History Recap / RickAndMortyS4E1EdgeOfTomortyRickDieRickpeat

* LastMomentTogether: Morty would hold upon a crystal that will vision his fate in the future, and one of his fates involves dying an old life, with his school crush, Jessica caressing his hand. [[BecauseDestinySaysSo Morty would continuously try to change the future so that he and Jessica end up together]] well until his last days when she tells him that she loves him, though he is eventually stopped by Rick from going AKIRA. However, [[FridgeLogic he later overhears Jessica talking about how, after she gets out of school, she wishes to cheer up dying strangers and repeat their names on their tags over and over to console them. ]] [[AllForNothing This means he wasn't going to die with Jessica as his wife as he likely thought, but simply being consoled while dying alone and miserable.]] Morty was pretty pissed about this.

* LastMomentTogether: Morty would hold upon a crystal that will vision his fate in the future, and one of his fates involves dying an old life, with his school crush, Jessica caressing his hand. [[BecauseDestinySaysSo Morty would continuously try to change the future so that he and Jessica end up together]] well until his last days when she tells him that she loves him, though he is eventually stopped by Rick from going AKIRA. However, [[FridgeLogic he later overhears Jessica talking about how, after she gets out of school, she wishes to cheer up dying strangers and repeat their names on their tags over and over to console them. ]] [[AllForNothing This means he wasn't going to die with Jessica as his wife as he likely thought, but simply being consoled while dying alone and miserable.]] Morty was pretty pissed about this.

* AnAesop: Morty believes there's one here that involves living in the moment and not worrying about the future. Rick begs to differ.
-->"What is this? ''Series/FullHouse''? I was living in the moment all day and it kept getting me killed by Nazis. I think you have to think ahead ''and'' live in the moment."

* TakeThatAudience: The Fascist Morty is an explicit reference to "toxic" fans of the show who accuse creators of making it political and demand a return to early standalone episodes. Besides wearing a Nazi uniform, he kills his own uncle for "going political" and forces our universe's Rick to accompany him on a "classic Rick and Morty adventure". Rick soon points that he's always negative, talking about things he doesn't like but never suggesting anything he'd like to do. Fascist Morty replies that he likes Mr. Meeseeks, a one-note Season 1 character and fan favorite, and Rick uses it to get rid of him. The sketch also features Gearhead for no real reason other than he's a Season 1 character.

** Shrimp Rick being a fascist despite [[AffablyEvil his friendly attitude]] was hinted by him wearing the same bathrobe as Fascist Rick.

* LoveMakesYouDumb: Morty's obsession with dying old with Jessica at his death-bed causes him to make decisions that would seem dumb from an outsider's perspective. The biggest moment would have to be when Jessica invites Morty to go skinny-dipping with her and Morty says they should instead reconnect in their forties. All so Jessica can be in his general vicinity when he dies, decades later.

* NoJustNoReaction: Rick’s immediate response upon waking up in another fascist universe, and then proceeding to kill himself to avoid it.

* {{Gaslighting}}: Some news anchors have a short argument about this subject.

* AluminumChristmasTrees: The Wasp dimension is based on an actual species of Parasitoid wasps.

-->'''Morty''': ''[thoroughly fed up]'' What, cover me in gasoline and spiders?! Yeah, fine. I'm in. ''[walks through the portal.]]

* KarmaHoudini: Invoked. Morty does get arrested after killing at least thirteen people, but because he ends up emotionally scarring the judge, she drops the charges and he is free to go. Even when he takes the blame for his actions when his parents get on Rick’s case, assuming he's responsible (which in retrospect is only half-true), Jerry and Beth do not ground him and are instead focused on his safety. [[AllForNothing Though he's clearly disappointed to learn the truth about what led him to do so.]]

* TakeThatAudience: Fascist Morty is a jab at fans that just want "fun, classic Rick and Morty adventures" from the show and don't want to be challenged by the show, something that seems to cross over with alt-right people that say they don't want politics in the things they watch when they really just don't want liberal politics in them.

* FiveSecondForeshadowing: Rick explains this is the only real use for death crystals. While Rick holds one, his many possible deaths suddenly change to only one possible death: getting shot in the back while he mines for the crystals. He uses this knowledge to avoid this death.

* {{Gaslighting}}: Some news anchors have an short argument about this subject.

* AGodAmI: After inadvertently merging with the ferrofluid, Hologram Rick goes [[AxCrazy crazy]] and makes one of these declarations.
-->'''Hologram Rick''': I can feel! I have mass! I'm a fucking god now! YOU'RE FUCKED!

* AGodAmI: Holo-Rick, once he turns into a flesh-and-bone abomination thanks to the ferrofluid possessing him.

* JerkassHasAPoint: While it's definitely a dick move for Morty to "sell Rick out for some trim" by not bringing him back to life in favor of a future with Jessica, most of the other futures that the death crystal shows involve Morty dying horribly as a teen on his adventures with Rick (with one other showing him falling off the toilet as a middle-aged man); the "Jessica" future is the only one where he's actually shown living to old age. However, the point becomes moot in the episode's post-credits scene, where Morty learns that Jessica wants to work in a hospice to comfort every dying old person by saying "I love you [whatever their nametag says]", and he is so pissed that everything he did throughout the episode was AllForNothing that he decides to go on another journey with Rick with no hesitation.
** Not to mention, he walks out into the desert to be fused into a ferrofluid structure which apparently acts as life support for him. [[AndIMustScream Did reaching the Jessica future imply staying in there until old age?]]

* HypocriticalHumor: After the death crystal poachers show up and get into a shootout with the main duo, Rick expresses disgust that there are people like them who would want to steal the crystals...even though this was apparently exactly what Rick and Morty themselves were doing when the poachers showed up. Morty lampshades this by asking what makes the two of them; Rick just replies "We're Rick and Morty" in a "duh!" tone of voice.

** The cloning technology of Rick's Phoenix Initiative from "Big Trouble in Little Sanchez" reappears and is vital to Rick's subplot. Because Rick destroyed his own version of the tech in that episode, when he dies here, he [[BodySurf Body-Surfs]] into clones in alternate dimensions instead.

** The Meeseeks boxes from "Meeseeks and Destroy" reappear, as both Rick and Morty use them at separate times. Rick lampshades this by stating "and now we're doing something we've done before".