Fun
Frisky
Nostalgic
Intense
Adventurous
Choked Up
Curious
Romantic
Weird
For three seasons and countless sci-fi adventures now, Rick and Morty has examined how one father’s distance has drastically affected his family. It’s always interesting to see Morty (Justin Roiland) or even Summer (Spencer Grammer) question their role in Rick’s (Roiland) universe as well as what their grandfather should mean to them, but Beth (Sarah Chalke) and Rick’s relationship has always been the complicated emotional center of this bizarrely heartfelt comedy. “The ABCs of Beth” finally rips off that bandage to examine exactly why Beth’s relationship with her father is so toxic. The mess we find is horrifying.
The whole conceit of “The ABCs of Beth” relies on an idea we now know to be true but that Beth refuses to believe — Beth is just like her father. However, getting to that psychological breakthrough involves an inmate on trial for the death of his son, murdering countless adorable human-alien hybrids, and Froopyland. Beth learns that the man who allegedly murdered and ate her childhood best friend — ironically, his father — is supposed to be executed soon. However, to everyone’s eventual horror, it turns out that Tommy (Thomas Middleditch) was never killed at all. Instead he’s spent the last few decades trapped in a magical wonderland that Rick once built for his daughter. So far, it’s Rick and Morty as normal with Rick responsible for creating and hiding another huge, ticking disaster.
The duo go to Froopyland, partially so Rick can prove his invented world was fun and harmless, but mostly to find the missing Tommy. They find Tommy, but in one of the darkest twists in Rick and Morty history, Tommy has now become King Tommy. In order to survive, Tommy has been having sex with Froopyland’s adorable cartoon animals and eating the offspring for years. It’s a deeply disturbing premise for an episode that makes any unsettling antics The Simpsons or Family Guy have pulled pale in comparison. But Rick and Morty never looks away from the monster it’s created. Rather, the episode not only performs a play about the incestual, cross-species cannibalism, but King Tommy actually shows off his baby-making prowess to the father-daughter pair in person. This is one of those moments in television that is guaranteed to haunt you at 3 in the morning, and I’m glad Middleditch got to be part of it.
However, even with a cannibalistic father and Jerry’s (Chris Parnell) alien hunter girlfriend, Beth still wins the award for most messed up this round. Learning that Beth pushed her best friend into a pond made of honey and left him for dead in a mythical fairy world is hard to take but potentially forgivable. Learning that Beth was a tiny sociopath growing up is less so. While pulling out the laundry list of deadly and impractical gadgets little Beth asked her father to build for her growing up, Rick reveals that he never made Froopyland to make Beth happy or safe. He created it to protect the neighborhood from his daughter. Even more disturbingly, he hints that Tommy wasn’t the first little boy to go missing at Beth’s hands. Rick’s violent, nihilistic streak can be fun and badass when he’s up against equal foes (“Pickle Rick” was a bloody delight). Setting that same murderous intensity on a playground as “The ABCs of Beth” suggests is a nightmare. For three seasons now, Beth has been the relatively sane center of this hectic family, but Episode 9 shows attaching the Smith family’s hopes to Beth was never a safe bet.
Meanwhile, Morty and Summer join their father for an uncomfortable rebound date. Jerry may brag about Kiara’s body and awesomeness, but both of his children immediately see the uncomfortable, slightly racist, and to quote Summer, “beta male sexist” poison underneath this new relationship. Because the show’s primary sci-fi adventure can be so interesting, it’s easy for the show’s B-plot to fall into forgettable territory. That’s certainly not the case with “The ABCs of Beth.” Not only is Jerry’s relationship with an alien huntress delightfully enjoyable from a sci-fi perspective and as a way to further mock Jerry, but it’s also a surprisingly deep look into Jerry.
Though it’s not nearly as extreme as Beth, Jerry also has to face the fact that he’s kind of a monster. He uses what seems to be a stable and loving woman as a way to get back at his ex even though he’s internally freaked out by her different appearance. The fact that it took our new non-nonsense Summer to put him in his place is just the icing on the cake. After yet another scene where Mory and Summer are forced to run for their lives, Jerry gets an ex machina in the form of Kiara’s ex-boyfriend, and the Smith family manages to escape together.
While Jerry is clumsily breaking up with an alien huntress, Beth is murdering muppets to bring Tommy back to the real world and exonerate his father. Ultimately, she fails, either murdering her childhood best friend or just cutting off his finger, and Rick helps his blood-soaked daughter create a Tommy clone in this warped show’s version of tossing a baseball. It’s during these final moments that “The ABCs of Beth” switches to its most interesting middleman yet. In a moment of vulnerability, Beth asks her father if she’s evil. He corrects her, telling her she’s not evil she’s smart, before saying “When you know nothing matters the universe is yours, and I’ve never met a universe that was into it.” He then gives her a choice — Beth can either continue to live her current, unhappy life or he can create a Beth clone, allowing his daughter to run off and find herself.
It’s a choice that gets down to Beth’s central conflict as a character. She may be smart, callous, and capable of violence like Rick, but by choosing to leave her family to pursue her own interests, Beth would be doing the very thing she had resented Rick for doing most of her life. The episode leaves Beth’s choice open for interpretation, but honestly? Between Beth’s self-hatred and the potential for horrific greatness Episode 9 unlocked, I feel safe saying this universe’s real Beth is gone.
New episodes of Rick and Morty premiere on Adult Swim Sundays at 11:30 p.m. ET.
