Before Futurama was brought back from cancellation not one but twice, "The Devil's Hands Are Idle Playthings" was originally slated to the final episode of the show, and if they were going out, they were going out with a full space opera. In a plot ripped straight from the pages of Faust, Fry makes a deal with the Robot Devil and via shenanigans, ends up swapping hands with metal Satan. This gives him the ability to play the ludicrously complicated instrument, the Holophonor (basically a recorder that can create holograms) to professional level and, to finally woo Leela before the show is cancelled forever, stages a public opera about her life. The episode is filled with full-throated emotional and visual grandiosity but the sweetest, most feels-rending moments is saved until the end. Fry loses his hands back to the Robot Devil and reverts to his clumsy, musically-inept ways. Disgusted at now-terrible music, everybody leaves, apart from Leela, who says "Please don't stop playing, Fry. I want to hear how it ends." Fry plays the last piece of the opera as crude holograms of Fry & Leela hold hands and walk off into a shonky sunset. Leela loved Fry for the clumsy, sweet oaf that he was, and that's reflected in a perfect parting shot: two beloved characters, joined in romantic sentiment, but still framed in science-fiction and silliness.
