Rick and Morty – Childrick of Mort Review

The Smith family goes camping in the episode “Childrick of Mort.” But when Rick’s involved there is always a sci-fi twist.

Jerry takes his family away on a camping trip so they can get away from technology. Rick hijacks the trip when he receives a call from his ex, a planet called Gaia, and discovers she’s giving birth to Rick’s stone children. Beth pressures Rick to look after his children and Jerry tries to bond with his son and daughter. But Morty and Summer want to do their own thing.

“Childrick of Mort” had three storylines, similar to “The Old Man and the Seat.” However, “Childrick of Mort” does it a lot better than the aforementioned episode. The first reason was “Childrick of Mort” was all set on the same location, so all the events were about to converse at the end. The other reason was the theme of parenthood that binds all the storylines together. “Childrick of Mort” had focus.

Throughout the show’s run, Beth had daddy issues. She constantly seeks Rick’s approval, which was often at the detriment of her family. The fourth season hasn’t explored their relationship and Beth’s mindset as much, so “Childrick of Mort” made up for it. In the episode, she gets to work with her father in one of his sci-fi projects and they were in sync when they worked in their society factory. Beth even gives a cute little squeak when Rick praised her. Beth does her usual thing of defending Rick no matter what he does.

In previous episodes, Jerry has been shown to be a bit of a tool and deservedly get taken down a peg. As the show progressed Morty and Summer loose respect for their father and Jerry’s relationship with his kids reaches a low point in this episode. Jerry was well-meaning and trying his best to bond his kids and it leads to Summer tearing him. She was a bitch in this episode. Rick and Beth also aim some biting comments at Jerry. I ended up feeling sorry for the guy.

Jerry ends up with The Unproductives from Rick and Beth’s society who get dumped outside their city. He ends up being their leader and they became interested in his camping skills. When Jerry confronts Rick and Beth it leads to show’s other major theme: philosophy. Rick is famously a nihilist who believes that nothing matters, whilst in this episode Jerry state he has given The Unproductives a purpose. Jerry also gains an ally in the form of a literal god who wants the people to worship him.

Summer and Morty also have their own adventure in the film. They acted like surly teenagers who didn’t want to go camping. Summer wanted to party and do drugs and Morty wanted to play video games. They were also of the belief that they could handle themselves without Jerry – justifiable considering the number of adventures they have been on. But their belief that drugs and video games would be enough to help them to survive the wilds, leading to one of the funniest jokes in the episode.

The episode does have some hilarious lines and situations. The idea that Rick fucking a planet was a funny concept and reminded me of this scene from the first season of Big Mouth. The God in the episode sounded a lot like Santa Claus in American Dad and both all-powerful beings were equally dickish.

“Childrick of Mort” wasn’t as inventive as some of the episodes this season (i.e. “Never Ricking Morty” and “The Vat of Acid Episode”) but it was a funny episode that had a good setting and ideas. “Childrick of Mort” could have fitted in Season Two.