He did it all for Noob Noob.
Warning: Full spoilers for the episode below.
It was only a matter of time before Rick and Morty gave us a superhero episode. As we've already seen this season, the show isn't really at its best when it focuses too heavily on parodying a specific franchise or genre trope. Luckily, "Vindicators 3: The Return of Worldender" was just loose and frenetic enough to avoid the mistakes made by "Rickmancing the Stone." The superhero elements were merely garnish on a very dark character study of a new episode.
Writers Sarah Carbiener and Erica Rosbe took an amusing approach with setting the stage for this conflict, presenting it as a sequel of sorts to a previous team-up between Rick, Morty and the dysfunctional super-team known as the Vindicators, a team-up that we've never actually seen before. Adding another layer to that fun premise is the fact that neither Rick and Morty were aware that there was a "Vindicators 2." Right away, that set the stage for an interesting and unusually frigid dynamic between Rick and and Morty. Morty clearly idolizes the Vindicators in a way he never could for his cool but eternally self-centered grandfather, and Rick can't help but be jealous of that on some level.
The Vindicators themselves proved to be an entertaining bunch. The Venture Bros. still has Rick and Morty beat when it comes to clever parodies of popular superhero archetypes, but it's hard not to be amused by wacky, dysfunctional heroes like Supernova (Community's Gillian Jacobs), Alan Rails (The Wire's Lance Reddick) and the improbably named Maximus Renegade Star Soldier (Mr. Robot's Christian Slater).
If "Vindicators 3" did anything right, it was in constantly subverting expectations and pushing this bizarre little superhero team-up in weird directions. The big twist - that the real villain of the episode wasn't the Worldender, but Rick himself - was an inspired choice, and one that really speaks to the grim place Rick finds himself this season. This is a man who destroyed the Galactic Federation and the Council of Ricks in the Season 3 premiere. He promised Morty Season 3 would be their darkest year yet, and so far he's been living up to that promise. Maybe this episode didn't operate on the same, massive scale as "The Rickshank Redemption," but it felt no less dark and nihilistic because of it.
Rick is a man who seems determined to prove that nothing matters and good and evil are meaningless abstractions. Having him get blackout drunk and construct a crude yet elaborate system of Saw-esque challenges to torment his fellow Vindicators is certainly one way to go about it. The constant gulf between Drunk Rick's actions and regular Rick's memory resulted in some of the strongest humor of the episode. I especially enjoyed Drunk Rick's half-assed third challenge with the basketball. But these challenges also allowed the dysfunctional team relationship to stand out, culminating in Supernova being driven mad by Rick's cruelty and murdering poor One Million Ants in cold blood.
This episode included another great swerve when Morty "solved" the final challenge. At this point we're used to the idea of Rick showing occasional moments of tenderness and affection towards Morty and Summer when the chips are down and his blood alcohol content is high enough. Those rare moments are often among the show's most powerful, but the worst thing Dan Harmon and Justin Roiland could do is become predictable in that area. Fortunately, they seem savvy to that fact, as this episode made another sharp turn and revealed that Noob Noob, not Morty, was the apple of Rick's eye. And that's pretty much where "Vindicators 3" left things. No happy ending. No tender moment between Rick and Morty. Just death, futility and a random dance party featuring a cameo by Logic. It's an ending that really speaks to the grim road the series is taking this season. And as long as Roiland, Harmon and the writers keep us second-guessing the destination, this looks to be a road worth following.
The Verdict
Rick and Morty is never an upbeat show on the best of days, and "Vindicators 3" really cemented the darker, more nihilistic approach being taken this season. Rather than settling for spoofing the superhero genre, this episode through in several fun and expected swerves that highlighted the dysfunctional character relationships and the increasingly grim nature of the Rick/Morty partnership. Few shows can manage to be this fun while also being this dark.
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