Review: Rick and Morty: Meeseeks, P.I. #4

So we’ve finally come to the thrilling conclusion of the Case of the Missing Remote Control, and everything is coming to a head at the big Glooprbowl Game, which is the ‘forget it, Jake’ location of this sizzling little mystery. Stealy, Rick, Morty and Jerry are all cloistered within the Gloopyear Blimp, which is a cool setting for a hostage situation, because, you know, sky crimes. It does, however, fully combust at one point, putting everybody, but mostly Jerry, in peril. 

Rick learns that his bookmaking has been inadvertently cutting into some convoluted plan of Stealy’s that involves stealing time itself from television watchers in the form of chrono-somes, so Stealy kidnapped Jerry to bring Rick out into the open. Or something along those lines. 

Everybody’s pretty confused about the exact ‘why’ and ‘how’ of the plan, but that doesn’t stop Jerry from making an impassioned speech about the importance of television that basically saves the day for the family. His words really are a bit inspiring – giving our exhausted minds over to television for a few hours truly is  one of the great pleasures of our modern world, and none of us should feel bad about it. 

Considering that Jerry is the one that creates an opportunity for Rick and the kids to escape the floating inferno, it feels pretty unfair of them to abandon him so quickly, especially since Rick goes full ex Machina with a  ‘go-go-gadget’ everything move, putting the full arsenal of his cybernetic implants on display – he probably has something on his body that could have saved Jerry. Probably. Maybe a hair point missile? Or his armpit ray gun? Once all is resolved, Summer and Morty at least express some admiration for their father over a big pan of lasagna, which is really all Jerry wanted in the first place. Now, it could be baked ziti or stuffed manicotti there on the Smith family dinner table, but I like to believe that it’s lasagna, dammit.

On the case-solving side of things, Detective Meeseeks keeps on looking for Jerry while simultaneously looking cute in his too-big binoculars! It actually kind of seems like Meeseeks is going to be largely irrelevant throughout this mystery’s hydrogen-fueled finale, but then, the blue-hued gumshoe arrives in the nick of time, appearing to Jerry as a ripped, chiseled-chin angel.

I was a bit skeptical of Stealy as a villain, but he turned out to be surprisingly effective! ‘I’ll steal you in hell!’ are some pretty decent last words from Stealy, who gets extra points for perishing in a blimp inferno, which is one of the coolest ways to die (apologies to Allan Hagaman et al). We also don’t see his body, so that’s perhaps not the last we’ll be seeing of Stealy.

I think it’s important to note that, yes, Meeseeks saves Jerry from certain death by solving the case of the missing Jerry, which is some good-ass detective work. But did he solve the case of the missing remote, which is what he was created for? Not really!

He may not have solved the case, but it’s still pretty heartwarming that Detective Meeseeks’ defect turns out to be that he doesn’t disappear after his task is done. He may have a few glaring professional failures under his belt, but he’s aslo proven himself to be more than a good detective – he’s just an all-around good guy. His decision to remain a detective maybe means more Meeseeks, PI, which would be great!

The Meeseeks, PI comics really seems to understand the true power of Interdimensional Cable, and the ramifications that would come along with its creation. In the past, IDC has been used as a framework for telling short, stupid stories that are too short and stupid to survive anywhere else, but it can be so much more than that! How many Rick inventions across the multiverse were inspired by the programming from the channels and commercials of other cultures, only accessible through IDC? It’s straight-up one of the single most important inventions in the Mortyverse, right up there with portal guns and plumbuses. Conceptual cross-pollination must have skyrocketed across dimensions as Rick after Rick became exposed to the most marketable and newsworthy aspects of every single dimension. It’s like a modern day Library of Alexandria, and Stresing and his team clearly get that. Bringing back classic IDC characters like the Eyehole Man is also a smart idea – who doesn’t love an interdimensional callback?

Of course, the Rick that created it was too close to the brilliance of IDC – his floating head in a jar ONLY cares about television. He does seem considerably more happy than the average Rick, though. So there’s that. 

All three cover options are great in their own way, as always, but Troy Little’s ‘Chinatown’ inspired variant cover is a loving little parody worth framing. Actually, so is Sam Grinberg’s colourfully suspicious loom at lunch counter pancake consumption – I just wasn’t going to mention it because I don’t know if it’s referring to something specific that I’m just unfamiliar with, and being publicly exposed for not knowing a reference is my nightmare. But referential or not, it’s a damn good variant cover, and I’m not afraid to admit it! 

With Meeseeks, PI, Fred C. Stresing has created a wacky little love letter to noir that is at times but deeply referential and frequently surprising. Also, it’s done in a perfectly throwaway manner, but I’m pretty sure at one point it’s revealed that the entire story has just been an ad for fake doors? Brilliant!

Oh, and it turns out that Rick stole the remote because he was sick of Jerry always watching his favourite alien soap opera!