Futurama Season 11: Where Have We Seen The Borax Kid Before?

Contains Spoilers for "Futurama" Season 11, Episode 3 — "How the West Was 1010001"

When the Planet Express gang heads out to go gypsum prospecting in Doge City, a tiny outlaw community in Crypto Country, they end up running into some familiar faces out in the dangerous salt mines of the West. And the most familiar face of them all belongs to that old west card sharp the Borax Kid (Maurice LaMarche). He's been Bender's (John DiMaggio) on-and-off gambling pal and impressed Leela (Katey Sagal) and other members of the Planet Express Crew with his old-fashioned charm. That charming nature is expanded upon in "How the West was 1010001." When Leela takes up working at a tavern during their stay, he applies his folksy wit to the situation and nearly steals her romantic affections away from Fry (Billy West). It takes Fry figuring out that the Borax Kid has swiped all of his adventures from old books about The Cobalt Kid to turn the tables. While a duel to the death nearly ensues, everyone but the piano-playing robot comes out alive — as does Leela and Fry's romance.

Prior to this episode, the Borax Kid has otherwise been something of a gunslinging, smooth-talking tall legend and a help to the Planet Express gang at large — even though he, like Bender, proves to be quite the cheater at the table. Whether it's saving Bender's arms when he loses them due to a bot-jacking or helping everyone switch their genders back to their original states after a visit to Neutopia, he's proven to be generous, highly skilled — and gifted with magical abilities. 

The Planet Express crew first meets the Borax Kid in Season 6's "Neutopia." After visiting the titular planet, they experience a change in gender — and then a loss of all secondary sexual characteristics — after the Rock Alien (Maurice LaMarche) loses a bet with the Borax Kid. He eventually tracks them down on Earth and reverses everyone's gender to its original state. During this first appearance, he shows a sense of generosity and Southern gentlemanliness. 

He pops up again in Season 7's "Zapp Dingbat," where he can be seen gambling in the Mos Def Cantina with other scum and villainy. Bender mentions to Leela and her mom, Munda (Tress MacNeille), that he lost two straight hands to the gambler — and by that, he literally means his hands. That indicates that the Borax Kid is a skilled cheater or perhaps a skilled card shark. It also sets up a precedent for the Borax Kid to take limbs in payment of debts.

Bender's arms play a pretty big role in the Borax Kid's next appearance, "Assie Come Home." The Season 7 episode sees Bender and his friends go on an epic quest to get back his body parts when he gets "bot-jacked" and his limbs and other parts are scattered across the universe. It turns out the Borax Kid accepted Bender's arms after they were pawned as payment for a gambling debt; Bender ends up getting them back from him, but not before Leela's dazzled by his skills at the table.

What adventures will the Borax Kid have now that he's been exposed as a fraud? Keep tuning in to "Futurama" to find out.