Rick and Morty season 5 episode 8, titled ‘Rickernal Friendshine of the Spotless Mort,’ is a firmly Rick-centric episode that arguably explores the character’s past more than any episode thus far. In a season that has significantly struggled with knowing what to do with its characters, it’s a considerable step up from an otherwise underwhelming run of episodes, though it still suffers from many of the issues that have plagued the show’s recent history.
Rick and Morty season 5 episode 8 review
With the Smith family going on a cruise, Rick decides to stay behind — as he puts it, the more time he spends on his own, the more likely it is that there will be another Pickle Rick. In reality, Rick has decided to fly solo so that he can attempt to resurrect Bird Person, who was previously transformed into a cyborg after being betrayed by his Galactic Federation undercover agent wife Tammy. Thus begins an exploration into the memories of a comatose Bird Person, as Rick ventures into his best friend’s mind in an effort to force him out of his coma and back into reality.
This takes Rick on a journey that sees him reliving his own memories shared with Bird Person, albeit only through the lens of Bird Person’s take on them. This means that when Rick meets a 35-year-old version of himself, that version is BP’s interpretation of Rick at that point — which also means that his infamous portal gun makes nothing other than useless green circles, given that BP didn’t know what the gadget did at that point.
Rick’s conversations with a younger, more idealistic version of himself make for some good moments — and one game-changing piece of dialogue regarding Beth — though as has routinely been the case in season 5, it also leans way too heavy into sci-fi convolution. At this point, the news of an hour-long finale is a welcome one, as Dan Harmon and his team of writers are trying to fit way too much into less than 30 minutes.
At every turn, I was left questioning the latest dump of information that had landed in my lap, which leaves no room for jokes to land. While Rickernal Friendshine of the Spotless Mort is the most interesting episode of the season thus far in terms of it advancing the character of Rick, he remains the most over-written character of the entire show, and with only another version of himself to bounce off of, the dialogue is often difficult to take in.
But where the episode shines is in its hints to the show’s future. Rick’s relationship with Bird Person has mostly been played for laughs up until this point, as h rarely admits to an actual connection with any of the show’s characters. However, we see in episode 8 that he has opened up to his emotionally vacant avian friend, even going so far as to admit that he loves him. This includes him withholding the news that Bird Person has a child, later revealed to be a violent hybrid of Tammy and BP, in an effort to ensure his friend will still want to go on adventures with him.
There’s also a further elaboration on Rick’s backstory — genuine, this time, given that it’s directly from Bird Person’s memories — which will surely satiate the many fan theorists out there. Seeing more of Rick before he became the miserable old crank was also a lot of fun, and I hope that 35-year-old Rick is revisited at some point.
However, as has routinely been the case with season 5 up until now, the main problem with episode 8 is that it just isn’t very funny. Some of the show’s finest moments have come when the dialogue is given room to settle in — there’s a reason why the mostly improvised Interdimensional Cable episodes are so popular — but that isn’t the case here. The jokes come thick and fast, but it’s way too much to take in among the constantly escalating plot.
Rick and Morty Season 5 Episode 8 ending explained
The post-credits scene potentially sets up the finale or, at the least, an interesting episode further down the line, as Bird Person’s child is revealed to have been locked away in a facility. With Bird Person taking flight to find his daughter, this potentially sets up where the show is headed next, if not in episode 9 then in a future season.
But while episode 8 may have contained some interesting developments for Rick, it struggled to land the laughs and suffered from many of season 5’s pitfalls. Hopefully the finale is a step in the right direction, but at this point it feels like we’ve been saying that after each new episode.
