Review: Rick and Morty “The Rickchurian Mortydate”

Man, they are taking FOREVER with Season 4.

So, here we are. Nearly two years since the end of Season 2, and six months to the day since this one began. And yet, it’s gone by in a flash like some sort of drunken haze. After all the conspiracy theories, pickling memes, Men In Black II digs, and the glorious return of Szechuan Sauce, it all comes down to this.

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Late night at the White House as a janitor sneakily goes down an elevator hidden behind a painting of Lincoln. Diligently doing his job, he is attacked by…something.

At the Sanchez/Smith abode, Morty shows Rick how to play Minecraft when they are interrupted by Secret Service calling them in from “a friend in Washington”. This turns out to be the Keith David-voiced President that we haven’t seen since “Get Schiwfty”. Apparently, they’ve been doing a series of jobs for him since then, and this time it’s the business in the “Kennedy Sex Tunnels”, involving some alien…googa. And like back in that episode, Morty requests a presidential selfie and is swiftly rejected. Not that the “adventure” is much better, with the two very quickly deciding to bail and verbally kick the president’s balls as they leave. Not knowing they’re being recorded, he soon gets word of this and calls them out while spying on them in their house. Seems both parties had a very different view of how this whole arrangement worked, and for Rick and Morty, them helping out the Prez (he doesn’t have a name, so this will just be me coming up with different ways to say President) is more a favor to him, not a great honor or Quid Pro Quo for turning the other cheek to them constantly breaking federal laws. Well, seems El Presidente doesn’t take this too well, and a dick measuring contest emerges between them.

Meanwhile, an off the cuff comment by Summer leads Beth to a conclusion about last week’s big choice that the viewers might not have considered (or at least didn’t have time to in the week since it aired): If she chose to stay with her family, how would she know she isn’t actually the clone? She calls Rick for guidance, but he’s too busy solving peace in the Middle East ALMOST as fast as Jared Kushner to really help and only makes things worse. In her desperation, she turns to Jerry, who tries to convince her she’s real by imagining a special moment (for him at least) when they were dating. Oddly enough, this makes Beth feel better by convincing her she IS a clone because she remembers hating that moment but now loves it, wishing to rekindle things with her simple man. See, I knew I wasn’t crazy for writing a thousand word essay on this guy!

After showing up the Commander-In-Queef by making him look like an ass in a tiny civilization and handing him Middle East peace just to show they could, Rick and Morty meet the head of state in the Oval Office to finally get that selfie. Or rather, Rick wants it to make a point and Morty’s looking for the door. But multiple guard deaths and on-the-nose Doctor Who references lead to yet another over the top gags-per-action-per-second that puts every Family Guy chicken fight to shame. But when it comes time to finally, as the Chainsmokers would put it, “take the selfie”, Morty is gone, having decided to hunker down with the rest of the family (including Jerry) to hide from Rick and save Possible-Clone Beth. Having finally been dethroned from a high position in his family and this universe, a complete reversal from his position at the end of the first episode, Rick repairs relations with the President and begrudgingly returns to his now more stable and less co-dependent family. C-cool?

OUR TAKE

For a show that recently has been thinking of cooler and more thought-provoking ways to show us that nothing in this life matters…this kinda makes me think the writing took that a bit too much to heart. I certainly didn’t expect the Beth Clone stuff to be brought up again so soon, but that’s not to say it wasn’t used as a good use of odd character growth for her, using her dissociation from herself to weirdly become a more complete and independent version of herself. In a way, going mad from the revelation of her true intelligence made her saner and more grounded than ever…I guess?

This is also more focus on the President character than we got last time, where he was essentially a pretty cool guy compared to the trigger-happy Kurtwood Smith General. Given the reveal that this might not be the same universe as that, this might not even be the same guy, but his resources as president coupled with a similar sort hard-headedness and insecurity make him an intriguing adversary for Rick during their tussle. If this were a longer running show per season with more room for similar plots, I imagine he’d get more play opposite Rick, like a Remy Buxaplenty to Rick’s Timmy Turner. But writing that out reminds me why this isn’t the case.