Review: Rick and Morty “JuRicksic Mort “

Overview

Okay, take the opening to Arrival, slap in some Jurassic Park, then add in a dash of David Byrne’s Utopia, and you have the foundation for the premise of this week’s episode. Add in the fact that Rick gets his portal gun back, but not before his rift is repaired by our dinosaur alien friends that invade us at the beginning of the episode. Oh yeah, and add some Dr. Manhattan from Watchmen for the climax.

Our Take

Nick Rutherford’s fifth season episode was actually my favorite of the bunch and I also enjoy anytime we get a revisit from Keith David as the President of the United States. In terms of guest stars, the instantly recognizable Lisa Kudrow makes an appearance alongside…*checks notes* Jason Mraz in what was a pretty great episode. At first I was getting similar vibes to “Claw and Hoarder: Special Ricktim’s Morty“, but the episode ended up being more space-travel than really any other episode we’ve seen this season other than the show’s premiere, which made “JuRicksic Mort” that much more enjoyable because we haven’t had a BUNCH of space this season.

We also got a few shades of the “The Rickshank Rickdemption“, an Earth that accepts it’s new overlords without any real struggle and Jerry is deemed a tad more important than he is if the world were status quo.

Since we’re not getting any new episodes for about a month, this week had a mid-season finale feel. Sowing up loose plot threads introduced in the premiere episode with even the show hinting at a multi-episode-arc that is already promising some strong vibes is exciting, and Rick’s god-like status is slowly returning to form. I still don’t sense anybody in the rest of the Smith family being as important as Rick up until this point, that may change, but right now Rick is driving us all and it remains to be seen what direction we’re going in.

In any event, all of the aforementioned franchises blended together to give us a sort of a smoothie of an episode in that the sum was equal to the whole of it’s parts and slowly but surely Rutherford is turning into that next BIG name writer for the franchise ala Loveness, Gao, and Waldron, and with a few more like these I think he’ll get there. We already know he can act in both in live-action (Dream Corp LLC) and in animation (“Forgetting Sarick Mortshall“), but his dramatic flair is just starting to show up.