[8.0/10] Fuck. That was really good. This still doesn’t feel much like *Rick and Morty* to me. It still feels like another show with a coat of *Rick and Morty* paint over it. But on-brand or not, that show finally seems good on its own merits, so I’ll take it. I love the idea of Elle having a different perception of time, to where she sees into both the past and the future at once. The idea of a being who experience the flow of time as a single gestalt is very *Slaughterhouse Five*, and I love the notion of exploring what that would be like for a person, how it would impact their ability to relate to others and affect their psyche. It’s a very human approach to a big sci-fi concept, which is at least kind of what I look for from *Rick and Morty*, even if this is more earnest and melancholy than the mainline show. I kind of like that though! There is a real sweetness and sadness in seeing Space Morty and Alien Elle together. Watching them bond over their joint rebel attacks against the Galactic Federation, and share quiet glances or soft moments in between, is heartening. There’s a real artistry to how it’s presented, in little half-remembered snippets, where you see the joy and comfort shared between them, while Long-haired Rick recounts the events in a way that suggests whatever solace they shared wasn’t built to last. That's the real interesting part of this. To be frank, I’m still not entirely clear what’s going on. Is Long-haired Rick from an alternate dimension that Morty can access through the VR helmet? Or is the world of Long-haired Rick and Alien Elle fully inside the VR helmet? Or something else entirely? I can't really say. But whatever the deal, I appreciate the heavy implication that Space Morty died, and Long-Haired Rick feels guilty about it. The sense of him remembering his grandson, weighed down by the knowledge that he’ll cause Space Morty’s death in some way, weighs heavily in the implication. When Long-haired RIck has a fraught conversion with Alien Elle, you get the sense that he knows what’s coming, and both are a little haunted by it. The notion that Long-haired Rick isn’t bailing on his family out of a sense of self-centredness, but rather because he doesn't want to be there to cause Morty’s death is a kind of emotional depth I wasn’t expecting. Along the way, there’s a lot of really interesting explorations of determinism and cosmic possibility. Alien Elle being able to know and experience the past and the future, but unable to change it, would be maddening. Teasing the tout, both in commentary from Long-haired Rick and from the scenes we see of her life, stoke the philosophy nerd in me, and it’s both fascinating and poignant. I particularly like the moment where Alien Elle asks Space Morty if he’s put off by her, given her unique perception, and Morty explains that, if anything, he's at ease with her. That's the dream, right? To have someone who sees the part of you that you're most wary or insecure about, and accepts it without a second though, maybe even loves you for it? That's a beautiful thing, and retroactively makes the weird interludes of the first episode hit with more force, since we have a deeper sense of their relationship now. Overall, this one surprised me. I haven't been expecting much from this show, but this was transcendent enough to get me to stick around.