Rick and Morty: “One Flew Over the Crewcoo’s Morty” Review

The thing about Rick and Morty, or really Dan Harmon shows in general, is that you have to be willing to go along for the ride even if they’re making fun of the ride while you’re on it. I’m reminded of all of the themed episodes of Community. There’s the gangster/chicken fingers episode, the Law and Order episode, and of course the conspiracy theory episode, which most aligns with the vibe of “One Flew Over the Crewcoo’s Morty.”

If you haven’t seen Community, then you don’t get those references, but trust me that they’re very apropos. Harmon has an affinity for playing around with genre, especially ones with well-defined aesthetics, like the heist genre.

The plot of this episode isn’t nearly as complicated as it looks…much like a heist movie. Rick and Morty are out hunting for treasure, Indiana Jones style, robbing some ancient graves. Instead of treasure, they find the calling card for a master thief, and of course it sets Rick off. Meanwhile, we find out that Morty has been writing a heist movie screenplay, and Rick has been shitting on it the whole time because he doesn’t like the genre.

Things continue to escalate as Rick creates a Heistbot that will predict every next move in their opponents counter-heist, so they can beat him at his own game. And wouldn’t you know it, the Heistbot gains sentience and begins heisting whole planets of their valuables, leaving millions dead. Classic Rick and Morty adventures right here. By the end of the episode, we find out that we’re actually in the middle of a heist that Rick has carefully calculated to make Morty “realize” that heists are played out, and to come to his own conclusion to stop writing his movie instead of finishing his pitch to Netflix.

This episode felt hard to follow until the end, which again is a goal of heist movies. The difference was, when we got to the end of the episode, we were back on familiar ground: Rick is a control-freak jackass that will stop at nothing to maintain his dynamic with Morty for his own benefit, Morty feels listless and drifting in Rick’s wake, and the rest of the family remains in the background.

I love a good genre-mocking episode from Dan Harmon, I truly do. I especially love them when there’s a mixture of cynicism and reverence. The Rick and Morty team may pretend to hate heist movies, but they’re not above using the genre to drive the story forward. And the episode shined when it gave us a better glimpse of that family dynamic.

Also, we get to see Mr. Poopybutthole again! He’s living his best life as a college professor…until Rick screws that up as well. But it’s good to know that MPB is a badass ninja, and that his life is back on track after Beth shot him in the gut.

Episode Highlights

• “Jacket! Rip-off Dr. Strange!”
• Ventriliquiver is the best stupid one-shot they’ve invented since Hamurai.
• “Your Boos mean nothing, I’ve seen what makes you cheer”
• Elon Tusk was…there. Weird cameo to me, but whatever!

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