Summary
Warning: This review contains spoilers forRick and Mortyseason 7, episode 6.
Rick and Mortydelivers another hilarious clip show with another delightfully subversive spin on the formula in “Rickfending Your Mort.” When Morty tries to cash in his adventure punch cards, Rick disputes some of them and they get into an argument over what qualifies as an adventure. Rick recruits the services of a mediator: an all-seeing, all-knowing cosmic stone being who can show them video clips of any moment from their lives. Similar to season 3’s “Morty’s Mind Blowers,” this is aRick and Mortyclip show made up of “clips you never saw!” – but it’s not a retread of that classic episode; it’s its own thing.
After setting up the stone’s ability to present memories as videos, the episode never settles and keeps evolving the concept. It starts off with clips of just Rick and Morty, then shows clips of Jerry, Summer, Beth, andeven Space Bethwhen the rest of the Smiths join them. When the whole thing goes to trial on the cosmic stone’s homeworld, clips from Rick and Morty’s lives are presented as character evidence. And finally, when Rick hacks the cosmic stones’ server and turns the trial on them to show that everyone is as bad as each other, “Rickfending Your Mort” becomes a fun satire of whataboutism.
“Rickfending Your Mort” is the first episode writing credit for Cody Ziglar. Ziglar joined the staff in season 7 and has been credited as a story editor on all the season’s previous installments. But this is his first byline on aRick and Mortyscript, and it’s an impressive debut. As with all the bestRick and Mortyepisodes, “Rickfending Your Mort” is brilliantly meta without leaning on the self-awareness too much. There’s a running gag that Rick and Morty don’t want to be in a clip show, and one of the most memorable moments in the episode shows that Rick mercy-killed the versions of Rick and Morty thatWarner Bros. crammed into theSpace Jamsequel.
So far, Ian Cardoni and Harry Belden have done a remarkable job of replacing disgraced co-creator Justin Roiland in the roles of Rick and Morty. The recasting took some time to get used to – in the early episodes, there were a couple of minor inflections that sounded a little off – but in the past couple of episodes, Cardoni and Belden’s voice work has been totally seamless. There’s no distinguishing the Rick and Morty in “Rickfending Your Mort” from the Rick and Morty of seasons 1 through 6. Cardoni has perfectly captured Rick’s drollness and brashness, while Belden nails Morty’s debilitating anxiety.
The clip show format essentially allows Ziglar to write a series of sketches involving the Rick and Morty characters. He has the freedom to explore ludicrous concepts and take wild left turns without having to worry about fitting them into a neat three-act structure or providing a satisfying emotional catharsis. Rick turns himself into a leg in a wonderfully absurdist spin onthe now-iconic conceit of “Pickle Rick.”The confusion over the gorilla gun, the bully gun, and the gun that “shoots bad people” is endlessly hilarious. When a couple of bullies accidentally turn Morty into a yacht, they take him out on the high seas; when he turns back into a boy, all three of them are stranded on a desert island together. Jerry reaches into a trash can and sticks himself with a needle that turns his urine into acid that melts away the urinal and the bathroom wall, revealing a board room full of people disturbed by what they see. This episode is full of laughs. When all is said and done, some of these vignettes will surely be remembered amongRick and Morty’s all-time greatest moments.
The first three episodes ofRick and Mortyseason 7 seemed like a huge step down in quality that marked the beginning of the end. The episodesrehashed old storylines, relied on tired sitcom tropes, and sidelined Morty to focus solely on Rick. But the three episodes that followed have been a refreshing return to form. Morty is back at Rick’s side, they’ve explored unique concepts like suicide spaghetti, and when they have gone back to familiar storylines, like the search for Rick Prime, they’ve added something new and unexpected to the proceedings.
After “That’s Amorte” and “Unmortricken,” “Rickfending Your Mort” is another classicRick and Mortyepisode that further redeems the missteps from the beginning of season 7. Followinglast week’s devastating exploration of the futility of vengeance, “Rickfending Your Mort” is a purely comedic installment that sets up a high-concept premise and has a ton of fun with it. The clip show format presents ample opportunities for jokes, and “Rickfending Your Mort” seizes every one of those opportunities in a hilarious and inventive way.
Rick and Morty
Cast
“Rickfending Your Mort” - Rick enlists the help of an all-seeing, all-knowing cosmic stone in an argument with Morty that turns into a clip show (despite their protests).
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