Review: Rick and Morty “The Old Man and the Seat”

Overview (Spoilers Below)
Jerry, being as idiotic as he usually is, develops a matchmaking app with Rick’s intern Glootie. This plan goes haywire though, as people all over the world confusingly search for their soulmate. This includes Summer, launching Beth into a series of crazy attempts to stop her daughter. With all of this happening from Jerry’s hands, Morty and Jerry go on a father-son adventure to shut down the app for good.

Amidst all the chaos, Rick seeks out “he who dealt it” into his secret sanctuary of a toilet. Upon finding the culprit though, things don’t go according to plan, with Rick receiving some hard words to take in along the way.

Our Take
Now, this was a much better episode! It takes the comedy and creativity aspects and cranks it up a bunch. This is what the first episode should have been like overall. But we’re not here to discuss that. Let’s hop through the interdimensional portal and dissect the second round of Season 4.

As I alluded to above, this episode didn’t miss a beat when it came to the comedic elements. There’s some genuine hilarious moments here, from Morty’s continuous negativity towards Jerry to the sheer absurdity of Rick’s private paradise for crapping! Heck, the majority of Jerry and Morty’s time on Glootie’s mothership is one crack up after the other! Additionally, I can’t leave out the part where Rick turns something into a butt which in turn craps out a middle finger. Little touches like that are just glorious. These jokes overall land a lot better than last weeks, feeling fresh rather than becoming stale with repetition like in the first episode.

Above all of the hilarious beats this show produces though, is the sheer creativity produced within. I was honestly blown away by how beautiful Rick’s private crapper looked (how ironic isn’t it?). The immense amount of colors and foreign objects throughout show that the production team really took their time crafting this place. It’s essentially one large joke, yet there’s so much effort put into it. Additionally, it was interesting viewing, albeit briefly, some new creatures and worlds. The frog universe and the robot/alligator wars were enticingly fun to explore! I only wish the episode showcased more out of these universes. However, doing so here probably wouldn’t have been for the best comedic-wise. Still, I loved to explore these universes more in-depth in the future.

The episode also provides a bit of deeper insight here. While some of the deep dialogue goes by so quickly that it practically flies over my head (which could be a stab at absurdist humor for all I know), I’ll try my best here to decipher what I believe the show was going for. The dialogue between Rick and the crapper culprit seems to address a bit about Rick’s supposed inner struggle in caring too much for other’s struggles. He largely sees compassion as toxicity, a roadblock towards a scientific mind, as evidenced throughout the past three seasons. Thus, he feels the need to repress these feelings.

However, the fact that he continually spares the culprit from death shows that he cares for his struggles. Both have lived through tough times that feel utterly cruel to them. And with the final payout of Rick becoming the “King of Shit” at the tail end (not to mention the culprit’s unfortunate demise), perhaps he’s starting to realize that pretending to not care about others doesn’t always help in the long run.

My only so-called beef with this episode revolves around one minor aspect. The minor subplot between Beth and Summer, for the most part, wasn’t written as strongly as the other two plots. It didn’t feel all that necessary to expand on this one moment. The jokes don’t land as great as they do during the other two plots either. Still, these segments did gain a chuckle out of me every now and then. Overall, the subplot has its merits but wasn’t the strongest subplot this episode had to offer.

Overall, this episode largely blows the season premiere out of the water. With comedic bits, creative worlds, and some food for thought, it all adds up to become the perfect concoction of Rick and Morty goodness. I’m definitely much more excited for future installments than I was initially.