Rick and Morty – Rattlestar Ricklactica Review

The fifth episode of Rick and Morty‘s Fourth Season, “Rattlestar Ricklactica” sees a true return to form for the adult animated series, being the best episode of the season, so far.

When Rick and Morty spacecar break down, Morty defies Rick’s orders and leaves the car. This starts a chain of events where Morty gets bite by a space snake and robot snakes travelling back in time to try and kill the teenager. Whilst the B-plot focuses on Jerry who gets into trouble after Rick makes him lighter than air.

On an overt level “Rattlestar Ricklactica” was a parody of The Terminator franchise because of all the time travel and cyborg carriage. This was all a-okay with me because I really like The Terminator and the episode gives fans all the violent action they want. It’s an episode that has The Smith family fighting off robot snakes, Rick and Morty gunning their way through a futuristic war, and even has a snake wielding a shotgun. The episode pokes holes in The Terminator lore like why didn’t Skynet and the Resistance keep sending back time travellers.

The use of the time travel plot also serves a wider purpose: to ensure a time travel plot cannot be used again. A popular theory within the Rick and Morty fandom is Rick is really an older Morty who goes back in time to tutor his younger self. The creators of the show have dismissed this theory and even stated that Rick’s box of ‘Time Travel Stuff’ was a way for them to put Time Travel on the shelf. “Rattlestar Ricklactica” goes to show how convoluted time travel narratives can be. Plus the episode shows if Rick messes around too much with time travel then the Testicle Monsters get involved.

“Rattlestar Ricklactica” felt like a Season Two episode. Morty attempts a well-meaning action – in this case, send an Earth snake to the snake planet to prevent a war. But the action backfires. In “Rattlestar Ricklactica” takes the idea of species uniting to stop an alien threat (like The Day the Earth Stood Still and Watchmen) and twists it so things become worst. This was similar to the episode “Mortynight Run” where Morty tries to save Fart’s life which results in the deaths of hundreds of gear people and ends with Morty having to kill Fart. Rick and Morty is brilliant at twisting values we hold dear. Summer learned that the price of free will is people can be dicks to each other and the episode “The Ricklantis Mixup” showed Evil Morty winning an election by running a positive and hopeful campaign.

“Rattlestar Ricklactica” also has a callback to the episode “Edge of Tomorty: Rick Die Rickpeat.” When the snakes discover time travel they go back in time to save Snake Abraham Lincoln, which results in the creation of a fascist regime. As Rick started in “Edge of Tomorty” ‘when did Fascism become the default?’

“Rattlestar Ricklactica” was Rick and Morty at its best because it mixes parody, weird concepts, and excellent writing.