For Beth, the acorn doesn’t fall far from the Rick-tree in this weeks episode of “Rick and Morty.” “The ABCs of Beth,” named after the poorly-rated 2012 horror flick “The ABCs of Death,” finally gives the audience a Beth-centered story arc, addressing the problems she has with herself.

There have been previous "Rick and Morty" episodes involving Beth, such as season two, episode seven, “Big Trouble in Little Sanchez.” In this episode, Beth and Jerry attend couples therapy at an intergalactic resort while Rick becomes Little Rick. Also, in season two, episode one, “A Rickle in Time,” Beth and Jerry race to save the life of a deer in the road while Rick breaks time and space with Morty and Summer.

However, these episodes have all featured Beth in light of her family and Jerry in particular. There has yet to be an episode dedicated to Beth’s internal conflict until last night.

Beth

Beth is smart, like her father by Rick's own admission. Besides being a horse-surgeon, which is just as legitimate as being a real surgeon, according to Beth, she has shown to hold herself in high regard. It’s tough to say if she’s arrogant or confident; though Rick would contend they are the same.

In "Rick and Morty" season 3, episode 3, “Pickle Rick,” the family, excluding Rick, who is a pickle, and Jerry, who no longer lives with Beth or the kids, attend therapy for Summer’s enamel-huffing and Morty’s desk-wetting.

However, the person who seems to gain the most from the session is Beth, as Beth appears to be the only one who is not comfortable with herself, which she attributes to her father.

Beth tries to blame Rick for being a bad father in last night’s episode, as she did at the therapist’s office in “Pickle Rick.” With the disappearance of her childhood friend Tommy and his father’s subsequent execution, Beth feels a certain amount of remorse for Tommy and tries to save him.

Instead, Beth murders Tommy and comes to the same realization that she is exactly like her father. Join the club.

In the end, we don’t know what Beth really learned, as the audience is left with a cliffhanger in the final scenes of the episode. That being said, "Rick and Morty" has exhibited a rather grim overtone in the third season, leading to one obvious conclusion over the other.

What conclusion? Watch “Rick and Morty” season 3, episode 9 “The ABCs of Beth” and see for yourself

Jerry

Last and least, “The ABCs of Beth” also featured a Jerry-centric plotline that showed a similar self-acceptance to Beth's story arc, but more in the way of pitiful admission.

Jerry, Beth’s soon-to-be-divorced husband, has weekend custody of Morty and Summer and uses the occasion to introduce his new warrior-huntress girlfriend to them. Jerry's plan goes sideways when he is forced to realize that he is a closet racist and a liar by his children, and tries to break up with his warrior-huntress girlfriend, blaming the break-up on his children.

Jerry doesn’t grow a spine in last night’s episode of “Rick and Morty,” but at least he admits that he doesn’t have one, and all it took was a space-alien threatening the lives of his children. Classic Jerry.
© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED