Rick & Morty Season 7 Episode 4 Recap: 10 Greatest Gags & Moments

WARNING! This article contains SPOILERS for Rick & Morty season 7, episode 4!

While Rick and Morty season 7, episode 4 might be one of the show’s more thoughtful outings, that doesn’t mean that the episode is not also full of killer gags. Rick and Morty started out as an anarchic sci-fi comedy series, but, as the sitcom progressed, the show started to take its characters a little more seriously. By season 2, viewers were getting an idea of Rick’s dark backstory and how his struggles shaped his nihilistic worldview. By season 4, the Adult Swim series Rick and Morty had even acknowledged the imbalanced the power dynamic between the impressionable Morty and his all-powerful grandfather Rick.

For the most part, Rick and Morty season 7 has steered clear of this type of introspective character work. Since the series replaced Justin Roiland as the titular Rick and Morty’s voice actors, the sitcom has made a point of focusing on laughs and reliable comedy setups over more ambitious and emotionally charged storylines. However, Rick and Morty season 7, episode 4, “That’s Amorte,” brought back the show’s darker side with a tale of spaghetti, cannibalism, death, and the thorny question of ethical consumption. That said, “That’s Amorte” provided viewers with plenty of laughs despite its heavy subject.

10 The Source Of Rick’s Mystery Spaghetti

The Smith Family’s Favorite Meal Has A Dark Secret

In the opening scenes of “That’s Amorte,” the usually dysfunctional Smith family bonded over a great spaghetti meal. The clan stopped their usual sniping and in-fighting as they raved about Rick’s spaghetti, a perfect blend of spicy and sweet that had even the typically sardonic Summer excited. Then, in Rick and Morty season 7’s latest sci-fi parody, the ending of the episode’s cold open revealed the source of this beloved family tradition. Like the eponymous Soylent Green, Rick’s spaghetti was made from people. Specifically, it’s made from alien people who took their own lives.

9 Rick Misuses His Memory Eraser

The Hero’s Men In Black Nod Backfires On Him

When Rick took a disbelieving Morty to the alien planet where people’s insides turned into spaghetti once they took their own lives, Morty was horrified to discover that the family’s favorite meal had its origins in someone’s chest cavity. However, the morgue attendant was equally horrified to find two random people dissecting dead bodies, prompting Rick to use a Men in Black-style memory erasing device on him. The problem was, Rick’s device faced the wrong way and ended up wiping his own memory instead. To make matters worse, Morty’s annoyed reaction implied that this was far from the first time this gadget mishap happened.

8 The Smiths Debate Spaghetti Ethics

Summer, Beth, and Jerry Turn On Morty

While Rick and Morty season 7 episode 3’s stinger saw Mr. Stabby argue that his show should remain on the air despite him constantly killing audience members, the next episode featured a similarly silly ethical debate. The Smiths were dismayed to discover that they had been unknowingly eating the innards of aliens for weeks, but they were more annoyed at Morty for informing them than they were at Rick for lying to them. Beth tried her best to hide this while Jerry was more upfront about it but, by the end of the conversation, everyone had to admit that they just didn’t want to know the truth.

7 Morty Finds Out About Morty-Os

Morty’s Attempts to Fix Things Made Them Worse

While Rick & Morty season 7’s first three episodes hardly featured Morty, the character is back in focus for the fourth outing. Morty attempted to patch things up by returning to the planet that provided the family with their macabre spaghetti substitute, but he ended up making things much worse. The aliens convinced Morty to act as a spokesperson for the spaghetti that their depressed residents produced and, as a result, Morty ended up becoming the smiling mascot of a brand that sold internal organs as a convenient tinned meal. Morty’s encounters with alien mob bosses in Rick and Morty season 7, episode 2 proved that he can be savvy, but even he wasn’t expecting this unpleasant twist after his initial meeting.

6 The Spaghetti Planet’s Entertainment Options

Rick & Morty Mocked Some Depressing TV Shows

To produce more spaghetti for the interplanetary market, the spaghetti planet’s government did everything they could to push their residents to consider taking their own lives. This gag allowed Rick and Morty season 7 to get some digs in at famous pop culture mainstays. The policy resulted in radio stations that only played DJ chatter and never any music, as well as TV networks that only aired reality TV shows.

5 Rick and Morty Season 7 Episode 4’s Never Let Me Go Spoof

Rick Accidentally Spoiled An Indie Sci-fi Classic

As Morty scrambled to find a more ethical alternative for farming people to death, he enlisted Rick’s help. Rick’s first attempt involved creating clones who were bred to believe that becoming spaghetti was their entire purpose from birth, resulting in two rebellious clones taking their own lives to avoid this fate. Rick bemoaned this rip-off of Never Let Me Go as Morty chided him for spoiling the 2010 dystopian sci-fi drama.

4 The Protesters Meet in the Spaghetti Factory

Tensions Boil Over in Rick & Morty’s Grossest Gag

As “That’s Amorte” came to a close, it seemed as though a solution had been found. Rick created sentient torsos that were only capable of ending their own lives, resulting in a theoretically guilt-free alternative to the earlier spaghetti sources. However, protestors broke into the factory arguing for “Torso’s rights” while, simultaneously, opposing protestors demanded that their spaghetti regain its old flavor. These two forces soon rendered each other irrelevant in gruesome fashion.

3 Rick’s Solution To The Spaghetti Quandary

Rick Tricked Morty With A Moving Montage

Even if Rick hasn’t solved Rick and Morty season 7’s Rick Prime storyline, he did come up with a fitting solution for the plot of “That’s Amorte.” Rick convinced an elderly man to give up his life to become spaghetti, so he could synthesize the recipe and then broadcast this man’s dying moments to the world. As soon as everyone saw this man’s rich life story, they inevitably no longer felt comfortable eating his insides just as Rick had planned all along.

2 The Smith Family Picks Ignorance

Even Morty Didn’t Want To Know The Terrible Truth

In the closing scenes of “That’s Amorte,” the Smith family’s spaghetti was replaced with Salisbury steak. Although the family was initially reticent about this new recipe, they soon found it as addictive, satisfying, and satiating as their old spaghetti. Rick then began to hint at the horrible origins of the meal, but the Smiths refused to hear about them and actively decided to remain ignorant about their impact.

1 Rick & Morty Season 7 Episode 4’s Bizarre Post-Credits Stinger

The Episode’s Surreal Final Scene Explained

While the first post-credits stinger in Rick and Morty season 7 was absurd, even that lawnmower massacre couldn’t compare to the final moments of “That’s Amorte.” In a weird parallel universe, a group of sentient vacuum cleaners discovered that vacuum bags came from a Groot-like creature taking its own life. Much like the spaghetti consumers, the talking appliances of this Rick and Morty stinger were overcome with disgust by the revelation.