Before the break, Rick and Morty aired its two darkest episodes so far back-to-back, so I guess it’s fair enough that we return to this universe with probably the most straightforwardly comedic episode yet. Not that it isn’t still totally fucked up. I mean, the inciting incident is that Morty bangs a sex robot that he asked Rick to buy for him and it turns out to be some kind of baby-making machine, so out pops a half-Morty/half-alien baby (which he names Morty Jr, obviously). It’s a pretty nasty concept, especially considering Morty’s only fourteen. Plus, there’s the way his parents handle the situation so nonchalantly. They try to help him out with the baby, but when Morty witnesses their poor parenting skills applied to his own offspring, he rejects their help, after which point Jerry and Beth spend the episode criticizing Morty’s raising of Morty Jr.

This episode might be starting to paint a picture of Morty’s family life that implies his relationship with his parents is much more messed up than all the insane crap Rick gets him involved in. Morty’s parents’ storylines have mostly been to do with each other and we haven’t really seen them do much parenting. We know they’re in a borderline loveless marriage, so it follows that the badness of that would not likely translate to a caring upbringing for their kids. But this is really the first time we’re shown how awful they can be to their children. They largely just don’t seem to care that much about helping their son with the pretty big problem he has of having just fathered a monster-child. Basically, Jerry and Beth don’t even act like parents. They act like snarky, sarcastic roommates.

I only spend so much time talking about this because I’m not yet sure if we’re actually supposed to view Jerry and Beth as being such completely uncaring parents (though with this show, I wouldn’t be surprised if we are) or if it’s just that they’re conforming to the detached tone of this particular episode, which, unlike the last two episodes, feels far less interested in instilling the truth of the desolate hopelessness of existence in the viewer.

One fun thing “Raising Gazorpazorp” does is swap Morty and his sister Summer’s roles. Changing up the usual formula, Morty’s the one who has to stay home and do the, uh, “normal” sitcom story, while Summer goes planet-hopping with Rick. Rick doesn’t want her to come because he doesn’t “do adventures with chicks.” But she accidentally gets sucked into a portal and then he’s stuck with her on the sex robot’s home planet of Gazorpazorp.