Chris Sheridan
The following recap contains spoilers for Rick and Morty S9E8 “Rickuiem Mort a Dream” (written by Heather Anne Campbell and directed by Douglas Einar Olsen).
In a Rick and Morty first (I think), we get Rick’s morning routine: he wakes up and heads down to his distillery, putting up his Do Not Disturb sign, drinking some coffee, popping in a couple of tiny aliens as earbuds, and slowly pouring a rare Grimaldian Potato mash into one of his vats. With the earbuds in, he doesn’t hear Morty enter and repeatedly attempt to get his attention. Upon failing to do so, Morty knocks on one of the vats, causing it to tip over and destroy all of them in a chain reaction. Rick is understandably livid, and pulls down a chart to illustrate that him being happy has never intersected with Morty being around him and Morty runs off in tears. Rick suddenly feels bad, angry with himself, and thinking “now would be a perfect time for a drink” before the title sequence.
Rick sends Summer and Jerry off to acquire materials to rebuild his distillery with his credit card (and giving Summer—but not Jerry—permission to get something for herself). One of the biggest asks is some 60-gallon drums. The other major thing Rick needs is a replacement Grimaldian Potato, which is hard to come by in the galaxy. We don’t see the exact location, but wherever it is, Rick isn’t pleased.
Morty absolutely does not want to talk to Rick when he comes into his room, but Rick has something for him, something that makes it so he won’t hear Rick scream at him again: it’s a Sympathid, a brain parasite that enters through the ear and generates unlimited empathy in the host and makes the host interpret any negativity as positivity. Rick demonstrates: he shakes Morty and calls him a piece of sh*t, and what Morty hears is Rick declaring how much he loves him. Rick explains that the Sympathid eats the brain’s empathy center to release stronger empathetic energy. Morty is elated, but mildly concerned about the eating part. Rick assures him that they’ll only have it in long enough to obtain the Potato.
The two embark on an adventure culminating in them competing in, and winning, a Dancing with the Stars competition. This sequence is hilarious, especially with the event itself, which is beautifully animated, with the pair dancing together like the best you’ve ever seen in the competition in their sparkly outfits (set to the Godzilla: King of the Monsters trailer music). They win, and return home, where Rick removes the Sympathid from Morty’s brain and causes the exact opposite emotions in Morty. This will be important later.
Meanwhile, Summer and Jerry exit another Home Depot, with a car full of sh*t and without a 60-gallon of drum despite hitting multiple hardware stores. They glance over to see a man loading multiple drums into his van, and when a woman approaches him, he renders her unconscious and loads her unto the van as well. Realizing they’re seeing a serial killer, Summer insists that they need to procure some of those drums (and they might as well save the girl too). Her plan is for Jerry to wrap her in a carpet and load her into the trunk so the serial killer sees them. It works: he approaches them and is receptive to Jerry buying a drum, but states that he doesn’t have change for Jerry’s cash and invites him to accompany him to his cabin. Jerry and Summer decide to come along.
Back to Morty: as the bus pulls up, the school bully leans out of the bus and threatens Morty, prompting Morty to re-inject the Sympathid. The result is a montage of Morty changing the bully’s life through empathy, and causing a rippling effect of kindness and life-changing acts across the school and town. Later, Morty decides to confront Rick with kindness and admit that he shouldn’t just want Rick to drop everything and focus on him. Rick is cautious, but allows Morty to attempt to appeal to him as they travel to the mall and Morty procures a thermometer displayed in a store. Rick playfully asks Morty how long he’s had the Sympathid in his brain, and sucks it out. Immediately, Morty sees the world as it truly is: the mall is in flames, Rick is irate, and the Sympathid has grown from a harmless little parasite into a giant, bloodthirsty monster. Morty is equally pissed off, and Rick scans Morty’s brain to see that his empathy centers have been entirely eaten away. As Morty sarcastically says that he’s now just the same as Rick, the giant Sympathid Monster enters Rick’s brain and he collapses.
I absolutely love Jerry. He’s such a sorry sack of sh*t that everyone hates, but he also frequently reveals that he’s one of the most f*cked up characters on the show. His segment here is probably my favorite of this episode: still believing that Jerry is a fellow serial killer, the real serial killer talks about his MO, and asks Jerry about his: it’s pretty disturbing. As Jerry continues to elaborate and get gradually more grim and sinister with his manufactured MO, his confidence grows stronger and ends with the real serial killer genuinely unsettled. As Summer and the rescued girl from the hardware store start to load up some drums into their car, they accidentally make their presence known. The serial killer looks out the window and sees that Summer is Jerry’s daughter, the girl in the carpet, and is even more disgusted. It turns out that he called the police on Jerry. The resulting standoff is another one of the funniest bits in the episode, as we see that the police captain is an absolutely deranged, nihilistic lunatic.
Now infested with the Sympathid Monster, Rick is overwhelmed with sympathy, and we’ve basically got Rick-as-Morty and Morty-as-Rick as Morty drags his grandfather through the mall, furiously racking up a body count that would, under normal circumstances, make Rick proud. However, with his empathy overload, all Rick can do is panic and want to call the victims’ families, and later obliviously have a positive outlook, including hugging Summer and telling her he loves her once he and Morty arrive at the killer’s house. Morty insists to the cops that he coax out the killer, which involves him empathizing with the killer over their mutual lack of empathy. It works, and the killer comes out to get annihilated by by the police, expending their entire munitions and sparing Jerry.
Back in the garage, Rick sadly admits that his behavior is something that shouldn’t be empathized with, that the Sympathid made Morty ignore Rick’s behavior, red flags that he needs to notice so that he doesn’t get hurt. Morty makes Rick admit that he’s “a piece of sh*t” and retreats to his room. A small portal opens up over Morty’s head and a pack of Pokemon cards drops on him. Morty wishes he could enjoy that. In Rick’s distillery, he guzzles a pint of alcohol, causing the Sympathid Monster to crawl out of his head and die, which I guess is a metaphor for alcohol destroying empathy, something that Rick rarely displays, especially when he gets drunk.
Rickuiem Mort a Dream was one of my favorite episodes of the season. It is consistently hilarious and the climax that reversed the dynamic between the two was extremely clever and I’m surprised it hasn’t been done sooner. And of course, anything involving Jerry’s psyche, which is gradually becoming more unhinged, is always welcome. It was also a nice fusion of chaotic Rick and Morty-ness with a touch of what I hope is some more character development. This season is hit after hit. Can next week keep up the winning streak?
