"Star Mort Rickturn of the Jerri" is the tenth and final episode of the fourth season of Rick and Morty, and the 41st episode of the series overall. It premiered on May 31, 2020. It was written by Anne Lane and directed by Erica Hayes. The episode is rated TV-14-DLV.
Synopsis[]
Two Beths, a corporate-sponsored planet incinerator and some faces from the past force Rick and family to "do a Star Wars" to save Earth.
Plot[]
The episode starts with a version of Beth leading a group from the Galactic federation's troops. Beth quickly ended most of them leaving one guard alive. She told the guard her name and tells him to say that the Defiance lives on to the top bugs. The bug guard agrees ensuring that he would make her a legend although it was making it difficult for him to construct such an idea since Beth's name is so plain. The bug guards then forgets Beth's name but then Beth kills him.
The next scene appears to be a secret base where Beth is stationed. Beth is being repaired on her shoulder while watching an ad about a planet-destroying machine. The doctor who is repairing Beth's arm tells Beth if she ever missed Earth. Beth tells him that she's aware that there was a clone of her on Earth making her "technically" there. The doctor points out that Beth had a proximity device in her neck. He thinks that the bomb indicated that Rick didn't actually want Beth back and that he liked the clone better. He then offers Beth a drug to help her with her "soul-crushing" but it was addictive. But he swaps out for the correct one and then he eats one.
Now back on Earth, Beth is talking about Dr. Wong being open for family therapy. Rick then tries to act as if he was disintegrated but Morty points out that Rick simply used an invisibility belt. Jerry proves this by grabbing Rick's crouch causing Rick to uncloak. Morty says that he wanted to use the belt even though Rick never let him. Summer pitched in saying that if she can use the belt to piss of Morty. Rick gives Summer the belt with a smug look towards Morty. Summer turns invisible as Morty tries to take it from Summer. Beth stops Morty and says that both Summer and Morty should share it. Jerry enters with a puppet "Mr. Nibbles". Morty then runs to catch Summer as she leaves the front door. Rick says to both Jerry and Beth that they can't control their kids and that it was a good thing Dr. Wong was available. Rick leaves the scene and enters into his garage where he commanded the garage into "Family Therapy Mode".
The garage seals all openings with lasers and doors. However, the other version of Beth stands before Rick. Space Beth attacks Rick explains that the Beth on Earth has a similar device in her neck meant to transfer her Memories to space Beth and that Earth Beth is the clone. Space Beth is confused about why her clone got back together with Jerry, but Rick explains that, as they are the same person, she would have done the same thing. The two then decide to get a drink.
Meanwhile, Summer uses the invisibility belt to break into a boy's room and go through his stuff, however, Morty stops and confronts her wearing a pair of infrared goggles. The two wrestle for a short time before managing to switch tech. Morty is going to leave with the belt, but Summer reveals that she knows that Morty is planning to go to cheerleading practice and can catch him in the act. Morty asks summer for a deal, with her saying that he can have the belt in an hour. He agrees and hands her the belt, but instead of giving him the goggles, Summer she smashes them before mocking Morty, only for him to reveal that he gave her his "Tiny Big Man Junior" belt instead of the invisibility one. Morty then proceeds to turn invisible before leaving, leaving Summer to confront the boy whose room she broke into. Summer lies to the boy about having wandered away from her game console.
Rick and Space Beth converse at Shoney's, with Beth talking about her adventures and Rick pointing out how they seem similar to Star Wars. In turn, Beth brags about how she has become the most wanted person in the universe, much to Rick's surprise. The two are interrupted when they see a television report about the New Galactic Federation looking for Beth. Realizing that they would find Earth Beth, Rick lets it slip that Earth Beth might not be the clone. Space Beth attempts to shoot Rick, but he freezes her.
