The main set ups for the episode occurred quickly so we could get to the fun of swapping minds. Bender wants to steal the royal crown from the visiting emperor of Robo Hungary, Leela thinks Fry is only interested in her looks and Amy and Professor Farnsworth have created a mind-swapping machine. Not that it was easy to create, as there were heaps of dead monkeys to clean up. "Science cannot move forward without heaps!" In the beginning, Amy and Farnsworth swap bodies so the professor and be young and free and Amy could eat to her heart's content. But neither was satisfied with their choices. When they tried switching back, the professor gave enough reason for the episode to establish that switching directly back simply couldn't be done.
Bender stepped in and swapped minds with Amy, and soon the entire Planet Express crew was switching around who was actually in which body. It was a joyful mess of fun. Perhaps the least interesting of the body/mind switches was Bender inside Amy and then later inside the robot emperor. I chalk this up to the fact that the emperor was a new character for this episode alone and therefore had no backstory to make the switch as much fun as all the others. Leela as Farnsworth and Fry as Zoidberg was a lot of fun, if you could get past the inconsistencies of this couple's relationship this entire season. Challenging each other to a romantic dinner in their hideous bodies was outstanding.
The professor inside Bender's body was surreal and delightful. Of all the things he would want to do in an indestructible robot body, the last thing I was expecting was joining a robot circus. I could watch an entire series based around the travels of that circus. Amy's quest to find the perfect body for binge eating was another delightful aspect of this episode, as were her food choices, including a pork sundae and a deep-fried ice cream sandwich wrapped in frosting and lightly baconed. But the highlight of all the switching and of this episode in general was seeing Wash Bucket and Scruffy come to terms with their hilarious unrequited love. It was a small scene, but it was utter perfection.
This all could have been a totally random mess of hilarity, but the episode brought it all together with a very satisfying ending, with circus canon Big Bertha teaching us the lesson that's it's better to just be ourselves. Her sacrifice at the end of the episode set the ending in motion and brought everyone back to who they should be… with the help of the Harlem Globetrotters, of course. "The Prisoner of Benda" was an absolutely stellar episode. The high-concept idea of switching minds/bodies was taking to extremes and delivered fantastic lines and great laughs throughout.
