While last week’s episode of Rick and Morty was complete chaos as it delved into the structures and tropes of anthologies, this week’s episode, “Promortyus,” puts the series back on some traditional narrative rails – sort of.
Without much context or reason why, the series’ dynamic duo is yet again on another alien planet with strange aliens called Glorzos that have a familiar resemblance to the face-huggers from the Alien series. Frankly, with a titled clearly referencing Prometheus, it’s no surprise to see the series riff on Alien, but it also riffs on plenty of other sci-fi movies and tropes along the way. There’s a great moment where Rick (voiced by Justin Roiland) kind of hints at how Star Wars just mindlessly kills things in glorious fashion when Morty (also voiced by Roiland) hops into a gunner seat and Rick tells him to yell “yee-haw” like they do in the movie. The two of them even suit up in some bad-ass robot samurai armor, with some laser katanas, for some old-school sci-fi anime action as they slice up some aliens around them. More importantly though, this is all about the face-huggers, and it seeks to ask and answer an interesting and yet totally pointless question about them – “What if the face-huggers never laid their eggs and just made their own society?”
Frankly, I have no idea how someone comes up with something as strange and kind of dumb as this, but it’s brilliantly executed and leads to some hilarious results. The way the episode is structured is a little odd as we begin by being thrown into the middle of things and are not given much direction as to what’s happening. Once we get to see what’s really going on with the Glorzos, it’s actually kind of crazy. The idea of the face-huggers controlling their hosts is a lot of fun as the one controlling Rick makes him become a conspiracy theorist YouTuber hellbent on uncovering the truth about Glorzo not being peace and the one controlling Morty becoming a symbol for the race. The best part is when they’re released from their Glorzo’s grasp and don’t remember anything, requiring them to play along with everything that’s happening while taping on the dead face-huggers onto their heads to blend in. The line about Rick hoping that his YouTube career was at least a little decent only to be dashed by Morty saying that he’s watched enough porn to know what a studio apartment looks like had me dying.
It’s also funny seeing Rick and Morty be amazed by both the weaponry and the M&Ms stores the Glorzo’s have built. It leads to a great argument between Morty and the other Glorzos when he’s trying to escape, and they question him as his face-hugger is falling off. It also kicks off that Star Wars battle I mentioned earlier and leads into a risky joke about 9/11 that was surprisingly tasteful and funny. Just as they escape the hivemind planet, Rick and Morty almost, I repeat ALMOST, take out the Twin Towers and proceed to comment on how they ALMOST pulled a 9/11, but instead did more of a Pearl Harbor. At first when they showed the Twin Towers, I didn’t even get the joke. After a few seconds though, it hit me, and I couldn’t stop laughing at how they kept talking about almost pulling a 9/11 before breakfast and even creating a tier list for world tragedies. Not to mention, it completely overshadows Jerry’s (voiced by Chris Parnell) new beekeeping hobby, which only he and Summer’s (voiced by Spencer Grammer) new friend in the post-credit scene, cares about.
This breakfast debate also leads to my favorite moment of the episode as Rick and Morty completely forget that they brought Summer along on the adventure and completely forgot about her. First off, it’s absolutely hilarious that Summer becomes the empress of these things just because every time one of the Glorzo’s tried to face-hug her, they died because she had a toothpick in her mouth. Just to think that
the events of Alien could’ve possibly been prevented if there was a steady supply of toothpicks around is perfectly dumb and hilarious to me. Also, her possibly fabricated story of what happened after Rick and Morty were face-hugged, which includes them making out because their Glorzo’s fell in love, is perfect and kind of calls back to the end of the premiere episode of this season where Summer basically said they should make-out. It’s all made perfect though, when Summer eventually helps them leave and ends up destroying the hierarchy of the Glorzo’s as they berate all of them. This is easily one of the best moments for Summer in the series.
By the end, much like last episode, we’re pretty much back to where we always end up with these two getting ready to watch more Interdimensional Cable. I’m curious if this is more trolling because so many fans like Interdimensional Cable so much and they keep bringing it up. Either way, I love it and the sequence of them thinking an egg is about to hatch and kill them, only for them to crap themselves, is both incredibly stupid and funny – right on par for this series.
Rick & Morty Season 4 Episode 7 treated fans to some ooo-wee sci-fi goodness with some great moments for Summer and a genuinely top-tier Alien riff that becomes funnier the more I think about it. Personally, I’m hoping there’s some clearer direction for the starts of future episodes because trying to decipher what the hell is happening before the first commercial break is kind of starting to take away from the experience. Regardless though, this episode is still some more fun for fans to enjoy.
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