"Edge of Tomorty: Rick Die Rickpeat" is the first episode of the fourth season of Rick and Morty. It is the 32nd episode of the series overall. It premiered on November 10, 2019. It was written by Mike McMahan and directed by Erica Hayes. The episode is rated TV-14-DLV.
Synopsis[]
After family breakfast, Rick asks Morty to accompany him to Forbodulon Prime to get some "death crystals", and Morty doesn't handle them well.
Plot[]
The Smith family enjoys breakfast as Rick wants to take Morty on an adventure. Beth and Jerry, unhappy, tell Rick to respect Morty. After reluctantly apologizing and nicely asking, the two go to Forbodulon Prime to find death crystals, small crystals that allow the holder to see the possible deaths they can encounter. Morty unknowingly steals one from Rick as he uses it to get his best future outcome. In this outcome, he is lying in bed as an old man as Jessica tells him she loves him.
After fighting over the wheel, the ship crashes as Rick is flung into a spiked rock, killing him. A hologram of Rick appears as he explains to Morty how to bring Rick back. Morty disobeys, taking the ship.
Meanwhile, Rick revives in another reality, due to Operation Phoenix, carrying out in a in a loop of realities. Much to his annoyance however, each reality that he reincarnates in is a reality where extreme fascism rules, and is forced to commit a repeat series of mass murder and suicide to reach a reality peaceful and politically stable enough for that reality's Rick and Morty to help him return to his own.
Back in the main reality, Morty, being guided by the death crystal he stole, experiences trouble back home and becomes determined to have the reality where he dies next to Jessica to come true. He travels back home and, guided by the crystal, is lead on to do rather bizarre and outlandish things to ensure the outcome. Upon mistakenly riling an extremely violent local school bully, the situation escalates, pushing Morty to access Rick's arsenal, grab several high powered weapons and takes all of Rick's Mr. Meeseeks boxes (except for the "shitty Kirkland brand Meeseeks boxes"). He then deals with the bullies, and soon goes on a bloody rampage as the police and even the army become involved, but due to the crystal, he is able to avoid a quite lengthy and certain death sentence, resulting in the presiding judge to declare him innocent and later commit suicide due to Morty's words. Then, on live television, he hesitently let out a cognitohazardous howl, the frequencies of which swayed the undivided focus of anyone listening and convinced them to completely forgive his actions and rendered the entire massacre canonically irrelevant.
Meanwhile, Rick eventually finds a peaceful reality where he is a wasp and Wasp Rick agrees to help him get back to his original reality. Once they arrive, Rick discovers Morty's theft of his gadgets, dismayed that the only Mr. Meeseeks boxes left behind were cheap, knock-off ones. After they confront the Hologram Rick that appears in the garage, the three Ricks go off in search of Morty.
They discover him out in a desert becoming a monstrous tree-like cyborg abomination and defeat him, only for Hologram Rick to become assimilated and attempt to destroy the regular Rick, Wasp Rick, and Morty. As Rick and Morty are struck and fall to the ground, Wasp Rick stings the Rick-tree abomination in the eye, causing its head to start swelling up and explodes, releasing numerous mini Wasp Ricks into the air.
After things return to normal, Morty apologizes to his grandfather for not listening to him, as Rick takes it in stride. Beth and Jerry appear and attempt to persuade Rick to stop his adventures, because of what happened only for Morty to say he is the one at fault and explain that Rick wasn't even around when the events occurred. Hearing this, Beth states the important thing is that he is okay. Jerry tried to threaten Rick who claims that by touching him, Jerry now has AIDS, causing Jerry to run off in a panic with Beth following behind. While Rick and Morty decide to go on adventures that blend both the familiar with something new, they spot Summer who was eavesdropping and mock or criticize her for 'ruining the season premiere'. The garage door closes as Summer goes back in the house, not caring at this point.
The following day, Morty overhears Jessica wishing to become a hospice member who tends to the elderly who will die alone without a family. Morty becomes extremely angry upon realizing that the future he foresaw misled him the whole time. When Rick portals in and asks Morty to come with him on another adventure, the latter cuts him off and immediately agrees, going through the portal and catching Rick by surprise.
Cast and characters[]
Main Cast
Non-speaking characters Unknown voices |
Guest-Starring
Starring
|
Deaths[]
- Jessica's Grandma (Confirmed Fate)
- Crystal Poachers
- Commander Rick's Body (Occupied by Rick C-137)
- Fascist Rick
- Fascist Gearhead
- Fascist Morty
- Judge
- Larva Mr. Goldenfold
- Larva Mr Goldenfold's Grubs
- Hologram Rick
- Several Soldiers
- Several Mr. Meeseeks
Locations[]
Episode notes[]
Trivia[]
- It is revealed that Rick can use Operation Phoenix to revive himself in case he dies.
- Rick breaks the fourth wall several times: when he mentions how he had cut his cloning system off seasons ago; when he and Morty are talking about how their adventures are going to go; and when he tells Summer she has ruined the fourth season opening.
- Morty is shown to have great mastery with Rick's equipment now.
- "Fait accompli" is a French expression meaning a done deal.
- In celebration of Season 4, Pocket Mortys‘ weekly updates will coincide with new episodes, including new avatars for players to collect. With the release of this episode came Teddy Rick as an avatar, plus Wasp Morty and Shrimp Morty to catch.
- This episode was dedicated to J. Michael Mendel, a Rick and Morty staff member who passed away on September 22, 2019 at age 54, nearly a month and a half before the episode's premiere.
