If season six wasn’t already a return to form, Rick and Morty quashed any doubts in episode five (‘Final DeSmithation’) with an undercover heist adventure propelled by Jerry’s fear of sexual relations with his mother. Incest has a rich history in the series (hello, Giant Incest Baby) but it hasn’t been presented quite like this before.
Plot snapshot: After a fortune cookie predicts Jerry will have sex with his mother, his paranoia leads him to the controlling fate-wielders responsible for the fortune cookies at American Chinese restaurant chain, Panda Express.
Who’s in this episode?
Rick and Jerry: As Jerry becomes obsessed about the likelihood of his fortune coming true, Rick uses a probability tool to discover something’s awry with the fortune’s inevitability. This leads them to the secret HQ of Fortune 500, led by Jenith Padrow-Chunt, who has cornered the market in selling fate for profit. The catch? Until your fortune is resolved, you’re immortal.
This leads to a showdown against Jenith’s guards (armed with “fighting fortunes”) and an imprisoned alien, who has a digestive disorder which is creating concrete outcomes. As Rick puts it, “fortune cookies are alien poop”. As a black hole opens, Rick sacrifices the monster and the power of unlimited fortunes to save Jerry from having sex with his mother.
Jenith Padrow-Chunt: The leader of Fortune 500, clearly modelled after Gwyneth Paltrow and her “one-woman lifestyle brand”, inexplicably transforms into a deformed monster after Rick fulfils her fortune of becoming the most successful business woman on Earth. Now no longer immortal, she is eaten by the very monster she’s profited from. Poetic justice.
Old Man Hucksby: This new character is the one responsible for Jerry’s dilemma. He’s been crafting absurd fortunes, like sex with mothers, and promises a COVID-19 style apocalypse (“please come help or a virus will shut down the world”) if Fortune 500 doesn’t succeed. His motivation? So he can get married to the alien monster pooping out the fortunes, without consent. For his creepy intentions, he’s also (spoiler) eaten by the beast in the final act.
Morty, Summer, Beth and Space Beth: After mocking Jerry (who is too paranoid to leave the house) for taking his fortune so seriously, the rest of the family go on their planned trip to the zoo without him. As shown in the post-credits sequence, Jerry’s addiction to eating the Zebra snacks is no longer an abnormality, as the rest in attendance riot and kill each other when the supply runs out. “Are we the ones in the zoo? Oh that’s the twist, it’s a human zoo, got it,” a disappointed Morty remarks on the predictable turn.
Important to note
Aside from a blackhole which nearly blasted Rick and Jerry to another dimension, this was the second episode in a row set entirely on a version of Earth – albeit in the HQ of Fortune 500.
Spot the reference
- Taxi: After Morty and Summer mention the theme from the 1978 sitcom has gone viral on TikTok, the track titled ‘Angela’ by Bob James plays during Rick’s assault on Panda Express.
- Sailor Moon: Rick and Jerry’s undercover transformation is spun through a “re-usable Sailor Moon sequence”, inspired by the manga series.
- Pokémon: During the fight with the super-powered guards, Rick exclaims “maybe I can Pokémon this shit” as he uses the power of water against fire.
- Gwyneth Paltrow: While the character of Jenith Padrow-Chunt is clearly inspired by the actor, the line that she “begins every morning by dragging my perfect vagina across Chinese silver grass” seems to be a nod to Paltrow’s vagina candles.
- Billy Zane: The actor, known best for his role as Caledon Hockley in Titanic, is noted as being in attendance during Fortune 500’s investor summit, next to prime ministers Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates.
- Dancing With The Stars: A man opens a fortune cookie which guarantees he’ll be a contestant on the US equivalent of Strictly Come Dancing.
- Nintendo: Rick refers to the gaming company when exclaiming why they don’t make fortunes with better outcomes, saying: “At least get Nintendo to make a portable VR headset.”
- Cookie Monster: Rick mentions the Sesame Street character as a possible culprit behind Fortune 500 due to the cookie connection.
- The X-Files: As Jerry becomes increasingly paranoid about his incestuous fortune, Rick exclaims: “It’s not an X-File Jerry, you got the world’s last interesting fortune.”
Is Space Beth a regular cast member now?
Space Beth makes an unexpected brief appearance as she joins the family trip to the zoo. This comes after season six episode three, ‘Bethic Twinstinct’, where she engages in a threesome with Beth and Jerry, in what seemingly settled the issue of her romance fling with Beth.
Her appearance here, however brief, is perhaps a sign the writers could return to that storyline sooner than we might think. If it isn’t the dynamic between Beths, her continued presence could be an indicator of another storyline floating in space – namely Naruto, the Incest Baby from Morty and Summer, who she referenced in episode three.
Where is Evil Morty?
Unless you count Morty trapping Jerry in the closet with a stuffed doll version of his mother, Evil Morty’s presence was sorely absent – though fans continue to theorise his grand return
Fan theory of the week
Ever wondered why we haven’t seen a living version of Diane Sanchez, Rick’s wife, in the many universes across the show? A theory from Redditor Cloudsbursting offers a compelling answer, suggesting the ‘Central Finite Curve’ was established as a consequence of Diane’s survival, who they believe could have been the smartest being in the universe.
Evil Morty has previously suggested Rick can’t handle the idea of anyone being smarter than him. In another read of the possibilities, the theory suggests, “perhaps on his quest to hunt for Rick Prime, he learned of horrible, existential consequences to the multiverse resulting from Diane’s survival”. In other words, the CFC was perhaps created to save all these universes from catastrophe at the expense of Diane. The love of Rick’s life sacrificed to protect the future of the universe? It ticks every Rick and Morty box possible.