Dinosaurs are Back. Rick Don’t Like That
Rick and Morty S6, Ep 6 Review
Well, once again, the balance between one-off adventures and canonical has shifted for Rick and Morty once more. Season 6 opened up with almost everything changed. The Citadel of Ricks got destroyed, Rick’s iconic Portal Gun stopped working, and it looked like it would remain this way for the rest of the season. I genuinely thought we’d get this season-long arc of Rick fixing the Portal Gun in the background while the Smith family keeps asking him to do so. It turns out that a whole season amounted to little more than half, though. However, it’s why Rick fixes the Portal Gun that makes this episode so funny, and it involves Dinosaurs.
Dinosaurs Come Back!
On what should be a normal day (Morty goes to school), Earth is invaded by yet another group of aliens. Except it’s not actually aliens; it’s Dinosaurs!
In one of the most surprising twists of Rick and Morty, it turns out that Dinosaurs weren’t just amazing giants. They were actually a sentient species that left Earth to bring peace and love to the universe. Now they finally return to their homeworld, only to find the rest of them dead, humans in charge, and obsessed with making Marvel movies. So, they tell humanity that they’re going to take things from here, and proceed to create a perfect utopia.
That’s not good for the human race as a whole, though. Most people complain about all the amazing things that they would do if they had the extra free time to do so. However, most people would also realize that if they actually had all that free time, they wouldn’t know what to do with it. In other words, people need problems to fix and issues to resolve to give their lives meaning. Rick’s one of the only people who’s fine with how things are, and the other one is Jerry, who embraces the chance to teach his ways of mediocrity to mankind.
Rick v Dinosaurs
Inevitably, though, Rick gets drawn into this Dinosaur dilemma by the President, who promises to let him host the next Oscars. However, it becomes personal for Rick when the Dinosaurs prove not only morally better than him, but smarter. They create a new Portal Gun for him out of nothing, which infuriates Rick to no end. If there’s one thing Rick hates, it’s knowing that he’s gotten one-upped by someone!
As a result, Rick does what he does best: bringing so-called superior beings down to his level. He can’t stand the idea that someone could be smarter than him, yet uncynical about life. That there are beings in the universe that can actually make it a better place; because if there were, then that means he wasted his life.
As it turns out, though, even the universe itself seems to agree with Rick’s beliefs. A trip to each planet the Dinosaur’s visited reveals that they were all wiped out, with their fossils being all that remains. To counteract the Dinosaur’s perfection, a species of hate-filled, angry sentient meteorites whose sole purpose in life is to destroy everything the Dinosaurs touch. It’s right up there with the screaming sun in terms of how ridiculous it is.
The Portal Gun is Back!
Ultimately, Rick gets what he wanted in the end by forcing the Dinosaurs to sink to his level. Even when they nobly leave Earth and plan to let the meteor kill them, Rick refuses to let them win the moral high-ground. Thus, he intentionally puts himself in harm’s way to make them destroy the meteor, thus compromising their beliefs. It’s amazing just how petty Rick can be.
In the end, though, the Dinosaurs get the last laugh by sealing up the rift left by Evil Morty, which infuriates Rick, who wanted to milk that plot thread for as long as possible. Mad because he can no longer do this, Rick decides, “screw it,” and proceeds to fix the Portal Gun.
Classic Rick and Morty Adventures to Come
So, one of the big plot threads from the end of Season Five ends just like that. If it were any other show, I’d call this a cop-out. However, Rick and Morty likes doing stuff like this to mess with fans. It’s the struggle of canon vs. one-off adventures. I doubt that this will mean the end to everything that Evil Morty unleashed. The Citadel’s still gone, the Central Finite Curve could be broken once more. In addition, if our Rick could fix Portal Tech, then you can bet that Rick Prime will do so as well.
Regardless, this was yet another banger of an episode. Rick and Morty, Season 6 is the best the show’s been in years, and I’m just sad that we have to wait a month for the remainder of the episodes to air. Until then, though, we got the image of Dinosaurs skateboarding to tide us over.
I Give “JuRicksic Mort” a 4/5
Click here to see my other animation stuff.
Categories
Adult Cartoons, Animation, Blog Posts, Rick and Morty, TV Shows