"Never Ricking Morty" is the sixth episode of the fourth season of the

Adult Swim Adult Swim (AS; stylized as

dult swim Dult is a village in Batala in Gurdaspur district of Punjab State, India. It is located from sub district headquarter, from district headquarter and from Sri Hargobindpur. The village is administrated by Sarpanch an elected representati ...

and often abbreviated as s is an American adult-oriented night-time cable television Television channel, channel that shares channel space with the basic cable network Cartoon Network and is programme ...

animated television series ''

Rick and Morty {{Infobox television , image = Rick and Morty title card (cropped).png , alt = , caption = , genre = {{Plainlist, * Animated sitcom * Adult animation * Science fiction * Black comedy * ...

''. Written by

Jeff Loveness Jeff Loveness is an American screenwriter, television producer, actor, and comic book writer who has worked on the television series ''Jimmy Kimmel Live!'' and ''Rick and Morty,'' as well as the upcoming Marvel Cinematic Universe films '' Ant-M ...

and directed by Erica Hayes, the episode was broadcast on May 3, 2020 in the United States and on May 7, 2020 in the United Kingdom.

Plot

Rick and Morty find themselves aboard the Story Train, a literal story device for an anthology episode featuring passengers telling each other tales about Rick. After killing the train's ticket taker, using a " continuity explosion" to find a map of the train, and fabricating a story that passes the

Bechdel test The Bechdel test ( ) is a measure of the representation of women in film (and, by extension, in fiction in general). The test asks whether a film features at least two women talking to each other about something other than a man. The measure som ...

, the two reach the train's engine room. There they confront Story Lord, who beats and captures them with the intent of using their "story potential" to power the train enough to take it beyond the

fifth wall The fourth wall is a performance convention in which an invisible, imaginary wall separates actors from the audience. While the audience can see through this ''wall'', the convention assumes the actors act as if they cannot. From the 16th cen ...

. They experience various possible futures, culminating in Rick and Morty facing an army of Meeseeks, Gazorpazorpian males, and robotic Ricks commanded by President Morty and a now-evil Mr. Poopybutthole. Rick averts the battle by having himself and Morty give their lives to Jesus. The anticlimax slows Story Train to a halt, causing Story Lord to angrily enter the potential future, after which

Jesus Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label=Hebrew/Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and religious ...

himself appears. Rick and Morty use the literal

deus ex machina ''Deus ex machina'' ( , ; plural: ''dei ex machina''; English "god out of the machine") is a plot device whereby a seemingly unsolvable problem in a story is suddenly and abruptly resolved by an unexpected and unlikely occurrence. Its function ...

to escape back onto Story Train and strand Story Lord in "every writer's hell:

the Bible The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts of a ...

." When they try to return home, however, Rick discovers the train control panel is fake, and it's revealed that Story Train is a model train operating inside the Smith household. After Story Lord explains the nature of their reality and the origins of the

tetragrammaton The Tetragrammaton (; ), or Tetragram, is the four-letter Hebrew language, Hebrew theonym (transliterated as YHWH), the name of God in the Hebrew Bible. The four letters, written and read from right to left (in Hebrew), are ''yodh'', ''he (l ...

to Jesus, he breaks the toy. Rick chastises Morty to buy another one, arguing that "Nobody's out there shopping with this fucking virus." In the post-credits scene, a toy commercial for "The Citadel of Ricks Story Train" plays out, which includes the Jesus and Story Lord characters and the Story Train Rick and Morty.

Production and writing

In July 2019,

Paul Giamatti Paul Edward Valentine Giamatti (; born June 6, 1967) is an American actor and film producer. He first garnered attention for his breakout role in '' Private Parts'' as Kenny "Pig Vomit" Rushton, leading to supporting roles in ''Saving Private R ...

was cast in an undisclosed role on a then-upcoming season 4 episode of ''Rick and Morty''. In May 2020, Giamatti was revealed to be voicing the Story Lord, alongside

Christopher Meloni Christopher Peter Meloni (; born April 2, 1961) is an American actor. He is known for his television roles as NYPD Detective Elliot Stabler on the NBC legal drama '' Law & Order: Special Victims Unit'' for its first 12 seasons and its spin-off ' ...

Jesus Christ Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label=Hebrew/Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and religious ...

. The episode, revealed to be titled "Never Ricking Morty", was directed by Erica Hayes and written by

Reception

Broadcast and ratings

The episode was broadcast by

Adult Swim Adult Swim (AS; stylized as

on May 3, 2020. According to

Nielsen Media Research Nielsen Media Research (NMR) is an American firm that measures media audiences, including television, radio, theatre, films (via the AMC Theatres MAP program), and newspapers. Headquartered in New York City, it is best known for the Nielsen rat ...

, "Never Ricking Morty" was seen by 1.55 million household viewers in the United States and received a 0.87 rating among the 18–49 adult demographic.

Critical response

Steve Greene of ''

IndieWire IndieWire (sometimes stylized as indieWIRE or Indiewire) is a film industry and review website that was established in 1996. The site's focus was predominantly independent film, although its coverage has grown to "to include all aspects of Hollyw ...

'' gave it an "A−" rating, complimented the episode's use of an extra-strength dose of self-awareness to grapple with the show's future. Tom Reimann of ''

Collider A collider is a type of particle accelerator which brings two opposing particle beams together such that the particles collide. Colliders may either be ring accelerators or linear accelerators. Colliders are used as a research tool in particle ...

'' awarded the episode with a 3 star rating out of 5, writing that the episode:

References

External links

* {{Rick and Morty 2020 American television episodes Metafictional television episodes Portrayals of Jesus on television Rick and Morty episodes Works by Jeff Loveness