Rick and Morty – Rickternal Friendship of the Spotless Mort Review

Season Five of Rick and Morty has been seen as a downgrade in quality. “Rickternal Friendship of the Spotless Mort” show there is still plenty of life in the show.

The Smith family goes on a cruise and leaves Rick home alone. Rick uses this time to resurrect Birdperson who had been turned into a cyborg by the Galactic Federation. Rick had to go into Birdperson’s mind to save his friend and explore his own past.

Rick and Morty has always been more than an adult comedy filled with swearing, farting, and risqué jokes. There was also heart, emotional moments, philosophical ideas, and a long-running story. Some of the best episodes of Rick and Morty (“Close Rick-counters of the Rick Kind”, “The Wedding Squanchers”, “The Rickshank Rickemption” and “The Ricklantis Mixup”) had those ingredients. “Rickternal Friendship of the Spotless Mort” can stand with them.

“Rickternal Friendship of the Spotless Mort” was an episode the fifth season needed. The series needed to show it could still tell a mature story and have a character-driven episode. It is the best episode of the season so far and there’s only the finale left.

As the title suggests “Rickternal Friendship of the Spotless Mort” was influenced by the 2004 film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless. Rick has to navigate the deepest depths of Birdperson’s mind with his friend avoiding him. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless explored a relationship between Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet and showed what went wrong. In “Rickternal Friendship of the Spotless Mort” Rick was trying to save Birdperson even though Birdperson doesn’t want to be saved.

The last thing Birdperson remembers was being shot by Tammy during his wedding. He was having to process this betrayal and he states he has accepted death and he was just waiting for it to happen. Rick had to find a way to convince Birdperson he had a reason to live.

This episode was a character examination of Rick as well as Birdperson. Throughout the show’s run Rick has portrayed himself as a nihilist, someone who states that nothing matters. But this stands in contrast to his feelings to Birdperson. This clash of ideals was shown when a younger version of Rick reveals to Birdperson that he can travel across dimensions and experience every possible outcome. Birdperson challenges Rick on his personal paradox of saying he cares about nothing yet is willing to fight in the Battle for Blood Ridge. Birdperson has been shown time and again that he’s one of the few characters that actually understands Rick.

In the Season Four finale Rick stated to Space Beth he was young and idealistic. He fought against the Galactic Federation as a rebel fighter. Rick described himself as an ‘idealistic hipster douche.’ The younger Rick was different from the man he became. Life has worn Rick down to make him the cynical and jaded scientist audiences came to know.

Rick and Morty had been a show that birthed a lot of fan theories. The writers seem to pay attention because there have been episodes to disprove them. “Rattlestar Ricklactica” was an example of this because it disproved the idea that Rick was really an older Morty that travelled back in time. Yet this episode revealed an important piece of information, that Rick’s Beth had died! That means that the Smiths are not actually related to the Rick that lives with them. This could have huge implications for the series. In “The Rickshank Rickdemption” Rick faked a memory showing his wife and daughter being killed. That scene might be based on truth.

There have been hints of Rick’s past in previous episodes. It had been stated that Rick had abandoned Beth 20 years ago, so this leads to question what happened to Beth’s original Rick? In the episode “Close Rick-counters of the Rick Kind” it was shown Rick had a memory of seeing Morty as a baby and in “Get Schwifty”; Birdperson had a photo of Rick holding baby Morty with Morty looking at it in bemusement. A theory amongst the fandom that Evil Morty is actually Rick’s original Morty and the revelation in “Rickternal Friendship of the Spotless Mort” could give that theory more credence.

In the opening episode of Season Five, Mr. Nimbus said that Rick has fallen and asked ‘what would Diane think of this if she was alive.’ These comments from Mr. Nimbus could have more importance than initially thought.

As well as bringing back emotional and character depth, “Rickternal Friendship of the Spotless Mort” brought back one other of Rick and Morty’s winning features: existential crises. The characters have existential crises, the memory of Young Rick and Rick’s Garage AI. Young Rick questions if he has sentience and free will and discovers that life’s a lie. It’s the kind of humour that was missing in this season.

‘Rickternal Friendship of the Spotless Mort’ was important for Rick and Morty. It was important to move Rick and Morty’s wider story forward and showing that Rick and Morty can still make great episodes. “Rickternal Friendship of the Spotless Mort” is one of the best episodes the series has produced.