How Fans Really Feel About Rick And Morty's Mortyplicity Episode

"Rick and Morty" isn't a show afraid to take some pretty huge swings. It may only be on its fifth season, but the animated sitcom has already had its characters hop aboard a metaphysical Story Train. From jumping across realities to breaking apart the meaning of time itself, "Rick and Morty" takes its wacky science-fiction premise to the umpteenth degree, and fans are more than happy to go along with the crazy ride ... most of the time.

For the most part, the series does an admirable job of balancing what the creators want to do and what fans expect out of such a consistently high-quality show. The writers want the freedom to do standalone adventures à la standard sitcoms while simultaneously telling a grander story with overarching beats. With Evil Morty and Tammy Gueterman popping up intermittently to cause trouble, the show has numerous ways to progress across its 70-episode renewal order. 

That brings us to the most recent storyline with Season 5, Episode 2, "Mortyplicity." The entire Smith family ends up getting involved with this one, broh, as every decoy family Rick created goes rogue, killing one another in increasingly spectacular fashions. The idea of constantly picking up with a new Smith family as soon as another one gets killed is the kind of high-concept plot you only really find with a show like "Rick and Morty," and as expected, the results were mixed for fans. 

Your reaction to "Mortyplicity" likely depends on what you want out of the show. If you're happy with strange, one-off stories, then it offered everything you could expect out of the show. However, fans who want the show to have a more serialized feeling probably came off feeling swindled. 

That's the range of emotions you find on the "Mortyplicity" discussion Reddit thread, where u/mrhigginbottoms_12 brings up, "I still don't know if this episode was good or bad but it felt like it dealt with the same issues as season 4 episode 3 ['One Crew Over the Crewcoo's Morty']. It was a really good concept and I loved it at first but after half way it just kinda got repetitive and dull." Earlier in the thread, u/No-Beat-5045 echoes those sentiments, saying, "I think the show suffers when the crew wastes 20 minutes trolling the audience for the lols." 

However, not everyone felt the same way. Indeed, the central Smith family at the center of the show wasn't there until the final few moments, but for an absurdist, sci-fi premise, some fans thought it was right on the money like u/king_chill mentioning, "The show has always been 90% randomness and 10% backstory. There will be story progression at some point." Some other words of praise include "that episode was pure f****** chaos and i loved it" and "I'm speechless, that was amazing. I definitely am going to rewatch it, like right now."

If you enjoyed "Mortyplicity," then that's fantastic! If you didn't, then there are eight more episodes in "Rick and Morty" Season 5 to win you back.