Chris Sheridan
The following recap contains spoilers for Rick and Morty S8E2, “Valkyrick” (written by Scott Marder and directed by Jacob Hair)
Rick and Morty S8E2 (“Valkyrick”) opens with an organization called the Galactic Defiance planning to assassinate the Gromflomite Queen. The assassin—Space Beth—-is a no-show, having taken it into her own hands to take out the Queen after the Defiance took too long to do something. As Beth cuts through swaths of the insectoid Gromflomites, she enters the Queen’s quarters and finds that the Queen has already been assassinated. The space station is now on full alert, and Space Beth, growling in frustration, exercises her last resort and calls Rick.
Rick is enjoying some food at a sushi restaurant in the sub-basement but, to Space Beth’s surprise, readily agrees to come pick her up. The Gromflomite soldiers are initially sh*tting themselves upon seeing Rick, but the irritated scientist maintains that his (maybe a clone) daughter is just as dangerous. After getting them back to Defiance HQ, Rick continues to express irritation a their apparent lack of respect for Space Beth, running his mouth and getting her fired from the organization, infuriating her.
Just before that, live footage of the Queen’s birthday is shown, which confuses Space Beth as she literally came across the Queen’s corpse with a bullet hole in the head. She vows to get to the bottom of the hit, and Rick insists on at least helping her find his contact. Once found, they work to interrogate the Gromflomite on who organized the hit, repeatedly dropping him out of a window and portaling him back up before he hits the ground (and letting him splatter once they get their answers). Fantabulous—the former Royal Doctor—he said, is the one responsible.
They go to where Fantabulous is presumably located, and come across a guard, who refuses to help them and instead inhales deeply and transforms into a monstrous, mutated Super-Soldier Gromflomite who is tough, but not nearly impossible, to take down. Upon getting his head blown off, he emits spores, which transforms the responding Gromflomites as well. After they’re killed, Rick concludes that it’s some sort of fungus that doesn’t effect mammals, despite Space Beth’s concern of infection.
Fantabulous himself shows up, flanked by more soldiers, and states that the source of the mutation is a symbiote intent on galactic domination, and is a cure for a Gromflomite disease. He had the Queen killed because she refused to distribute his symbiote, and has replaced her with a Robot Queen who will. He proceeds to unleash his mutated Ultraflomites on our pair, and these monsters not only prove much harder to kill, but continue to spread the mutating pathogen to other soldiers on the base. After the fight, Space Beth concludes that the Robot Queen is a spore bomb that will mutate every Gromflomite into an Ultra. But Rick has an idea for how to stop Fantabulous.
In a montage, we get a voiceover monologue of Rick explaining to Space Beth his plan—with visual depiction of each step spectacularly and hilariously failing in escalating manner. The lynchpin is Rick placing his trust in his inside man “Cisco,” who doesn’t answer his phone or knocks at his door, so they have to improvise. Each step of the their voiceover conversation features Rick confidently arguing with his daughter about what’s going to happen, while we see the opposite happen beat by beat. It culminates in a failed attempt to destroy the synthetic Queen, who releases the pathogen and transforms the guards flanking her before Rick and Space Beth successfully contain it and toss all three of them into a portal. However, Beth is also trapped in the containment dome and is stabbed.
Rick and Space Beth break into the Gromflomite fortress, but Space Beth is infected by the spores and looking pretty rough. Noting a spore hive beneath the surface of the planet, and realizing that Fantabulous has a plan to create an ultra army, everyone agrees to a tenuous alliance. They need to work quickly, as Space Beth’s infection is rapidly progressing her onto becoming an Ultraflomite and merging with the hivemind.
The plan is to attempt a cure by putting Space Beth and an unending line of Gromflomite test subjects in linked pods, but each cure attempt results in the test subject exploding. Finally, attempt #64 is successful. With Space Beth cured, they and the small attack squad of Gromflomites suit up and prepare to invade the hive with an explosive payload and the help of Birdperson and his daughter. Deep in the caverns of the hive, Bird Daughter displays an alarming bloodlust and impressive combat prowess as they take down Ultraflomites. Arriving at the main hive, Fantabulous shows up again, plugged into an even bigger Ultraflomite, which accidentally impales him on its horn.
Rick and Space Beth work together to carry the payload and jam it into the hive, and Birdperson and Bird Daughter carry them and the Gromflomite general (Ronkonkomus Joe) safely out before the payload detonates, wiping out the hive, Fantabulous, and the spores. Outside, Ronkonkomus admits that the Gromflomites may be capable of change (without having to transform into monsters), and later, at a very Star Wars-coded ceremony with medals, proclaims a “new age” of unity between the Defiance and the Gromflomites (that he hopes never happens again).
Space Beth may or may not be the true Beth, but she’s still Rick’s daughter, and Rick spends the entire episode vouching for her and fighting alongside her. She is initially frustrated, but their bond improves as the adventure goes on. In terms of that adventure, Rick and Morty continues its stellar track record of dynamic, colorful and exciting action sequences. This show looks really good and continues to be extremely funny, with even my least favorite joke—Fantabulous being obsessed with the “rent free in [one’s] head” expression—being foreshadowed earlier in a way that made the eventually payoff a little bit better. And while the show isn’t necessarily serialized, I feel like Rick and Space Beth may have a stronger relationship going forward as a result of this week. Either way, this episode was a blast.
Best Moments:
- Space Beth calling her dad: “Funny story…or maybe not that funny.” “Are you pitching a Hulu Original?” Rick responds.
- A montage of cure attempts features the classic “mathematic formulas floating across the screen” until one floats in front of Rick’s eyes: “Ow, sh*t! What the hell?” The Gromflomite scientist had brought in his rotating math projector light.
- The post-credits stinger is a drugged-out Cisco waking up in a panic having missed Rick’s calls. His druggie girlfriend offers more drugs to placate him, which he happily accepts.