At the school, Morty uses the invisibility belt to try and peek on the cheerleaders in the shower, but Summer, knowing he would be there, pulls the fire alarm and sprays a fire extinguisher, coating Morty in the foam. Morty runs into the football field, and tries to clean himself off, Summer uses the opportunity to steal the belt and turn invisible. Morty tries to use the fire extinguisher on her, but it turns out to be empty. A New Galactic Federation ship then approaches, causing Morty to drop the fire extinguisher. Morty is about to be arrested, but a still invisible Summer picks up the fire extinguisher. Surprised the federation agents ask if Morty psychic, to which he lies and says yes. They explain they are looking for his mother and then ask of Morty can stop their hearts. Morty lies again, saying he can, and the agents then surrender without a fight.
Meanwhile, Dr. Wong chastises Jerry's obsession with puppets as it makes him look dumb and crazy. Suddenly, the room explodes as Tammy and a team of Galactic Federation troopers storm the building with the intent of gong after Beth. While Tammy wants to kill Beth, she's under orders by her superiors to bring her in and arrest her for her defiance. Beth doesn't understand what Tammy means, but after seeing Space Beth's battle, she realizes that she's the clone all along. Suddenly, Rick arrives and has his smart guns kill everybody but the humans inside the building, including, to his reluctance, Dr. Wong. While Tammy holds Beth prisoner, Rick reveals that he added a lot of contingency plans inside the office, using one to burn Tammy alive before shooting her. Rick takes Jerry and Beth in his ship and flies away.
As the trio fly, they are followed by Space Beth and Galactic Federation ships. While Jerry suggests that Rick make a portal for safety, the latter refuses to as Morty and Summer are still out there invisible, before calling him a bad father. However, Beth calls Rick out on his hypocritical statement as he lied to her about being a clone, only for the latter to hesitatingly claim that Space Beth is the clone as Beth refused to leave, and he liked the idea of having a space daughter. Tired of being lied to, Beth crashes Rick's ship so she can speak with Space Beth, with both versions accusing the other of being the clone. Before Space Beth can kill Beth, a burned Tammy and a squad of Galactic Federation troopers surround them. Rather than decide which is which, Tammy simply has both Beths taken away on a NX-5 Planet Remover. Rick tries to sacrifice himself as he believes the Galactic Federation still thinks he's a high-value target, but Tammy reveals that the new leaders do not deem him that anymore as they know he could simply move to a new dimension when left alone. Suddenly, Tammy's gun is pulled away from her, and Morty, in a Galactic Federation ship, fires at the troopers. He reveals to Rick that he and Summer, who is invisible right now, have put aside their differences and are working together as part of their "arc". After an invisible Summer takes Tammy down, Rick shoots her in the head as payback for making him go to a wedding, along with killing Birdperson which he realized should have been the first thing he said. However, the NX-5 begins to destroy the Earth, with a pissed and reluctant Rick realizing they have to do a "Star Wars" in order to rescue Beth.
Rick and the family land in the NX-5's hanger bay and use Tammy's corpse to unlock the door to the main hallway. While Rick goes off to find Beth, he tells Morty and Summer to stop the NX-5 from destroying the city. However, the siblings are forced to leave without the invisibility belt as Jerry is using it to pee, but Morty is certain that they don't need it.
In their prison cell, the Beths wonder what their fate will be as Earth Beth feels she's the clone to Space Beth. After the two trade insults over their decisions on who they became, Rick announces to on the PA that he's coming to save one of the Beths if they are alive, but if they're both alive, then he suggests that they do not hurt each other as anyone of them could be the clone. Now realizing what a piece of shit father Rick is, the Beths escape their prison cell.
Rick enters a fight chamber and sees his old friend Birdperson, now Phoenixperson, come out to face him. Although dishearten to see his old friend now on the Galactic Federation's side, he tries to calm Phoenixperson by saying that he killed Tammy. However, Phoenixperson is not happy with this news as he loved Tammy, and the two begin fighting each other.
