History Recap / RickAndMortyS4E1EdgeOfTomortyRickDieRickpeat

* 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-credit scene, where Morty learns that Jessica wants to work in hospice to comfort every dying person old person, 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.

* PuttingOnTheReich: Fascist!Morty and his timeline are full of Nazi imagery.

* TakeThatAudience: The episode is basically an excuse for Harmon and Roiland to take the piss out of the complaints against Season 3.

* FacialHorror: A close-up shot of Holo!Rick's exploded face at the end.

* AGodIAm: Holo!Rick, once he turns into a flesh-and-bone abomination.

* ThreeLawsCompliant: Wasp!Rick assumes that Holo!Rick has [[GrowBeyondTheirProgramming gained sentience]] and [[TurnedAgainstTheirMasters tries to take over]]. Holo!Rick calls this notion "A.I., racist, accusatory, Creator/IsaacAsimov bullshit". As we later see, Holo!Rick turns out [[{{Hypocrite}} not so immune]] to the [[AGodAmI pull of power]] as he wants us to believe.

* PutOnTheReich: Fascist!Morty and his timeline are full of Nazi imagery.

* ChekhovsGun:
** One that fires pretty quickly: at the beginning of the episode, Morty sees a picture of Jessica with a necklace she inherited from her recently-passed grandma. When he gets one of the death crystals, he sees himself dying old while comforted by an old woman wearing that necklace, which is one of the ways he identifies her as Jessica.

* BrickJoke: Wasp Rick mentions laying his eggs in the eyes of prey, which then eat their way out. He ends up doing this to AI Rick after he gains physical form.

* ChekhovsGun: One that fires pretty quickly: at the beginning of the episode, Morty sees a picture of Jessica with a necklace she inherited from her recently-passed grandma. When he gets one of the death crystals, he sees himself dying old while comforted by an old woman wearing that necklace, which is one of the ways he identifies her as Jessica.

* AllForNothing: Morty's [[JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope actions in this episode]] are spurred by the death crystal showing him that one of his possible deaths is to die old with Jessica comforting him, which he naturally assumes means he'll be married to her in the future, and Morty following what the death crystal shows him to do to make this happen. He finds out in TheStinger that the future he was seeing didn't involve him ending up with Jessica at all; she just plans to become a hospice worker who comforts everyone in this same way.

* CombatClairvoyance: The death crystals grants a form of this, letting you see all immediate deaths so you know when you won't be dying. Rick uses it to defeat the death crystal poachers, and Morty takes this to an extreme by focusing on a singular future death and letting it guide his actions, going mad in his quest to reach it.

* 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-credit scene, where Morty learns that Jessica wants to work in hospice to comfort every dying person old person, 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.

** On the subject that Morty's plot has been resolved TV news reporter remarks that "As far as continuity hoes, the ResetButton has been hit".

* BreakingTheFourthWall: "Our" Rick tells the first Fascist Rick that he destroyed his Operation Phoenix (cloning) technology "a couple seasons ago".

** Rick dies multiple times in his first several clone bodies before he finally ends up in a clone that works. As a normal Rick, he and Fascist Morty (and Gearhead for some reason) die after their Meeseeks [[ThrownOutTheAirlock accidentally crashes through their windshield and they're exposed to the vacuum of space]]; as Shrimp Rick, he lets slip that he's not fascist and gets caught and torn apart by fascist shrimp-people; and as Teddy Bear Rick, he just kills himself by bashing his head on the glass.

** In TheStinger, Jessica reveals that her career goal for the future is to become a hospice care worker and comfort dying, lonely old people who don't have anyone else there. While hearing this upsets Morty because it means that the "future" he saw with Jessica wasn't what he thought it was, it's still a career path for someone very kind-hearted.

* JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope: Morty. When he sees what he thinks is a future where he gets to be with Jessica and grow old with her, he goes to some downright sociopathic lengths to make it happen, such as not reviving his own grandfather (whose death Morty was responsible for in the first place), attacking and even killing some school bullies and a whole fleet of cops, and allowing himself to be possessed by a parasitic alien. Thankfully, though, Rick brings him back down, and Morty decides to live in the moment more often from now on rather than worrying about his future.
* TheManyDeathsOfYou: Holding a death crystal shows the user several of the ways that they are currently most likely to die; since one's future is based on their current present, and thus fluid and ever-changing, the possibilities can change just through a single decision of the user. We see some of these options for both Rick and Morty, especially the latter.

* TakeThat: The episode was basically an excuse for Harmon and Roiland to take the piss out of the complaints against Season 3.

* AnAesop: Morty believes there's one here, that involves living in the moment and not worrying about the future. Rick begs to differ.

* CrazyPrepared: Rick has two alternatives to come back to life when he dies, either have Morty clone him with a holographic A.I. of himself guiding Morty or have his mind programmed into an already existing clone.

