to vote, Leela declares that one vote can decide an election . 

 

Later, Leela accompanies Fry and the other Planet Express staffers to City Hall so they can all register. After visiting several booths representing various political parties, Fry declares that he is starting to become interested in politics. But when Leela again switches the television to political coverage, Fry and Bender fall fast asleep. 

 

The reporters, Morbo and Linda, focus on a titanium mine disaster that trapped a thousand robots. As a result, the price of titanium has skyrocketed. Bender, who is forty percent titanium, realizes he is worth a fortune. He sells his entire body—with the exception of his head—to a pawnshop. Bender’s head uses his wealth to enjoy the good life. His lack of a body, however comes with a price, and he eventually decides to visit the Head Museum, where he can hang out with "classy heads." 

 

Fry and Leela accompany their friend to the museum. There, they encounter the heads of ex-presidents inside the Hall of Presidents exhibit. The threesome strike up a conversation with Richard Nixon, who misses his own pasty-skinned, phlebitis-riddled body. Later, Bender’s head experiences a nightmare, and suffers enormous guilt over abandoning his body. 

 

Bender and Fry return to the pawnshop...only to discover that the owner sold the body to someone else. Later, Fry watches more election coverage on television. Surprisingly, Richard Nixon announces his candidacy for president of Earth. When the camera pulls back, It is revealed that Nixon’s head now sits atop Bender’s old body. Leela and Fry volunteer to help Bender retrieve his old body. 

 

They fly the Planet Express ship to Washington, D.C., and make their way to the site of a presidential debate. After the debate, Nixon is informed by his campaign manager that his polling points increased dramatically amongst robot voters, who were greatly impressed with his mechanical body. 

 

But a short time later, Bender, Leela and Fry emerge from a nearby laundry hamper, and Bender demands his body’s return. But Nixon insists he is the rightful owner, having paid for it at the pawnshop. Without any recourse, the threesome leave. But later, Fry tells his friends that he has thought up a plan. 

 

Clad in black clothes and wool hats, Fry and Leela rappel up the side of the Watergate Hotel, carrying Bender’s head along with them. The threesome sneak into Nixon’s room, where Leela gingerly unscrews the former president’s head jar from Bender’s body. Unfortunately, Fry accidentally triggers a vibrating bed, and the deafening roar awakens Nixon’s head. Bender and Nixon engage in head-to-head combat, until Leela breaks up the fight and places them both on a sofa. 

 

Nixon admits he has grown bitter and crazy over the years, and vows to sell children’s organs to zoos for meat, as well as vandalize people’s homes,o nce he is elected. But as Nixon’s head laboriously makes his way toward a telephone to notify police of the threesome’s break-in, Bender reveals that he tape recorded his previous statements about breaking into peoples' homes and selling children’s organs. Nixon reluctantly gives Bender back his body in exchange for the tape. 

 

Later, however, Nixon wins re-election thanks to the robot vote and a giant anime-style robot body on which his head now sits.