Chris Sheridan
The following recap contains spoilers for Rick and Morty S9E1, “There’s Something About Morty” (written by Albro Lundy IV and directed by Douglas Einar Olsen)
Rick and Morty, mostly great but occasionally questionable, is still kind of a warm blanket for me. The multiversal shenanigans, unhinged creativity and, of course, the dynamic between our titular characters, is something that just feels good to get into. And now, we’re here, and while it takes a bit, the Season 9 premiere is a decent enough start.
So as we open, we get a cheerful, carefree piano tune as Morty strolls through the house, slurping on a beverage from 7-11 while the rest of the Smiths live their regular, happy lives. Of course, that is just a little too cheerful, as Morty enters the garage and suspiciously notices Rick trying to conceal his messages to an unknown entity. Morty distracts his grandpa and grabs the phone, and as they wrestle, the phone bounces away and reveals that the person Rick has been communicating with is Evil Morty.
Morty is furious, but Rick insists that everything is fine. As Morty protests, Rick says that he occasionally has to help Evil Morty under threat of the family being erased. Evil Morty steps out of a portal, asking why Rick isn’t answering his calls. Rick says that he’s been explaining things to Morty. “You two don’t share everything as a couple?” Evil Morty asks, immediately trying to push Morty’s buttons. Morty beckons the pair through his portal, where Evil Morty reveals that indeed, he has the means of erasing the Smiths across all of reality of Rick doesn’t continue helping him. This mission is to combat the Collective, who is consuming the multiverse and will eventually reach the Central Finite Curve.
En route, nobody is talking, although Evil Morty says he and Rick “usually talk” when he and Rick are alone. Morty grows more jealous as he learns that Rick and Evil Morty have been partnering without him. They arrive, where the Collective is absorbing another planet and transforming its denizens into mini living effigies of itself. What follows is Rick and Evil Morty clashing with the Collective, working together nearly flawlessly, while Morty more or less floats around in a panic and almost accidentally derails the entire conflict.
Something about this opening battle here didn’t really click with me. I think maybe it felt a little phoned in? It was fun, but definitely went on for too long. Thankfully, that’s not the crux of the episode, as the Collective is defeated—not without Rick and Evil Morty expressing their displeasure at Morty, and Evil Morty declaring once again that he and Rick team up often—and the trio head to a Diney’s for some waffles. There, Evil Morty continues to make Morty jealous by reinforcing the “rhythm” he has with Rick. Rick, for his part, continues to insist that it’s a very “unsteady truce” and trying to calm Morty down, resisting Evil Morty’s attempts to cozy up to him to upset Morty.
They part ways, and Evil Morty returns home to find everything destroyed, his files deleted, and his number blocked from Rick’s phone. In the rubble is a Polaroid of Rick mooning Evil Morty. Rick and Morty blast away at light speed, Rick triumphantly proclaiming getting away from Evil Morty’s grasp (and calling Morty a “possessive f*cking nerd”). Rick is absolutely unloading his disdain for Evil Morty and his delight in no longer having to work with him.
As soon as Rick and Morty arrive at the Smith household, Rick says that Evil Morty will be coming after them, and he’s going to be pissed. He pulls a massive lever in the garage, and the entire house falls through a portal into the Bunker Dimension with about a billion guns, including huge turrets rising above the house and the entire garage packed with weapons. Rick getting fired up and ending all of his lines with Morty’s name will never get old.
Rick gives a rundown of the plan to the Smiths, including that Evil Morty’s hand cannons have a cooldown, and that slurs, especially bad ones, can weaken him. In the garage, Morty remains insecure about his place in his and Rick’s relationship, Evil Morty’s words still hurting him. Rick insists that the book is closed on Evil Morty…until Evil Morty breaks into the Bunker Dimension.
Rick vs Evil Morty is an absolutely wild, creative, and hilarious brawl: Laser eyes vs. arm cannons, both of them demolishing the neighborhood as the blow each other up, a giant robot fight, and—my favorite—Evil Morty removing Rick’s brain from his decapitated head only for Rick’s legs to sprint up, kick the brain back into head, and his body stack back into place like a LEGO figure (including slapping his eyebrows back onto his face).
Rick and Evil Morty scream at each other with hilariously intensifying rage, until Morty tackles Evil Morty and knocking his eyepatch off, resulting in the classic trope of the identical Mortys screaming at Rick to insist on being the true Morty and finish the other off. An irritated Rick presses the button to inflate the body shield given to true Morty in the opening, causing him to bounce back, and Rick throws a cosmic net over Evil Morty, inside which a massive array of missiles blow up Morty. He still escapes, however, but what causes him to run is Morty calling his evil counterpart out over his trying to make Morty jealous of him and his “relationship” with Rick.
Things are not quite over, however, as Evil Morty has hijacked the Smith household turrets to open fire on Rick and Morty. It last a couple of seconds until the turrets go haywire, as the Smith family has taken to beating the absolute sh*t out of Evil Morty, and Rick and Morty join in to continue the assault, reducing Evil Morty to a whimpering mess until he freezes time and prepares to obliterate Rick with his hand cannon. Once again, however, he is thwarted and arrested by the police, from an earlier tip from Rick on someone using a time device. The icing on the cake is Morty delivering a hard slap across Evil Morty’s face before the latter is carted off to jail. Jerry, Beth and Summer are relieved that they didn’t have to use the prepared slurs, but decide to simultaneously say what they were planning to use. We don’t hear what they are, but after the fact, Summer and Beth are shocked and disgusted by whatever Jerry said.
I’ve been a little sick this week, mostly with a bit of a cough, and I share that because there were multiple times in “There’s Something About Morty” that made me laugh hard enough to give way to a painful, wet cough. But it was worth it. First and foremost, I was initially kind of bored with much of the first half, despite how well-animated the battle with the Collective was. But everything after that was classic Rick and Morty. It’s zany, funny, and creative, and it’s what has been missed in the hiatus.
I’m hoping that momentum continues next week, but with things hitting the ground running at the beginning instead of in the middle.
