Rick and Morty seems to have found its course towards a more canonical plot, however, many fans will be surprised by the clever twist the writers employ to tackle the giant space rift in the room, which does ultimately land as quite on-brand for the show.
Still, that should not detract viewers from enjoying what is arguably one of Rick and Morty’s best episodes this season, combining just the right amounts of satire, pop culture references, self-awareness, or simply outright funny moments. With a name like “Juricksic Mort”, this dinosaur-themed entry shows a fantastic take on the extinct creatures, while also addressing the pros and cons of capitalism and its role in human existence.
Despite being a prolific inventor, Rick is also a big procrastinator which is shown via Morty and the family pushing him to fix his portal gun and the dimensional tear that Evil Morty caused in the season 5 finale. Rick calls it a process, yet by now it’ll be quite evident to the audience that it’s more of a symptom of Rick’s behavior and his tendency to run away from his past or his mistakes, as well as a bit of laziness.
Nevertheless, there’s no time for that because mankind has been treated to a kind visit from alien dinosaurs who land on Earth Arrival-style to usher in a new era of human progress without violence, climate threats or most of the problems that affect modern society. The dinosaurs have transcended onto a whole new level of mindfulness that combined with their bleeding edge tech renders unnecessary so many of humanity’s threats to itself.
Social commentary is on point as the dinosaurs attend the UN just to highlight some of human’s most questionable failures such as social media, comments sections, butt implants, Crocs, fluffernutter sandwiches, and even Marvel movies. The dinosaurs concede the latter is a bit harmless, but sequelitis is certainly poked for fun when Rick and Morty laments how many Jurassic Park movies have been made or why Scott Lang is clearly not the main draw for Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.
Never mind all that then, because as humans enter this new era of peace and prosperity where food is free, no one has to work, there are no financial markets and, basically, no problems at all, the Smiths tell us why that’s not necessarily a good thing. Beth is forced to play a horse edition of Operation, Summer can no longer profit from TikTok, and nearly everyone has lost their purpose, save for a few exceptions like Rick and Jerry, with the latter’s lack of ambition being the secret behind his mastery of how to cope with these new times.
Of course, President Curtis is back, and the series nods at Netflix’s House of Cards's barbeque joint scenes where Frank Underwood often found so much wisdom, in this case assigning him the mission of getting rid of dinosaurs. Rick’s cynicism is the polar opposite of the dinosaurs’ outlook on life, and it’s hilarious to see him become personally involved with the mission out of spite, especially after the creatures gift him a portal gun that outclasses his own in every possible way.
Rick’s conclusion that dinosaurs must be hiding something in order for them to be so such noble virtue signalers sends him on a quest to other planets previously inhabited by the creatures, which again helps deliver a few fantastic jokes. As Rick finds out why those snarky asteroids keep on crashing wherever the dinosaurs live, it appears the people of earth have grown tired of their new overlords’ regime.
Perhaps best exemplified by Jerry not receiving credits for his manual on how to cope with a life of nothingness, humans become even more disgruntled when the dinosaurs are not even willing to exert violence upon the angry asteroid. The nods to popular talk show hosts like Anderson Cooper, Joe Rogan and Wendy Williams are on point, just like most of the episode’s comedy at humanity spirals back to its chaotic headlines involving the likes of Amouranth, financial doom, health crisis, climate change, among others, the usual stuff.
Finally, Rick uses his pettiness to convince the dinosaurs to blast the asteroid from Mars, though the moment finally brings the episode full circle as they leave only after fixing the dimensional tear that’s been looming over Rick and Morty for six weeks now. The episode ends with Rick fixing his inferior portal gun as he informs Morty that the show will be back to its usual from now on, though that’ll probably be easier said than done.
More than anything, "Juricksic Mort" is an example of spectacular writing that shows Rick and Morty is back to fine form, after season 5 disappointed so many fans. Rick Prime remains loose, and while the massive hole in space and Rick’s portal gun might be fixed, this is probably the show sort of falling back on track to bank on the canonical elements Rick feared losing throughout this entry.