By the end of the penultimate episode of Rick and Morty‘s third season, “The ABCs of Beth,” we weren’t sure if Beth was real Beth or clone Beth and, as I wrote in my recap, “given Harmon and company’s insistence for fans to not read too deeply into things, I suspect we never will.” Well, consider the egg on my face, because — instead of circling back with Evil Morty, the Citadel, or even Bird (I mean, Phoenix Person) — the season three finale, “The Rickchurian Mortydate,” dealt heavily with Beth’s existential crisis at whether or not she was a clone or real, with the resolution that she was in fact Rick’s daughter. Maybe? Well, that remains to be seen. But we got as airtight of a conclusion as we’re going to get from Rick and Morty, for at least the time being. And in a meta episode filled with copious in-jokes and nods to fans, Rick took on the dang President of the United States in one of the series best ever fight scenes. (I would say the best but “Pickle Rick” is kind of hard to top.)
The episode begins with Rick and Morty getting a call from the aforementioned Commander-in-Chief (Keith David reprising his role, previously seen in “Get Schwifty”) to deal with “some kind of alien goo-gah” that’s infested the Kennedy sex tunnels. After locating and shooting at the alien dog creature, however, the two realize what a boring adventure the president has sent them on, and, disgruntled at being “treated like Ghostbusters,” retreat back to the family home to play Minecraft.
Unfortunately for them, the White House quickly catches on to their ruse (“You lying dicks, I see your asses playing Minecraft, I got you on satellite!”), which triggers a pissing match fueled by Rick’s irritation at the president refusing to take a selfie with Morty and the president’s frustration at Rick constantly being two steps ahead of him and powerless to do anything about it. When the president later makes contact with a miniature, nuclear-capable civilization using 1970s shrinking technology that will probably give him cancer, he finds that Rick has already beaten him to the punch.
Upon returning to his natural size, he declares war on Rick and Morty, only to learn that while he was the the mini-verse, the two have also facilitated peace between Israel and Palestine with a “Pretty Obvious If you Think About It” accord. He declares a nationwide manhunt, but of course — of course — they’re already waiting for him in the Oval Office to fully rub in their superiority and demand a selfie. This leads to the epic action scene previously mentioned, but in the end, Morty doesn’t even want his selfie because he’s taken Rick’s portal gun to reunite with his family, who have since gone into hiding from Rick.
The reason for the family going into hiding is naturally because of Beth’s inability to figure out whether or not she’s a clone, and the realization that Rick will terminate her if that turns out to be the case now that she’s self-aware. While Rick does claim that Beth is his daughter, there’s no way of knowing for sure, so the odds of an enlightened universe-traveled version of Beth turning back up at some point might possibly be in the cards. Or not! Since obviously, trying to predict this show is a completely fruitless endeavor. In the end, possibly-or-maybe-not Clone Beth reunites with Jerry, to Rick’s dismay, in thinking that the Real Beth was a “sociopath crazy bitch” who left her family. In one of the many meta jokes in the episode, Beth notes that now that the family is back together, it’ll be like “season one, only more streamlined.”
Random notes:
– Rick and Morty continues to know its audience with White House guard’s dialogue watching football on TV: “Come on, football! Play football!”
– I love how they dismissed the Minecraft storyline by Rick saying, “South Park did it four years ago,” in what was probably also a dig at how long seasons of Rick and Morty take to produce compared to the more timely animated series.
– Jerry not being able to light a match and needing Beth to do it for him in the cabin was a nice touch. It’s good to have stupid old Jerry back.
– What did Panda Express ever do to Rick and Morty? “Did you get sugar chicken?” “That’s kind of the only thing they have.” Sure, it’s no McDonald’s Mulan Szechuan Sauce…
– Hooray for the post-credits return of Mr. Poopybutthole, who has apparently been busy since last season. Here’s hoping that he won’t actually have a long white beard and grandchildren by the time season four finally comes out. Guess it’s time to endlessly rewatch season three now?
