Rick And Morty (S08E05)

“Cryo Mort a Rickver”

As Rick and Morty stumble across some aliens in cryosleep, they realize that taking their space fuel would be like taking candy from a baby.

Well... Rick realizes this anyway; Morty quickly objects due to his own sense of morality. But, in typical Rick and Morty fashion, it's that very sense of morality that causes Morty to make the situation much, much worse. Which is a shame, especially considering how much Morty has learned from his adventures with Rick. Because this episode makes it seem like Morty hasn't learned much of anything at all. So having Morty's morality be the cause of the drama in this episode definitely felt like a regressive step backwards for his character.

Regardless, once the aliens wake up from their cryosleep, Rick is immediately welcomed as a member of their rich ruling class, while Morty is forced to do slave labor with their working class. Meaning that this episode contains a very heavy-handed message about capitalism.

Now, Rick and Morty has told plenty of stories revolving around the inequalities of capitalism over the years, but this one probably felt the most obvious and in-your-face. And that probably has to do with the simplistic depiction of the two social classes that we see here. So, while I don't mind that the episode had something to say about capitalism, I do wish that the subject matter was handled with some more nuance.

The lack of subtlety made the episode feel a bit preachy to me. And a bit confusing as well. Because I'm not really sure what the episode was trying to say by having Morty become the figurehead of an oppressed working class looking to overthrow their subjugators, and having Rick be a welcomed member of a wealthy yet loving family. Especially since Rick grew to become fond of said family. He even chastises Morty for being understandably rude to them!

He doesn't even act that way with his own family. Which makes me wonder about Rick's relationship to his own parents. Did he love them? Did they love him back? Whatever happened to them? The show never explored this aspect of Rick's life before, so it's nothing I've ever thought about before. But maybe some of Rick's personality came from the relationship he had with his parents. Or maybe it didn't. I don’t know. I'm just saying that it would be interesting to learn a bit more about Rick's past.

Either way, Rick and Morty do manage to close the gap between the two social classes, and they go about their way to embark on another adventure. Hopefully one that'll be a bit more interesting than this one, because I thought this episode was just... fine. I mean, I did like this episode better than last week's Easter bunny episode, but that wasn't exactly a high bar to clear considering that it was one of my least favorite episodes of the entire series.

”Cryo Mort a Rickver” isn't that bad. I just wish it was a bit more nuanced and a bit more funny - I don't think the episode made me laugh one single time.

So, while the episode was definitely much better than last week's, it still felt like a disappointment compared to the first three episodes of the season.

But since this episode marked the halfway point of Season 8, I'm very curious to see how the second half of the season will be. Hopefully it'll be good, but I guess we'll see how the next episode of Rick and Morty will actually turn out to be once it gets released on Sunday.