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Rick and Morty Season 4, Episode 5 Review- Rattlestar Ricklatica

I can sum up the mid-season finale of Rick and Morty with three words: time-traveling snakes. If that sounds dumb, it’s supposed to. The people behind Rick and Morty took the dumbest idea possible and ran it so far into the ground that it comes out on the other side as this hilarious, timey-wimey story. I loved every minute of it.

Space Snakes

So, Rick gets a flat tire in space and has to pull over to fix it, and tells Morty to stay in the ship. Being Morty and a teenager, he gets out anyway. Next thing he knows, this snake in a space suit comes up and bites his ankle. While Rick makes a cure, he finds out the dead space snake came from a planet of billions of snakes ready to tear into each other. Given the fact that their snake astronaut’s first instinct upon meeting an alien race was to bite their ankles, it’s clear they suck. They make good jazz music though.

Morty thinks he should do the right thing and fix his screw-up, though Rick says they’re too dumb to be worth saving. Again, Morty does it anyway and replaces it with an Earth snake. Big mistake, as the space snakes figure out its not from their world. So they invent time-travel to kill Morty or something. I don’t know, it’s Terminator with snakes.

Terminator with Snakes

Like I said, it’s a dumb concept, but Justin, Dan and their team knows its a dumb concept and go with it. In my opinion, it’s the kind of plot where trying to look for meaning makes it less enjoyable. My advice is don’t think too hard on it and enjoy the ride, courtesy of Morty.

Eventually, the only way to get out of this nonsense is to create a big timey-wimey ball. So Rick gives the snakes time-travel in the fated year of 1985 and waits for them to screw up and get the Time Cops on their case. Thus the problem solves itself.

Jerry Goes Up

While this whole thing’s going on, Jerry tries to set up the Christmas lights. Since he’s Jerry, Rick makes his body lighter than air and his shoes heavy enough to keep him on the ground. However, because he’s Jerry, he manages to screw even that up, and ends up floating in the sky.

I normally don’t like most Jerry subplots, but this may be an exception. Seeing Jerry try not and fail not to look stupid, yet refuse Rick’s help to one up him, is funny. Somehow, the man manages to survive all of that, and finish setting up the lights. However, given the fact that he caused an airplane to crash, I can see why Rick hates him.

Great Wrap Up to the Year

There’s no telling how long we’ll be waiting to see the second half of the season. However, given how awesome this episode was, I can wait and listen to snake jazz. Rick and Morty closes the decade as one of the best cartoons on TV, and this episode proves that. Like the ouroboros, this episode’s so dumb it comes back around to be funny. As for Morty, he learned a valuable lesson: stay in the freaking car.

I give “Rattlestar Ricklatica: a 4.8/5. Don’t Mess With Time!

Stray Observations/Favorite Quotes

• “I am the Jesus Christ of Christmas”
• “Resistance is mouselike”
• “Unless it’s possible for Jerry to f*** up wearing shoes. …oh crap, he’s gonna die.”
• Did anyone else notice the “Back to the Future” poster with Snakes?

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Steven Universe Future, Episodes 5-6 Review

No matter how big and plot-focused a show can get, sometimes its best to return to its roots. This week’s episode of Steven Universe Future did just that, shenanigans and all. However, what’s different is the fact that Steven’s now a young adult, so he deals with hijinks differently. Then again, this episode does help show how far Steven’s matured.

“Bluebird”

You know that old trope of an over-the-top villain whose idea of evil is too silly to take seriously? In the first half of this episode, Steven winds up facing this kind of villain in the form of Bluebird Azurite. Everyone recognizes that it’s Eyeball and Aquamarine fused into one. Since Steven and the Gems are all about giving people second chances, though, they roll with it.

I found this whole episode to be very entertaining, primarily due to Bluebird’s shenanigans. She is out for revenge, but thinks she’s this evil mastermind with a brilliant disguise. However, not only do the Gems and Steven realize who she is, but understand she’s too dumb to be a real threat. Seriously, who thinks TP-ing someone’s car involves stacking rolls of TP on top off it? At best, Bluebird’s shenanigans annoy Steven. Even their one serious attempt that involves holding Greg hostage fails without Steven having to do anything. However, it does cost Greg his flowing mane of hair, which causes Steven to go Pink Steven in anger.

As uneasy as it can be to see Steven get genuinely angry, I took this as a sign of his emotional growth. Unlike in “Volleyball”, here Steven’s channeling his anger into something positive. In this case, protecting his dad. In addition, Steven remains true to his ideals despite his anger, offering Aquamarine and Eyeball a chance to genuinely reform. They refuse and flee, and unlike Jasper, I don’t think they’ll ever truly change. However, the whole thing doesn’t darken Steven’s willingness to help others, which is most important.

“A Very Special Episode”

The shenanigans continue in the second half of the episode as Steven finds himself in over his head. He promised to hang out with Onion as Rainbow Quartz 2.0, but has to teach a safety class as Sunstone. It’s a classic sitcom plot that sees Steven try to be two places in once. The end results are pretty hilarious:

There are two things I liked about this episode. Firstly, we see the return of Rainbow 2.0 and Sunstone, two Fusions that I personally love. With their umbrella and nanny like personality, Rainbow reminds me of a gender bent version of Mary Poppins. Meanwhile Sunstone’s a homage to the spokespeople from the after-school cartoons of the 80s and 90s. They’re both fun to watch and I’m glad we got to see more of them before the show ends.

Secondly, it reinforces the theme that Steven Universe Future seems focused on: reminding Steven that he’s still human. In my look at “Three Gems and a Baby” last year, I compared Steven to Jesus; as in, he’s this messiah like figure. However, while he’s done a lot of wonderful things, he’s still human and can mess up. Case in point, this episode with Steven admitting that he should have managed his time better.

Then it turns out that the whole thing was a PSA by Sunstone about managing time. It’s a clever way to end the episode, though I got confused. Was the whole episode a PSA or did it really happen?

Steven’s Still Human

Steven fits the role of the messianic archetype to a tee: he’s the son of a human and the Gems equivalent of a god, befriends many of those that were once his enemies, and brought great change to the universe. However, while the series has built Steven up as this archetype, Steven Universe Future reminds us that’s he not perfect. Then again, that’s one of the themes about the series: no one’s perfect.

As Steven Universe nears its possible end, it’s nice to enjoy the shenanigans from its earlier days. It helps put in perspective how far we’ve come. In short, I liked these two episodes.

I Give “Bluebird” and “A Very Special Episode” each a 4/5

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