Rick and Morty – Bethic Twinstinct Review

Rick and Morty are having their second Thanksgiving episode. This episode sees Space Beth joining the Smith family for the holiday, resulting in emotional upheaval for the family.

Space Beth comes to Earth to spend time with the Smiths. Space Beth and Earth Beth get close to each other and find they are a perfect match. The pair enter into an affair and try to keep it secret from the rest of the family. Whilst this happens, Rick, Morty, and Summer become obsessed with ultra-realistic video games.

In the first two seasons of Rick and Morty Beth and Jerry’s marriage was shown to be turbulent. Beth was repressed and on the verge of leaving Jerry and the pair often fought. Beth was repressed, an alcoholic, and resentful because she got knocked up when she was 17 so could never become a doctor. The episode “Big Trouble in Little Sanchez” showed the physical manifestation of their co-dependence. Yet the pair also loved each other, as shown in this beautiful scene in “Rixty Minutes.”

“Bethic Twinstinct” aims to recapture some of that magic from the first two seasons. The episode aimed to be an exploration of Beth’s character and show the Smiths to be a dysfunctional family. Earth Beth had been a repressed character and Space Beth was able to convince her doppelganger to give in to her inhibitions. Space Beth acted as the Superego to Beth’s ID. They have an intense relationship that builds over the course of a few days. It goes from kissing to sex to living to old age in a virtual reality simulation.

The relationship between the Beths can be seen as the ultimate act of narcissism. They find the most comfort and happiness in each other. It’s fitting for Beth because she has been shown to have narcissistic traits. In “The ABCs of Beth,” Beth did not accept blame for trapping Tommy in Froopyland and admitted she was like her father, whilst Space Beth acted like Rick in his younger days by being a rebel fighting against the Galactic Federation.

The idea of Beth having a relationship with herself felt similar to the first season of Loki. In the Loki episode “The Nexus Event” Loki and a version of Loki have sex with each other. Fitting for a character who was also a narcissist.

The risk of “Bethic Twinstinct” was that it could have been a long incest joke. This could cause post-traumatic flashbacks to “Rickdependence Spray” and “Gotron Jerrysis Rickvangelion.” Luckily “Bethic Twinstinct” handled the subject matter a lot better. It acted as a psychological exploration of Beth and there was weight in her actions. The Beths were hesitant to kiss, Morty and Summer were shocked by what they saw, and Jerry was distraught by his wife’s action. Space Beth had to work hard to convince Earth Beth to enter into a relationship and the pair do have a heart-to-heart in space. Earth Beth found a kindred spirit with Space Beth because well, they are the same person.

The subplot involving the video games made “Bethic Twinstinct” a bit like the “Interdimensional Cable” episodes. Morty and Summer play the games to distract themselves after finding out what happened with their mother. The games in the episode were parodies of Asteroids, Street Fighter, and classic text adventures. There was an absurdity with these games because they were meant to be ‘realistic.’ The Street Fighter parody was fun for me because it tickled my nostalgia bones. The video game segment did not outstay their welcome like the “Interdimensional Cable” TV shows and because the subplot was about video games, the parodies were more specific.

The first three episodes of Season Six have been more character focused episodes that looked at the relationships between the characters. “Bethic Twinstinct” was able to turn a story with shock value into a meaningful episode.