Rick and Morty Season 5 Episode 2 - 'Mortyplicity' Spoiler Review

 The cold open for this episode was one of the best ones ever, I had no idea we would see them get murdered.  When Rick mentioned killing God, I thought that is the path the episode will follow, and then we watch as the entire family is killed.  It took me a while to catch on to the premise, but in my defence, I was too busy laughing to think too deeply about the episode while I was watching it.  The premise that a Rick clone would make another Rick clone and the story just snowballs until there is a Rickagaddon.  The episode is paying homage to Multiplicity, a 1996 comedy starring Michael Keaton and Andie MacDowell.  The film is about a normal who is stretched to his breaking point until he is approached by a doctor who offers a solution to his problem, cloning.  Michael Keaton's character clones himself to make his life easier, but eventually, the clones start cloning themselves and with each new clone they get more and more defective.  Mortyplicity is taking that premise to new science fiction heights, while also being incredibly funny.  I said in my review of episode 1 I mentioned that I like that each episode feels fresh and new, Mortyplicity does not feature any resemblance to last week's episode.  The only consistent theme in this episode is that things with Rick tend to spiral out of control, and Mortyplicity is a fantastic example of this.  

RECAPPING 'MORTYPLICITY'

The episode starts with the family having breakfast, Rick and Morty are eating quickly, and Beth inquires why, and they reply they are going to kill God.  Rick says that God is real and has been sleeping for thousands of years and they are going to sneak up and kill him.  Jerry does not like what they are going to do and tells him to not get worked up before his job interview.  Rick thinks that Jerry having a job interview is weird and before he can think the roof explodes these things drop in and kill the entire family.  We then cut to the family hunting a creature called Mr. Always who Jerry calls a starfish man in a target suit, who seems to want to be hunted.  Rick gets a message saying a decoy family has been killed, Rick tells the family to pack their things because they need to leave.  The family is arguing as they drive away when the creatures appear and incinerate the car and the family.  We then jump to the family relaxing at a resort where Rick gets a message saying another decoy family has been killed.  As that family is packing a bomb is thrown into the room which goes off and kills all of them.  We go to another Rick sitting on the couch who gets a message saying a decoy family was killed, Rick locks down the house and continues to watch When Wolf with Morty.  The house is bombed by the creatures killing everyone inside.  Rick is at the dinner table with Beth, Morty and Summer when he gets notified that a decoy family was killed.  Summer asks if the decoys know they are decoys, Rick says they don't so Summer asks if they too might be decoys.  This idea that they too might be decoys makes Rick question if they are real.  Rick asks Morty to look into his butt to see if there is a barcode, when Morty looks Rick farts in his face.  Rick calls Summer an idiot for her idea that they might not be real, Rick has a plan to take down the squid creatures.  Rick, Morty, Beth and Summer are going to hide out with a decoy family and wait for the squid creatures to show up so they can kill the creatures.  

Rick shows up at a house with the decoys, he then uses his command password to shut them down, as they inspect the house Rick realizes that the decoy was making decoys.  Rick and the family leave as Rick is now more worried about the decoys than the squid creatures.  Rick's plan is to kill all of the decoys, and when they come across another family his override passcode does not work.  Rick then hears another Rick say a different override code that now works on the decoys.  The Ricks engage in a firefight, they are all killed by another Rick who tells his family that they are stuck in an Asimov Cascade.  Rick explains that when the squid creatures started killing the decoys, decoys started checking in on their decoys and learning that their decoys are making decoys too.  Rick makes everyone wear poorly made squid costumes that smell bad, Rick finds a squid ship and shoots it down.  Rick examines the inhabitants of the squid ship; the squid creatures are another Smith family.  They are trying to figure out what is going on when a dying Jerry in a squid creature outfit kills them all with a grenade.  

We now get a short montage of decoys killing decoys, we now meet a Rick decoy family that was poorly made.  As the poorly made Rick explains that the decoy Ricks get lazier and lazier until they just make monster decoys.  The family is saved from the monster decoys by another family of decoys who are made of wood, the family is brought to a safe home where other decoy families are hiding out.  The safe home is attacked, and everyone is killed, we meet another decoy family who has given up and is waiting to be killed.  Another family is trying to kill all of the decoys in one battle by bringing them all together in one place.  A massive battle ensues where countless decoy families are killed, there is another family that is wearing a cute puppet suit watching the battle.  The puppet family arrives to mop up whatever decoys are left; it appears that they succeeded until Mr. Always kills them because they did not hunt him.  We see another Rick is in space with the family, and they met up with Space Beth; Ricks gets a notification that a decoy family was killed.  Everyone in the car/ship freaks out as the episode ends.  The post-credits scene features a wooden Jerry who escaped earlier in the episode by leaving everyone else behind to die is floating down a river until a group of beavers start watching him.  Wooden Jerry tries to swim away but he is caught by the beavers and is used to build a dam.  Jerry then wakes up many years later and is found by a giant woodpecker alien, Jerry's head is placed atop a mirror in an alien cowboy saloon.  When he starts talking the patrons rip the mirror from the wall smash it and start burning it.  Jerry wakes up to find himself being used on a cross to crucify people as the episode ends for real now.  

MY THOUGHTS ON 'MORTYPLICITY'

As a concept I really enjoyed the episode, I thought it was very funny while also tackling another interesting science fiction idea in cloning.  I love the explanation that Ricks are lazy and that eventually they make defective clones as a result of them cutting corners.  Rick creating a clone of himself can only ever be a bad thing, as seen with the council of Ricks.  Ricks are too egomaniacal, narcissistic, and arrogant to not try to be exceptional and outsmart everyone.  Rick has always been my favourite character on the show, I tend to like cynical, sarcastic, smart characters who are also jerks.  Rick is the type of guy who just makes enemies, we've met a few of his allies, but he is such an unlikeable person most people he meets end up hating him.  In Mortyplicity we meet another enemy of Rick; himself, someone as smart and dangerous as he is.  The chaotic nature of the episode had me on edge all episode long, you never knew if the family you were spending time with in that moment was our Smith family or just another clone family.  I hope we get to see more of Mr. Always, he was an interesting character who as soon as I saw him, I had questions like Jerry did.  We are only two episodes in, and I am leaning towards saying this has been the best first two episodes of a season yet.

Stay tuned for my review of Rick and Morty season five episode three, I hope you enjoyed my review and let me know what you thought of Mortyplicity.