Rick and Morty: The Old Man and the Seat

November 18, 2019 7:43 AM - Season 4, Episode 2

People all have one thing in common.

While Rick pursues the person who used his private toilet, Morty and Jerry try to defend Earth from water-stealing aliens who use the Lovefinderrz app to distract humanity.

posted by Etrigan (12 comments total)

What a shitty episode.
posted by Pendragon at 9:56 AM on November 18, 2019 [3 favorites]

Celebrity Guest Voices galore... Sam Neill, Kathleen Turner, Taika Waititi, and Jeffrey Wright!
posted by wabbittwax at 12:50 PM on November 18, 2019

Dan is doing a lot more voice work in the show this season, I picked out him as the bully in ep 1 and the fly don in this one; and probably a bunch more.

As much as I enjoy the A&B plots, the little throw away things are also great, even if they lampshade it like the fly don pointing out how weird it is that a fly runs a frog restaurant.
posted by Marticus at 1:19 PM on November 18, 2019

i always find these types of episodes where they end with Rick feeling shitty about himself really interesting. I wonder if it's a broader self-meditation by Dan.
posted by numaner at 3:47 PM on November 18, 2019 [1 favorite]

Also in the refrigerator at the end: the butter passing robot and a photo of the bully from s04e01 on a milk carton.
posted by qxntpqbbbqxl at 6:06 PM on November 18, 2019 [2 favorites]

I thought this episode and the last were talking back to the very worst of their fanbase. With Rick coming out as not cool with Nazis last week and this week having to process some of his feelings of inadequacy to figure out why he always acts like an asshole. Like Pickle Rick, this episode had Rick face the fact that being the smartest, the edgiest, and the cruelest person makes you miserable and lonely in the end.
posted by peeedro at 7:23 PM on November 18, 2019 [10 favorites]

The A plot was fine. The B plot was kind of meh because Harmon already did the MeowMeowBeenz story on Community and this was just that, Trekkified by the aliens who were going to use it to steal our water. But I guess that apps (especially dating apps) haven't gotten any less shitty since the Community episode, so it's still a fair cop.
posted by Halloween Jack at 9:54 PM on November 18, 2019

Forgettable episode except for the last 30 seconds, which was surprisingly moving.

The insult reversal -- your insults of others are really directed at yourself -- is of course a cliche, but it was enough of a surprise the moment he sat down and it all started up, insults designed as a barely-concealed gesture of love that instead became the worst self-criticism of all, that I was saddened in a way the show hasn't really managed before.
posted by chortly at 11:05 PM on November 18, 2019 [11 favorites]

I love how sometimes a gag catches me completely off guard because there is no set up; I will be laughing about Priest Witherspoon for at least the next week.
posted by Parasite Unseen at 6:35 AM on November 19, 2019 [5 favorites]

I think the thing that makes Rick and Morty interesting is the tension between Dan Harmon’s and Justin Roiland’s ways of seeing the world. Harmon seems to really be working hard in therapy or in his life towards self-awareness and making meaning out of it all, while Roiland just wants to be as gross and crass as possible and talk about poop whenever he gets the chance. It’s enlightening.
posted by wabbittwax at 7:18 AM on November 19, 2019 [5 favorites]

I never thought I would find the end of an episode about pooping so sad. But damn.
posted by miss-lapin at 8:22 AM on November 19, 2019 [1 favorite]

easter eggs in the episode
posted by numaner at 9:48 AM on November 20, 2019 [1 favorite]