One last appearance from KMARK TIME -- in the excellent "Parasites Lost" (Season 3, Episode 2), Fry becomes infected with worms after eating an egg salad sandwich he purchased at a gas station. The worms actually end up having a symbiotic relationship with Fry, making him smarter, stronger, and more expertly able to express his love for Leela. In turn, Leela falls in love with Fry. Of course, being the true hero that he is, Fry can't abide the fact that Leela may only love him for his worms. He journeys inside his own body (via a miniature robotic avatar) and expels the worms, finding himself normal Fry once again. Unfortunately, normal Fry is something of a jackass, and Leela is no longer interested. At the end of the episode, Fry pretends to give up on Leela, but secretly starts practicing the holophoner -- a musical instrument so difficult that Fry was only able to play it while fully wormed-up. KMARK TIME posits that those worms were the impetus for Fry to get on track, start acting more maturely, and try to win Leela's love once and for all -- he knows what it's like to be the man she loves, and he'll improve himself as much as needed to get back there. He starts with the holophoner. Plausibility: Low. It's not a bad theory, as following "Parasites Lost," Fry was much more vocal about his love for Leela and tireless in his efforts to win her affection. However, Fry didn't mature that much -- later that season, he slept with his own grandmother. Maybe the worm infestation allowed Fry to organize his thoughts, but once he got rid of the critters, he was the same old Fry.
Scott Fried is a Slammy Award-winning* writer living and working in New York City. He has been following/writing about professional wrestling for many years and is a graduate of Lance Storm's Storm Wrestling Academy. Follow him on Twitter at https://twitter.com/scottfried.
*Best Crowd of the Year, 2013
