Obsessed with video games, American culture and Buffy. Can usually be found at his laptop working.
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In the episode, ‘Star Mort Rickturn of the Jerri’, we see Beth appear as a space-faring justice warrior helping people around the cosmos. This is obviously a callback to the episode from Season 2 of Rick and Morty where Beth was asked if she wanted a clone of her created so that she could travel and explore.
It’s revealed that’s precisely what Rick did, but when Beth asked him to decide whether to create the clone or not he mixed the clone and her up so that either the one that stayed or the one that went could have been the “real” Beth. This is after an intense battle with Phoenix Person and Tammy, hinted at with the final episode of Season Three; an exploration of invisible belt powers; and, much to the surprise of everyone, Jerry turning out not to be the most hated person at the end!
What is even more shocking is Rick’s realisation that he is a bad father and his resolution at this fact is palpable. Why does every episode with a musical number over the ending make you want to cry?
If you want the full plot check out the section above, but there are a few interesting things that we can talk about spoiler free:
- Where are the jokes – much like Doctor Who‘s latest two seasons with Jodie Whittaker as the titular character, the large criticism of the show has been that there has been a lot of emphasis over social messages rather than a focus on what we love about the show. In Rick and Morty‘s case this means the humour has felt largely lost. Yes this is back in this episode and keep an eye out for Beth for the majority of the zinger lines, but the humour has been distinctly lacking, which even turned cringe-inducing during the episode with the train episode where both Rick and Morty commented repeatedly about how Rick was getting the zingers out – they weren’t that funny though.
- SO MANY SET UP PLOTS – something that has dogged the series from start to finish is the fact that this was meant to be the season that wrapped up some of the greater plots referred to in other series, with the promotional material for the season practically screaming “DO YOU HAVE QUESTIONS COZ WE HAVE ANSWERS”. Alas, to no avail. The finale is a much-needed sigh of relief because otherwise the show would have blue-balls’ed us all with the entire season. There is still more to be released, that is for certain.
- For those who have been waiting for character evolution, this is it – okay so the biggest problem with most long-form shows is that they often lack character development and evolution, and while both Rick and Morty have been showing personal growth, I don’t think you can easily name a show as spot-on with character development in production at present. Beth, Jerry and Summer have all shown evolution over the previous seasons, and this finale cements it, as is fairly typical for Rick and Morty to do – just look at the season three finale where Beth admited that life would be more like season one except streamlined. The final note of Rick’s reaction, though, is probably the most poignant of the episode, and certainly explains Morty’s growing antipathy for the past few episodes.
I really enjoyed this – as a nerd in general and as a fan of the show – and the feedback from friends has been muchl that of Doctor Who: love the direction but the writing has felt like Rick and Morty has betrayed some of the elements that made it good.
The difference is that the big pay-off in the finale of Rick and Morty is worth it, whereas Doctor Who made everyone go “are you fucking kidding me?!” and check-out. I would not be surprised if this whole season was a gamble based around the episode negotiations that caused the massive gap between seasons three and four, but if it was, then this episode would have made the people commissioning it fold.
If you have any thoughts or feelings about the finale of ‘Rick and Morty’ be sure to comment below.
