The seventh episode of this season’s “Rick and Morty”, “The Ricklantis Mixup”, was unique in that it featured our protagonists for just one short minute. The rest of the episode was focused on the complicated politics and society left behind by Rick’s actions on the Citadel at the beginning of the season, and while some may have been initially disappointed that we would not get to see our protagonists’ antics in Atlantis, what we got was far more compelling. I will be discussing spoilers below, so do be advised.
Life on the Citadel
As the episode progresses, we get a showcase of life on the Citadel for the thousands of Ricks and Mortys who live there.
Some of the best moments of the show happen here, as we follow the lives of several one-off characters who are incredibly compelling in only a few minutes of screen-time. True to the show’s form, the episode is quick-witted and depressingly bleak at the same time. I found myself laughing uncomfortably at the notion of enslaving a man in order to simulate the best moment of his life forever in order to make delicious wafer cookies. Equally disturbing were the scenes with hardened Cop Morty and Rookie Rick, giving us a bizarre and twisted look at “racial” violence and the dirty underbelly of law enforcement, but these scenes were peppered with dozens of hilarious “Aw geez” moments.
In a short twenty minutes, the episode was able to build up a whole new cast of characters with one voice actor playing all the various Mortys and Ricks, and then killed them all by the end of the episode, leading to one of the biggest revelations in the series yet.
The return of Evil Morty
Ever since his brief debut in the first seasons, fans have been wondering where Evil Morty had gone, and what his plans were. Well, the speculation is over. Evil Morty is now President of the Citadel, and will likely play the antagonist to the protagonists in the future once more. He is the perfect antagonist to our Main Characters, acting as a literal and figurative dark mirror to Morty’s character, but also proving to be an intellectual rival to even the hyper-intelligent Rick.
The reveal itself was an amazing moment in the show. Evil Morty having all his enemies removed as he delivers a pseudo-speech on how he is a man of action, while the song “For the Damaged Coda” by Blonde Redhead played, the theme of the new President.
In short, everything about the latest episode of "Rick and Morty" was perfect, and demonstrates the show is still in top form, even when the two main characters are barely present. I am anxiously awaiting what comes next.
