Rick And Morty Season 9 Episode 8 Recap, Ending Explained And The Mid-Credit Scene

Rick’s mistreatment of Morty and instead of holding himself accountable, using one of his inventions to manage the situation- is a tale as old as time which still manages to bring some novelty with every different interpretation. The latest episode of the ongoing season of “Rick and Morty,” features a similar set up as Morty is given a unique way to ignore his grandpa’s irritable behaviours, which unsurprisingly takes things out of hand in no time. On the other hand, Jerry and Summer have their own adventure while fetching Rick’s supplies, one that involves a serial killer on the prowl.

Spoilers Ahead

Rick’s Sympathant Solution

The episode opens with Rick devotedly following his morning routine, which includes spending a moment to look at sunrise, hanging a DND outside his distillery room before he puts a pair of noise-cancelling living miniature aliens in his ears to be used as airpods. Rick brings out his prized possession, an alien Grimaldian potato which he wants to turn into a liquor. Cut off from the outside world for a few moments, Rick is in his zone, enjoying peace in the way he likes – and right then Morty arrives to seek grandpa to fetch some Pokémon cards. Morty has an innate talent to ruin things, which surpasses the trouble he can cause due to his stupidity. Simply by knocking on a distillery tank to get Rick’s attention, he manages to destroy the entire distillery almost instantly, making Rick extremely furious. Having his morning peacetime ruined, Rick makes some pretty cruel remarks i.e his happiness never aligns with Morty’s presence,  and that hanging out with him is just a means to fulfil his needs. Morty is hurt pretty badly and leaves, leaving Rick regretting his choice of words. Sending Summer and Jerry to buy his stuff to rebuild his distillery, Rick finds out the only way to get another super elusive Grimaldian potato is to win it as a prize in an intergalactic dance competition – as a pair. Of course Rick needs Morty to accompany him for that, so he comes up with an ingenious idea to convince him. 

Instead of improving himself as a person, Rick’s solution is to use Sympathid on Morty, a parasitic alien creature which latches itself onto one’s brain and nibbles at their empathy centre, making them oblivious to any troubling behaviours as their empathy remains supercharged all the time. Morty becomes immune to Rick’s problematic behaviours, mistreatments, as he is lulled into this fantasy of Rick acting nicely towards him. This leads to a perfect collaboration between the two during the dance competition, and they win the Grimaldian potato by dancing in the tunes of “Godzilla: King of the Monsters” trailer music track “Clair de Lune”, composed by Claude Debussy. Gotta say, a very good choice of track, and the performance of the duo is weirdly captivating. 

Morty the Therapist

Morty’s illusion breaks when they return to home and Rick extracts the Sympathid out, revealing the entire bonding experience was his brain’s concoction while remaining in supercharged empathy state. Rick leaves to do whatever he needs to do with the prized potato, leaving Morty craving the experience once again as he now knows how the world looks and feels so much better with limitless empathy in your heart (brain?). As Morty sets off for school (first time in two seasons by the way), he uses the empathy parasite on him, and becomes a sort of master therapist by offering an understanding approach to everyone. From school bullies, to overworked, harassed teachers, to fighting teenagers, everyone finds a trusting counsel thanks to Morty, and as he helps them to cope with their realities, he genuinely starts believing that he is making the world a better place. In reality, Morty’s empathy-charged mind is making him see all this stuff, reality doesn’t change, it’s just that his perspective has shielded him from the malice. 

Jerry Scares a Serial Killer

While buying Rick’s supplies, Summer and Jerry are surprised after failing to get 60 gallon distillery tanks anywhere, and they realize a serial killer, who abducts a woman right from the parking lot, is hoarding them. Jerry panics and almost calls the cops to have the woman rescued, but Summer knows that will cause the authorities to take all the tanks as well. She has a better plan – which is to pose herself as one of Jerry’s victims, so he can earn the trust of the serial killer by asking for his help, and go to his place to let Summer secretly steal all these tanks. Rescuing his latest victim will just be another side quest.  True genius, that’s what every member of this family are, except Jerry that is. 

Summer’s plan works, and the serial killer takes Jerry to his home while discussing their trade, after all it’s not everyday you come across a fellow psychopath. Jerry is scared out of his wits but he needs to keep the appearance of a killer, hence, when the serial killer asks about his signature, Jerry comes up with a made up MO. The signature in question, which involves killing victims on their birthdays and leaving a card and handmade cake on the corpse, is so gruesome and disgusting, that the serial killer himself gets nervous and ends up calling the cops. Summer manages to rescue the killer’s victim and nearly manages to escape with the drums, but ultimately messes up by exposing Jerry’s identity to the killer.  

On the other hand, Morty approaches Rick to share that he realizes he needs personal space, and goes to a space store with him to help buy one of the gadgets using his empathetic touch. Rick realizes something has gone horribly wrong when Morty, in his delusional state, causes a ruckus in reality by triggering major destruction and ends up having murderous alien mercs chasing them. Rick extracts the parasite from Morty’s brain, which has now grown into gigantic proportions to become a literal crustacean kaiju, and eats away the empathy center of Morty’s brain completely. This turns Morty into an apathetic jerk just like Rick, the only difference is Rick chooses to be like that despite having the capacity of empathy. In a twist of cosmic irony, Rick ends up becoming the host of the empathy parasite kaiju, and becomes super empathetic. Apathetic Morty takes the charge of the situation, while emotionally overwhelmed Rick makes him realize the turbulent dynamics between them. 

Did Rick and Morty Get Back to Their Usual Selves?

While fleeing from the alien mercs, Morty receives a call from Summer as she needs help to rescue Jerry. He portals to their location, and thanks to his apathetic state of mind, easily manages to manipulate the serial killer to surrender. The cops riddle the killer with bullets, and Jerry gets rescued in no time. 

Upon returning home, Morty shares his surprise to feel what is to be like his grandpa, totally cut off and aloof. Rick, still in his sympathetic state, asks him not to use the parasite to ignore Rick’s behaviour, instead recognize the reality as what it is – Rick is a selfish, manipulative, abusive douchebag and he has to make peace with it. Morty returns to his room when Rick portals a pack of Pokémon cards to his room. However, in his present apathetic state, Morty doesn’t need those. As the episode concludes, Rick extracts and kills the parasite kaiju in his brain by drinking a liquor of sorts, and it remains unknown whether Morty reverts back to his normal self or remains this empathy-less being. It can be a nifty origin story for an alternate version of Evil Morty, just saying. 

What Happens in the Mid-Credit Scene?

In the mid-credits scene, it is shown how the empathetic Morty believed the world is getting better with his help as he comforts one of his harassed schoolteachers, but in reality, her situation remained as miserable as ever, and Morty’s actions felt hilariously out of place. 

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