5x08 Rickternal Friendshine of the Spotless Mort

[8.2/10] I am a sucker for what Rick generously terms “that Charlie Kaufman bullshit” so the conceit of Rick running around in Birdperson’s brain, meeting versions of himself and trying to save his friend’s mind, is more than enough to get me going. The human mind is such an interesting thing, even based around a pop-sci understanding of it. People who are limited in their definition by how someone else remembers them, hopping through memories, and visualizing all of it in a psychedelic fashion fuels the creativity in a show that starts from a place of few limitations.

As usual, Rick and Morty makes the most of the setup. There’s some great gags here about people realizing they’re memories or otherwise being constrained by the setup of the subconscious. I particularly love the adventures of thirty-five-year-old Rick, who’s clever enough to be of use to Rick prime, but comparatively naive and idealistic enough to bother the cynical old man he became.

Plus, for those fans who enjoy R&M not just as an episodic, anything goes series of standalone adventures, but rather for its loose serialized arcs, this episode is a boon. We finally see Rick reconstructing Birdperson! We get a wild new twist in the fallout from his relationship with Tammy! We see flashbacks to how Rick and Birdperson became friends with doses of Squanchy, the gear guy, and a host of other familiar faces. We even get some head-scratch-worthy hints about Beth and the death of Rick’s wife. For those who’ve been following the show’s lore, this is a bonanza.

My favorite element of this one, though, is the fraught emotional bond between Rick and Birdperson. You get an unexpected reveal here -- that Rick loved Birdperson; Birdperson found Rick’s “nothing matters” attitude and attachment off-putting, and it contributed even more to Rick’s caustic bitterness. There’s strong hints that the bond was romantic on Rick’s part, which only adds to the complexity of callous Rick’s complicated feelings about his best friend later in the timeline, and his attitude toward human connection in general.

At the same time, despite the monotone delivery, there’s real pathos in Birdperson trying to end his own life and telling Rick, “I died at my wedding; I’m just waiting for it to take effect.” For all their friction, Birdperson still defends Rick as a “complicated man.” He wants to live for his child. And despite appreciating the lengths Rick went to save him, he also recognizes Rick’s selfishness in doing so and willingness to hide the existence of that daughter because it could interfere with their ability to hang out.

The thing that’s been missing from this season is that layer of emotional intricacy. Rick is bad but comprehensible here, even admitting “That’s fair” when Birdperson calls him out on the deception. For all the bonding that they’ve done, all the cool memories we get to see, Rick is jealous with Birdperson’s time and attention, and wanting someone isn’t the same as truly caring about them. Filtering their relationship through Rick’s actions and recollections in the present, and his thirty-five-year-old analogue’s reactions in the present makes for strong material.

Along the way, we get some great gags featuring Rick’s garage A.I. being just as self-interested and trying to lure a neighbor into giving it power supplies. We get more Federation goons looking like monsters but acting like workaday mooks. And we get the big laughs of another Rick realizing he’s a memory and so sat through a bunch of terrible stand-up for no reason.

Honestly, it’s reassuring to know that Rick and Morty still has this kind of episode in it. I wouldn’t want the series to go this canon-heavy or conceptual every week. But in a season that’s been entertaining enough but lacking the heights of other outings, an installment like this that goes to both inventive and intense psychological places while still having lots of great humor is a boon for fans like me.