Rick and Morty "Bethic Twinstinct": You Do You
Image Source: Adult Swim
Wow, even this couldn’t have been expected to be the something hidden behind the seemingly innocuous promo for this Rick and Morty episode. Last season’s “Rickdependence Spray” probably only showed what Morty did at the horse hospital because the domino effect was so insane it looked innocuous by comparison. This time, a little bit of self-love goes a long way…and nobody knows how old Morty is.
The show begins by establishing that it’s another Thanksgiving episode! Space Beth is in town, she got Morty a GamePod XL, the most realistic gaming console ever. Jerry gives a very worrying toast. After dinner, the Beths are washing dishes and drinking Venusian wine. Home Beth even gets an injection to instantly learn French. On a later night, neither can sleep, and they both know it. Space Beth gets a rather vulgar shoulder rub and back fix. It’s only when they’re facing each other, leaning in that they stop themselves. But then it turns out Summer saw all of it. To get her mind off of what she just saw, Summer throws herself into playing the GamePod, whose gaming realism is not found in graphics or art style, but in storytelling (such as an Asteroids-like game emphasizing the vast emptiness of space.) This is where the Street Fighter game from the promo comes in.
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The two Beths offer to go get ice cream by taking a trip to space. They admire Earth and each other from orbit, with increasing flirtations so blatant they end up getting…intimate on Space Beth’s ship, forgetting the ice cream entirely. Beth is having an affair…with herself. It’s hilarious in its ridiculousness, how eager they are to throw themselves at—well, themselves. They’re back right at it when they land, and Morty sees it, so cut to immersing himself into his video games right alongside Summer. Home Beth learns from Rick that he’s been through it. After all, with infinite selves out there, it’s happened several times. So the affair continues and they talk out how it’s supposed to work. The kids put Jerry in front of Hide Your Affair to join Rick in confronting the Beths in their relationship holoprogram, calling them out for how poorly they’re hiding their affair. The Beths stand their ground, and confidently tell Jerry about the affair at dessert.
Suddenly his pillbug defense mechanism kicks in, and it’s volatile from the outside. It takes nearly having their memories wiped for Jerry to come back out, taking back his toast and tells them off for cheating on him, deservedly so. It’s a weird little exchange about inadequacy. Turns out the secrecy gave the affair its rose tint for Home Beth, as Jerry would’ve allowed it, had he known. And he likes it. A three-way ensues, to the horror of the downstairs family, to the point of tears from the kids, and I don’t blame them.
With the holiday over, Space Beth heads off to space and promises she’ll look after Naruto Smith, confirming a doppelgänger exists for him in this new reality. Rick puts the Venusian wine back in the secret cabinet and throws the access remote into the garbage disposal, implying it may have had some influence in the affair. Considering the escapades with Mr. Nimbus in last season’s “Mort Dinner Rick Andre”, there’s a lot of places Beth seems willing to go sexually, even if it takes a little suggestion. In the post-credits, Jerry tries to get his own “self-love” in the Jerryboree but can’t, and contentedly settles for an alleyway kiss.
“Bethic Twinstinct” went to several weird and unexpected places, but it certainly wasn’t horrific or line-crossing, even if there’s been recurrent themes of the type. Season six has definitely been delivering on character exploration. The new Pocket Morty avatars are Pill Bug Morty, Holodeck Morty, and Teen Jerry as the new trainer. Next week, blood sampling.
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