Tonight’s ‘Rick and Morty’ Proves That There’s Still Plenty of Juice in the Portal Gun
After an admittedly embarrassing clip from last week’s Rick and Morty went viral on Twitter for all the wrong reasons, tonight’s episode proved that the show still has a bright future, unlike the Snyderverse.
Almost 12 years into the run of Adult Swim’s flagship series Rick and Morty, the general public’s assessment of its place in the zeitgeist divides us into many camps: First, there’s the Rick and Morty haters who have wanted to see the show canceled ever since Pickle Rick and Szechuan Sauce took over every bong shop in America and gave fast-food workers the worst month of their careers. Then, there’s the old-head Rick and Morty fans who haven’t watched the series since Justin Roiland left, but who still claim that the show is doomed without its d-bag co-creator and former star.
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Then, finally, there are those of us continued Rick and Morty-watchers who have been here since the beginning and who buy into showrunner Scott Marder’s vision for a more family-relationship-focused Season Eight that further develops the characters whom we’ve known and loved for over a decade. Tonight’s new Rick and Morty episode, “Nomortland,” is for that last group, and, in the most Jerry-centric storyline of the entire series, the show reminds us why we fell in love with Rick, Morty and Jerry in the first place.
In “Nomortland,” our Jerry stumbles upon a stubbly version of himself gorging on cereal in his dining room after the rest of the family failed to notice the facial differences between them. After chasing down this doppelganger, Jerry learns that this new Jerry, a hobo-nicknamed “Mooch,” is a member of a traveler society of Jerrys who deserted their unappreciative families to wander in between dimensions using abandoned portals built by past Ricks. Mooch teaches our Jerry, now called “Eagleman,” about the ways of the road as they explore the multiverse on their own terms and slam a couple beers along the way.
After drunkenly trapping themselves in an undesirable dimension, Mooch and Eagleman try to pass through the seedy Jerry hub world of Grand Central, ruled by the greaser-styled Jerry known as The Boss, who has a pet Rick hooked on drugs to maintain control of the dimensional network. The Boss shakes down Mooch and Eagleman before throwing them back in Mooch’s dimension, where he’s forced to confront his biggest fear: his family.
Throughout the episode, Mooch laments how the rest of the Smith-Sanchez family doesn’t appreciate, notice or even care for Jerry. However, upon returning to his wife and kids, the Kerouacian deadbeat realizes that he was the one taking his family for granted, rather than the other way around. Following a thrilling showdown with The Boss, Eagleman returns home with a newfound appreciation for his situation, and Mooch returns Grand Central with the resolve to take more personal responsibility.
Eight seasons into Rick and Morty, “Nomortland” proved that the most piled-upon butt of every joke is still capable of growth and self-reflection. However, more than being maybe the best Jerry episode in history, this week’s installment showed that Rick and Morty can still maintain that tenuous balance of high-concept sci-fi rigamarole scored by Rusted Root’s “Send Me On My Way” with character development and introspective revelations that buck the late-season trap of Flanderization into which so many adult animated comedies have fallen before.
“Nomortland” is, simultaneously, a wondrous, canon-expanding thrill ride reminiscent of Rick and Morty’s earliest hits, and a demonstration of the writing staff’s modern approach to fleshing out the characters who could easily place themselves in the cookie-cutter mold of their established archetype.
When we finally reach 100 years of Rick and Morty, “Nomortland” could very well go down as a milestone episode that reminds us what a winding, wonderful road the show has taken — after all, the road provides.
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