LogFAQs > #882088643

2x09 ... it's super-formulaic, super-predictable ... and super-meta and super-entertaining. This episode has the best of genre recognition from both titular characters.

We're nearing the end of the season after mixing it up a lot - Rick/Morty/Summer and Beth/Jerry and even the whole family have been getting it on together in A-plots. This episode begins with just Rick and Morty adventuring on their own, after what Rick notes has been 'a pretty intense, uneven, mixed bag of a year.' Just a great phrase.

Both Rick and Morty have a pretty good idea of the structure of the episode, too. Rick predicts the Purge, which the native takes as a sign that this means Rick has been here before. 'No, but I've visited planets that have the same gimmick!' Morty has a pretty good idea that being a voyeur to this slaughter is going to lead to their getting involved - though he thinks it'll be a random stone damaging the ship, rather than his own need to be the man, that pulls the duo into the fray. Rick also calls Morty's repressed rage pretty early on. (He claims that Morty's avoidance of beheading videos is symptomatic of this, and it appears to be confirmed, though I don't think this really fits most people.) The telegraphing doesn't take away from how funny it is to hear Morty going off on Rick, though.

Most of the Purging is pretty straightforward, with the mecha suits being pretty damn entertaining (opening credits scene!) and the 'fucking Amish bitch shot me' wearing the mecha suit at the end being fairly unexpected. The most out-of-nowhere plot element is the insanely annoying non-Purge dude who insists on telling his tale... which turns out to be an incredibly cliche screenplay. I cracked up at 'three weeks earlier.'

It's a great episode for Rick's morality. Despite his fairly disgusting voyeurism, Rick actually gets quickly nauseated by the brutality of the Purge while he's spectating. He also very quickly points out that Morty is being a real douche to the annoying host: 'Whoa, Morty, you're a guest here!' (It's also kind of a hilarious moment, given this is Rick. But guest right is holy!) In a hilariously meta - but also human - moment, Rick shows some pause before slaughtering the ruling class: 'I've had my fill, it's pretty gratuitous at this point.' He reins Morty in and And toward the end of the episode, he lies to preserve Morty's sense of self.

B-plot here is Jerry's unemployment starting to wear on Summer (and later Beth). The two best lines here are Summer's reactions - 'It's not a conversation, you're holding me verbally hostage' and 'Holy shit, shut the fuck up Dad!' are my two favorite deliveries. But also credit to the utterly despondent Jerry's 'This is what rock bottom must feel like, Jerry,' before getting hit in the head by debris from his wrecked garage roof. 'Ow!'

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* Responding to a greeting-type question with 'It's not a conversation, you're holding me verbally hostage' is just classic Harmon misanthropy. The thing is, there really isn't much harm in using a question as an approach. Summer is obviously very intimidating to her father, and he tries to establish some rapport. Doesn't deserve to be raked over the coals for that. Type of moment where I can sympathize with Jerry. That said, I also despise many rote, barely conversational platitudes. The scene doesn't really delve into these angles, but I like it for making me think.

* The girl going ham on the rich people was definitely gratuitous, but fucking hilariously so. She goes way hard on the trash talk. Best line: 'Suck my HUGE *****!' Best gratuitous violence: the rocket-up-the-ass kill.

* I do like that Morty points out, 'Why don't we use the space portal gun?' Always nice to rule out the obvious solutions.

* Morty is a creep for sure. I'm not sure why that girl at school seems to like him. On the plus side, the 'I have a boyfriend' scene at the end is great.
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yet all sailors of all sorts are more or less capricious and unreliable - they live in the varying outer weather, and they inhale its fickleness