Rickdependence Spray (2024)

"Rickdependence Spray" is the fourth episode of the fifth season of Rick and Morty. It is the 45th episode of the series overall. It premiered on July 11, 2021. ^[2] It was written by Nick Rutherford and directed by Erica Hayes. The episode is rated TV-14-DLSV.

Synopsis[]

The Smiths band together to fight an army of giant mutant sperm, and let's just say everyone would be better off if Morty stays away from Beth's work.

Plot[]

While at Beth's workplace, Morty begs her to hurry up so they don't miss the movie (in Beth's words, "the new Marvel sh*t that the kids are ji*zzing about"), he notices the hospital's horse breeding mount. Curious, and to Beth's surprise, he quickly volunteers to work with her, with the purpose to use the mount to jerk him off. One week later, Morty relaxes at home, thinking back at his deed, before he notices a familiar barrel Rick brought back with him. To his shock, he learns that Rick borrowed a barrel of "horse sem*n" from the hospital to create a bioweapon, to be used on an underground race of cannibalistic horse people called "chuds" that he and Morty have been fighting. After Morty frantically convinces Rick not to test the sem*n to verify that it indeed belongs to a horse, Rick proceeds to work on his experiment. A power surge goes through it and the barrel explodes. When Morty comes to, he sees that the sperm have mutated into floating, toothy monsters that eat humans. Rick blames himself, believing he brought in a bad sample, much to Morty's guilt and relief.

The family is airlifted to the Pentagon's war room by the President, where Morty agrees to lie for Rick and tells the President that they know nothing about the outbreak. The President brings in Professor Shabooboo, the world's leading expert on sperm, who theorizes that the sperm will head to the Grand Canyon because of its vagin*l shape. When he brings in a captured sperm monster and announces that he intends to analyze it, Morty shoots it to cover his tracks. At Morty's suggestion, the President sends Rick, Morty, the country's nukes, and a helicopter full of Marines to the Grand Canyon. The sperm, rapidly evolving, shoot down the plane with a trebuchet.

Rick, Morty, and two marines (one named Blazen that they believe to be incredibly cool) survive the crash, although the other marine is killed when the sperm attack. Morty saves a sperm with its tail stuck under a rock after it recognizes him as its creator, dubbing it "Sticky". In the war room, Summer comes up with an idea to create a giant egg for the sperm to flock to, but has her idea stolen by Shabooboo. Blazen leads them into the caves where the sperm are hiding, and ends up stabbing himself in the chest and accidentally revealing that he wears a thong, shattering Rick and Morty's image of him. He asks Morty to not tell Sports Illustrated model Kathy Ireland that he is wearing her thong. He then attempts to perform autofelletio on himself before the sperm devour him. They then freeze Rick in crystallized sem*n and the two are led to a talking sperm in a mechanical suit known as the Sperm Queen, who reveals that Morty is the one responsible for their creation to a disgusted Rick.

Sticky breaks the two free and together they defeat the sperm. While Rick and Morty starting planting nukes along the canyon walls, they discover that the remaining sperm are all heading for Las Vegas. While expected due to the city's history, Rick wonders why now. It is revealed that Summer has volunteered an egg, and the soldiers have planted it on top of the Luxor, planning to shoot it into space after all the sperm enter the egg. Morty radios the President and finally tells him the truth, which horrifies him and the nearby Smith family; not only because of Morty's lack of self-control which led to the "Space Sperm" but the realization that this will lead to the birth of an inbred biological child of Morty and Summer; in short, a "Giant Incest Baby". The President orders Shabooboo to jettison the egg into space before any sperm can get to it, but learns that it will take thirty minutes with no way to bypass the timer. Shabooboo commits suicide to avoid any consequences after given credit for Summer's idea, while Rick, Morty, and Sticky are captured by chuds.

The Chud King plans to kill and eat the trio to punish Rick for having sex with his daughter, Princess Ponietta, but she intervenes after revealing she is pregnant with Rick's child. She convinces her father to send the chud armies to fight the sperm. In Las Vegas, the chuds and government fight the sperm to stop them from reaching the egg. The Sperm Queen almost crawls to the top of the Luxor, but is pushed to her death by Sticky. Unfortunately, to everyone's horror, he fertilizes the egg himself out of instinct. Summer attempts to destroy her egg, but the President intervenes, claiming that the baby now exists thanks to a heartbeat and it is election season. With no other option, they launch it into space.

