Though it seemed like Rick and Morty might never run out of creative steam, the last three episodes found the series starting to show its age. From an aimless plot about decoys that went nowhere to an entire episode centered around one long sperm joke, it seemed like Rick and Morty might have been losing steam. Luckily for fans of the show, the latest episode, "Amortican Grickfitti," brought the series back to its roots.
The fact that the titular pair are split up for the entire episode offers plenty of opportunities for relationship dynamics to come into play. Rick takes Jerry out on an ostensible guys night with a bunch of Hellraiser-inspired cenobytes, while Morty and Summer do their best to impress the new kid in town, Bruce Chutback (whose song-based introduction gag is oddly reminiscent of similar moments from American Dad!).
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Obviously, both of these plans end up going off the rails. Poor Jerry can never catch a break, and this episode is no different. As it turns out, the cenobytes love Jerry because of his lameness (which is apparently their candy). Much like the characters from Clive Barker's classic horror tale, these characters love pain and suffering. Rick owes them because of some faulty skin hooks, and this is his way of paying them back.
Back at home, Morty and Summer can't find a way to get through to Bruce Chutback (he's even impervious to interdimensional cable!). It's only once Bruce begins checking out Rick's spaceship that the Smith kids see their opening: take Bruce on a joyride through space. Unfortunately, the spaceship has a mind of her own, but after some resistance, she gives in and lets the kids have their fun. However, the fun comes to an end pretty quickly as the ship reveals her ulterior motives.
It would almost be inaccurate to call either of these an A or B story, as they both occupy roughly the same amount of space and importance in the episode. It's refreshing to see Rick and Morty return to splitting up its characters and actually having them both face some stakes. "A Rickconvenient Mort" also split up its characters, but its B story involving Summer and Rick's apocalypse crawl never felt like it had any drama or impact. "Mortyplicity" and "Rickdependence Spray" saw the entire Smith family sharing one journey, but neither of them stood out as anything great.
"Amortican Grickfitti" succeeds most in its character pairings. Morty and Summer finally have a chance to really show off their sibling rivalry, which is dampened by an uneasy peace between the two. Both of them want to impress Bruce Chutback so badly that they decide it's better for them to work together rather than against one another. It's great to see Summer, who has shown higher levels of confidence and coolness this season, fall to Morty's level in terms of not quite knowing how to keep it cool in front of the new kid (Morty's only plan was to put out grapes and watch TV).
While the kids' story is a lot of fun, the real standout is Rick's night out with Jerry and the cenobytes. Rick and his son-in-law have never really gotten along, and they also haven't had as many solo adventures where it was just the two of them (Season 3's "The Whirly Dirly Conspiracy" was the last time these two went anywhere together, and it didn't turn out great). It's always a lot of fun to see Rick's nihilistic attitude brush up against Jerry's optimism, and this episode really lets Jerry shine, even if he is entirely oblivious to his situation. Beth also does great in the episode when she decides to take part in Jerry's humiliation rather than end it.
Both stories escalate in ways that make complete sense for the show. Rick's spaceship reveals she will blackmail the kids with footage of their forbidden joyride unless she gets to do whatever she wants. Jerry discovers Rick's ruse and refuses to take part, leading to a rescue mission in the depths of Hell (which in classic Rick and Morty fashion is more silly than scary). Morty and Summer's story is a bit more aimless than Rick, Beth, and Jerry's, but it does pack in some hilarious moments.
Unlike "A Rickconvenient Mort," which built its entire story around a reference to Captain Planet, "Amortican Grickfitti" piles in references without leaning on them too heavily. The most obvious one is Hellraiser, but the episode puts in the work to point out how the entire "pain is pleasure" conceit eventually becomes a circular mess. The episode also works in a Transformers parody, but it works perfectly in context with the spaceship saying she wants to lose her virginity.
Aside from that, the episode also finds the space to drop in a gag about fishing for Galactus (apparently there's more than one, and the spaceship declares the one she caught too small), as well as a brief visual Star Wars gag harkening back to the Pod Race from The Phantom Menace. There's even a small background visual which references one of Justin Roiland's most disturbing and disgusting animations ever in the bar: a poster for something called Care-oke with the Itty brothers (for those who are curious, check out Seth Rogen's Hilarity for Charity special on Netflix).
While "Amortican Grickfitti" doesn't have the emotional impact of some past episodes, it does manage to put Rick in the unfamiliar position of learning a lesson: Jerry's lameness only works to please the cenobytes because Rick believes himself to be so cool. According to them, cringe cannot exist in a vacuum, and Jerry's humiliation has only ever kept them satisfied because Rick was there to be embarrassed by it.
Rick And Morty doesn't always hit the mark. This season, as well as season 4, both had some lows that were hard to shake. However, when the series is firing on all cylinders, it can still deliver a fun, creative, and satisfying storyline. In this case, it gives the audience two, and that feels better than smacking mailbox people with a bat.