Snakes
I wasn’t a big fan of last week’s episode. The fantasy story felt awkwardly implemented next to the subplot of Jerry and the talking cat. Thankfully, Rick and Morty peels off the proverbial corpse of last week’s episode to deliver a classic dose of sci-fi humour, one that intertwines a clever amount of time travel references with topical issues including race and extinction. The episode itself starts innocently enough, with Rick hitting a flat tyre out in space. Morty is bitten by a space snake and despite managing to inject him with anti-venom, the death of the space snake hits the young boy hard. Determined to make amends, Morty buys a snake and takes it to the snake world. This sets up a time travelling adventure with Terminator, Back To The Future and other pop culture references cropping up throughout the episode. Alongside this is a subplot involving Jerry, who’s injected with a serum, courtesy of Rick, that allows him to float. Unfortunately in classic Jerry style, things go awry and he finds himself floating around, refusing to accept Rick’s help and trying to solve his predicament himself. This inevitably converges with the snake timeline late on as things settle down and end with a fourth wall break and the teasing glimpses of a paradox which is where the episode ends. Rick and Morty does a wonderful job getting back on track this week with an episode chock full of easter eggs and cleverly written jokes. The silent montages involving the snake touching down on the planet and the ensuing anarchy surrounding that is beautifully orchestrated, especially given the lack of dialogue during these segments. From a letter reading “sss” through to snake frequencies and snake jazz, the entire episode crams in as many jokes and ideas into the 20 minutes as possible. The result is an episode that bows out Part 1 on a high and leaves the door wide open for more adventures going forward. Quite what lies in store for our duo however, remains to be seen.
