The Second Season finale is packed with growth, betrayal, and birdseed!

SUMMARY

The Smith/Sanchez family are eating breakfast when a “courier flap” arrives with an invitation to Birdperson’s (Dan Harmon) wedding to Summer’s (Spencer Grammer) friend Tammy (Cassie Steele). Rick (Justin Roiland) doesn’t want to go, but he accidentally sends Jerry (Chris Parnell) to the wedding, forcing him to attend with Summer, Morty (Roiland), and Beth (Sarah Chalke). They arrive at the wedding and are greeted by Squanchy (Tom Kenny). The Smith family starts to mingle with the wedding guests while Rick is grouchy and bitter about everything. Beth tries to find out some information about Rick’s past from Birdperson, who indicates that Rick is a high-level fugitive. Morty tells Rick he needs to open himself up more.

Birdperson and Tammy get married and Rick, uncharacteristically, takes Morty’s advice and states that he’s going to open himself up to new experiences, giving a very nice toast to the couple. However, in response, Tammy reveals that she’s a deep-cover agent for the Galactic Federation and kills Birdperson. Rick detonates his portal gun to create a distraction and the family flees on a spaceship. Unable to return to Earth, Rick takes the family to a small planet.

A few days later, Rick overhears Jerry talking to the family about turning Rick in. Everyone else is willing to sacrifice their lives in the name of keeping Rick around, but Jerry points out that Rick would never reciprocate. Rick then decides to surrender himself to the authorities so that his family can be sent back to Earth. Sensing this is going to happen, Morty tells Rick that he won’t forgive him for leaving again, but Rick still turns himself in, being imprisoned for “everything.” The family returns to Earth where Jerry is given a job by the Federation.

END SUMMARY

This episode shocked me when I first watched it. I never really figured Rick and Morty for the kind of show to do a long cliff-hanger, which I guess is what made it so effective. Additionally, Rick’s seeming change of character at the end of the episode, finally putting his family ahead of himself, really knocked me for a loop, because, again, that’s not a Rick and Morty thing to do.

This was truly the culmination of the series thus far. It has references to a number of prior episodes and actually completes several plotlines, ranging from Tammy and Birdperson’s romance to Jerry’s unemployment. The end of the episode even brings back Mr. Poopybutthole from “Total Rickall” to do the wrap-up. It really kind of signalled that the next season of the show was going to have to do something different, but, of course, we didn’t find out what for roughly a year and a half (as Mr. Poopybutthole predicted). It actually served a similar purpose, narratively, to the Red Wedding from Game of Thrones, which is completely appropriate since it features the bride’s “family” massacring everyone at a wedding.

One of my favorite references in the entire series is also in this episode, with James Callis and Tricia Helfer voicing Tammy’s parents Pat and Donna Gueterman. Fans of Battlestar Galactica will recognize them as the actors who portray Gaius Baltar and Number Six from the series, respectively, which the characters are clearly designed to resemble. This seems to be a subtle reference to the fact that they’ll eventually be revealed as robots, similar to how characters from Battlestar Galactica were constantly being revealed as Cylons, which were humanoid robots. Or robotic humanoids, I forget.

JOKER’S THEORY CORNER

So, this episode reveals that Tammy is a deep-cover agent for the Galactic Federation, but what’s interesting is that we can guess exactly what led to her being given the assignment based on this episode. Tammy (though it is not the same Tammy) makes her first appearance in “Meeseeks and Destroy,” when Mr. Meeseeks gives a speech encouraging people to become friends with Summer. While that Tammy may not have been a deep-cover agent, since essentially every event up until the events of “Rick Potion #9” happened in both the C-137 universe and the replacement dimension, the Meeseeks speech probably happened in both. This Tammy likely deduced that Summer was a relative of Rick based on the presence of the Meeseeks and realized that she could work her way into Rick’s inner circle if she associated with Summer, such as going to the party Summer through where she met Birdperson. The question then becomes, why was she at the school in the first place?

In the pilot episode, Rick uses a portal that is actually owned and operated by the Galactic Federation (as demonstrated both by the bureaucracy and the bug-people) in order to get he and Morty home. That portal ends up placing the pair at Harry Herpson High School. While Rick’s brain-waves are untraceable due to Morty’s proximity, Rick had just entered those coordinates into a Federation transport. It seems probable that SOMEONE in the whole Federation would be able to figure out where they led, but that only got them to the school, so it makes sense that they would place an agent there. Thus, everything in this episode happens because of the pilot.

Overall, I give this episode an

A

on the Rick and Morty scale.

Wubba-Lubba-Dub-Dub, I need a drink. See you in two weeks.

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If you want to check out some more by the Joker on the Sofa, check out the 100 Greatest TV Episodes of All Time or the Joker on the Sofa Reviews.

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