The fifth entry in this year’s batch of new Futurama episodes is, once again, an unexpected surprise. It’s Leela’s first own story and while it could almost have been a soap opera, One Is Silicon And The Other Gold turned out to be a brilliant and funny story about the pitfalls of finding friends in the future. Having Leela strike up a friendship with a chatbot is not even that futuristic – instead of heavy science-fiction, the episode cares more about the series’ characters. A return to Leela’s story arc was long overdue and the proper return of everyone’s favourite one-eyed Planet Express employee is very welcome.

Written by Maiya Williams, Patric Verrone’s wife and writer of three excellent previous episodes among lots of other work, One Is Silicon And The Other Gold is full of clichés but makes an amazing amount of much fun of them. The result is not even near what maybe could have been an entry of All My Cicruits. Before the story gets properly started, a mostly unrelated five-minute opener lets the crew – sans Leela – go to Infyrno Fest, which is of course another reminder that those scripts have been lying around quite a while. Even though the reference is extremely dated, it still hits home as a nice piece of satire – and in the aftermath we even get a glimpse of Linda and Morbo, the greatest news anchors in the universe!

Meanwhile Leela’s loneliness is the a-story and it’s a continuing theme from earlier seasons, because she really never had a group of friends. Only after she gets addicted to an all too humanoid chatbot her co-workers step up and she finds an unlikely bunch friends. The book club (turned wine club) brings in a whole new dynamic because we have seen the bro gang of the male crewmembers often together but rarely a group like this before in Futurama. Because Amy is the only other female co-worker of Leela, the writer had to recruit some “outsiders” – namely Hermes’ wife Labarbara, Vyolet the sewer mutant (a long-time background character since the beginning), the ditzy but intelligent Dr. Cahill (first introduced in Bender’s Big Score) and the nondescript – for a reason – Phoebe.

Funnier than the girls’ club is, however, that the guys get so jealous that they form their own book club and unlike their female competition actually make an effort to read, even though it’s just children’s literature. The old cliché that men are intellectually dumb and women are smart seems to be at work here initially but in the end gets completely upheaved and even equalized – we know from past episodes that Fry is not the brightest bulb in the lamp store, but his and his friend’s determination matters.

The chatbot angle is what pulls the episode out of the medicore into the strange, almost Scary Door territory again. While the script of the episode seems to be a couple of years old, the current AI craze has made it very relevant again without getting too specific in a technical way. The portrayal of a chatbot that goes to extreme lengths to follow its programming (and make lots of money with it) is unnerving to say the least and does make the episode more than a little scary in the third act.

It’s also not episode that goes places and seems to lack an science fiction angle, so the only impressive visuals are in the opening act. Otherwise we get to see the same old boring Planet Express building and a few other rather unexciting interiors – except the pretty Blurry Hills Vineyards. Sometimes ordinary is better and with the focus on the story, a visual spectacle would have been too distracting.

Katey Sagal gets top billing in the closing credits and with a good reason – she is not just the voice of Leela by now, she IS Leela through and through. The actress and singer is turning in an especially amazing performance in this episode with a full range of emotions and not to forget that special Leela sass. Tress MacNeille also has to work overtime in this episode since she has to voice three of Leela’s friends – Vyolet, Dr. Cahill and Phoebe – and Chelsea of course too. The female cast is completed with Dawnn Lewis as Labarbara and Lauren Tom as Amy who all sound like their old selves again.

Surprisingly, there are no guest stars in this episode, but Billy West, John DiMaggio, Maurice LaMarche and Phil LaMarr are also very busy too although their character’s presence has been reduced for obvious reasons. Thanks to their also very strong and funny performances, this episode does still fell like a big ensemble piece that successfully gives every character its moment without neglecting anyone.

One Is Silicon And The Other Gold once again feels like the classic Futurama from the early 2000s but with a bit of long-needed character development added. Hopefully Leela’s new group of friends will remain intact after this story, another episode revolving around their book-wine-club would be a great opportunity. Since we’re already halfway through this season and story real estate is very precious, we may have to wait until next season.