Rickmancing the Stone

Plot

After his divorce from Beth, Jerry says goodbye to Morty, a disinterested Summer, and Rick before leaving the house. Rick brings Morty and Summer to a post-apocalyptic Earth, where scavengers called Death Stalkers chase them. Rick notices the group carries a valuable Isotope 322 rock, so he and the kids join them, planning to steal it. Summer falls for the Death Stalkers' leader Hemorrhage and adopts their nihilistic outlook, while Morty gets a giant arm's strength and uses it to fight in the Blood Dome, releasing his anger toward his father.

Rick steals the rock but gets caught and chased by the Death Stalkers. When Morty and Summer refuse to leave, having found relief from their parents' divorce in the wasteland, Rick replaces them with androids to trick Beth. The androids' well-adjusted behavior makes Beth question her divorce from Jerry, forcing Rick to return for the real Morty and Summer. Morty's arm leads him to its previous owner's killer; after that killer dies, the arm returns to normal, and Morty decides to go home.

He and Rick help the Death Stalkers use the Isotope to power a more advanced civilization. Summer's relationship with Hemorrhage falls apart in the comfort of suburbia, and she chooses to go back with Rick and Morty. Before leaving, Rick steals the isotope. Summer makes peace with Jerry, and Morty realizes he must live his own life.

In a post-credits scene, a growling wolf bullies Jerry into handing over his unemployment check, then eats it and throws it back up, further ruining Jerry's new start.

Production

The show was renewed for a third season on August 12, 2015, shortly after the second season premiere. The first episode of season three, "The Rickshank Rickdemption", aired on April 1, 2017 as part of Adult Swim's annual April Fools' Day prank. The remaining episodes, starting with "Rickmancing the Stone", were released weekly from July 30 until October 1, 2017. The episode's title was revealed on July 13, 2017, and on July 20 Jane Becker announced on Twitter that she would write it.

Dominic Polcino directed the episode. The cast includes Justin Roiland as Rick Sanchez and Morty Smith, Chris Parnell as Jerry Smith, Spencer Grammer as Summer Smith, and Sarah Chalke as Beth Smith. Tony Hale and Joel McHale appear as wastelanders: Hale as Eli, a neighbor, and McHale as Hemorrhage, who forms a relationship with Summer. The episode is loosely based on the Mad Max franchise and follows the aftermath of Beth and Jerry's divorce.

The A.V. Club described the family members' different reactions to the divorce as a surprisingly nuanced take on a complicated situation, noting that the episode is mainly about Summer's storyline but balances it well with Morty's. The Rad-Lands said the writing was "intensely off its normal cadence in this episode."

Reception

The season holds a 96% approval rating from Rotten Tomatoes based on 10 reviews, with an average rating of 8.95 out of 10. "Rickmancing the Stone" was praised for its plot and characterization, and for not being merely a recap of the previous episode's consequences. On its air date, 2.86 million American viewers watched the episode, the highest viewership of the entire series. The Rad-Lands criticized both storylines, calling the writing bad, but complimented the post-apocalyptic setting and animation techniques, noting that every wastelander had a unique design and the color schemes were brilliant and vibrant.

Bubbleblabber called the episode very funny and indicative of popular past episodes, praising Summer's storyline and character growth, and said the plot fleshed out the divorce bit and tried something new that could elevate the franchise to an Emmy level of storytelling. Den of Geek criticized the wait between seasons but found the episode well-plotted and pretty funny, praising the complexity of the plot for shaking up character dynamics rather than relegating them to the background.

IGN described the episode as an extended Mad Max parody that focused too much on parodying other works and never felt like it had anything particularly insightful to say. IndieWire called it one of the lightest Rick and Morty episodes in a while, noting it riffed on a major movie while sneaking in an allegory about a family being torn apart.