If Rick and Morty is really known for anything, it's pushing the boundaries of its storytelling into unexpected places. That, and its oddball sci-fi sense of humor combined with sometimes surprising emotional heft. Unfortunately, this week's episode, "A Rickconvenient Mort," falls short on those lofty goals, choosing instead to tell two fleet stories that leave a lot to be desired in terms of both story and thematic elements.
"A Rickconvenient Mort" was written by Rob Schrab, a longtime collaborator of Dan Harmon's. Schrab directed episodes of Community and also worked with Harmon on The Sarah Silverman Program. Unfortunately, their creative chemistry in other endeavors doesn't really translate here.
The episode begins with Morty becoming smitten with Planetina, an ageless Captain Planet stand-in whose penchant for bad jokes is matched only by her dedication to saving the Earth. Voiced by Community alum Alison Brie, Planetina comes off mostly as a one-note character, but one who could have been explored in a much deeper way. The idea that she is restrained by her "kids" and that when let loose will resort to straight-up murder to protect the environment, falls by the wayside as the episode opts for a shallow love story.
Planetina's turn to full-blown murderer also comes a little too quick. While there needs to be some economy in storytelling for a 30-minute animated show, there should be a little more to explain her turn than just a quick montage that sees her going from putting out forest fires to throwing a molotov cocktail through the window of a governor's mansion.
On a deeper level, Morty and Planetina's relationship never comes off as more than a teenage boy becoming obsessed with a woman whom he knows so little about. By the end of the episode, when Morty and Planetina break up, there are no emotional stakes. Morty crying to Beth that Planetina is gone doesn't hit home the same way as Rick's depressive state at the end of "Auto Erotic Assimilation." There is some connective tissue in the episode that seems to be hinting at Beth and Jerry's annoyance that their kids don't listen to them or respect what they have to say, but this idea is never fully developed, nor does it come off as more than a plot contrivance to push Morty and Planetina closer together.
The episode's B-story feels much more like classic Rick and Morty, or in this case, Rick and Summer. While Morty is off with Planetina, Rick and his granddaughter make plans to hop between three planetary apocalypses, allowing them to party hard without any consequences. While both initially agree to have no attachments at the beginning of their trek, Rick quickly goes back on that promise by letting a Morglutzian named Daphne come along for the ride, much to Summer's chagrin.
While this story is far more in line with what audiences might expect from a Rick And Morty episode, it still falls short of expectations. The story never gets much deeper than Summer is mad at Rick for breaking their agreement and adding a third wheel to their hard-partying adventure. More than anything, the B-story feels mostly like an opportunity to explore some new planets and throw out some jokes about what alien civilizations would do if their entire planet was about to be destroyed (this does, however, result in a funny moment when a planet is being sucked into a black hole. Its inhabitants, realizing the horror of the situation, wonder aloud "This is awful, why were we cheering?").
Unfortunately, this is the real issue with the episode: it's a collection of some funny moments in stories that aren't compelling enough to make them stick. While the season's first episode, "Mort Dinner Rick Andre," was packed with references peppered in by writer Jeff Loveness, "A Rickconvenient Mort" depends on its main point of reference, Captain Planet, to drive most of the episode. Despite leaning heavily on other source material for its inspiration, the episode also doesn't have that much to say about Captain Planet or the corporate-driven environmentalism of the 90s.
There does seem to be some thematic crossover between both stories in "A Rickconvenient Mort," with the idea of saving the Earth played against three planets (well, two really, which results in a truly uncomfortable end-credits scene) falling to cataclysmic events. However, just like everything else in the episode, there is little to be gleaned from this.
So far, the fifth season of Rick and Morty appears to be losing steam. "A Rickconvenient Mort" feels closer to "Mortyplicity," in that both episodes rest on one idea, and try to play it out without any significant twists, turns, or meta-commentary. The only way in which this most recent episode improves on the former is that it at least strived to also deliver a B-story, even if it fell short of expectations. Like any other show, it's impossible to expect Rick and Morty to be firing on all cylinders all the time, but considering that the latest season is only three episodes in and two of them fell flat in their execution, it's hard to know whether the rest of the season can pick up the slack.