- This is the first episode that Adult Swim Canada premiered on the same day as the United States.
Series continuity[]
- The cracks on the ground are still visible following the events from the episode "Ricksy Business".
- The shift in power within the Smith family away from Rick is continued from "The Rickchurian Mortydate".
- Rick's Phoenix Protocol from the episode "Big Trouble in Little Sanchez" plays a prominent role in this episode.
- Some of Mortys potential deaths are referring to earlier episodes and characters:
- One of the ways Morty sees himself die is while disarming a Neutrino Bomb, which he disarmed in "Vindicators 3: The Return of Worldender".
- One death is next to a Greebybobe, which are often seen in the background of episodes.
- Another death is being eaten by Froopyland birds from "The ABC's of Beth".
- One death involves the van with "Cervine Institute" branded on the back, from "A Rickle in Time".
- Farmer Rick from "The Ricklantis Mixup" is involved with one possible death.
- Several of Ricks potential deaths refers to previous episodes:
- One possible death is being killed by the giant version of Squanchy last seen in "The Wedding Squanchers".
- Another possible death is being eaten by a dog while in the form of Pickle Rick, from the episode "Pickle Rick".
- One death is by Giant Telepathic Spiders, from the episode "The Ricks Must Be Crazy".
- Rick says he "axed this protocol" when he is revived in the Fascist Dystopian Universe, referring to when he killed his clones in "Big Trouble in Little Sanchez" and ended his "Operation Phoenix".
- Mr. Meeseeks make their first big appearance since "Meeseeks and Destroy".
- Mr. Meeseeks doesn't cease to exist after fulfilling Rick's request to kill Fascist Morty.
- Rick's box labeled "Time Travel Stuff" is renamed to be prefaced with whatever race inhabits that universe, like "Wasp Time Travel Stuff" in the Wasp Universe.
- The picture of Rick and the President with the words Thanks for sterilizing China, could be a reference to the opening scene of "Vindicators 3: The Return of Worldender", where Morty is capturing multiple worm-like creatures that Rick says are capable of sterilizing a species.
- This episode marks the third time in which Rick's body was destroyed and replaced with a physically identical version of itself, being replaced with that of a clone of Wasp Rick transformed into a human through unknown means. The first instance of this event was in "The Rickshank Rickdemption", in which Rick's body is shot and by the end of the episode he remains in the body of either Commander Rick or Quantum Rick, and the second in the episode "Rest and Ricklaxation", in which Rick grows a new body from Toxic Rick's.
- However, this is the first time that Rick's consciousness has died as well, instead of switching bodies. As of this episode, the original Rick C-137 is dead and has been replaced by a clone of himself (though, depending on interpretation, this has already happened in "Rest and Ricklaxation").
- Morty tries find a future with Jessica with death crystals but questions of not approaching her and spending time with her. It reveals that Morty will live a lonely and unhappy life as an old man due to not meeting someone else other than Jessica and not letting her go, as Morty is a simp who always hold distance of her, never spends time with her, avoiding her when she invites him and at the beginning of the episode he cyber stalks her.
Cultural references[]
- The episode title is a reference to the film Edge of Tomorrow, which is also called Live Die Repeat, which is based on the manga All You Need is Kill by Hiroshi Sakurzaka.
- At the start of the episode, Morty was looking through Jessica's profile on the popular social media app Instagram.
- Jessica wears a necklace with "Margaritaville" on it.
- When Morty first interacts with the death crystal one of the deaths involves an elevator door closing on his neck, lifting up, and beheading him; similar to the death of Nora from Final Destination 2.
- One of the Hologram Rick clones was holding up a sign reading "Make it legal" (referencing legalization of cannabis) and was called "Berkeley", referencing the school.
- The crossed wrenches banner in Fascist Rick's basement are suspiciously similar to the crossed hammer symbol from Pink Floyd's fascist nightmare in "The Wall".
- The Nazi Shrimp who beat Shrimp Rick to death resemble Heinrich Himmler and Reinhard Heydrich.
- The bully mentions the animation studio Pixar and Coco, an animated film produced by Pixar.
- The news channel "CMN" is a parody of the American news channel CNN.
- The woman covering Morty's trial on CMN, is a parody of true crime pundit, Nancy Grace.
- There is a billboard advertising Trover Saves the Universe, a game that Justin Roiland co-created.
- "Boglins" was a line of toy puppets released between 1987 and 1994.
- "Kirkland brand" is a reference to the Costco brand "Kirkland Signature".
- The feral fluid may be a reference to the 2018 film Venom.
- However, the subtitles say "ferrofluid"; since the holographic Rick is able to interact with the fluid, this is a likelier explanation.
- Rick mentions the TV-show Full House.
- Morty is referred to as an "Akira", which comes from the Japanese manga of the same name.
- During Morty's rampage in the city, the music also sounds familiar to the music in the anime.
- Jerry briefly mentions anime, which is animation from Japan.
- The construct that Morty built was reminiscent of the computer from Lucy.
- The transformation undergone by Morty in the desert might be a subtle Dune reference. Like Morty, Leto II was pursuing a “Golden Path” from his prescient visions and him merging with a powerful desert creature was a part of it.
- Morty's power using the Death Crystals against the national defense is a likely reference to Aang in his Avatar State in the animated series, Avatar: The Last Airbender.
Transcript[]
View a full transcript of this episode here.
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References
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