Posted in: Adult Swim, Review, Rick and Morty, TV | Tagged: Adult Swim, dan harmon, Justin Roiland, Review, rick and morty, season 5

Rick and Morty Season 5 E02 Review: Rick Loves His Family to Death

Directed by Lucas Gray and written by Albro Lundy, "Mortyplicity" not only served as a sequel or a postscript of sorts to the fourth season finale but also served as a brain-bleeding glimpse (in a good way) of where Rick's mindset is early on in the fifth season. After last season's "Space Beth" revelation, it appears that there a lot more things out there looking to kill Rick and the family than ever before (we didn't think that was possible) so he's planted decoys across the country to serve as "fail-safes" in case anyone comes looking to kill them all. Pretty straightforward, right? We even got to meet an "adorable" new character named Mr. Always Wants To Be Hunted, who… well… we're guessing you figured out his deal from his name. And then things take a turn, and we find ourselves spiraling down a rabbit hole of decoys, decoys making decoys, decoys disguised as squids, and an "Asimov Cascade" crossed with Highlander adventure that left us pretty minds a bit twisted- but the message of this episode of Adult Swim's Rick and Morty? That came across pretty clear.

Right off the bat, if thought the episode was a testament to both the importance of establishing an identity and the ultimate futility in that effort, then props because we definitely see that. If you saw the episode as an exercise in the overall artistic process, with the in-space family (with Space Beth in tow) serving as the artist and the battling decoys representing the creative conflict that brings about true art? You won't get an argument here because we see that, too. But the reason we see this as a sequel or postscript of sorts is that it's telling us where Rick's mindset is when it comes to the one thing in the universe he's been running from- a family.

And guess what? It appears "The Rick-ist of Ricks" isn't much different than you and I. Through the decoys (which can easily be argued are made up of nothing more than Rick's own attributes), we see moments that brought Rick the closest to saying he (yes) loves his family (put aside the fact that decoys still allow him to remain a bit detached). In fact, his connection with his family has gotten so strong that he will go to any lengths to save them- even if that means killing "themselves" to stay alive.

And that leads to the part where Rick would deny being exactly like us "regular folks." Because as much as he's realizing that he might just need and care about a family that's eerily a little more like him than they care to admit, like us? He has the moments when he wants to kill them. But while we exaggerate about doing it in "Looney Tunes" never-truly-gets-hurt-ways, Rick has an advantage we don't have. He can literally create that scenario for himself, and maybe that's the kind of therapy he needs to make the adjustments to now being the lead singer of a band and not just a solo act.

Random Thoughts: Mr. Always Wants To Be Hunted has some serious persecution issues; a time-traveling werewolf would be cool to watch; even Glockenspiel Jerry is a wuss; the "The Rick-as Chainsaw Massacre" scene was a creepy one; Morty got to use a laser whip and didn't whip his dick off (not that it helped); Rick's obsession about his penis size and sexual prowess knows no bounds.

Final Thoughts: A fine outing that was an amazing visual ride while slowing things down a bit thematically. But that's not to undermine the script, which brought an impressive amount of emotion to the mayhem and drove home the inner aspects of Rick, Morty, Beth, Jerry, and Summer in ways that further developed their characters. Even as they were literally killing each other and themselves over and over and over…

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