* FiveSecondForeshadowing: While Rick holds one of the death crystal, one of the deaths he foresaw is him getting shot in the back while he mines for the crystals and he uses this knowledge to avoid this death.
* 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 that makes them, to which Rick just replies "We're Rick and Morty" in a "duh!" tone of voice.

* 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 at episode’s post-credit scene where Morty learns that Jessica wants to work at a hospital to comfort every dying person and he is so angry that he decides to go on another journey with Rick with no hesitation.

* TheManyDeathsOfYou: Holding a death crystal shows the holder several of the ways that they are currently most likely to die; since one's future is based on their current present, and thus fluid and ever-changing, the possibilities can change just through a single decision of the user. We see some of these options for both Rick and Morty, especially the latter.
* NotMeThisTime: Jerry automatically suspects Rick to be responsible for turning Morty into an Manga/{{Akira}}. ("Eat my ass, Jerry!"). But then Morty pipes up and says it was his own fault.

* ScrewThisImOuttaHere: When Rick wakes up in yet another clone-body after dying (this time a teddy-bear-like version of him) and sees that he once again ended up in a fascist dimension, he immediately bashes his head in and dies again to try to end up in a better dimension rather than bothering dealing with it again.

* 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.

* CrazyPrepared: Rick has two alternatives to come back to life when he dies, either have Morty clone him with a holographic A.I. guiding him or have his mind programmed into an already existing clone.

* CombatClairvoyance: The death crystals grants a form of this, letting you see all immediate deaths so you know when you won't be dying. Morty takes this to an extreme by focusing on a singular future death and letting it guide his actions, going mad in his quest to reach it.

* 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, the other futures that the death crystal shows involve Morty dying horribly as a teen on his adventures with Rick; the "Jessica" future is the only one where he's actually shown living to old age.

* YankTheDogsChain: Morty seems to see a future in which he actually does get together with Jessica and [[GrowOldWithMe grow old together with her]]. Turns out that the future he saw was just Jessica as a hospice worker comforting him as he was dying, without even knowing who he was (since she will comfort everyone else the same way).

* AllForNothing: Morty's [[JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope actions in this episode]] are spurred by the death crystal showing him that one of his possible deaths is to die old with Jessica, which he naturally assumes means he'll be married to her in the future, and Morty following what the death crystal shows him to do to make this happen. He finds out in TheStinger that the future he was seeing didn't involve him ending up with Jessica at all; she just plans to become a hospice worker who comforts everyone in this same way.

* DeathIsCheap: Rick's current body (which he's had since "The Rickshank Redemption") straight-up dies in this episode, but it's revealed that he has at least two different safeguards to keep his consciousness alive: a hologram version of himself that tells Morty how to create a clone of him that will revive him, and his mind [[BodySurf Body-Surfing]] into a clone, even though Rick screwed that one up by breaking his copy of the technology, causing him to upload into the clones of Ricks in other dimensions. By all appearances, it's very difficult for "our" Rick to truly, fully die.

* JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope: Morty. When he sees what he thinks is a future where he gets to be with Jessica and grow old with her, he goes to some downright sociopathic lengths to make it happen, such as not reviving his own grandfather (whose death Morty was responsible for in the first place), attacking some school bullies and a whole fleet of cops, and allowing himself to be possessed by a parasitic alien. Thankfully, though, Rick brings him back down, and Morty decides to live in the moment more often from now on rather than worrying about his future.

* TheStinger: Jessica tells her friends her plans for the future after high school: she wants to become a hospice worker who comforts her patients as they die. Morty overhears this and realizes this is the future he saw; when Rick shows up and asks Morty to come with him on a mission, Morty immediately jumps on the excuse to leave.

* BodySurf: When Rick dies, the safeguard he built in case of his death causes his consciousness to jump into a Rick clone in an alternate dimension. Unfortunately, he ends up in fascist dimensions the first several times this happens.

* DeathIsCheap: Rick's current body (which he's had since "The Rickshank Redemption") straight-up dies in this episode, but it's revealed that he has at least two different safeguards in case that keep his consciousness alive: a hologram version of himself that tells Morty how to create a clone of him that will revive him, and his mind [[BodySurf Body-Surfing]] into the body of one of his clones in another dimension. By all appearances, it's very difficult for "our" Rick to truly, fully die.

* OneManArmy: Morty loads himself up with stuff from Rick's army and easily dominates the police and the military. The only reason they stop him is because he lets them.

* JerkassHasAPoint: While it's definitely a dick move for Morty to "sell Rick out for some trim" by not reviving him in favor of a future with Jessica, the other futures that the death crystal shows involve Morty dying horribly as a teen on his adventures with Rick; the "Jessica" future is the only one where he's actually shown living to old age.