Meanwhile, Morty and Summer find the laser controls, only to see two Galactic Federation troopers guarding it. They see that the NX-5 cannons are unable to destroy Wrangler jeans due to their sponsorship, which gives Morty and Summer an idea. Meanwhile, Rick and Phoenixperson continue their fight, but Rick starts to get overwhelmed by the latter.
Elsewhere, the two Beths work together and fight their way through Galactic Federation troopers to reach Rick. Back at the cannon station, Morty distracts the two guards by running past the doorway, leading them out of the room. That gives Summer the chance to go in and toss Morty's Wrangler jeans into the laser well, and the computer shuts down because of it. Morty comes back after killing the two guards off-screen, but Summer is disgusted to have seen her brother's balls.
Meanwhile, Rick and Phoenixperson's fight goes outside, with the former getting blasted at and having his cybernetic guts ooze out of his body. Before Phoenixperson can kill Rick, the Beths arrive to help him, or at least kick his ass before he dies. However, it's not enough as Phoenixperson knocks the Beths out of the way before stomping on Rick's organs. Suddenly, Jerry comes out invisible and uses Tammy's corpse as a puppet, claiming that Rick lied about killing her, distracting Phoennixperson. While Jerry trips up and goes visible, his actions were long enough for Space Beth to shut off Phoenixperson. Afterwards, Morty and Summer come and see their two mothers.
Back at home, the Smith family is okay with the idea of having two Beths as the kids like the idea of having two moms, and Jerry likes the idea of having two wives. However, Rick has a projector ready to reveal who the real Beth is, and shows that he mind-blew his memory of the reveal. That upsets the Beths even more as they now realize how much of a piece of shit Rick is, and refuse to look at the memory, claiming they don't need anything from Rick before leaving. Rick tries to entice Morty and Summer into seeing it, but they are not interested either as both Beths are badass and it's a win-win. Regardless, Rick puts the memory into the projector and watches the memory.
It turns out that after giving Beth the choice of staying on Earth or going off on her own, she asks Rick to make the choice for her as she wants to know what he really wants. Rick ends up making a clone of Beth and copies her memories into the clone, but then, he turns his back to the containers and has a machine randomize the Beth's so he could not tell who was who.
After seeing this, Rick despondently realizes that he's a terrible father, before looking at the pieces of Phoenixperson, having recovered his old friend from the NX-5. However, Phoenixperson is still hostile towards Rick, forcing the latter to turn off his friend. Afterwards, Rick sits down, despondent that his actions have driven himself further from his family more than ever.
In the post-credits scene, Jerry throws Rick's invisibility belt in the trash, only for it to turn the garbage truck invisible when it picks up the trash. A rich man then arrives driving his fast car and, despite Jerry's warnings, crashes into the invisible truck. Though he is glad that he survived, the car then explodes, killing him and causing the truck's drivers to flee terrified. Jerry proceeds to claim the invisible truck for himself, and becomes a vigilante, performing several "heroic" feats, such as saving a prostitute from a pimp. However, when the truck runs out of gas, Jerry is forced to abandon it at a gas station, having been unable to find its fuel tank.
Cast and characters[]
Major characters[]
- Rick Sanchez
- Morty Smith
- Summer Smith
- Beth Smith
- Jerry Smith
- Space Beth
- Phoenixperson
- Tammy Guterman
Minor characters[]
- Gromflomites in the New Galactic Federation
- Members of the Defiance
- The Rebel Doctor
- A female Squanchy
- A muscular female Gromflomite with abs
- A rebel robot
- A female tendril-headed alien
- Tom Randolph
- Timothy
- Cheerleaders
- Dr. Wong
- Sanitation workers
- An unnamed rich man
- A pimp
- A prostitute
- Diane Sanchez (flashback cameo)
- Jerry Smith (C-131) (flashback cameo)
- Morty Smith (C-131) (flashback cameo)
Deaths[]
- Tammy Guterman
- Several Gromflomites in the New Galactic Federation
- Many people in the city
- An unnamed rich man
- A pimp (presumably)
Locations[]
- Dimension C-131
- New Galactic Federation base planet
- New Galactic Federation base
- Defiance base planet
- Defiance base
- Earth
- Smith Residence
- Student athlete's house
- Harry Herpson High School
- Shoney's
- Dr. Wong's office
- NX-5 Planet Remover
- New Galactic Federation base planet
Objects[]
- Defiance ship
- NX-5 Planet Remover
- Invisibility Belt
- Various Gromflomite ships
- Space Cruiser
- Space Beth's ship
- Portal Gun
- Invisible Garbage Truck
Songs[]
Episode notes[]
- Rick is now in possession of Birdperson.
