After encountering a hive mind that has taken over the mind of an alien crew, Rick discovers that the hive mind is Unity, his old girlfriend. After accompanying Unity home to her new world – a world populated by Unity’s mind – Rick lights an old flame while Summer sets out to free the population of Unity’s influence.
Morty… he just kind of goes with it.
Every week this show just takes sci-fi convention and turns it on its ear while wrestling it into submission. This take on Star Trek’s Borg was a hoot as it explored what world’s united by one mind would actually be like.
Summer was the self-appointed voice of morality and, a lot like last week, all of her good intentions turned to ashes in her mouth. I just love a show that takes expectations and trashes them right in front of you… something very satisfying about that.
“Auto Erotic Assimilation” was a funny episode, that’s for sure… seeing Rick be irresponsible and selfish while having all manner of incredibly weird sex was, to be honest, amusing and the unexpected ramifications of un-hive minding the aliens was also extremely funny.
The B plot with Jerry and Beth was connected to the story again, but not very well this time around. It seemed disjointed and inconsequential in the long run – like it brought the episode to a stop every time it came up.
The dramatic shift in tone in the last five minutes was strangely heartbreaking because, although Rick kind of deserved what he got for his actions in this episode, seeing how deeply it affected him was brutal. Rick is a good guy, deep down… he just forgets sometime.
Overall, though, it was another killer installment of this series that never ceases to stop surprising.
Jason Gaston 