Rick & Morty S01E11 Review: The One With The Finale

Rick and Morty, Season 1, Episode 11: Ricksy Business

While the previous episode might be a huge, more serious episode that would fit a season finale, I actually think that thematically using an episode like "Ricksy Business" as the season finale is a pretty interesting decision. Ultimately, Rick and Morty isn't suddenly aiming to transition from a gag-an-episode season into a serialized, plot-heavy sci-fi story. And while it's certainly proven that it's not afraid to be a bit heavier in its plot, at its core the show is still going to be mostly episode-contained comedy first and foremost. And as such, the final episode of the first season honestly feels more like... just a generic "our main characters have a lark" episode. The trope we're parodying is a bunch of children get into trouble by setting up a party while the parents are away, with the twist, of course, being that instead of it just being the teenage Summer that invites all her friends over, Rick also calls in a bunch of his extra-dimensional buddies. Morty is really angry that Summer and especially Rick are risking his parents' wrath and the potential of never going on adventures with Rick, while Rick and Summer just basically want to get high and party.

And, of course, we get a couple of pretty expected gags when it comes to the writers of Rick and Morty introducing a bunch of weird and wacky aliens into a mundane situation like a party. We've got a bunch of Rick's friends, including the fantastically voiced and literal-sounding Birdperson, to the fucking-wasted catman Squanchy, to the monotonous Gearhead, to the time altering Slow Mobius... and a whole lot of others. And as Morty goes around trying to keep things manageable, the existence of some of Rick's friends eating other Rick-friends, or an acid-vomiting alien getting wasted in his parent's bed, or Squanchy doing some, uh... squanching in a closet... it's clear that Morty's fighting a losing battle. Only the prospect of getting some points in with Jessica ends up causing Morty to even tolerate this party. Jessica gets into an argument with her boyfriend Brad, causing Morty to try and comfort Jessica and ending up showing off a planet hologram thing in Rick's laboratory. Of course, this is Rick and Morty, so it's never going to allow Morty and Jessica to do the obvious trope of getting together. They get interrupted by Squanchy squanching in the closet, causing Morty to teleport the entire house to a dimension populated with giant testicle monsters. 

Morty goes off on an adventure to get some kind of crystal plot device accompanied by Summer's geeky friend Nancy (who Summer just wants out of the party) and Rick's failed experiment, Abradolf Lincler, and... I dunno. I didn't find Lincler all that funny, but the fact that his death was rudely brushed aside by Rick when Morty straight-up mourned the man who fought a two-headed alien dog to protect him is kind of funny? Of course, turns out that the crystals that Rick told them to obtain is just a bunch of crystals to help him get high and do the it's-the-it's-the-it's-the-Rick-Dance. 

Morty ends up putting his foot down and officially ends the party, and it's just... it's just anticlimactic. The house is in shambles, and everyone goes off for a second party... except for Summer, who gets told off by her other friends for being a bitch to Nancy. Birdperson ends up telling Morty and Summer that Rick masks a great deal of pain, and Rick's catchphrase "wubba-wubba-lub-lub" is actually bird-speech for "I am in great pain" or something along those lines. Morty attempts to say something about how he's happy that he'll be rid of Rick forever, while Birdperson just shrugs it off, telling Morty that "whatever lets you sleep at night", before leaving off. It doesn't really suddenly explain everything that Rick is doing, and it certainly doesn't mean that we should overlook every single irresponsible or evil thing that Rick's done over the season. But it sort of works with the theme in some of the episodes that Rick has some goodness under all of his assholishness. 

This ends up leading Morty to apologize and ask Rick to do something because he wants to still go on adventures with him, so of course Rick has a handy-dandy time-freezing machine that freezes the world right as Beth and Jerry are coming down the driveway, allowing Rick and his grandkids to clean up the house and generally have fun in the time-frozen world, with the sappy little final scene of Rick never saying his catchphrase throughout the entire escapade, so Rick really doesn't feel all that pain when he's with Morty and Summer. Yes, he denies it almost immediately, but at this point we know Rick's being pretty much a bit of a tsundere, someone who really loves his grandkids but will never ever be caught saying it. 

It's not a particularly exciting or super-fun episode, but it's certainly a neat one. While perhaps not the best or funniest episode to end the season on, it's not a bad one for sure. 

Random Notes:

• I completely forgot to talk about Beth and Jerry's B-plot when I was reviewing the episode! It was... pretty underwhelming, and easily my least favourite subplot in the series as a whole. Basically, Jerry gets a bit way into the whole Titanic-themed park while Beth doesn't give a fuck, causing Jerry to experience the park with the overly-excited-and-pretty-crazy Lucy, and very nearly causes him to get fucking raped until Beth shows up. It's honestly just... it's just kind of there, and while it still plays Jerry's attempted rape at gunpoint pretty straight, it's also pretty pointless, I feel. 
• The post credit scene shows the still-alive Abradolf Linkler and that one random teen being... uh... passed around by the giant blob-testicle monsters who pass Lincler around their... vagina-like... openings... and, uh... yeah. I don't know. I don't want to know. 
• Those "Testicle Monsters" do look pretty fucking disgusting, huh? Between the malformed eyes, to the massive blob-like feet to the tentacles to the vagina-like opening in their bottom... ew. 
• Among the cameos in the party from previous episode are two members of the Council of Ricks, the Kermit-like aliens from the pilot, one of the stair people from "Meeseeks and Destroy", and a Plutonian. There's a lot of wacky, fun designs, too, but my favourite has to be the weirdly-shaped drunk alien Morty finds in his parents' bed. 
• The Rick Dance is indeed catchy. 
• Birdperson and Tammy ending up flirting through the party, and ending up hooking up, is probably one of the more fun jokes in this episode. Birdperson's speech patterns, honestly, is pretty damn hilarious.