REVIEW: ‘Rick and Morty,’ Season 4, Episode 1 – “Edge of Tomorty: Rick Die Rickpeat”

Rick and Morty Episode 1 finally hit the air after a two long year hiatus. The show centers around the weekly misadventures of two characters. One is Rick Sanchez, a crazed scientist who happens to be the universes brightest mind, and often toys with the fabric of nature, just for fun. The other, his grandson Morty Smith, an awkward teenager who is often missing school as he gets dragged on his Grandpa’s ill-explained quests.

The shows creators, Justin Roiland and Dan Harmon, identified the extended break being due to extensive contract negotiations. To be fair, the negotiations came through in gangbusters as they landed a 70 new episode extension.

Rick and Morty Episode 1, titled “Edge of Tomorty: Rick Die Rickpeat” was directed by Erica Hayes, and written by Mike McMahan. The show opens up with the Smith family enjoying breakfast together, while Morty creepily stares at his high school crush Jessica on Instagram. Rick becomes instantly bored and tries to take Morty on adventure.

As Rick finds out, Season 4 is different now. Beth and Jerry pump the brakes on Rick being able to dominate the family choices, especially when it comes to going on adventures with Morty. Grudgingly, and through bared teeth, Rick asks permission from Morty if he’d like to accompany him to Forbodulon Prime to mine death crystals.

The death crystals show the wielder how they will die. Some around the galaxy pay top dollar to own these crystals to avoid their inevitable death. This brings us to Ricks motivation, earning money from people will spend their  remaining time alive, avoid death, and not living at all. This is why you come to Rick and Morty, for the meta commentary, and comedy.

Morty, who has pocketed one of these crystals, receives a vision of the future. As he lays on his deathbed, an elderly Jessica comforts him and tells Morty she loves him. Seeing the conceptualization of his future, Morty begins to make some rash decisions, as he lets the death crystal guide him to the future he most wants.

This takes on a wildly aggressive form as Morty evades the police, as seen in man of the commercial clips used to promote the show, using a very Akira like style of survival in the pursuit of his happiness.

Meanwhile, Rick, through unforeseen circumstances is trying to get back to his own reality to stop Morty. He is briefly kidnapped from one of his alternate grandson’s in a dimension where fascism is the popular political choice, as he continues to hit a multitude of obstacles, and start right back in a completely new reality.

I was a little worried about the premier episode of Season 4. Given the success of prior seasons, the hype around the show landing a whopping 70 episode extension from Adult Swim, and the two year break, I was concerned maybe the magic may have left. This would be easily explainable seeing how many people work within an animated series and not having work for two years would cause those same creatives to look elsewhere and possibly engage in something more long term.

All that being said, Rick and Morty Episode 1 doesn’t miss a beat. It feels like the show has barely been off the air. The animation itself was as high quality as ever. Within this episode you’ll witness Rick and Morty as you’ve never seen them before, with as many as 5 alternate dimension versions featured in the episode.

The comedy was brilliant, with the dialogue coming thick and fast, and on point as ever. Rick slays the episode with his truth telling sarcastic, nothing matters diatribe against the universe, while Morty kills it with his rash and impetuous teenage decision making. The writers, not wanting to miss an opportunity to provide social commentary on the current political climate, have Rick question at one point that why has fascism become the default in these other dimensions.

The premier episode wouldn’t be complete without a meta reference to what Rick wants out the coming season, and future episodes of Rick and Morty. So if you found yourself wondering if the tradition that started in Season 1 episode 1 would continue, then fear not. It was a completely new take, and funny as hell!

Episode 1 of Season 4 was fantastically delivered. If you’ve never seen the show, I actually think this is a great jumping off point to learn about what Rick and Morty is all about, and why it’s so massively popular. For previous fans of the show, this has everything you’d want including multitudes of references from past seasons.

Ultimately this was a brilliant episode, and I’m sure there’s a lot of more of a meta reference here I’m missing, but in the words of Rick plucked right from “Edge of Tomorty: Rick Die Repeat”: “There’s a lesson here, and I’m not going to be the one to figure it out.”

In the final clip of the premiere episode, the show took a second to honor one of their own who sadly passed away just two months ago. Mendel was previously a producer since the inception of the show.

Rick and Morty airs every Sunday at 11.30 PM EST on Adult Swim.