Let's just be honest right out of the gate: Rick and Morty Season 5 Episode 4 is an absolute mess. It's chaotic. It’s gross. It’s titled "Rickdependence Spray," and if you’ve seen it, you know exactly why it’s the most polarizing twenty-two minutes in the history of Adult Swim. Some people love the sheer audacity of it. Others think it’s the exact moment the show jumped the shark, or at least tripped over a very weird, very slimy hurdle.
Most TV shows have that one episode. You know the one. The "Fly" episode of Breaking Bad or the "Scott’s Tots" of The Office. But those are usually divisive because they’re slow or awkward. This episode is different. It’s divisive because it revolves entirely around Morty Smith’s "genetic material" becoming a sentient, world-ending threat.
What actually happens in Rick and Morty Season 5 Episode 4?
The plot kicks off with a premise that feels like classic, early-season Rick and Morty, but quickly spirals into something much more biological. Morty finds a strange machine in Rick’s garage. He uses it for... well, personal reasons. Rick, being Rick, assumes the machine was used to harvest horse DNA for a weapons experiment. He doesn't ask questions. He just builds a giant, mutated horse-human hybrid monster using what he thinks is "pure" equine DNA.
It wasn't. It was Morty's.
Suddenly, underground tunnels are filled with giant, predatory sperm cells. They're everywhere. They're attacking Las Vegas. They're threatening the entire United States. This is the core of Rick and Morty Season 5 Episode 4. It’s a literal explosion of teenage puberty gone wrong. The President of the United States gets involved, voiced by the always incredible Keith David, and the military response is just as ridiculous as the threat itself.
Why does this matter? Because it marks a shift in how the writers approached gross-out humor. Usually, the show uses high-concept sci-fi to mask the low-brow jokes. Here, the low-brow joke is the high-concept sci-fi. There is no subtext. It’s just text. Slimy, wriggling text.
The incest baby and the logic of the absurd
If the giant sperm wasn't enough, the episode introduces the "Incest Baby." This is where a lot of viewers checked out. To stop the giant sperm queen, the government decides to use Summer’s enlarged egg. They launch it into space. The plan is to lure the sperm away from Earth. It works, but it results in a giant, floating "Naruto" baby that lives in the vacuum of space.
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It’s weird. It’s genuinely uncomfortable.
Writer Nick Rutherford, who penned this specific script, has talked in interviews about how the writers’ room often pushes boundaries to see what sticks. In the case of Rick and Morty Season 5 Episode 4, they didn't just push the boundary; they obliterated it. The episode leans heavily into the "gross-out" era of 90s cartoons like Ren & Stimpy, but with the nihilistic edge that Dan Harmon and Justin Roiland (at the time) were known for.
You’ve gotta wonder what the pitch meeting was like. Imagine explaining to a room of executives that the climax of your mid-season tentpole involves a giant baby being birthed in a crater on the moon. Somehow, it got made.
The fans didn't hold back
The ratings for this episode were actually decent, but the IMDB scores tell a different story. It consistently ranks as one of the lowest-rated episodes of the entire series. Fans on Reddit and Twitter went nuclear.
- Critics argued it was "lazy writing."
- Hardcore theorists were annoyed that it didn't advance the "Evil Morty" or "Citadel" plotlines.
- Casual viewers just found the whole thing a bit too "cringe" to watch with friends.
But there’s a counter-argument. Some fans believe the show needs to be this stupid sometimes. If every episode is a deep, existential meditation on the nature of the multiverse, the show loses its edge. It becomes too prestigious. By making something as objectively "dumb" as Rick and Morty Season 5 Episode 4, the creators re-establish that they can do whatever they want. They aren't beholden to your fan theories.
Deconstructing the "Action Movie" tropes
One thing people often overlook about this episode is how well it parodies action movie clichés. The scenes in the "War Room" are a pitch-perfect send-up of every Michael Bay movie ever made. The unnecessary tension, the dramatic lighting, the way the President talks about "our way of life" while fighting off giant white tadpoles—it’s actually pretty sharp satire.
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The introduction of the "CHUDs" (Cannibalistic Horse-Underground Dwellers) is another layer of absurdity. Rick has a secret history with a princess of an underground horse civilization. It’s a throwaway gag that turns into a major plot point. This is the "Rick" part of the episode that works best. It shows that no matter how insane the world gets, Rick has already been there, done that, and probably has an ex-girlfriend involved.
Honestly, the pacing is breakneck. It doesn't give you time to breathe or think about how much you hate what's happening. One minute you're in a garage, the next you're in a secret base, then you're in the Grand Canyon, then you're in space. It’s relentless.
Why the "Incest Baby" came back later
Believe it or not, this episode actually has long-term consequences. In later seasons, the "Naruto" baby reappears. This is a classic Dan Harmon move. He takes the thing the audience hated most and forces them to acknowledge its existence as part of the "canon."
By bringing the baby back in "Gotron Jerrysis Rickvangelion," the show essentially told the audience: "Yeah, that happened. Deal with it." It’s a bold move. It turns a one-off gross-out joke into a permanent fixture of the Smith family tree. It forces Morty and Summer to deal with the weirdest sibling bond in TV history.
The takeaway for writers and creators
What can we learn from the disaster/masterpiece that is Rick and Morty Season 5 Episode 4?
First, risk is necessary. Even if 60% of your audience hates an experiment, the 40% who love it will talk about it forever. No one is "neutral" about the sperm episode. You either find it hilarious or you want to delete it from your memory. In the attention economy, being hated is often better than being forgotten.
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Second, the voice acting carries the weight. Even when the script is literally about giant sperm, Chris Parnell (Jerry) and Sarah Chalke (Beth) deliver their lines with 100% commitment. Their side plot about trying to seem "cool" and "adventurous" while the world ends is arguably the best part of the episode. It grounds the insanity in a domestic reality we can all recognize—the desperate need to be perceived as interesting by our partners.
Practical steps for your next rewatch
If you're planning to revisit Season 5, or if you're introducing a friend to the show, here is how you should handle this episode:
- Context is key: Remind yourself that this is an intentional "B-movie" parody. Don't look for deep lore.
- Watch the B-plot: Focus on Beth and Jerry. Their dynamic in this episode is actually a great look at their post-divorce-reconciliation era.
- Check the credits: Look for the small details in the background of the war room. The visual gags are much smarter than the central premise suggests.
- Embrace the cringe: Sometimes, art is supposed to make you feel a little bit gross.
The legacy of Rick and Morty Season 5 Episode 4 isn't going anywhere. It stands as a monument to the show's willingness to be completely, unapologetically "too much." Whether you view it as a low point or a high-concept prank on the audience, it’s a vital part of the show's evolution. It proved that Rick and Morty could survive even its most "unwatchable" ideas and come out the other side still being the biggest animated show on the planet.
Moving forward, the best way to enjoy the series is to expect these left-field failures. Not every swing can be a home run. But in a landscape of safe, predictable television, there’s something almost respectable about a show that’s willing to strike out this spectacularly.
Next time you’re scrolling through Hulu or Max, don't skip it. Watch it again. See if your opinion has changed with time. You might find that away from the initial shock, there's a weirdly competent action parody hidden under all that slime. Or you might just hate it even more. Either way, it’s an experience.
To get the most out of your Rick and Morty experience, compare this episode to Season 6's "Bethic Twinstinct." You'll see a pattern of the writers exploring uncomfortable family taboos, but with varying levels of success and emotional depth. Analyzing these two back-to-back provides a fascinating look at how the show's "shocker" humor evolved from pure gross-out to psychological complexity.