[7.5/10] This is another episode of *Rick and Morty* where the action doesn’t do much for me, but I find the philosophy really captivating. For what it’s worth, I don’t mind Jerry fetching a mech suit that Summer jumps in while her moms team up to blast some Galactic Federation tail. But I also zoned out for part of it, which goes to show that this kind of stuff can become static pretty quickly for me. What doesn't is getting some honest to goodness answers about Elle, facing our heroes with meaningful choices, and revealing that meaningful choices have already happened. In keeping with the dichotomy of determinism and free will that have permeated this season, I kind of love the idea that Elle’s very presence in our Rick and Morty’s universe is potentially the product of her fighting fate, in her own unique way. From a mechanical perspective, the idea that after enough loops in Long-haired Rick’s universe, Alien Elle was able to convince him to bring the time-reversing substance to another universe, that would cause a version of her to exist there, is a little out there as a concept, but one that actually adds up based on the rules *Rick and Morty: The Anime* has laid down. I genuinely wasn’t expecting it! For a show I’ve found consistently confounding, I at least feel like I partially get the whole thing, which is nice! (As an aside, a pretty big component of my knowledge of modern Japanese storytelling comes from the *Kingdom Hearts* series. [I know, I know.] And the themes in this show and those games -- from doppelgangers, to traveling to other worlds, to disrupting the universe via time travel -- are strangely comparable!) From a philosophical perspective, there is something incredibly thought-provoking about the idea that Alien Elle and Long-haired Rick have been around the block so many times that they’re willing to be annihilated rather than continue in this endless loop, with the knowledge that another version of them is out there, still living and choosing. The idea that they have managed to make meaningful choices despite the seemingly inexorable surge of entropy, that they may have found meaning among what’s meaningless, and been able to find a way to change things, is a kind of incredible trick. At the same time, though, there’s something poignant about the idea that the only method by which they’re able to change course is by destroying their entire universe, so that a version of Elle in another one can be safe. There are grand questions asked about whether any one universe has value or a right to exist in a multiverse where there are infinite equivalents out there. But it’s one thing to consider that intellectually; it’s another to willingly sacrifice your universe, with the idea that you’ve just had enough of living, or would rather see a world where some version of you can be with the person you love, rather than go on living in one where you labor under the eternal sense of losing them. It’s also meaningful for our Rick and Morty. Rick’s reassurances to his grandson that he didn’t engineer this, that the choice is Morty’s, that they’ll protect Elle no matter what, are sweet in a way that the main show’s Rick isn’t always with his Morty. It puts a big weight on Morty’s shoulders, with the knowledge that his universe and his love are on the line, and with the responsibility that another universe’s existence and his love’s existence are in his hands. That is bizarre but profound, which is not only where *Rick and Morty: The Anime* has lived at its best, but also where the main *Rick and Morty* series lives at its best. They’re not the same, to be sure, but they’re using different methods to arrive at the same sort of big sci-fi, philosophical, and emotional ideas. That's not what I expected from this show after its rocky first few episodes, but I’m glad it’s there.