Rick and Morty Season 4 Episode 4: What Can We Expect From This Season?

By Madhav Gupta On Dec 26, 2022

Many fans disliked Rick & Morty season 4 episode 4, and the reasons for the show’s divided reaction are understandable. Not every episode of an adult animated sitcom is a critical and audience favorite. As The Simpsons’ catastrophic Joe Rogan spoof shown, even renowned and influential shows can have a bad week.

While Rick & Morty has a devoted fan base, the program’s IMDB rankings reveal that not every episode receives universal appreciation. “Claw and Hoarder: Special Ricktim’s Morty” (season 4 episode 4) is, for example, the lowest-rated episode of Rick & Morty’s five seasons, with a 7.4 rating out of a possible 10, based on roughly 11,000 votes.

The fact that Rick & Morty season 4, episode 4 depends on crass, sex-centric humor more than most of the show’s outings contributes significantly to the problem. Furthermore, the episode’s fantasy parody idea isn’t developed in-depth, making its judgment on fandom culture ambiguous and uncertain. As a result, despite a typically amusing cameo from guest actor Liam Cunningham, the Rick & Morty season 4 episode was unsurprisingly controversial.

What Can We Expect From Rick & Morty Season 4 Episode 4?

“Claw and Hoarder: Special Ricktim’s Morty” appears to be a Game of Thrones/high fantasy parody, with Morty wanting a dragon from Rick and Rick warning him against it to no avail. However, the episode does not particularly lampoon the highly successful HBO show or even the fantasy genre, instead taking a broad swipe at fandom itself.

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Rick advises Morty that he does not want a dragon and that the experience would be stranger than planned, but Morty disregards his warning. As a result, he soon discovers that the link between humans and dragons is awkwardly sexual.

This finally leads to Rick bonding with the dragon in question, the dragon being chastised for bonding with several people, and the downfall of an evil wizard, although a lot of this plot is just employed as window dressing for some ill-judged sex-focused gags.

Why did Rick & Morty Fans Hate The Episode?

“Claw and Hoarder: Special Ricktim’s Mortybasic “‘s joke is that the link between dragons and humans is analogous to sex. While South Park’s immature, subtly witty satire has shown time and again (as has Rick & Morty) that a notion this dumb and juvenile can be the basis of surprisingly great gags, that never actually happens in the episode.

Three days bro. Just enough time to rewatch the whole show. @adultswim pic.twitter.com/cjNchrJW7L

— Rick and Morty (@RickandMorty) November 7, 2019

The plot’s intended joke is that dragons bond in a psychosexual way with humans, grossing Morty out and forcing him to abandon his fantasy when he realizes this. It’s a gag that doesn’t go away after the major disclosure, but it does inspire an unbelievable amount of repetitious sex jokes, all of which are about as inventive and unexpected as Rick and Morty’s revelation that dragons that bond with multiple human partners are dubbed “slut dragons.

Was Rick & Morty’s “Claw and Hoarder” Anti-Fantasy Fans?

One may argue that the Rick & Morty episode was mocking those who were overly absorbed in fictitious universes. “Claw and Hoarder: Special Ricktim’s Morty,” like The Simpsons parody obsessive Lost fans, undoubtedly sees Rick & Morty take issue with fantasy enthusiasts who desire stories to be exciting adventures but can’t handle anything ethically ambiguous, unexpectedly mature, or sexual.

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This appears to be a direct criticism of Game of Thrones viewers who complained about the show’s depressing turn in the last season, but if that was the purpose, the execution falls short.

After all, the joke appears to be directed at fans who fail to recognize that fantasy isn’t always what they expect it to be. However, the dragons’ unpleasant openness about sex is cringe-worthy and unsettling. As a result, any attempt to parody (say) Game of Thrones fans who expected a more accessible and enjoyable fantasy program was futile because Morty isn’t incorrect to find the revelations about dragons strange and unsettling.

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As a result, the Rick & Morty gag falls flat, because viewers are left with the same impression as Rick and Morty: that the show’s dragons aren’t worth engaging with, and any attempts to incorporate them into a story will be a misguided mess, turning the preceding episode into an oddly self-aware misfire.

What Rick & Morty Season 4 Episode 4 Got Right?

Despite its problems, “Claw and Hoarder: Special Ricktim’s Morty” is a strong Rick & Morty episode due to its B-story. Jerry being led astray by an unexplainable talking cat was an odd, darkly humorous, and weird plotline. And, despite relying on Rick & Morty’s inclination to make the sadsack Jerry a perpetual victim of bad luck, it remains the best section of what IMDB labels the show’s weakest episode.

Rick & Morty, like South Park’s dangerous season 25 episodes that focus on only one tale, tends to hedge its chances by pursuing a pair of interconnected plots.

Interestingly, stories in which Jerry suffers embarrassment after embarrassment at the hands of Rick tend to do less well with fans, owing to Rick’s long-established advantages over his son-in-law. As a result, instead of retreading Rick & Morty’s Terminator parody’s B-plot, the program made Jerry the victim of a peculiar, previously unseen enemy, a less familiar dynamic that felt fresh yet still putting the unfortunate charter in the lurch again after a time.

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While it wasn’t enough to keep “Claw and Hoarder: Special Ricktim’s Morty” from becoming one of Rick & Morty’s least-liked episodes, the gag did help the episode’s overall reception.

Frequently Asked Question

In Rick and Morty Season 4 Episode 4, Why Can the Cat Talk?

So, as we suspected when the episode first aired, the Talking Cat serves as a spokesperson for producers Dan Harmon and Justin Roiland, telling viewers to quit overthinking everything. That’s why the cat constantly advises people not to complicate things: “Don’t bother asking questions. Have some fun.”

What Did Rick Perceive in the Thoughts of the Cat?

Rick scans the cat’s brain and transmits the memories into a pair of goggles hooked to a device he keeps in his car. We only hear gunshots and explosions, but whatever Rick and Jerry see via the goggles causes Jerry to vomit and cry.

What Happened to the Talking Cat?

According to Rick and Morty writer Jeff Loveness, the cat was inspired by films such as Oliver and Company. “They didn’t explain why the cats can talk,” he noted. However, Chris Parnell, who plays Jerry on the show, theorized that the cat may have a more sinister past.