Morty is met by Kathy Ireland, approaches Morty to ask if Blazen was wearing her thong when he died. Expecting that he was told to keep it a secret, she encourages him to be honest, even if it hurts people the truth pertains to. Morty tells her the truth and she leaves in disgust. Rick decides to commit to Ponietta as she gives birth to a human/chud hybrid that looks like Rick, but leaves with it without trouble, and Rick takes out a Staples "Easy" button and presses it, causing it to say "that was easy."

In a post-credits scene, an astronaut talks to mission control as he does maintenance on a satellite, discussing how his wife had a child to try and keep him on Earth, but he left her behind regardless. As he talks about how the guilt of this has affected him, the "Giant Incest Baby" rises up in front of him in a parody of 2001: A Space Odyssey and begins shaking him. During it, the president and mission control complain about him and his drama.

Characters[]

Major characters[]

• Rick Sanchez
• Morty Smith
• Summer Smith
• Beth Smith
• Jerry Smith
• The President
• Sticky

Minor characters[]

• Professor Shabooboo
• Sperm Queen
• Chud King
• Princess Poñeta
• Naruto Smith (as "Giant Incest Baby")
• Blazen
• Kathy Ireland

Deaths[]

• A woman in a car
• A mailman
• A lot of sperm monsters
• Amazing Johnathan
• Suicide sperm
• Sperm Queen
• Many soldiers
• Astronaut
• The Smiths' neighbors
• A few Vegas performers
• Professor Shabooboo
• Blazen

Locations[]

• Dimension C-131
  • Earth
    • St. Equis Hospital
    • Smith Residence
    • Grand Canyon
    • Chud Castle
    • Las Vegas

Episode notes[]

Trivia[]

• In celebration of Season 5, Pocket Mortys' weekly updates will coincide with new episodes, including new avatars for players to collect. With the release of this episode came Princess Poneta as an avatar, plus Robe Morty and Professor Shabooboo Morty to catch.
• On some streaming services, when this episode was published it was mistakenly replaced with the episode "Gotron Jerrysis Rickvangelion" from later in the season.
• This is the fourth episode of Season 5 in which Rick and Morty do not use a portal gun. The first was "Mort Dinner Rick Andre", the second was "Mortyplicity, and the third was "A Rickconvenient Mort".

Series continuity[]

• The crack around the Smith house from "Ricksy Business" and "A Rickle in Time" is still visible.
• It is implied that Morty used the horse breeding mount excessively because he is still hung up on Planetina from "A Rickconvenient Mort".

Cultural references[]

• The episode's title is a reference to the film franchise Independence Day.
  • Ironically, this episode airs a week after the actual Independence Day of July 4th.
• The Chuds are partially based on the 1984 horror film C.H.U.D. which is about cannibalistic humanoids that dwell underground, the Chuds also get their name from this movie.
• Exist 2 reference to Marvel firs after Morty's mother finishes work she says, “the new Marvel sh*t that the kids are ji*zzing about". Second is with Rick talk about Iron Man's actor, Robert Downey Jr., and the issues he had in the 90's before getting his act together to who he is now.
  • Furthermore, the Marvel film, Black Widow, released on the week when this episode aired.
• The Chuds may also partially be inspired by the Tikbalang, a creature from Filipino folklore that takes the form of a humanoid horse, somewhat like a reverse centaur.
• Blazen bares a passing resemblance to Kenshi from Mortal Kombat.
• Rick references the Russian parable “The Scorpion and the Frog” but mistakenly refers to it as a Navajo fable.
  • This may be a tongue-in-cheek reference to Star Trek: Voyager's Commander Chakotay reciting the parable to Captain Janeway during the events of the like-named third-season cliffhanger. Chakotay doesn't give an origin for the parable, tells of a fox instead of a frog, and isn't Navajo, so probably Rick is just being lazy, or deliberately offensive, as usual.
• Morty's Sperm child seen at the ending is a reference to the fetus at the ending in 2001: A Space Odyssey.
• When the sperms capture Rick they freeze him in a way similar to Han Solo's Man in Carbonite from Star Wars.
• Luring the sperms to Las Vegas is probably a reference to Honey, I Blew Up the Kid where the military lures the titular giant toddler to Vegas, with equally disastrous results.
• The sperm blowing up the wall in Las Vegas may be a reference to the battle of Helm's Deep from The Lord of The Rings: The Two Towers.
• Rick uses and presses an Staples Easy Button at the end of the episode.
• One of the marines on the plane says "They say cutting a sperms' throat is like running a warm knife through butter." This line is very similar to what a soldier said in the movie Commando.
• Professor Shabooboo is a parody of Dr. Newton Geizer, a character from the film, Pacific Rim.

Transcript[]

View a full transcript of this episode here.

Gallery

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References

https://twitter.com/RickandMorty/status/1396888811083345924

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