TL;DR – A  reasonably strong end to an interesting season of experimentation.

Disclosure – I paid for the Netflix subscription that viewed this episode.

Post-Credit Scene – There is a post-credit scene.

Rick and Morty Review –

Well, we have reached the end of what might be one of the oddest but possibly interesting seasons of Rick and Morty that I have seen for a while. So, in today’s review, we are going to first look at the season finale, which feels very much like it is having a dialogue with its viewers. Then, we will look at how the season works as a whole.

So to set the scene, Rick (Ian Cardoni) and Morty (Harry Belden) are off on a planet that is like one large haunted house, but nothing really scares them anymore, given everything they have seen in their lives. This is when they run into a Dude (Liev Schreiber) who tells them about the scariest place in the Universe is on Earth. At first, they are sceptical because they have to go to a Denny’s. However, when they find the fear hole in the men’s bathroom, things change really quickly. We will be looking at the episode and season as a whole from here, so there will be some [SPOILERS] ahead. 

What is your greatest fear? I don’t mean spiders or snakes or even heights. I mean the biggest psychological fear that you have that shapes how you live your life, even if you don’t consciously think about it. This is the theme that today’s episode is delving into in some interesting ways. What I liked was that it understood the direction that many of its fans would go in and catered to them, thus making that final reveal hit all the harder. After everything that has happened this season, throwing Dianne (Kari Wahlgren) in at the last second was always going to be a fake-out, but it was clever to use it in a way that masked who the central protagonist of the episode really was.

Indeed, what I liked the most about this episode is that it was both passively and explicitly a dialogue with the fans and viewers. This is even a situation that I don’t have to reach for because they turn it into the literal text at one point when Rick and Dianne compare and contrast their different universes, Lost and how they chose to end their particular shows. A choice I have made fun of before, maybe unfairly. As Rick says, “You can be great, or you can be around forever”, and that is clearly a message meant for more than just the characters in the show. But more than that, this whole episode is about confronting our fears, our real fears. This entire season has been about change, and change is something people always have difficulty with, but maybe that is a reach.

On that front, how did this season go? Well, we always knew that this season was going to be different with the significant shift of new voice actors for Rick and Morty. However, they have clearly taken that considerable change as an opportunity to experiment, and overall, my thoughts are mixed, but then when you are experimenting, not everything will work. To start with, it did feel like this season was going to be very safe with episodes like How Poopy Got His Poop Back & The Jerrick Trap; however, while this was the start, it would soon start pulling at the strands of bedrock foundations of the series.

We first saw this in Air Force Wong, where not only did we see that Rick was actually growing as a human from his time in therapy, but we brought back one of Rick’s biggest misses as a way of getting us ready for the big swings that happened. The most significant of these is when they resolve the longest ongoing plot thread, the evil Rick that killed our Rick’s Dianne. But they did that by teaming up with the Evil Morty, nicely capping off both storylines. Where does the show go when it no longer has a central core that is driving it? I am not sure we still know.

Bar for the almost purposeful inclusion in Mort: Ragnarick. Another significant shift this season has been in the structure of the episodes with the steeping back from having a clear A and B storyline each episode. This has allowed each of the episodes to be more focused and give us time with the narratives they are exploring. But it also meant that we spent a lot less time with the extended family this season, up to Rise of the Numbericons: The Movie, which even missed the Rick in Rick and Morty. I am not sure I have entirely liked this change. It has worked in episodes like today’s but then we get Wet Kuat Amortican Summer, when it doesn’t have the same impact. Overall, I am not quite sure what I think about this season. It has been interesting to watch, but I am not sure if it all comes together.

In the end, do we recommend Rick and Morty: Fear No Mort? Well, I think it was a solid end to an interesting season. I liked its exploration of what it considered the audience would assume are the character’s fears and what they really turned out to be. I also think it ended in a slightly touching moment. The rest of the season was a bit messier. But I did like that they were trying to change up some of the constant parts of the show.     

https://youtu.be/BKYJ5AIOU9I?si=0jdvUocMkBFmU5-1

By Brian MacNamara: You can follow Brian on Twitter Here, when he’s not chatting about Movies and TV, he’ll be talking about International Relations, or the Solar System.

Have you seen Rick and Morty yet?, let us know what you thought in the comments below, feel free to share this review on any of the social medias and you can follow us Here. Check out all our past reviews and articles Here, and have a happy day.    

Credits – All images were created by the cast, crew, and production companies of Rick and Morty
Directed by – Eugene Huang, Kyounghee Lim, Lucas Gray & Jacob Hair
Written by – Heather Anne Campbell, Jeremy Gilfor, Scott Marder, Alex Song-Xia, Alex Rubens, Nick Rutherford, Albro Lundy & James Siciliano
Created by – Justin Roiland & Dan Harmon
Production/Distribution Companies – Justin Roiland’s Solo Vanity Card Productions, Harmonious Claptrap, Williams Street, Adult Swim & Netflix
Starring – Chris Parnell, Spencer Grammer, Sarah Chalke, Ian Cardoni & Harry Belden with Liev Schreiber, Maria Bamford, Ice-T, Keith David, Peter Serafinowicz, Ryan Hansen, Glen Powell, Beck Bennett, Hugh Jackman, Christina Hendricks & Susan Sarandon and Jon Allen, Eric Bauza, Ryan Elder, Nolan North, Alicia Marder, Maurice LaMarche, Kari Wahlgren, Scott Chernoff, Nick Rutherford, Lauren Tom, Debra Wilson, James Adomian, Tom Kenny, Erica Lindbeck, Aislinn Paul, Cassie Steele, Dan Harmon, Terry Ilous, Brandon Johnson, Albro Lundy, Ryan Ridley, Debra Wilson, Troy Baker, Echo Kellum, Nick Reczynski, Rob Schrab & Gary Anthony Williams
Episodes Covered – How Poopy Got His Poop Back, The Jerrick Trap, Air Force Wong, That’s Amorte, Unmortricken, Rickfending Your Mort, Wet Kuat Amortican Summer, Rise of the Numbericons: The Movie, Mort: Ragnarick & Fear No Mort.