[7.3/10] This is an episode that has a lot of funny bits, but feels kind of incomplete and scattershot. The complications of a “dragon bond” and a realm where Rick can’t use science make for interesting story challenges, and the gags are solid, but the episode just sort of rumbles along, poking fun at various random things along the way, rather than really building to anything.
That said, the random bits are good! Rick admonishing Morty that dragons are for “nerds who can’t admit that they’re Christian” or the show managing to take down all of Bones in the span of about thirty seconds, or the dragon hording eighties memorabilia are all fun bits. Hell, I even like the soul-bonding/cheating metaphor at first. But eventually, the show goes too far with it and it just becomes a carousel of lame sexy jokes.
All the while, the A-story seems a rewrite away from having real momentum. Again there’s something almost naturally funny about the show tackling one of those “kid saves mystical realm” plots that Morty was hoping for when he wanted to do some “D&D stuff,” only to find that it’s all about dragon sexual repression. But the episode seems to be marching through a bunch of fantasy tropes in desultory fashion and throwing in a joke about sex when it can’t come up with anything else. There’s the whiff of toying around with Clarke’s laws here, and some fun sci-fi vs. fantasy nerd battles, but it’s all underdeveloped.
That said, I loved the B-story. The idea of Jerry hanging out with a talking cat who sidesteps questions about why he can talk, and who’s voiced with a Ferris Bueler-esque joie de vivre by Matthew Broderick himself is delightfully weird. All of his and Jerry’s scenes are amusingly odd, and the kicker, with Rick and Jerry being aghast at and disturbed by the cat’s origin story, is a funny place to take things. The fact that we never get to see it just adds to the humor. I even like the tag, where the dragon and the cat end up being right for their own kind of “bond.”
Overall, this one isn’t bad, but it feels way more freeform and rudderless than anything but the show’s improv episodes. Still waiting for the episode this season that will blow me away.