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Basically, he wants to power his train with a never-ending anthology of Rick and Morty adventures-a notion the show’s slow-but-steady-moving writers and animators seem to have strong feelings about. Written and directed by two Rick and Morty regulars (Jeff Loveness and Erica Hayes, respectively), the episode finds Rick and Morty at the mercy of a train controlled by Story Lord, a new villain whose persona Rick succinctly sums up as “like a Matrix space Frasier.” Part hackneyed studio exec, part maniacal fan, Story Lord is driven by the prospect of mechanically harnessing the pair’s endless narrative potential, valued according to three rubrics: relatability, marketability, and broad appeal. So, probably best to follow Morty’s philosophy here: “We don’t need to overthink shit, okay?” The episode does loudly announce that little of what we see is technically “canon,” though. Namely, the ongoing threats from Evil Morty and what remains of the Galactic Federation, now headed by Summer’s ex-classmate Tammy Guetermann. But as “Never Ricking Morty” works itself into a frenzy under layers and layers of meta-critiques-of the show, of this episode, of the contrived narrative device it relies on-it does stop to remind us of certain long-awaited character returns. Plot threads investigating Beth and Jerry’s codependency, Rick’s buried trauma, and the show’s other usual avenues for “grappling with the nature of who we really are” (as the Story Train commercial so neatly phrases it) have tapered off in season four. Not that Rick and Morty can resist a good meta-narrative tease. “Pickle Rick” this ain’t, and that’s fine. (Those include “One Crew Over the Crewcoo’s Morty,” a virtuosic, baseless rant against heist movies, and “Rattlestar Ricklactica,” an elaborate Terminator homage, except with space snakes.) It’s also of a piece with the season’s self-conscious pivot away from the emotional introspection of season three. Tickets, please.Ĭoming after a four-and-a-half month hiatus, “Never Ricking Morty” stands on par with the strongest episodes of the season so far. Like, you ever wonder what it’d be like to be stuck indoors on a train moving in perpetually circular motion with no engine, no endpoint destination, and the creeping suspicion that we all exist in a simulation authored by the most obvious writer in Hollywood? Welcome aboard the Story Train. (Snippets of Rick’s battle against Story Lord play out in the intro theme song throughout the season.) Call it clairvoyant then or call it coincidence, but “Never Ricking Morty” manages to articulate the surreality of life these days with a kind of madman’s precision.
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There’s a half-crazed mention of “this virus” in the post-credits scene of the episode marking Rick and Morty season four’s return to Adult Swim, though it was at least partially completed before a global pandemic shut us all into self-quarantines.