WiC Watches: Rick and Morty season 4

Season 4, Episode 7: “Promortyus”

Right away, things seem strange when the newest episode of Rick and Morty kicks off. The titular dynamic duo are carrying eggs in an alien cavern with strange creatures attached to their face. Soon we find out that this ordeal wasn’t by choice, and the two break free of their captors.

During their escape, they notice that these beings make their hosts lay an egg in a very grotesque manner. Not unlike the chest-bursters in Alien, these unhatched newborns make a similar exit, but in true Rick and Morty fashion; they come out of the host’s rear end.

Learning this, Rick and Morty promptly escape the cavern in a visually stunning action sequence where they pretty much destroy the alien civilization “Star Wars-style.” They keep it classy though, opting not to commit a 9/11 and keeping it in bounds, going for a Pear Harbor-style destruction campaign instead. Once they return home and regale the family with their latest adventure, two major bombs are dropped: Jerry is now beekeeping, and Summer was apparently with them and they completely forgot.

After returning in some Voltron-inspired mech suits and decimating any possessed beings that were left over from before, they quickly find Summer, but instead of being in trouble, she is actually the ruler of the species. At this point, we go back in time and see how this all happened. It ends up that her new toothpick fixation prevented her from being taken over, and being a rebellious teen, she decided to lead the creatures, inspiring them to evolve.

Unfortunately, the only way for them to escape now involves obliterating all progress the species has made, killing the rest of their society, and reverting them back to the original vicious cycle. In the end, the three realize no lesson was learned, except that they may be less-than-stellar individuals all around.

It’s always interesting to see how the show changes things up episode to episode, and the way they played around with story structure here was quite impressive. As far as highlights go, all the scenes where Rick and Morty are slaughtering aliens fit in comfortably beside the other brilliantly crafted sci-fi action sequences the series has become known for, even if they’re not quite on a Pickle Rick level. Also, the fact that Jerry is a beekeeper now is legendary, and hopefully a precursor to a much bigger storyline, especially considering the scandalous post-credit scene that gives viewers a serious American Beauty vibe.

The episode feels like a giant dig on the Alien prequel Prometheus, suggesting that even the most storied sci-fi franchises can take a crap on themselves if they try hard enough.

Not every season can be packed with instant classics back to back to back to back. “Promortyus” is a solid Rick and Morty episode with some memorable moments, and while it does get points for creativity in the story structure department, overall it rates as decent at best.