Rick and Morty – One Crew over the Crewcoo’s Nest Review

The third episode of the fourth season of Rick and Morty sees the duo enter into the world of heisting in a hilarious parody of heist films.

Whilst on an adventure Rick and Morty find out that the Heist Artist Miles Knightly beat them to an alien tomb. In an act of spite, Rick challenges Miles to a heist competition which leads to Rick to create Heist-o-Tron. Sadly for Rick and Morty Heist-o-Tron goes rogues and the pair have to form a crew to stop the robot.

“One Crew Over the Crewcoo Morty” was a riff on heist films: Rick even states because he mentions of the Oceans films. The episode goes through many tropes of heist films like recruiting a crew with unique skills, various double and triple crosses, and a complicated plan that reveals at the end of the heist. The episode shows that there were many layers and twists because these are films that think this makes them smart but they usually withhold some information from audiences so they can be surprised.

“One Crew Over the Crewcoo Morty” was also similar to the American Dad episode “Bar Mitzvah Hustle” and the Brooklyn Nine-Nine Halloween Heist episodes. “Bar Mitzvah Hustle” was also a parody of the Ocean’s films, using their editing techniques like multi-panel displays and using voiceover to explain what’s happened. The Brooklyn Nine-Nine Halloween Heists have ended up becoming more complicated with elaborate plans that require everything to go right for anyone to win. The ending of “One Crew Over the Crewcoo Morty” parodied the Brooklyn Nine-Nine reveals with Rick and Heist-o-Tron staying they predicted each other’s moves.

To a lesser extent Rick and Morty parodied Indiana Jones and adventure films in general. The pre-credit sequence was similar to the opening of Raiders of the Lost Ark because the duo goes into an ancient temple, but Rick and Morty easily avoid the traps. The item Rick and Miles had to steal was a crystal skull that had to be a reference to the fourth Indiana Jones film. Whilst the character of Angie Flint seemed like a cross of Lara Croft and the scientist Jane Goodall. The episode also takes aim at Conversion culture, particularly ComicCon. The Conversion was big and crowded and the fans were ravenous. This section had a dark ending with the fans becoming overall eager thanks to Rick.

When compared to the previous episode, “The Old Man and the Seat,”  “One Crew Over the Crewroo Morty” was a more focused film because of the heist plotline. There was no subplot involving the Smith family. This focused approach worked better for Rick and Morty heist narratives tend to be fast-paced and for a 22-minute episode “One Crew Over the Crewroo Morty” breezed by.

This part of the review requires a SPOILER WARNING. At the end of the episode, it’s revealed that Rick masterminded all these events so Morty would lose his interest in heists and heist movies. This is in character for Rick because he dependents on Morty and he has destroyed Morty’s dreams before. Yet Rick’s plan proves how evil he can be because Heist-o-Torn destroys a planet: so Rick kills billions of sentient beings just so Morty wouldn’t make a Netflix deal. That is really fucked up, but then Rick and Morty is known for its dark humour.

“One Crew Over Crewcoo Morty” was a fun, focused spoof of heist movies and it made for a speedy adventure for the characters.