'Rick and Morty' Season 4 Episode 8: ‘Interdimensional Cable 3’ a possibility as title could be a red herring
Dan Harmon and Justin Roiland’s animated sci-fi adult comedy ‘Rick and Morty’ has taken fans on a bit of a rollercoaster ride ever since it returned from its midseason break earlier this month. While episode 6 of the fourth season has largely been hailed as one of the better-written episodes of the show, episode 7 was seen as a let-down.
Episode 8 of season 4, titled ‘The Vat of Acid Episode’ is one of the rare episodes that doesn’t have some variation of either Rick or Morty’s name in it. So, what’s the episode about?
There are a few things to look back at in previous episodes of ‘Rick and Morty’ that might have a clue.
For example, in season 4 episode 6, a passenger in the “anthology” train tells his tale of encountering Rick on planet Ramamama. A warlord of sorts there, the passenger enjoys lowering his enemies into vats of acid. He is humiliated by Rick who makes him cry after killing all his soldiers and farting in his lair.
While, obviously, given the nature of the “anthology” train, we know that the actual events of that exchange never really took place, this may have just been foreshadowing from the creators (something they never do in general).
Even the trailer for the second half of season 4 has a scene when Rick and Morty can be seen falling into what looks like a vat of green liquid. But is that a vat of acid? Or is it, like in the Citadel of Ricks, a vat full of portal fluid? It’s difficult to tell.
In that regard, it is possible that this is an episode that might just be another return to the Citadel of Ricks, the space station that once housed the Council of Ricks, all of whom were killed by Rick of Earth from dimension C-137.
The promo for the episode doesn’t reveal much. It sees Rick and Morty in their spaceship. As they land and begin to leave the vehicle, Rick tells Morty that this would be a simple exchange. He assures him that this would not be an adventure at all, and if something went wrong, he should jump into the same vat of acid as he.
That’s it. That’s all the promo reveals. Although from what we saw in the main midseason trailer, we know that things do go wrong and that they would indeed have to jump into a vat of toxic green substance.
One thing that fans have been hoping for, is that this “vat of acid” business is just some kind of nonsense plot point that really doesn’t mean anything to the episode’s actual contents. And they can very well be right. The show’s creators have been known to send fans on false trails just for kicks.
What is, however, a possibility, is that this episode may just be ‘Interdimensional Cable 3’. As a trend, the interdimensional cable episodes in season 1 and 2 have been the eighth episodes. In season 3, that was swapped with ‘Morty’s Mind Blowers’ a format that was somewhat a mix of what we saw in the anthology episode and interdimensional cable.
So, fingers crossed for that.
‘Rick and Morty’ Season 4 airs Sundays at 11.30 pm EST only on Adult Swim.