After a long hiatus and a quick five-episode second half of season four, we’re already at the Rick and Morty Season 4 finale, and it drops a mind-blowing doozy of a bomb within the first few seconds.
In season three’s “ The ABC’s of Beth,” we were left with a mystery of whether or not the Beth (Sarah Chalke, Scrubs) we’ve been seeing is a clone of the real one that Rick (Justin Roiland, Solar Opposites) created after the real one left to be on her own. Since then, it’s been kind of easy to believe that Rick was just messing with Beth, but within the first few minutes of this finale we see that that’s not the case. While one version of Beth has been stuck back on Earth dealing with Jerry’s (Chris Parnell, SNL) BS, the other has been kicking ass all across the galaxy as a rebellious gunslinger type who is quite motivated to get some revenge on Rick after noticing he placed some kind of possibly explosive tracker in her neck. However, before we get to a tale of two Beths, I want to get through some of the non-essential surprises and hilarity this finale contains.
First of all, a new invention of Rick’s, simply known as the invisibility belt, causes a ton of great hilarity throughout the episode. In some ways, Summer (Spencer Grammer, Greek) and Morty (also Roiland) fighting over the belt goes exactly as you would expect. Summer tries to get some sexy dirt on a hot guy she likes while Morty tries to get a steamy session with some girls in a high school locker room. It’s actually kind of funny how close Morty gets to succeeding his fantasy only to be blocked by Summer via a fire extinguisher. Even Jerry trying to pee in private with the belt on an alien ship was hilarious, especially with the floor angled in a way that makes him basically stand in a puddle of his own pee, and the post-credit scene of him becoming a heroic figure in an invisible garbage truck was equally great.
With a title like “Star Mort: Rickturn of the Jerri,” it’s no surprise that we also get plenty of cracks at Star Wars on our way to an action-packed, absolutely ridiculous finale. The bug-like soldiers seen in plenty of prior episodes, perfectly perform the role of nonsensical stormtroopers. The scene of Morty pretending to use the force and the enemy soldiers in a giant, deadly spacecraft immediately buying it and then immediately surrendering at the thought of Morty “possibly” being able to stop their hearts with his mind, which is actually a Carrie reference from the book, had me cracking up. There’s such an ineptness to these soldiers, to the point where they’re just mindlessly talking about how the ship is sponsored by Wrangler Jeans and personal matters. It quickly becomes impossible not to make stormtrooper comparisons. Even just the idea that these ships come with a small weakness that causes the ship to be instantly destroyed is perfect and I love how Rick just hates the idea that he’s stuck in a Star Wars situation.
Returning to the big Beth bomb, the choice to suddenly, without warning return to this dangling loose end from last season is not only a total surprise but also plays out in unexpected ways. Throughout the episode, it’s legitimately questionable who the real Beth is. It’s an interesting moment for the series to give Beth such a compelling arc of figuring out who she is, and it creates this different look for her. Through some great conversations with her kick-ass space self, the two find some commonality in how Rick has screwed them over and how Earth Beth is sort of sick of Jerry, again. What follows these revelations and heart to hearts is a series of scenes of them kicking ass together through some brutal fights, even against a surprising return of someone that I’ll talk about in a minute, and also the surprising conclusion of this Space Beth sticking around. Frankly, they’re not even interested in figuring out who really is the clone, as the episode concludes with a new status quo of both Beths sticking around together in the next season – and it creates some curiosity as to how this new addition will impact the Smith family dynamic.
With this addition of another Beth, we actually get to see a more cowardly side of Rick as we see him unable to be upfront with them and wanting to avoid the problem entirely. Rick is constantly trying to give them the answers he thinks they want to hear, but no one is buying it. Notably, with everything that happens both here and in the last episode, we actually get to see Rick lose and look defeated as he’s unable to win in an elongated battle with an old friend and is literally forced to hold his guts from spilling out. What’s even more shocking though, is the look we’re given at what actually happened when Beth told him to do decide for her whether she should go out into the universe, leaving a clone in her place, or stay home.
In a flashback, we see that Rick drugs her, creates a clone, and then doesn’t even have the guts to see who the clone is. It’s quite possibly one of the worst things that Rick has ever done and easily one of the darkest moments in this entire series. It shows Rick’s darker colors in a way that legitimately hits you where it hurts and even puts him in the same doghouse as Jerry with how the family now views him. Throughout the season, we’ve seen Rick slowly become a little darker and distant and this finale is truly the peak of it.
On a quick side-note, we also get the return of Tammy (Cassie Steele, Degrassi: The Next Generation) and Birdperson (Dan Harmon, Community)– now the cyber-enhanced Phoenixperson. Tammy’s return isn’t too special since Rick pretty much kills her easily and her dead body is just hilariously used by the Smith family for the rest of the episode. Phoenixperson, however, is a total, technological force to be reckoned with as his Romeo and Juliet love connection with Tammy is his fuel. He’s truly one of the strongest foes Rick has faced thus far. It’s also nice to see that, by the episode’s end, Rick is actually trying to rebuild his longtime friend. I’m excited to see him possibly return in the future.
Although we’re back on another hiatus of an unknown length, the season four finale of Rick and Morty offers plenty to be excited about heading into this uncertain future. It perfectly delves into the darker elements of its titular anti-hero and offers plenty to think about with another Beth coming into the mix next season. Season five can’t come soon enough.
