And we’re back with another round of Rick and Morty Season 8 recaps!
This time, Season 8 takes us in two completely opposite directions: a commentary on superhero movies, toxic fanbases, and AI, and a silly Jerry (or Jerrys) episode, which sees him dimension-hopping all over the place. Yeah, it’s been an odd old time for the Sanchez/Smith household, so I’ll do my best at keeping you apprised of the situation.
Without further ado, let’s get on with those recaps!
Rick (Ian Cardoni) and Morty (Harry Belden) are watching the newest film in the Robo-Trees franchise, Maximum Velocitree 9, and they freaking hate it! Why does the comic relief, Tannenbaum, need to have such a big part? Why don’t they just kill the villain instead of letting him go? WAHHHH WAHHHHHHHHHHHH. Crybaby punks.
They feel that strongly about their gripes that they (and Jerry (Chris Parnell), who thought the movie was ok) portal into James Gunn’s office and tell him what for. They destroy Gunn’s handcrafted-by-Bradley-Cooper desk and steal the godawful script to the next installment while Gunn bemoans a fanbase that will never be happy no matter what. Obviously, Rick and Morty both hate the new script. Like, it’s not Citizen Kane.
That’s where Rick comes in. He has his new Movie-Lizer that can “fix” the script. Rick’s machine begins well, killing the supervillain and sending Tannenbaum to jail, but in the end, it glitches, and they get sucked into the machine like Tron or Last Action Hero. They are instantly attacked by the Robo-Trees, so they get away in a practical yet boring car materialised by Jerry on the outside.
Just like Cody Rhodes, they need to finish the story to get out of this nightmare, but without an antagonist and a plot in their new script, that’s easier said than done. After some fun and frolics and a failed resurrection, Morty turns into a cactus and takes over the supervillain army while Rick breaks Tannenbaum out of prison. In a confrontation at the North Pole where Morty is about to melt the polar icecaps, both sides of the war realise Rick and Morty are collab-ing, and they join forces to hunt them down.
Meanwhile, James Gunn consults with Zack Snyder about Rick, who tells him that he’s the smartest man in the world, but he can’t do what they do… probably. Snyder also tells Gunn about his super secret slow-mo technique which Gunn tears him a new one about. Ahhhh, Dan Harmon totally gets me. FOCUS, IAIN! Anxiously, Gunn goes to the Smith household to check on the Movie-Lizer.
Jerry takes some adderall to write Rick and Morty out of this mess, and his plot points make absolutely no sense, but somehow it gets the story back on track. Rick and Morty go BACK to the North Pole, confront the Robo-Trees and Tannenbaum inadvertently kills Rick and Morty. At their graves, mourning the loss of another unarmed man, Tannenbaum is made the new leader of the Robo-Trees. The End.
Oh. I guess James Gunn cries on the machine and Rick and Morty return to the real world, with Rick realising that writing is hard and he’d rather stick to trolling on social media instead. That’s it. Oh yeah, then Gunn steals the Movie-Lizer hard drive, gives it to Mr. Brothers (of WB), and he is shot to death to silence him. Corporate son of a b*tch!
In the post-credits scene, Jerry uses the Movie-Lizer to live his dream of starring in a Space Jam movie. Unfortunately, Summer had been writing some Raptor p*rn, and it “accidentally” was read into the Movie-Lizer. Sorry Jerry.
Jerry Smith is sporting a 5 o’clock shadow and eating cereal in his kitchen while the usual hijinks are happening. Summer and Morty are arguing, and Beth is heading out to work, all ignoring Jerry, as to be expected. But then OUR Jerry walks in and rumbles 5 o’clock shadow Jerry, who takes off running. Surprisingly, clean-shaven Jerry catches him, tackles him to the ground, and, after a brief clone accusation, they head to the mall to talk it out.
Our Jerry tells Stubbly Jerry that they’re safe to talk without Rick’s prying eyes because he HATES the mall… probably because Jerry likes it, even almost applying (how do you almost apply?) for a job at American Eagle. Stubbly Jerry subsequently names our Jerry “Eagleman.” This is fantastic because I’m getting confused writing this paragraph! Anyway, Stubbly Jerry explains that he didn’t use a portal gun to get there, and cryptically says, “The Road provides.”
They head back to the Smith residence, where Eagleman has a brief encounter with Rick, whom he shakes off his scent by annoying him with small talk about his new favorite show, Naked and Alone. Upstairs, Stubbly Jerry shows him “The Road,” gaps in the multiverse that have appeared over time due to Rick’s shenanigans. One of which is in Beth’s closet.
Along the way, they get stranded and have to visit Grand Central of The Road, run by a slick Jerry with a leather jacket and a full beard. He has collected orphaned Jerrys over time and uses them as his minions. Eagleman and Stubbly Jerry barely escape Grand Central after running afoul of slick Jerry, and then kill him by destroying a bottomless satchel dimensional portal while he was still inside.
During a brief excursion to Stubbly Jerry’s home dimension, Eagleman discovers that Stubbly Jerry had abandoned his own family when he found out that Beth had remarried. Eagleman realises that he had been taking his family for granted, and they retrace their steps back home. To his shock, his family had been looking for him, but only so Rick could disprove the notion that he had finally killed his son-in-law.
In the post-credits scene, Rick is shown in the lounge watching Naked and Alone, eating popcorn in his birthday suit. Beth is horrified, but even more so when she sees Jerry (Eagleman) sitting on the couch opposite, similarly dressed. IT’S THE CULTURE OF THE SHOW!!!
Okay. My head is spinning now from all of the Jerrys. I need a lie down.
Rick and Morty have never been shy about approaching difficult subjects, but they’ve never been topical. It’s so weird to have this release at the same time Superman was debuted, and to call attention to the inevitable Snyder vs. Gunn discourse that was going to happen. It very much surprised me that Warner Bros. let this episode air with all of its anti-AI and sort-of anti-WB rhetoric. I mean, Mr. Brothers HAD JAMES GUNN KILLED! Having said that, I really liked the episode for that reason. It had a purpose, and it fulfilled it.
The Jerry episode, however? *sigh* I don’t even know what to say about it. I’m less and less impressed by montages of different worlds in the multiverse. There’s only so much you can do with a universe where the only word is “blah” or one where they’re all goats. I did like the idea of, contrary to the Jerry Daycare, a bunch of self-sufficient Jerrys that can travel the central finite curve without the aid of Rick. It was a very up-and-down episode, and I think that’s because, even though I love Jerry, he can’t carry an episode on his own.
Only two more episodes left in the season. I want to see how it ends!
What did you think of these two episodes? Did you think Zack Snyder sucked in this as much as his DCU did? Let me know in the comments where we can discuss whether we would watch an actual Robo-Tree film.
