Review: Rick and Morty “Final DeSmithation “

Overview

Jerry gets a ridiculous fortune cookie while eating at a Panda Express and everyone’s having a good time at his expense, so Rick opts to help him while the rest of his family heads to the zoo. To try and get to the bottom of this, Rick and Jerry go to the source of where the fortune cookies are made. After infiltrating the factory, we come to learn that these fortune cookies are produced by an alien that allows a white woman to produce fortunes that control fate. The zoo looks fun.

Our Take

Maybe not as advantageous as last week’s episode, but this season of Rick and Morty is feeling more and more like it’s going to destroy the show’s fifth season in overall quality. For starters, the restraint by the writers to keep this season grounded as a result of no portal gun executes both an incredible continuation but also somewhat like a parallel to the COVID-19 pandemic in which this episode was produced in that the constraints put in place are forcing the characters to evolve in different ways and forcing even the writers to try and manage to put together an adventure without all of the portal antics of seasons’ past.

Jerry is very much the anti-Rick in that Rick needs to go nuts in order to have fun and Jerry is totally fine with dinner at a Panda Express. So when these two get together, the contrasts have to somehow coalesce, and when done, the results are usually aces. “The Whirly Dirly Conspiracy” is another good example of this, and for the most part, “Final DeSmithation ” sticks to this landing. We also have to remember that this is Rick Prime’s family that we’re dealing with which makes you wonder if this switched Jerry has slightly different personality attributes that are meshing better with the rest of the Smith/Sanchez family that maybe weren’t quite there before.

The other canon personality trait to watch for are the inert consequences that Rick has to endure because of the curve breaking in the show’s premiere episode. The ramifications are still being felt and Rick is trying his best to do everything on his hand, but I think he’ll have to start relenting a bit and learn that he’s going to have to lean in to his family a bit more.

Rick and Morty’s sixth season is quickly becoming a clinic on character studies, relationships, and conflicts. The climactic battle at the end continues to showcase the muscle that this show has always had in the areas of choreography, muscle, and aesthetic, but the true “onion” of the show is slowly peeling away, what the core is going to be is anyone’s guess, but I can’t wait to see it.