- At some point before the episode, Rick rigged Dr. Wong's office with voice-activated defenses, allowing him to save his family from potential attackers.
- The two versions of Beth do not want to know which is the original, having come to admire the other, while the other members of the Smith family are content with this.
- It was revealed, when Rick viewed the wiped memory, that it wouldn't have mattered if the Beth's viewed the memory. After being given the choice by Beth on whether to make the clone or not, Rick chose to make the clone, but then turned his back on the pods containing the two Beth's and had them randomised, so even he wouldn't know who was the original.
- Each of the Smiths used something from their story arc to defeat the Galactic Federation.
- Morty and Summer used their sibling bond to face the aliens.
- Jerry used his penchant for puppetry to save the two Beths and Rick.
- Beth used her issues with herself to free her counterpart to defeat the aliens.
- This is the first episode name of the series to include Jerry's name. Most others use the name Rick (such as "Rick Potion #9" and "Total Rickall") while others use Morty (such as "Mortynight Run" and "Morty's Mind Blowers"), do not feature a main character name (such as "Meeseeks and Destroy" and "Get Schwifty") or feature both main character names (in the case of "The Rickchurian Mortydate").
Trivia[]
- 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 Space Beth as an avatar (called Clone Beth?), plus Beth's Pet Morty and Rick's Pet Morty to catch.
- This advertisement identified the new Beth from this episode as Clone Beth despite the episode itself not answering which was the clone. However, it was probably done to differentiate Space Beth and Beth.
- Morty's reference to having killed the Gromflomite guards off screen is a nod to the Offscreen Moment of Awesome trope.
- The song that plays in the ending of the episode “Don‘t Look Back” by musical duo Kotomi & Ryan Elder.
- Summer's comment about wandering from her console is a nod to VR video games.
- During the post-credits scene, an animated version of the late Mike Mendel makes a cameo walking his dog. Mendel, who served as line producer on Rick and Morty since the first season, passed away in 2019, shortly before the start of Season 4.
- On top of being the final episode of the 4th season, this is also the final episode to air in 2020.
Series continuity[]
- It is revealed Rick went through with creating a clone of Beth from "The ABC's of Beth".
- However, it is revealed he has no clue of which Beth is the original, as, not only did he erase his own memory, but he also intentionally removed the labels from their pods before switching them back and forth in order to avoid knowing.
- He preserved the memory in a memory vial, first seen in "Morty's Mind Blowers".
- In "Morty's Mind Blowers" Morty finds out the red-colored memory vials are memories Rick wanted removed. In this episode, the memory containing the truth about the Beths is red once again.
- Rick mentions Tammy killing Birdperson and that she made him go to a wedding, both of which occurred in "The Wedding Squanchers".
- Rick and Tammy acknowledge there are infinite Earths to which Rick can travel. Tammy also references how Rick tends to abandon entire realities to avoid trouble and mocks him for it, referencing "Rick Potion #9".
- Mrs. Sanchez appeared for the first time in one of Beth's memories, looking similar to Diane Sanchez from "The Rickshank Rickdemption".
- This is the second time Earth was visited by Gromflomites. They last came to Earth in "The Wedding Squanchers" before leaving in "The Rickshank Rickdemption".
- Tammy mentions how Rick killed her bosses, referring to the events of "The Rickshank Rickdemption".
