The typical Rick and Morty cold open involves some member of the Smith family getting killed or abducted, it isn't really a surprise anymore. It's just a strong signal that the episode is going to involve multiple Smith families floating around, and it does that well enough, but isn't entertaining in its own right for me.
This is an episode of cold opens strung together into a plot, and for the first three minutes, that's a drag. After a period of fatigue with the concept of Smith families getting killed by mysterious squids, the gimmick comes into its own, allowing for an episode that really doubles down on the nihilism, brings in a darker tone, and really surrenders itself to whatever creative ideas the creators had kicking around in their heads. This is all while building up to the fantastic climactic sequence of the episode skillfully.
I'd say this episode is a close relative of The Ricklantis Mixup and Total Rickall, two of my favorite episodes of the show. What makes those episodes great, and what makes Mortyplicity great, is having a premise that uses the dysfunction of the characters to its advantage. In Ricklantis Mixup, this comes in the form of Rick being inherently a jerk, even to himself, and to Morty, and expanding this out to a social scale where it can be used as an allegory for the US as we know it. In Total Rickall, it's having brain parasites that can only be defeated by realizing that the people you know and actually love as real people are all flawed and annoying and at times insufferable, given other fake people to interact with who are perfect by comparison. Here, the premise is used to really show what a war of the ricks would look like, with sci-fi gadgets turning the war into a constant and unending chain of hit and run attacks that kill very quickly, leaving the victors to probably be killed quickly themselves.
The show has long made gestures at character growth, always without it actually sticking. Heartfelt moments between characters, arguments that end with a meaningful resolution, arcs that solve problems, all shown and then abandoned so the show can maintain its present tone. This episode is that dynamic firing on all cylinders, where you'll see Smith families that are perfectly happy and Smith families that have become Texas Chainsaw Massacre scenarios. There's a dedication to showing the entire breadth of the spectrum that this episode winds up being intriguingly heartwarming and horrifying while maintaining a realness to the bickering most of the Smith families go through.
The art direction was on point throughout the episode. Locations familiar and new are portrayed beautifully, and I can confidently say this concept would have been impossible to do if not in the medium of animation. The various copy of a copy deformities in some Smith Families look great. I love the wooden marionette versions with their tinny voiceboxes and wooden contraptions, and the cloth puppet Smith family is really cute.
I think this'll remain one of the best loved episodes of the show. It starts from an interesting premise and goes above and beyond expectations to deliver something memorable, and it's good to know the writers haven't stopped trying to deliver that sort of episode.
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