Review: Rick and Morty “Unmortricken’
Overview
First of allll, its the return of Eyepatch Morty! (He’s often referred to as Evil Morty, but here, he’s Eyepatch Morty, because we aren’t here to pass judgement on the core nature of a cartoon boy’s soul). Eyepatch Morty teams up with regular old Rick and Morty to try and take on the baddest of bad guys – Rick Prime himself! This alliance, however, proves to be an uneasy one, and, it turns out that Rick Prime is not only one to three steps ahead of our gang, he’s one to three steps ahead of a number of other Ricks seeking vengeance for their own lost Dianes, and the whole sorry lot of them end up trapped in a classic kill or be killed scenario, in which Rick Prime reveals that he has erased all Dianes, in every universe, using a tool he calls The Omega Weapon. The last Rick standing gets his Diane back. Violence ensues.
Our Take
So, dear readers – we have finally arrived! After snacking on the quartet of lovely stand-alone episode-tizers that comprised the first course of season 7, we are finally moving on to an entire, meaty orchestra’s worth of main course storyline! Let us celebrate by mixing metaphors to the full extent of the laws of language!
It was a dope move for Adult Swim to embargo sneak peaks for this episode, especially after serving up the tasty dish that was last week’s spaghetti-themed cold open.
The only dish being served up cold in the superlative “Unmortricken” is revenge, but it’s unclear at times throughout this episode as to who is getting the real revenge, and for what? It’s clear that the Ricks want revenge on Rick Prime for robbing them of their one true love, but what is Rick Prime’s end game in being such a What is Eyepatch Morty’s motivation? Will all be revealed when there’s only one Rick left alive? Kind of!
The main takeaway from ‘Unmortricken’ is that it is an excellent episode – it had absolutely everything you could want from classic Rick and Morty! It moves along the main story, does some random alien world building (do I smell a spin-off set in the Jetson’s type universe?) is chock-a-block with call backs, and has an absolute ass load of emotional gravitas! And switcheroos and double crosses! And who doesn’t love a good old fashioned, reality bending Omega Weapon? There’s also the kind of visually delightful carnage that was once the hallmark of R&M, like the slaughter-filled montage of Eyepatch Morty’s puppet Rick, which is equal parts violent and hilarious. And, as an added bonus, fan favourite Slow Mobius returns in a way that isn’t tremendously sad, at all! He’s going to be just fine, folks! Don’t worry!
The big difference between an early Rick and Morty episode and this one is the subtle difference in emotional response from Rick himself. He gets a heavy load of emotional baggage from Rick Prime when they face off, and it seems like it does real damage to our titular hero – will his visits to Dr Wong pay off, or will he collapse in on himself like a dying star? Only time will tell.
Also, excellent use of Mazzy Star, yet again!
"There are also other characters that come and go (also owned by the Warner Bros. Discovery conglomerate media company)."
Huh. Is that just referring to other characters from the show itself, or is this implying that the new season is going to have cameos from other WBD IPs