- Several images of Beth's life is shown in Rick's memory:
- A picture of a child Beth sitting in front of a birthday cake. This picture is very similar to the video seen of "Simple Rick" in "The Ricklantis Mixup".
- A child Beth being held by her mom moments before or after the picture with the cake.
- A memory from Beth and Jerry's wedding.
- Beth holding a newly born Morty in the hospital.
- Rick mind blew himself, a reference to how he erased Morty's memories in "Morty's Mind Blowers".
- Rick's augmentations are seen again during his fight with Phoenixperson, which he acquired in "The Rickshank Rickdemption".
- Many characters break the fourth wall several times during the episode.
- Jerry sarcastically calls Rick "Father of the Year" the same way Beth did in "The ABC's of Beth".
Cultural references[]
- The episode's title is a reference to the film Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi. Rick also mentions Beth's exploits as a "Star Wars"-style adventure when talking to her.
- The book Hansel and Gretel or the movie "Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters" is referenced by Summer and Morty.
- Dr. Wong references the British TV show, "The Great British Bake Off".
- Rick mentions both McDonald's and Wendy's, the latter of which he also mentions to have paid them in the past, which is a reference to the Wendy's commercial they made.
- Jerry using Tammy's dead body as a puppet to pretend she's alive is possibly referencing the film "Weekend at Bernie's".
- Shoney's has a TV from "Soony", a parody of Sony.
- Beth mentions the film The Parent Trap, specifically the Lindsay Lohan version.
- The balls Rick and Clone Beth used during their fight in the garage look exactly like Pokeballs. This combined with the fact that the balls summoned monsters to fight each other are references to the Pokemon franchise.
- New (improved) Gromflomite masks are similar, possibly intentionally, to the masks and visors of Sligs in Oddworld games.
- When Rick and Phoenixperson fought, they performed moves similar to the X-rays from Mortal Kombat series on each other.
- The overheard conversation between the Galactic Federation guards, about how one of the guards wants to meet the other's parents. mirrors a similar conversation between Gabriel Jarret and Michelle Meyrink in the movie Real Genius .
- When Rick fights Phoenixperson, he opens a portal below himself and gives Phoenixperson the middle finger before dropping through. This is seemingly a reference to Star-Lord doing the same thing during his fight against Thanos in Avengers: Infinity War.
- When Rick was beaten by Phoenixperson, he noted that he never thought he'd die like this because "[We're] nowhere near Venice, and you're not a dwarf in a raincoat." referencing the film Don't Look Now.
- During the fight, Phoenixperson drags Rick across the wall as he flies. In Super Smash Bros Brawl's Subspace Emissary, Ridley does the same thing to Samus.[1]
- The rooms in which Rick and Pheonixperson fight resemble those in which Samus and Ridley fight.
- When the Galactic Federation comes to arrest Space Beth, the Gromflomites are all shouting different commands and talking over one another before Tammy silences them with "Everybody, shut up! You're all saying different shit!" This pokes fun at the cliché of police officers or soldiers within fiction shouting random commands repeatedly with no clear direction.
- Beth's disappointment with the promotinal materials of a planet destroyer NX-4S that her group has just brought from the operation is likely a parody for the Princess Leia's deed of stealing the plans of the Death Star in Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope, crucial for the rebels.
- Space Beth has a blue streak in her hair, which may be a reference to Darkest Timeline Britta, from Dan Harmon's other series, Community.
- The death laser leaving behind Wrangler jeans is a reference to the laser from the film, War of the Worlds.
- The armor Space Beth wears at the very beginning looks very similar to the helmets the Breen species wear in the Star Trek franchise. Moreover, the helmets is rumored to be based on the bounty hunter disguise Leia uses at the beginning of the film. Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi. As in the latter, here it also hides the identity of a central character briefly.
Transcript[]
View a full transcript of this episode here.
Gallery
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References
https://twitter.com/kianworld/status/1249779530040033280