"A Rickconvenient Mort" is the third episode of the fifth season of Rick and Morty. It is the 44th episode of the series overall. It premiered on July 4, 2021.[2] It was written by Rob Schrab and directed by Juan Meza-León. The episode is rated TV-14-DLSV.
Synopsis[]
Morty falls head-over-heels in love with an ecological superhero, leaving Summer to join Rick on a bender of interplanetary apocalyptic hedonism.
Plot[]
While out buying custom t-shirts, Rick and Morty are assaulted by acid rain caused by a cartoonish villain named Diesel Weasel. He is attacked by a Captain Planet-esque superhero named Planetina, who defeats him with her elemental powers, impressing Morty. When Rick tosses an aluminum can on the ground, Morty recycles it, attracting her attention. He awkwardly invites her on a date, to which she accepts, flying away with him and shocking Rick.
At breakfast sometime later, Beth expresses concern at the idea of Morty dating a woman who looks much older than him, which he shrugs off. Summer laments Morty's success with women while she has been recently broken up with, and Rick invites her on a bar crawl across three planets that are all about to end via natural disaster, to which she accepts, despite Jerry's objections. Morty receives news of a wildfire and ignores Beth's protest, going to it with the hope that he may see Planetina.
He arrives just as she stops the fire and the two express their mutual attraction to each other. She mentions having "kids," but is actually referring to the Tina-teers, four people who carry elemental rings and summon her using them. The Tina-teers arrive on the scene, and Morty realizes that they control, exploit, and profit off of Planetina. While Planetina is being interviewed by a news team, the interviewer notices Morty and asks if they are dating. Planetina hesitates, but Morty claims that they are, to her delight.
As they fly to the first planet, Rick and Summer make a "no attachments" deal in regards to any sexual encounters they may have. They arrive at the first planet, Morglutz. While there, Rick finds himself attracted to an alien named Daphne, and goes off to have sex with her. Summer shouts after him to have fun and reminds him to not get attached.
At night, Morty stays up flirting with Planetina over text. He thanks her for the flowers she sent him, which are a massive amount grown to look like his face. She appears outside his window and the two have sex. As Summer and Rick leave Morglutz and the planet is destroyed, she hears a noise coming from the trunk, which Rick brushes off.
At a convention called Eco-Con, the Tina-teers summon Planetina to host a panel, but Morty is taken with her during the summoning, the two still asleep together. The Tina-teers dispel her and security drags Morty away. The fire elemental, Eddie, assures the dirt elemental that he will deal with Morty. On the second planet, Slartivart, Summer realized Rick has taken Daphne with him, leaving her furious at the violation of the rules.
Morty, meanwhile, is tied up in a broom closet by security. Eddie reveals his plan to sell Planetina to a rich Arabic ambassador. He lights a mop on fire and attempts to burn Morty's face, but Morty knocks him down, frees himself, bites Eddie's finger off, and burns him and two guards alive with his own ring. He breaks into the conference room where Planetina is being sold, and kills the rest of the Tina-teers with their own rings, as well as two more guards and the ambassador.
After the destruction of Slartivart, Summer struggles to ignore Rick and Daphne having sex in the back of the car. During a break, Daphne talks to Summer, revealing why Rick is so attracted to her: she has a pair of breasts on each of her elbows. Summer remains confident that Rick will dump her upon reaching the third planet, but Daphne casually disagrees.
At home, Morty reveals that he has invited Planetina to live with the family now that she is free from the Tina-teers. Beth is still disheartened by the age gap of the two and demands Planetina leave. Morty, enraged, confesses his love for her, and the two leave together, going off to stop natural disasters and environmental destruction. However without anyone reigning her in, Planetina becomes more violent, slashing the tires on a highway full of cars, burning down a congressman's mansion, and killing a mine full of workers in a fit of rage, horrifying Morty.
On the last planet, Ferkus 9, the citizens are having a planet-wide orgy while Rick and Daphne dance together. Summer tries to dissuade him, telling him that Daphne is just using him, which he denies. She takes the ship and flies towards the asteroid about to crash into the planet, destroys it, and comes back down, asking Daphne if she will continue to stay with Rick now that they are no longer in danger. She casually leaves, shocking Rick. As they fly home, Summer apologizes, and Rick tells her that while he is angry at her, it was very like him of her to stop an apocalypse just to prove a point. When she apologizes again, he brushes it off and tells her he would do the same if she needed it.
