Warning: This review contains full spoilers for Rick and Morty Season 9, Episode 3!
Rick and Morty Season 9 veers in a slightly sillier direction in its third episode, as Rick (Ian Cardoni) and his grandson (Harry Belden) get drawn into a zany martial arts conflict and Jerry manages to make a true mountain out of a molehill with the new family pool. The result isn’t exactly high art, but it’s certainly an amusing way to spend 30 minutes.
The premise of Rick Fu Hustle is basically “What if Rick encountered the Five Point Palm Exploding Heart Technique from Kill Bill and found a way to reverse-engineer it?” What follows is kinda, sorta a send-up of the martial arts movie genre, though the episode never firmly commits to that parody. It’s more about highlighting the incredible lengths Rick will go to not apologize to someone he wronged. Not a new theme for the series by any means, but certainly one worth repeating.
That’s where “Rick Fu Hustle” tends to work best – exploring Rick’s latest feud with Morty and his over-the-top efforts to beat Lin Su at his own game. It’s amusing to watch Rick spend entire scenes only walking backwards and then build elaborate contraptions to support him in his obstinate quest. It’s also entertaining to watch Morty briefly befriend Lin Su, only to come tearfully crawling back with his own death punch problems.
Again, the martial arts parody of it all doesn’t fully click, if only because the episode seems a little scatterbrained in that regard. The entire subplot involving Lin Su and his estranged sifu is somewhat undercooked. I’m not convinced this episode needed both characters or the little tangent involving the polycule. It could have used some more streamlining and more emphasis on lampooning martial arts tropes.
Still, it all pays off in a nice way when Rick and Morty duel Lin Su in the ultimate martial arts showdown. Similar to the epic spectacle seen in the Season 9 premiere, the series is really impressing with how bombastic and over-the-top its action scenes have become. The scope of the battle is great, and you can’t help but laugh at the icnreasingly ridiculous series of special moves the three characters unleash upon one another.
That battle only grows more ludicrous when our combatants draw the wrath of the martial arts god Punchy and his massive enforcer, Punchenheimer. It’s a great way to wrap up an uneven but generally fun main storyline.
As for the other half of Episode 3, we get our first Jerry-centric subplot of Season 9. I’m the type of Rick and Morty fan who generally believes that whenever Jerry’s not on screen, all the other characters should be asking, “Where’s Jerry?”, so that’s certainly a welcome development.
Not that I’d argue this is the best or most clever Jerry subplot the show has delivered by any stretch, but it works well enough. Of course he’d somehow bungle something as simple as cleaning the pool to the point that he winds up in a violent sexual affair with the pool cleaner robot. Textbook Jerry. It’s been a nice novelty having a serialized storyline this season, even if only for something as minor as the family pool, and this is certainly one way of building on that element.
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