WiC Watches: Rick and Morty season 4

Season 4, Episode 8: “The Vat of Acid Episode”

“The Vat of Acid Episode” starts with Rick yet again dragging his grandson away from his studies to go on an adventure — not even an adventure, really, just an exchange — on an alien planet. The deal goes down at an Ace Chemicals-esque factory where there are vats of acid everywhere, and Rick is double-crossed. But he came prepared, prepping a fake vat of acid complete with air hoses, bone compartments, and a laser gun in case someone tried to test the green liquid with a ladle.

Morty is not impressed with the plan, suggesting to Rick that he may be losing his touch. The two argue, and Morty returns to an idea he had but never followed through on: creating a save point in reality like in a video game, where you could just respawn if things don’t go as planned. Rick claims its stupid, but Morty accuses the genius of not being able to figure it out.

Frustrated, Rick creates a respawning device and lets Morty run with it. At first, Morty enjoys his new consequence-free existence. But then he meets a girl and takes a pause from the reset button. A montage shows their relationship at its best, and then its worst. When the two try to reconcile with a trip, the plane they are on crashes, Lost-style and Morty’s new Groundhog Day toy is lost.

The couple survives and eventually gets rescued, but Jerry, finding the respawning device and mistaking it for the TV remote, sends Morty back to before he met the girl. After being pepper-sprayed and killed by gorillas, Morty realizes that it isn’t a good idea to live without consequences. And that’s when the episode takes an even darker turn.

Rick reveals that Morty hasn’t been living without consequences, and just like in Christopher Nolan’s film The Prestige, Morty has been killing different versions of himself from other dimensions. The Supreme Court Justices, backed up by SWAT teams, arrive to hold him accountable for his actions. Rick leaves him with one escape route: hiding in a vat of fake acid. The real kicker is when Rick reveals that this isn’t even their dimension, and they return home with Morty most likely more psychologically traumatized than ever.

There’s a lot to love about this one. Morty’s hilarious respawning antics are perfect, and the level of detail put into each ordeal, including the Up-style montage, is terrific. It’s an outstanding Rick and Morty episode that makes you laugh, feel depressed and think all at the same time. And it’s hard to admit this, but it’s possible that Rick’s prestige was better than Nolan’s.

Rick and Morty’s latest batch of episodes continues to impress after its four-month break. This chillingly effective episode is easily the best of the new season so far, and deserves to be mentioned alongside some of the best installments of the show.