Warning: This contains spoilers for Rick and Morty Season 4, Episodes 1-3.

Episode 1: Edge of ToMorty; Rick, Die, Rickpeat

Episode 1 was a treat. We saw Rick and Morty begin together, collecting Death Crystals, but when Morty sees a death he wants to achieve, he starts acting irrational and kills Rick accidentally. Rick is caught in an endless cycle of dying again and again, after being revived (is that the right word?) through other universes’ Ricks’ cloning stations. Morty on the other hand, goes on a rampage of sorts, trying to achieve death with Jessica, as the crystal predicts. As a whole, the episode moves at a good pace, leaving viewers satisfied at the end. The first major scene is certainly when Morty is going out of control and gets Rick thrown out of the vehicle and killed. If you’re like me you saw this and thought “Holy @$*% what just happened to Rick,” but if you look at the title of the episode, you had to see this coming. The only question now is, how does Rick come back to life? Ultimately, he comes back through those cloning stations, which makes sense to a point. The fact that Rick can’t really die however, in my mind, creates some big things to think about. Every time a Rick dies, it is no longer significant. When Rick and Morty switch to another universe where Rick killed them both, we now have to think that Rick is very possibly still alive, among several other Ricks that have died through the series. Morty’s storyline, on the other hand, also has some interesting ideas it presents or reinforces. While we love Morty, we all understand that Morty, based on what we learn should be incredibly stupid. However, there are exceptions. Evil Morty is one clear exception. Another exception, I would argue, is our own Morty. Through episodes like this we can see that, while Morty has a dumb lust for Jessica, he can be rather smart. The way he uses the crystal to find out things he doesn’t know is impressive, not to mention how awesome his reaction to that bully is. The episode contains several thoughts for the future, along with its good storylines, giving it a perfect 10 Morties.

Verdict: 10/10 Morties

Episode 2: The Old Man and the Seat

Episode 2 was, in my opinion, not as good as your average Rick and Morty episode. As an independent episode, I would say “not bad,” but with these standards, it wasn’t entertaining. Rick’s storyline, had a solid idea, but wasn’t given enough attention over the dating app, even though the episode was named for this storyline. The dating app storyline absolutely sucked. Personal take: Beth and Summer are the worst characters in the family and all their stories suck. This storyline was a prime example to prove my opinion. Rick’s storyline, on the other hand, had so much potential, but it was overshadowed by the attention that the show gave the dating app. Rick’s storyline then had to jump around through key points way too quickly. They create a friend for Rick and kill him off when we haven’t even really known him. Ultimately, it was a crappy episode for Rick and Morty. The only reason this isn’t 0/10 Morties, is the idea of Rick’s storyline. Not even the execution. This could be the worst episode in the entire series. A disappointment early in season 4.

Verdict: 1/10 Morties

Episode 3: The Old Man and the Seat

Episode 3 was a return to quality Rick and Morty. The episode was our first episode this season with one centralized plot line, and not two plots at once. The simplicity helped a lot, as the content got more confusing, but one of the few issues I had from this episode may have derived from our single centralized plot. With the singular plot, the episode felt like it moved too quick. I felt like the plot was finished 8 and a half minutes in to a 20 minute episode. Other than this, I had one other major complaint, that being the redundancy of the constant reveals. While yes, it hammered down the mockery of heist storylines, it was too much. Not to say you shouldn’t expect too much though, because it is Rick and Morty, but there was a point when the reveals, especially the “I programmed you to…” happened too much. Beyond these two issues, the episode was really good, and in the end, showed Rick’s mind in possibly smarter way than most would imagine. His ability to create an entire adventure with world-ending possibilities just in order to destroy an idea that Morty has is both slightly evil and incredibly impressive. It also shows a deep understanding of emotions we wouldn’t expect in Rick and it shows him as a strategist rather than just the smartest entrepreneur in the world. The quality plot of this episode, along with the interactions between Rick and Morty earned this episode a higher rating than Episode 2.

Verdict: 8/10 Morties

Overall

The first three episodes have been mostly good with one episode tainting its quality. The first episode was definitely the best episode, with the third episode following closely, and the second episode dragging far behind. With the quality of the third episode, the second episode seems to be simply a bad episode, rather than a dangerous trend. The first and third episodes give promise to season 4, outweighing disappointment in episode 2. While these first three episodes were nice, they have no clear tie-ins to any larger plots, leaving us still waiting for more evil Morty, among other continuous plot lines in the series.