‘Rick And Morty’ Mixes Up ‘Interdimensional Cable’ With The Amazing ‘Morty’s Mind Blowers’

For the past two seasons, the eighth episodes of Rick and Morty have been, respectively, “Rixty Minutes,” and “Interdimensional Cable 2: Tempting Fate,” both absurd, clip-style shows that have given us fan favorites such as “Gazorpazorpfield,” “Ants in My Eyes Johnson,” Lil’ Bits,” and many others. You could never accuse of Justin Roiland and company of predictability though, and so for the third season — following last week’s fantastic, deeply layered “The Ricklantis Mixup” — we’re treated to “Morty’s Mind Blowers,” another clip show (and arguably the season’s funniest episode) that revisits parts of Morty’s brain that he wanted removed as to not have to remember them.

While escaping a random, spooky creature in an M. C. Escher-inspired universe, Morty’s head is filled with unspeakable horrors after looking directly into the eyes of something called the “Truth Tortoise.” (R.I.P. Truth Tortoise.) So instead of Rick’s plan to watch some Interdimensional Cable upon their return, Morty instead learns the truth about where all his bad memories have gone. “This Morty, is my archive of all the experiences you’ve begged me to remove from your life, lest you go insane. I call them Morty’s Mind Blowers,” Rick says, before getting in a meta joke to the audience: “And we’ll be doing this instead of Interdimensional Cable.”

And just what has Morty been hiding from himself? Just for starters: being responsible for the suicide of his new high school guidance counselor in “Moonspiracy” thanks to a smudge on a telescope lens; luring some innocent NASA scientists to lifelong captivity (or possibly death?) in an alien menagerie escape attempt; and being directly responsible for another alien creature spending eternity being tormented in hell instead of the “orgasmic” afterlife he was promised by a hero’s death, among many, many others.

They’re not all Morty screw-ups, of course, as some “Mind Blowers” involve Morty’s various existential crises thanks to Rick, Summer, and Beth, while others involve memories that Rick wanted removed from Morty’s head — such as Morty ridiculing Rick for thinking the phrase was “taking things for granite” in one of the most laugh-out-loud moments from the episode.

Things predictably go awry when Morty freaks out and goes after Rick, and in the ensuing melee they accidentally erase each others’ minds and then have to revisit the memories in an attempt to figure out who they are. Of course, that only leads to them getting pissed off at one another again. Thankfully, Summer happens upon her brother and grandpa about to engage in a suicide pact, but is coolly prepared for this (as well as a number of mind blower scenarios, as apparently this is not the first time this has happened) and sets everything right again — albeit to zero appreciation on their part.

While maybe not the overall strongest episode of the season, “Morty’s Mind Blowers” was arguably the funniest, as Morty’s pain and humiliation often makes for the best gags. We’re down to only two episodes left in season three! And then… who knows when we’ll see more Rick and Morty. Here’s hoping they bring back Evil Morty in the finale, because judging by the previews for next week’s episode it doesn’t look like it’ll happen then.

Random Notes (in an episode basically made up of random notes):

* Rick’s “taking a shit” joke got hilariously repurposed from the premiere episode: “Well now I know their religion is real, they have a hell and it does not look good. Hey, I noticed you never finished your chimichanga, I got some room for it now if you know what I mean.”

* Poor Beebo!

* Loved Summer’s meta shout-out to the alleged behind-the-scenes fighting that supposedly led to production delays: “No wonder your constantly fighting with each other and behind schedule.”

* We definitely need an episode of Jerry’s Mind Blowers in season four now, right? Frigging Jerry.

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