Rick and Morty :: A Rickconvenient Mort

Screengrab

The latest episode of Rick and Morty is called ‘A Rickconvenient Mort’ as a reference to the documentary An Inconvenient Truth, but it’s not really about the environment in any meaningful way. The opening scene of the episode is great, with a pitch perfect parody of the old ‘Captain Planet’ show — I laughed a lot at ‘Diesel Weasel’ (who I think was voiced by Tom Kenny) and his puns like ‘I’ll get you next slime!’

The ‘Captain Planet’ knockoff here is ‘Planetina’, voiced by the ever talented Community alum Allison Brie, and her arc has some substance in the episode, although parts are … odd. She and Morty hit it off and become a couple, and although there’s an aspect to it that is nice (Morty stepping up and being brave about publicly announcing it), it’s also very unsettling.

Beth naturally has a problem with an older woman dating Morty — Planetina says she’s been manifested since the 90s, so that’s theoretically twice his age. And although their rapport starts cutely, it’s weird, right? I can get Morty’s attachment, of course, he’s experienced a lot of weird things over the seasons and he’s a teenage boy. But Planetina’s motivations are … well I guess I can say unusual.

Her environmental stuff is more compelling, if not as funny as I’d hoped. After a few little jokes about being a ‘sentient amalgam of elements’, we meet her ‘kids’, adult versions of the Planeteers, except for Ma-Ti, the one with the power of ‘Heart’. It might be intentional that he’s missing, and you see the older ‘kids’ as selfish monsters (the American dude Eddie, actually played by Steve Buscemi) uncaring about the planet or Planetina, or it might be just a joke about ‘Heart’ being the ‘useless’ power as referenced in decades of tired jokes about the show.

However Planetina’s quick fall into a complete ‘greater good’ mentality is compelling, as is Morty’s conflict about it — he’s the one who dumps her instead of the other way around, a different sort of maturity. He’s able to express that loss to Beth after so brutally yelling at her earlier in a scene that is not funny at all — but I’m not sure entirely that the sad scene works.

But I did like the ‘romantic story about our son murdering a roomful of people’ even if nothing got paid off, as after Morty got the rings they are never seen again. On the ‘B’ story side, we follow Rick and Summer as both jilted heartbroken folks — Summer from some teenage idiot and Rick from Morty dating Planetina instead of hanging out with him.

Screengrab

So instead they go to a series of planets about to end — a commentary on Planetina and her extreme methods, perhaps, how these aliens are accepting the destruction of their planet with nihilistic partying — and maybe prefer that to doing anything and ‘going to work tomorrow’? Maybe.

Rick breaks their pact of ‘no attachments’ and picks up an alien lady named Daphne (voice of Jennifer Coolidge), but the only thing that seemed to be relevant there is that Summer proved her theory correct that she was simply trying to survive — her constant little ‘Hello’ greetings were never funny despite the episode seeming to think they were. But at least it ends with a decent moment between Rick and Summer, acknowledging that he does respect her decision.

Even if it’s more of the problematic theme of Summer and Morty becoming more like Rick. Overall, there were some interesting ideas and funny moments in the episode, but it also didn’t really click nor were there really that many very funny lines like normal. It’s a real step down from last episode, but I’d watch Planetina come back any time.

What did you think of this episode? Sound off in the comments below!