It has been a long time between the previous episode of Rick and Morty and the most recent one, leaving one to wonder if the show has the same thrust given that it was 18 months ago. When that season finale aired: Obama was still president, everyone was a little more “woke”, and the upward arc of history was considered to largely be aiming towards good. Now the world is very different: it is one where satire may very well be dead under our current president and the snarky nihilism that pervaded has become more common than ever in our pop culture diet. So, the question becomes whether the show can jump back into things, and retain what made it unique in such a different world where the dark underbelly and the shell are now becoming the same. The answer, of course, is absolutely yes.

The show does take a bit of time to play with the new status quo that season 2 left (i.e Rick being incarcerated, Earth becoming a galactic power, Morty losing all faith in Rick.), but this is Rick and Morty, so sentiment and regret are moved past fairly quickly. The show does a great job of taking the building blocks the past two seasons accumulated and knocking them down.

The episode also does a pretty great job of bringing things up to speed and moving quickly. While things are fairly low stakes the continuity gags come quickly: from Morty returning to his original universe, to Rick engineering a situation where Jerry is gone for good and Morty is under his thumb. It’s all anchored under false memories: McDonald’s Schezuan sauce and a familiar proclamation of “9 seasons and a movie”.

While the release tactic was a great gimmick, it’s gladdening to see that the downtime was used well. Yes, it’s a tad annoying to wait it all out till the summer but the cast, as usual, does bring its all. I do hope Chris Parnell will still be around as Jerry, but it’s good to see that Justin Roiland and Dan Harmon are willing to shake the formula up. The new season is definitely going to have a lot to compete with, and I for one am excited to see what’s next.

4 Portal Guns out of 5

• It was nice to see the return of the original (now Cronenberged) universe, especially with what can only be described as hulked out Jerry.
• I don’t know if I was necessarily surprised, but its nice to see the return of Bird– er Phoenixperson.