RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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Warning: This review contains full spoilers for Rick and Morty Season 9, Episode 10!
I wouldn't quite go so far as to say that Rick and Morty Season 9 saved its best episode for last. "Ricks Days, Seven Nights" is pretty hard to top. But "Field of Dreams" is still definitely a close second, and for many of the same reasons. This episode caps off the season with a very winning blend of high-concept humor and crushing existential drama.
This week, we get introduced to the concept of a Rick estate sale, where Rick's (Ian Cardoni) death leads his multiversal counterparts to swoop in and claim his stuff like opportunistic vultures. It's always fun seeing alternate versions of Rick and Morty (Harry Belden), especially now in this post-Citadel era. But ultimately, the whole estate sale thing is just a means to an end for the real meat of this episode, which is Morty's decision to go funeral-hopping.
It's both an amusing and disturbing concept. You can understand why Morty would be curious about how these various alternate families are grappling with his death, and how quickly he becomes addicted to the voyeuristic thrill of it all. And once he's inevitably caught in the act, you can even see why he would grow attached to a family that actually shows him love and appreciation. Even if the whole thing is incredibly toxic and destructive for all involved.
And that's why this episode works so well. Morty's seemingly benign thirst for affection becomes a weight that drags everyone down into darkness. This alternate Jerry (Chris Parnell), already a borderline abusive parent beneath the pleasant facade, loses his grip on reality when faced with the prospect of reclaiming his son. Rick morphs from recovering addict with a fulfilling home life to a mirror image of the drunken, spiralling mess we've come to know so well. The Russian janitor becomes a dog with an impossibly long neck. Everyone loses here.
There's a real but very grim appeal in watching as Rick rapidly throws it all away, less out of a desire to help Morty than the allure of becoming the man he might have been all those years ago. Along the way, this episode makes sparing but effective use of Malin Ackerman's character, another reminder of what Rick is throwing away in his reckless pursuit of science. The finale hits on some of the same ideas as "Ricks Days, Seven Nights" in terms of Rick escaping the emptiness of his life, only to fall completely back into that role, but it's done differently enough that it still feels novel here.
IGN's Rick and Morty Season 9 Reviews
Episode 1 - "There's Something About Morty"
Episode 2 - "Ricks Days, Seven Nights"
Episode 3 - "Rick Fu Hustle"
Episode 4 - "A Ricker Runs Through It"
Episode 5 - "Jer Bud"
Episode 6-8
Episode 9 - "Salute Your Morts"
Special credit goes to Parnell here. One of the neat things about Jerry when it comes to these alternate universe episodes is that the various versions of him feel distinct in a way that isn't really the case for the rest of the Smith family. Part of that is down to the writing, of course, but don't discount Parnell's performance when he plays characters like this Jerry or the late Jerry Prime. It's such a far cry from the usual sad sack version of the character, which we really see in those couple of scenes with regular Jerry singing about his stupid fedora.
Episode 10 reaches a fittingly bleak end, resulting in the deaths of Rick, Jerry, and everyone else in Morty's false family. None of it mattered. Rick's entire quest to build a portal gun was a massive failure. But, hey, it's ok. Another Rick estate sale means Morty has an easy ticket home. So it is that the season wraps with a proper dose of existential angst, but this time coming from Morty rather than his grandfather.
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