Me: Bender’s Big Score retconned Seymore being alone the rest of his life and dying tragically so I’m sure I can get through Jurassic Bark this time without breaking down to a an ugly sobbing mess.
Slate: I don’t think there is a single death on this list that made me more mad when I first experienced it than Seymour’s. What was the origin of this soul-crushing episode ending? Was your goal to crush souls?
Eric Kaplan (screenwriter, “Jurassic Bark”): Well … [long pause] … you know, yes. Not souls, but—we always tell ourselves that we make choices for the good of others, and those stories we tell ourselves are often convincing, but it doesn’t mean they’re always true. So the point of that episode is Fry tells himself a story that Seymour never would have waited for him, and he would have wanted him to go on with his life. And you can see why that story is useful for Fry to believe. But it’s not true.
