Rick and Morty – Rattlestar Ricklactica

Considering that Rick and Morty is a sci-fi show, it may come as a surprise that ‘Rattlestar Ricklactica’ marks its first serious time-travel story. Here, it pulls it off by critiquing the genre’s many issues, but also provides us a story that is full of laughs and visual spectacle. It may be the final half of the run, but it’s a sign of good things to come.

Out on an adventure in space, Rick gets a flat tyre. He demands that Morty stay in the ship while he fixes it, but Morty ignores him, being bitten by a space snake, which he kills. They find a snake civilisation on the brink of collapse – Rick wants to leave it, but a guilt-ridden Morty decides to replace the dead astronaut with an identical copy, actions that have a devastating impact on snake society. Meanwhile, Rick makes Jerry lighter than air, but with shoes that are heavier, in an attempt to help him put up the Christmas lights. But, Jerry being Jerry, things don’t go according to plan, and he attempts to save himself without Rick’s help.

We learned a lot about snake culture in this episode, and a lot of it was rendered funnier simply because it was snakes. Rick finds it hilarious that a snake society could be full of racists (“imagine being a snake racist”), and we get an extended vignette of the faux astronaut’s return to the snake planet, coupled with a functioning government and science system. Importantly, the episode doesn’t let the snake’s speak English, meaning we need the visuals to sell what is happening, playing on one of Rick and Morty’s strengths – it looks fantastic. And it sounds impressive too, particularly its recourse to snake jazz.

It mixes bizarre sci-fi with established characters, and packs in a lot of great lines

But things swiftly pile up, meaning with mix snake planet and gags with the premise of a spiralling time-travel narrative. So, from a snake world full of despair, we get snake Terminators, Lincoln, Hitler, and a snazzy bunch of snakes from the 1980s. We race through this latter half of ‘Rattlestar Ricklactica’, and it’s to the writer’s credit that we pack in so much and yet it never feels packed. Many sci-fi stories would attempt to explain the time travel – here, we get a narrative ‘screw it’ that feels equally as true to the world of the show, and a time arbiter (voiced by Keegan-Michael Key) who literally beats time back into shape.

‘Rattlestar Ricklactica’ also brings in a significant Jerry storyline, giving him a lot of character development and great lines. We get laughs as Jerry attempts to talk street on a basketball court and proudly proclaims himself “the Jesus Christ of Christmas” after he figures something out, but there was genuine sadness as he thinks he’s going to die and makes one last phone call. Jerry’s general uselessness has always been one of the show’s best assets (see a transition from the family laughing at Rick’s assertion even Jerry couldn’t be too useless to wear shoes to actual concern), and this episode does it well.

There were some minor let-downs here – the first four episodes of the series were building on a theme of Rick’s struggles, so it feels like a miss to not reference it in this instalment (although the episode doesn’t suffer in its absence). This is also the longest that we’ve seen Beth (Sarah Chalke) in any of the five, and her role is minimal. Rick and Morty always succeeded in part because of its family dynamic, so it’s a shame to see one of the family barely feature.

‘Rattlestar Ricklactica’ is the final episode of this half of Rick and Morty series four, and it goes out on a high note. It mixes bizarre sci-fi with established characters, and packs in a lot of great lines, making it the strongest episode since the opener. If ‘Rattlestar Ricklactica’ is a taste of how good the rest of series four will be, it can’t come soon enough.