4x10 Star Mort Rickturn of the Jerri

[8.6/10] Would you want to know? Would you want the dirt on whether you’re a clone or the original, whether you’re the one who went out and had marvelous adventures or stayed at home and raised a family? Would you want to know if it was your mom? Your wife? Your daughter?

I don’t think I would. Beth clearly doesn’t. Morty and Summer don’t care. Jerry seems unperturbed. Even Rick, the supposed smartest man in the universe who has to have control over everything, didn’t want to know.

It’s the best possible answer to the somewhat unsatisfying mystery box Rick and Morty constructed at the end of season 3. Did Beth stay and look after the Smiths or did she let her dad create an undetectable substitute and go to mount the universe? The episode plays coy about it almost the whole way through in “Star Mort: The Rickturn of the Jerri”, until providing the only possible satisfying answer there could be: that it doesn’t really matter.

Maybe I’m just living in a post-The Prestige, “They’re all your hat” type of world, where it seems plain that both Terrestrial Beth and Intergalactic Beth are valid instantiations of the same person, ones who took different forks in the path, but whose lives and choices from there are equally legitimate and worthy. They are, in many ways, negative images of one another, carrying distinct but related baggage and ultimately finding common ground with one another.

It’s a clever way of saying that whatever choice Beth made would have its problems and its benefits. Intergalactic Beth seems more self-actualized, having saved the galaxy, fought for freedom, and become almost as adept an inventor and fighter as her dad. But she also shares his maladies, having likewise left her family behind, likewise felt the need to gain his approval, and likewise tried to get it by living up to his legacy as the most wanted man in the galaxy. (Something that Rick writes off, but which he’s clearly miffed at having been usurped over.)

Meanwhile, Terrestrial Beth is proud at not having fallen into that trap, and still has the gumption to stand up to her dad and to her galaxy-traveling equivalent. She defines herself by her own projects and not by following in her father’s footsteps. But as Intergalactic Beth pushes back on, it also means having to own the choice of having settled to some degree, of willfully chosen a life that she finds less-fulfilling. Both have gained something and both have lost something.

Apart from that psychological exploration, the season 4 finale is just hilarious and exciting and colorful in equal measure. First and foremost is Jerry, and I don’t know what his funniest bit is. The running gag of his only defensive response to any show of force being a firm “Hey!” had me in stitches. Him letting go of his rifle when Rick yells “everyone drop your weapons” was a big laugh. And his therapy puppetry coming full circle when he uses it to distract Bird Person with Tammy’s corpse was the funniest setup and payoff in the episode.

Speaking of which, Holy Continuity Batman! The show bust out a number of elements it had been saving for a rainy day, and does well with each of them. The return of Tammy hunting for Intergalactic Beth was a real winner, and Rick getting his revenge with an angry one-liner of “You made me go to a wedding” was a fun capper. Obviously the Beth clone thing came back in full force, alongside a return of the therapist from “Pickle Rick”. And we also got the stunning return of Bird Person (pardon me, Phoenix Person).

His return sparks one of the coolest sci-fi showdowns in the show’s history. That’s one of the underrated things about Rick and Morty. As much as the series’s strengths lie in its stellar, off-the-wall writing and series of strong performances and concepts, it’s also a surprisingly thrilling and well-animated show when it wants to be. Beyond just the neat designs of all the various aliens, the show pulls off a really imaginative science fiction, techno-battle between Rick and the robotic reconstitution of his best friend, replete with force shields, drones, and other twists in the kinetic set piece that made it a worthy bit of colorful combat for the season finale.

We also got to enjoy some great Morty and Summer material, replete with some product placement that lines up with Community’s amusing take on corporate integration. The two Smith kids fighting over the invisibility belt, learning to work together, and eventually saving the world with a particular brand of blue jeans definitely works as the self-aware comic relief in the episode. As with everything in the Harmon-verse, there’s layers upon layers of irony and meta-ness to untangle there, but the bit manages to poke fun at the necessity for character arcs and corporate sponsorship while also utilizing both as needed.

In the end, the Smith family, including both Beths, wins the day. Tammy is dead. Bird Person is neutralized. And despite things getting “a little too Star Wars”, our heroes stop the Death Star analogue from destroying Earth. Everyone helped at least a little, and everyone has the right to be fulfilled by the adventure.

So fulfilled, that is, that they don’t necessarily need Rick anymore, or at least have no interest in being beholden to him. Both Beths are self-actualized, not letting their dad lord the answer to the identity question over him, and even giving him some synchronized flinch bait to demonstrate their pushing past a whole heap of daddy issues. Summer and Morty don’t want to be drawn into Rick’s bullshit either.

That just leaves the man himself, to seek out the answer to the question and discover that he didn’t want to know anymore than they did. He’s proud of Intergalactic Beth, seeing what she’s accomplished and genuinely glad to see her. He’s also happy to have Terrestrial Beth, someone he can still be proud of and happy to work with, like we saw in the prior episode. Meeting one another didn’t destroy the original or the clone; it just made them realize that who they are matters much more than whatever hand their father had in the process.

It’s a great truth for everyone else, but a tough one for Rick, realizing that neither version of his daughter needs him anymore. He’s being surpassed, no longer venerated, by the galaxy that once moved heaven and earth to hunt him down, or by the family that once needed him to solve all their problems. Instead, they know that left unbothered , he won’t interfere, which makes him extraneous, to intergalactic war and to his family at home. All that’s left to do is sigh, alone in the garage, again.

Season 4 of Rick and Morty was an up and down affair, with a few stand out episodes or clever ideas, but also a lot of solid but not overwhelming outings that were by no means bad, but failed to match the heights of the previous season. But Harmon and Roiland saved the best for last here, going out on a real high note for the show, for Beth, Rick, Summer, and even Jerry, but on a low note for Rick himself, who’s no longer the center of the universe.