Morty, alone in his room, is visited by Planetina. She begs him to try and make their relationship work, but he refuses, too disgusted by her actions at the mine. She insists that violence is the only way to save the Earth before bringing up how he killed her "kids". Morty insists that while the Tina-Teers tried to heartlessly sell her and only did it to free her, the miners she incinerated were just doing their jobs. Planetina then confesses her love for him but he sadly rejects her declaration. When he asks her to try and understand, she curses him out tearfully and flies away. Beth, having heard the argument, comforts a weeping Morty who apologizes for not listening to her as the arrangement of flowers Planetina made of his face shows signs of decay. The song playing in the background is “I Am the Antichrist to You" by Kishi Bashi.
In a post-credits scene, an alien from Ferkus 9 who had sex with his father, believing the world was going to end, arrives at work at a bakery the next day. The two awkwardly converse mentioning that the son's mother still won't talk to them for what they did before the son wishes him a happy birthday.
Characters[]
Major characters[]
Minor characters[]
- Diesel Weasel
- Tony Galopagus
- Daphne
- Hibler
- Arabic Ambassador
Deaths[]
- Three unnamed people
- Arabic ambassador
- All 4 of the Tina-teers
- Almost all Morglutzians
- Almost all Broghs
- 300 miners
- The Tina-teers' guards
Locations[]
Episode notes[]
Trivia[]
- This is the first episode written by Rob Schrab, a longtime friend and collaborator of Dan Harmon's who previously worked with him on Community and Channel 101. Schrab has provided additional voicework since the show's first season, and joined in an official capacity as co-executive producer midway through Season 4.
- In celebration of Season 5, Pocket Mortys' weekly updates will coincide with new episodes, including new avatars for players to collect. With the release of this episode came Planetina as an avatar, plus Acid Rain Morty and Pizza Delivery Morty to catch.
- This is the second episode to air on a holiday (Independence Day/4th of July).
- This is the third episode of Season 5 in which Rick and Morty do not use the portal gun. The first was "Mort Dinner Rick Andre", the second "Mortyplicity".
- This is the first episode of Season 5 in which Rick drinks.
- Writer Rob Schrab explained in the episode's behind the scenes featurette that the original ending saw Morty getting his heart broken, but Dan Harmon suggested the more interesting take was Morty breaking someone else's heart. As Harmon explained, the tragedy of the end of their relationship would be less interesting if it were cynical, i.e. Morty taking the viewpoint that "love isn't real." The relationship needed to have stakes, and could not be something Morty and Planetina could write off upon its ending.[3]
- Schrab also noted that Beth's role differs from past episodes, where the joke is usually that she does not care about her kids. For the first time she has to truly act motherly with Morty, advising him on the danger of dating Planetina and having to comfort him following the breakup.[3]
Series continuity[]
- The crack around the Smith house from "Ricksy Business" and "A Rickle in Time" is still visible.
- When Morty accuses Planetina of murder, Planetina points out he killed the Tina-Teers, which he rationalizes as justified. At this point in the series Morty has committed multiple murders that cannot easily be rationalized, as recently as the episode "Mort Dinner Rick Andre".
Cultural references[]
- The episode's title is a reference to the film An Inconvenient Truth.
- Planetina, the Tina-Teers, and Diesel Weasel are references to characters in Captain Planet and the Planeteers, homaging Captain Planet, the Planeteers, and Verminous Skumm respectively.
- While fighting his way out of captivity, Morty bites Eddie's finger off and takes his fire ring. A similar act happened in the climax of The Lord of the Rings between Gollum and Frodo.
- The planet Slartivart is seemingly named after Slartibartfast, a character from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy book series.
- Rick describes Firkus IX's destruction as being Deep Impacted by an asteroid, referencing the movie of the same name.
- The Arabic ambassador’s death at the hands of seals may be another reference to Seal Team Six.
- When Rick and the Morglutzian, Daphne, are dancing on planet Slartivart, their dance moves are a reference to the movie House Party, starring the hip hop duo, Kid 'n Play.
Errors[]
- In the music video, "Flowers," the crack around the Smith house (from "Ricksy Business" and "A Rickle in Time") does NOT appear to be visible.
Transcript[]
View a full transcript of this episode here.
Gallery
Click here to view this page's gallery.
References
https://twitter.com/RickandMorty/status/1396888811083345924