Rick-and-morty-season-6-episode-5

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 ...

The love of Rick’s life sacrificed to protect the future of the universe? 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. 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. As a black hole opens, Rick sacrifices the monster and the power of unlimited fortunes to save Jerry from having sex with his mother. 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. 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.

Jerry and Rick go on a dumb adventure that's cleverer than it seems.

“Final DeSmithation” reminded me of the sentient sperm episode in how brazenly stupid and over-the-top it all is but, unlike the sperm episode, I laughed a bunch and found the escalating ridiculousness charming in its bonkers creativity. (However, the post-credits tag joke, which features the rest of the family, is overlong and brings the episode down a tad.) Rick having to keep Jerry safe like he’s a dumb, defenseless puppy throughout the episode is cute as are his occasional attempts to joke around with Jerry and lighten the mood. You can harness the power of the pooping fate monster by writing what you want to happen on a slip of paper and then putting it inside a pooped-out fortune cookie? There’s also the possibility that Jerry might end up having sex with his mom floating around for nearly the entire episode runtime, but it’s only theoretical up until she actually shows up in the final act, at which point events transpire such that we are eventually subjected to Jerry and his mom’s blurred-out sex organs having a near-collision. So it’s sort of surprising that “Final DeSmithation,” another entry in the “unapologetically dumb” category of Rick and Morty episodes that also happens to feature the concept of incest looming over everything, is actually a lot of fun to watch.