Rick and Morty – Mortyplicity Review

‘Mortyplicity’ is set to be one of the most trippy episodes of Rick and Morty. Considering some of the episodes Rick and Morty have produced that is a huge achievement.

It has all gone to hell for The Smith Family because they are being hunted by alien squid people. Luckily for the Smiths, Rick has created decoy families and placed them around America. Unfortunately, none of the families know which is the real one and they set out to hunt each other.

‘Mortyplicity’ was essentially a Battle Royale, or as Rick says, it’s like Highlander, there can only be one. The episode was simply an excuse to watch the Smith Family violently kill each other. There was certainly lots of violent catharsis in the episode.

‘Mortyplicity’ bears a lot of similarities to the Season Two episode ‘Total Rickall.’ In ‘Total Rickall’ the Smith house gets infected with mind-altering parasites leading to the Smiths questioning reality and distrusting each other. In ‘Mortyplicity’ none of the families know which is the original or a robotic clone which leads to existential crises. Multiple versions of Summer asked multiple versions of Rick how does he know he isn’t the decoy?

The comparison between ‘Mortyplicity’ can go even deeper. One of the families encounters Mr. Always Wants To Be Hunted, a small yellow fella who asks to be hunted and like Mr. Poopybutthole set to a fan favourite. The other similarity was when Jerry was acting like a coward, again.

This episode goes down a deep rabbit hole. Not only were there multiple decoys, but many of the decoys also made their own robotic clones. As Rick says have you ever seen a copy of a copy? This led to some monstrosities like with one section of the episode going into body horror territory. The decoys reacted in different ways like grouping together, going on the hunt, or resigning themselves to their fate. This added to the Battle Royale comparisons because the kids in that film reacted in different ways to the fight to the death.

‘Mortyplicity’ could be the ‘Interdimensional Cable’ episode of the series. One of the Ricks turns on the house’s defences and prepares to watch Interdimensional Cable whilst the carnage goes on. This was similar to ‘Morty’s Mind Blowers’ when Rick said they did Morty’s Mind Blowers instead of watching Interdimensional Cable. Like the ‘Interdimensional Cable’ episodes, ‘Mortyplicity’ was inconsequential in the grand scheme of things and showed a lot of different scenarios being played out.

Rick’s narcissism and nihilism have always been driving forces of the series. These characteristics were on display in this episode. Rick couldn’t stand another version of him existing in the same universe that led to his crusades. And if a Rick discovered they were a decoy his nihilism kicks in because he takes a ‘burn the world’ approach. It stands in contrast to the rest who have different views like Beth arguing that should be killing sentient beings, although she doesn’t make an effort to stop her dad.

The Highlander theme does play a part in the post-credit scene with one character suffering from the curse of immortality. It was darkly hilarious in that Rick and Morty fashion. Plus it was an excuse to play a Queen song.

Whilst ‘Mortyplicity’ was a fun episode some jokes didn’t land. The worst of these was when The President appeared and the episode felt the need to make some specific jokes referencing a certain orange-skinned man. These jokes have already become dated since that man is no longer in office.

‘Mortyplicity’ was a mind fuck of an episode because of how bonkers it was. It was great to see how the premise escalated.