Warning: This review contains full spoilers for Rick and Morty Season 9, Episode 4!
Celebrity guest stars are hardly uncommon for Rick and Morty, but a lot of them tend to blend into the background and wind up overshadowed by the main cast. Season 9 is no exception in that regard. But occasionally, you have a one-off character who rises above the pack and really takes advantage of a celebrity’s particular vocal talents. Such is the case with Reese, delightfully voiced by the one and only Owen Wilson in “A Ricker Runs Through It.”
For whatever reason, this episode is fueled more than most by the strength of the vocal performances. There’s a lot of fun to be had early on with Rick (Ian Cardoni) and Morty (Harry Belden) spiralling into their latest feud. Cardoni’s extra-drunk Rick is downright hilarious, full of all the whiny, petulant energy one could ask for. And Belden’s Morty responds in kind with his own prolonged temper tantrum.
And then in walks Wilson’s Reese to save the day. This feels like a character tailor-made for Wilson and his particular brand of folksy charm and light southern drawl. His arrival immediately changes the tenor of the whole episode, with Rick morphing from malevolent, abusive drunk to lovable scamp and Morty coming out of his shell a bit. You can’t help but like Reese as much as they do, which of course means that there’s something seriously amiss with him.
It’s not long before that particular shoe drops and we learn that Reese is just Rick’s convoluted way of working around his computer’s password protection system. It’s an amusing reveal, but the real fun with this episode is that it manages to continue steadily building on said reveal and grow more and more bizarre with time. Sometimes, Rick and Morty episodes struggle to keep that storytelling momentum going and really push a concept to its fullest (case in point – last week’s “Rick Fu Hustle”). But that’s not a problem here. Writers Jax Ball and Albro Lundy manage to keep building and escalating.
There’s the reveal that Rick has developed a source of infinite vodka, a feat achieved by enslaving a world full of kindly hog workers. That situation spirals out of control when Morty successfully exfiltrates Reese, only for this human password manager to become the catalyst that sparks the hog uprising and triggers complete bedlam back at the Smith house. You really have to appreciate how bizarre the flow of events is in this little storyline.
That said, it’s Jerry (Chris Parnell) who really steals the show in “A Ricker Runs Through It.” He unwittingly becomes the host for a gas cloud-based service technician who’s a little too psyched to have a new meat sack to run around in. It’s a lot of fun watching the possessed Jerry hit the town and revel in his newfound freedom. And getting back to the idea of this episode being especially driven by the vocal performances, Parnell’s loopy cloud voice is highly amusing in its own right. Now if only the series could find something more for Spencer Grammer Summer and Sarah Chalke’s Beth to do this season…
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