Fun
Frisky
Nostalgic
Intense
Adventurous
Choked Up
Curious
Romantic
Weird
More On:
Rick and Morty
-
Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Mulligan: Season 2’ on Netflix, Which Offers More Gummy Satire and Pop-Culture References For Your Shrugging Bemusement
-
Stream It Or Skip It: 'Everything Everywhere All at Once' on Netflix, The Best Picture Winner in Which Michelle Yeoh Finds Herself Overwhelmed by the Ultimate Multiverse Story
-
'Solar Opposites' EPs Say Season 6 Still Waiting For Hulu's Greenlight: “We Don't Have Any News"
-
Will There Be a Season 8 of 'Rick and Morty'?
It’s not unusual for Rick and Morty to get gross, but absolutely nothing could have prepared us for “Rickdependence Spray.” Season 5, Episode 4 featured giant sperm monsters, a space incest baby made from Morty’s sperm and Summer’s egg, and way too many sex jokes to count. It was a giant mess, both plot-wise and literally. That’s because you’d be hard-pressed to find an episode with more guts and goo.
But because this is Rick and Morty we’re talking about, those endless masturbation jokes didn’t come from nowhere. No, they can be traced back to several deep-cut sci-fi stories, action movie tropes, and general Marvel universe mockery. Wondering what you may have missed in Rick and Morty Season 5, Episode 4? We have you covered.
No, Kathy Ireland didn't voice herself.
Towards the end of the episode, “Rickdependence Spray” actually stated its theme about our paradoxical relationship with sexual taboos. That theme was said by none other than American model, Kathy Ireland. Unfortunately, Ireland didn’t actually do any vocal work for the episode. Christina Ricci voiced her as well as Princess Ponietta.
Ricci is a pretty fitting choice for this convoluted episode. Originally a child actor who starred in The Addams Family and Casper, the actor went on to star in the provocative Black Snake Moan. Ricci is also the national spokesperson for the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network (RAINN). So that’s a weird detail in an episode that features an incest baby.
The Chud was a reference to a real movie.
This one all comes back to the Chud. The whole reason why Rick collected horse semen in the beginning of the episode was so that he could devise a weapon that could defeat a race of underground-dwelling cannibalistic horse people, known as the Chud. The thing is C.H.U.D. is actually a sci-fi movie. Starring John Heard, Daniel Stern, and Christopher Curry, the 1984 movie follows a police officer and a homeless shelter manager who team up after they realize people have been disappearing. The culprits? A group of humanoid monsters living below the city.
It’s a pretty one-to-one allegory. But making those cannibalistic monsters horse people adds another layer of sexual deviance. Rick’s past fling with Princess Poinetta isn’t just beastiality. Based on her name, it’s likely a nod to the My Little Pony franchise, a children’s cartoon that became bizarrely sexualized over the years.
There may have been some 'Black Widow' mockery.
While trying to figure out how to deal with these sperm monsters, the President (Keith David) says that he’s sending his best men to help Rick. When Summer (Spencer Grammer) corrects him to say men and women, the President snaps back that they don’t need a “kickboxing lady” to defeat the bad guy. Later in the episode it’s revealed that the Sperm Queen who’s pulling all the strings is none other than a kickboxing lady. Because they don’t have a kickboxing lady of their own, no one can defeat her.
The action genre’s underpowered lone lady trope is one that’s been mocked often. But no franchise is as guilty of it as Marvel, a cinematic universe that routinely equips its men with super suits and superpowers yet for years limited its lone female hero to cool flips. Adding to the argument that Rick and Morty is probably calling out Marvel is a throwaway joke from Beth (Sarah Chalke).
At the beginning of the episode, Beth says, “OK, let’s go see the latest piece of Marvel shit.” That’s a pretty clear slam. There’s also series co-creator Dan Harmon’s well-documented hatred of Marvel to consider. What was “Vindicators 3: The Return of Worldender” other than a long middle finger to superhero movies? Also, in Community‘s finale Jeff (Joel McHale) lamented, “I want to have an opinion about those boring-ass Marvel movies. And I want those opinions to be of any concern to the people making them” while yearning to go back to a younger stage of his life.
Bottom line? Harmon is not a fan of Marvel, and it seems convenient that Rick and Morty made this joke the same weekend that Black Widow premiered.
There was a '2001: A Space Odyssey' reference.
There’s really no cute way to explain this, so we’ll be quick. After Rick accidentally turns Morty’s sperm into monster sperm, the U.S. military takes one of Summer’s eggs and enlarges it to draw all of the sperm monsters to one place. You know where this is going. One of Morty’s sperm fertilizes Summer’s egg, creating a giant incest baby.
In the post-credits teaser, that baby emerges behind an astronaut who feels guilty about leaving his child back on Earth. That giant incest baby reveal mirrors a pretty pivotal scene in 2001: A Space Odyssey. But that’s not all. This regretful astronaut feels a lot like the protagonist of Ray Bradbury short story, “The Rocket Man.” That’s a sci-fi double whammy for you.
This is the fourth episode without a portal gun.
This is a detail that Reddit has noticed. During the post-episode discussion, u/ActionFilmsFans1995 pointed out that this is the fourth out of four episodes that doesn’t involve a portal gun. So what does this mean?
“Mortyplicity” established that the decoys were unable to leave Earth and were confined to terrestrial adventures. That implies that this episode could have followed a different Rick and Morty than our C-137 duo without telling us. It could also be an emotional choice, as another user noted. Often Rick uses his portal gun to run away from his problems. After the Space Beth saga, he may be trying to actually confront them. Regardless of the reason, the portal gun’s absence is suspicious. We’ll be keeping an eye on this.
