The second episode ofRick and Mortyseason 5 opens with an ambitious plot. The show’s title characters let their family know that today their “To Do” list includes “Kill God.“Rick Sanchez clarifies, yes the Christian God is real, but he’s been sleeping for thousands of years. So grandpa and grandson are going to sneak into the deity’s place and end him. Before they get the chance, a horde of squid creatures bursts into the house and murders every member of the family.
It’s an ambitious opening to follow up last week’s season premiere.“Mort Dinner Rick Andre” introduced more and morewrinkles as the episode played out. Unfortunately, “Mortyplicity” doesn’t develop itself quite as cleverly and fails to deliver on the promise of its cold open. It’s still an entertaining enough episode, but detouring from the “Kill God” setup feels like a misstep.
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In fact, the main problem with “Mortyplicity” is that it can’t help itself from detouring over and over again. What starts as an entertaining method for keeping viewers on their toes ends up becoming a tired plot device. By the end of the episode, nothing that’s happened on screen seems to matter as the only throughline has been the least interesting part of the episode’s true premise.This is stillRick and Morty, and the episode still delivers the laughs, violence, and occasional meta-commentary the franchise is known for, but none of the elements that made “Mort Dinner Rick Andre” stand out are present here.
It’s A Decoy!
The cold open of “Mortyplicity” promises something new and exciting for the show. Instead, the episode retreads ground that the show has covered many times before. Rick’s watch pings, letting him know that one of his “decoy” families has been destroyed. He tells everyone to pack up. They go off to see if they can figure out what exactly is going on.
From there, the episode plays out somewhat predictably.Rick has dozens of decoy families, but other decoy Ricks started building decoys of their own. As the decoys reach various levels of sentience, they start building their own decoys and occasionally start hunting the others. Killing off the copies is the only surefire way to prove that oneself is the “real, original” version. Rick labels this burgeoning decoy war an “Asimov cascade” before he and his family are again murdered, revealing that they, too, were decoys.
The rest of the action that takes place is a veritable “war of the families.” Everyone struggles to prove their originality through violence. This exact same premise has played out many times before in the show’s history. Most recently,the season 4 finale presented"Real or Not Real” with Beth and her clone. “Mortyplicity” dresses the idea up a little differently but changes nothing about the actual execution. At first, following a family for several minutes, only to realize they aren’t real when they get blown up is fun. After the third or fourth time, it feels pointless.
Laughs Per Minute
“Mortyplicity” might be disappointing, but only because of how goodRick and Mortyis capable of being. The episode still provides constant laughs, including some clever jabs at viewers. In one scene, Rick sits at the dinner with the rest of the family and says to Summer, “If you really want to know what happened to Beth’s mom…” Then he’s ruthlessly murdered. The show knows it’s not providing exactly what its viewers want to see. Whether or not that acknowledgment earns forgiveness for presenting a wacky re-hash of old plot concepts is up to the individual fan.
The less meta jokes hit just as hard.Rick and Mortycontinues to provethat it will find humor in anything. The episode treats audiences to a top-notchHighlanderreference and a quip about living in the woods “like libertarians.” In sharp contrast to the plot of the episode, the comedy feels fresh and inventive. At the end of the day, not every episode ofRick and Mortycan touch on every aspect of what makes the show great. Maybe it’s enough to give viewers a half-hour of solid laughs constructed around the scaffolding of well-worn plot devices.
By the end of the episode, viewers realize they’ve never been watching the family they know and love. The “real” family has been in deep space with Rick. They’ve apparently had a run-in with Beth’s clone, who’s seen chilling in Rick’s spaceship with the rest of the gang. What could be a hint at next week’s episode feels more like a glimpse of the story the show should have presented this week. At the very least, fans can hope that Beth’s clone shows up again, even though she warned the family not to make a habit of running into her.Rick and Morty season 5 holdsplenty of promise, despite “Mortyplicity” feeling like a throwaway episode.
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