Rick and Morty – The Old Man and the Seat Review

“The Old Man and the Seat” sees a rare triple story in Rick and Morty with Earth falling into chaos when Rick goes on a personal mission.

Rick has hired a new intern to handle his menial tasks. The intern just has one drawback: he’s not allowed to make an App. It’s an order Jerry ignores when Rick goes on an off-world adventure to use his private toilet.

One of the biggest assets Rick and Morty has is its setting. The space and inner-dimensional travel allows the show to tell any story it wants. So it’s sad that “The Man and the Seat” acts like a way for the show to repeat itself. The Earth falling into chaos due to the App was like the mass hysteria in “Get Schwifty” and Morty and Jerry’s adventure due to Jerry’s stupidity was similar to “Something Ricked This Way Comes'” B-plot.

This issue arose because the main plot was too thin to substance an episode. The concept was hilarious: Rick goes on a mission of vengeance just because someone pooped in his private toilet. Rick’s vengeance was so extreme that he makes enemies with an intergalactic gangster and goes to a war zone just to find out what happened. There were some funny scenes like Rick using his computer to analyse a stool sample and Rick just waving off a gangster’s threats. But the episode attempts to have poignancy when Rick finds the pooping fiend. Tony the Alien states that Rick was acting out because he was lonely and looking for a friend and the episode attempts to have an emotional ending like “Rick Potion #9” and “Auto Erotic Assimilation” but it was hollow and unearned.

Most of the humour came from Summer and Beth’s storyline. Summer uses the new app matches users with their soul mate: but it makes users obsessed with their matches and keeps changing the matches. Beth has to follow Summer in an attempt to cock block her daughter. Some of the most humorous jokes were an incident outside a motel and Beth offering some biting comments. The App’s effect on society was to similar when Rick made the love potion in “Rick Potion #9” by making everyone horny. This storyline had some social commentary about modern internet and dating culture. The App was Tinder on steroids and the episode shows how people are so sucked into their phones.

Morty and Jerry’s storyline gets the least about screentime. After Jerry develops the App with Glootie father and son go on an alien mothership and get held captive. This part of the episode was pretty much shit on Jerry for the majority of the time and he deserves this treatment. His stupidity and arrogance led to the crisis on Earth. The most interesting part of the storyline was showing how the dynamic between Morty and Jerry has changed. Morty no longer has any respect for his father and doesn’t attempt to defend him. Morty even tells Jerry off for defying Rick. Considering everything the Smith family has been through since accommodating Rick, Jerry should know better.

“The Old Man and the Seat” was an inconsequential episode whose stories struggled to fill the runtime. “The Old Man and the Seat” was elevated by some good jokes but was a minor entry in the series.