Rick and Morty review, Episode 602: “Rick: A Mort Well Spent”

An innocent game of Roy at Blips and Chitz goes haywire, splitting Morty’s mind across every NPC in the game, leaving Rick with the task of going in and gathering his grandson’s fractured consciousness. Back in the real world, Summer must defend Rick and Morty’s bodies against a gang of criminals bent of robbing the place. It’s all reminiscent of a certain movie. Can’t remember the name though. All this and more in this week’s episode of Rick and Morty, “Rick: A Mort Well Spent.”

We have a really fun premise this week. I’m glad to see the writers bringing back Roy, not just as a joke, but exploring what conflicts it could inspire. I also enjoy how the episode jumps right into the story. I like not knowing what the hell is going on sometimes. The first scene with all the townspeople in Roy speaking in Morty’s voice lets you know something is off, and things roll on naturally from there.

This is why I was disappointed that Rick had to wake up in the next scene to outright explain the problem to Summer.  I say trust the audience will catch what you’re throwing at them. The episode could have had Summer take initiative on her own. Why does Rick need to explain to her what to do at this point? Kill the bad guys.

Ah, but fool that I am, I didn’t realize that if Rick hadn’t woken up to clue Summer in, he wouldn’t have stared a hilaaaaarious running joke about Die Hard. You see, Summer’s story is her doing Die Hard, but she’s never seen Die Hard and all the aliens really like Die Hard and Die Hard.

I honestly don’t know what the writers were thinking here. Every time someone mentions the classic 1988 Bruce Willis action film, my eyes glaze over. That joke aside, the story offers no growth for Summer as a character; it’s just her going on another bloody rampage. The only thing I found funny about all this is that Summer herself mentions never seeing Die Hard. Well, neither have I. Neither have a lot of people who watch Rick and Morty I’d bet. So this parody element completely falls flat for me, and I find it funny that the writers wrote about that cultural generational gap and yet failed to see how this B story is going to be insufferable for most of their audience because of it.

The Die Hard jokes die hard on a new episode of Rick and Morty

Anyway, back to the A plot. Aside from the premise being interesting, the twists and turns didn’t really grab me. Since this is Roy, every scene within the game time skips a good number of years. You see how Marta (the de facto Morty within the plot) and the world of Roy changes over time. It reminds me of the first episode of season 5, where Morty travels to periodically to an alternate dimension to get wine and it’s different each time he visits. However, unlike in that episode, the developments in Roy don’t feel consequential. This is that problem Rick and Morty has sometimes. Sure, we have the stacks of Morty himself being lost if he isn’t gathered. But as for the individual interactions between the Morty NPCs…what can I say, I don’t really care. They’re NPCs that will be gone at the end of the episode.

That said, the A story does provide some good jokes. I like the (I think) meta joke of Morty being the voice of every character. Maybe I’m wrong, but I want to believe this is a wink at criticism that Justin Roiland does the same voice for all his characters. Brooklyn Jewish Dad Morty is also pretty funny.

And that’s that for this week of Rick and Morty. A fine, if lopsided, recovery from the season premiere, I’d say. Let’s leave the Die Hard parodies to Bob’s Burgers though.

Grade: C+

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