Now, whenever Rick and Morty shirk off the chance to save a galaxy in trouble or a distant dimension in need, this adds weight to the characters they leave behind.Įven in Factory Rick’s desperate plea to escape judgment at the hands of Citadel police, the unseen ravages of the Blender dimension tell a story all their own. That laser gun in the mouth of a loitering Morty, the disintegrated frame of a bootleg portal fluid maker, and that last shot of murdered bodies floating in the emptiness of space - those are the show’s way of underlining that even in a wacky potpourri of one-off genre riffs, there are real consequences to the whims of the individuals at the top. This season, violent deaths (whether by the unwitting hands of children or by the hands of a rat super-skeleton) have also been a quick way to employ the show’s specific brand of pathos, showing the dangers that this sci-fi world has for anyone who inhabits it. Rebellious sleeveless Morty isn’t just cashing in on viewers’ affinity for River Phoenix in a Stephen King adaptation (“I’m part of an experimental line of Mortys with a drama implant”), it’s using a viewer’s nostalgia for that character as a means for a bigger gut punch when he hops into the glowing green portal.
When Candidate Morty gets shot by his former campaign manager, the overheard zoom out shot lingering on the aftermath isn’t just a recreation of the end of “24” Season 2, it’s a stylistic nod to a bigger commentary on centralized societal control. This isn’t a show that rests on recreating familiar visuals as the only means to a joke. Cop Partners Rick and Morty ride along the criminal underworld of The Citadel, investigating drug dens and strip club fronts, all while balancing out their inherent distrust for each other. (As fans parse out this episode, the idea that these four follow the “Stand By Me” character breakdown while being taught by a Hogwarts-adjacent Rickstructor and it somehow makes thematic and visual sense shouldn’t go unnoticed.) The aforementioned factory worker leads a hostage revolt against his corporate overlords after being passed over for a job promotion (in favor of Cool Rick, no less). As an entity in search of an identity following the assassination of the governing council, The Citadel is in the midst of a presidential election, one that will decide the future of thousands of Rick and Morty variants living within its borders.Įlsewhere, a quartet of school-aged Mortys go on a search for meaning and fulfillment.
#Watch rick and morty online free season 3 episode 7 full#
Read More: Every Episode of ‘Rick and Morty,’ RankedĪs Rick and Morty Prime go off on an unseen tour of the lost city of Atlantis, day-to-day life at The Citadel takes full focus, from the workers at a candy factory to the inner workings of a dark horse campaign to put Citadel power in the hands of a Morty.
A breakneck-paced “Rick and Morty” if ever there was one, “The Ricklantis Mixup” jettisons the usual opening credits in favor of a sitcom-style city montage of life at The Citadel, the intergalactic, city-sized fortress of Ricks and Mortys that our heroes left for ruin at the start of Season 3. Like so many standout “Rick and Morty” episodes, capturing the essence of what made this more than a loosely connected bit of cultural flotsam and jetsam lies in its ability to laser in on character beats at lightning speed.