Rick and Morty’s fifth episode follows the universe’s most powerful scientist as he unravels the mystery of fate, fortune cookies, and Jerry’s mom. Season 6, episode 5 has a lot of fun and surprises, as it begins, innocently enough, centering on fortune cookies. It’s fairly common to poke fun at the little treats that come with your Chinese take-out, but what if they really did tell the future? The Smith family finds out when circumstance curves reality around their own little paper fortunes. While Morty, Summer, and the two Beths get normal new-aged fortunes that just have positive little aphorisms, Jerry is doomed to a terrible fate when his fortune says, “You will have sex with your mother.”
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Rick and Jerry aren’t always everyone’s first choice for a team-up, but this adventure definitely delivers. Morty gets to go on a (somewhat) nice trip to the zoo while Rick and Jerry go up against what might be their most powerful adversary yet: Panda Express. The popular Chinese restaurant was referenced in a previous season when the show made a cutting remark about its food. This time they take another shot at Panda Express when Rick says, “If they wanted my respect, they could’ve just gotten a liquor license.” Nevertheless, Rick and Jerry’s journey into the heart of the fast-food franchise reveals a woman that can control the very fabric of reality.
Jerry’s Unfortunate Fortune
Warner Bros. Discovery
The Smith family is having a lovely dinner at Panda Express when the family opens their fortune cookies. Everyone gets one with a common saying on it until Jerry opens his to say, “You will have sex with your mother.” While the rest of the family is able to dismiss their fortunes, as any normal person would, Jerry fixates on his, staring at his little scrap of paper like a man obsessed. Morty and Summer start to pull pranks on him, making TikTok videos and posting hot mom memes all over the place. When it finally comes time for the family to go to the zoo, Rick is able to use Jerry’s obsession to skip out, lying that something is up with Jerry’s probability field.
After the rest of the family is gone, Jerry worries that he might have been serious. Rick tells him he is not, attempting to reinforce the point that all fortune cookies are stupid. He turns on a device that measures aberrations in probability waves ironically, attempting to show Jerry how ridiculous he’s being. But a suspicious reading leads Rick to investigate further. Without telling Jerry why he’s doing it, he continues testing Jerry for how likely he is to have sex with his mother. Rick’s worries only grow from there, and Jerry’s mother keeps calling him and leaving messages until she’s traveling on a plane to get there.
When the duo goes to Panda Express to investigate the source of the fortune cookies, they find the staff strapped to the teeth with machine guns, but we find that this is only because they are selling meth. No need to worry. The real conspiracy comes in when they drive a fortune cookie delivery truck back to the factory and find an extremely high level of security.
Rick Fights Fate
Rick and Jerry manage to sneak their way into the factory using a cool suit for Rick and a Sailor Moon costume change for Jerry. Rick tells us the costume change animation is reusable, so hopefully, we’ll be seeing more of it. After sneaking past a few guards, they’re eventually caught by the company’s leader. She is a self-motivated rags-to-riches businesswoman determined to be successful. The fortune cookie company is called Fortune 500, by the way. The guards crack open a few true fortunes and use them to win the fight against Rick. He only manages to escape by using Jerry as a human shield, pointing out that since he hasn’t had sex with his mother yet, he is immortal because the prophecy must be fulfilled.
They find their way into the inner sanctum of the cookie factory and find a giant alien, squirting out cookies that make the fortunes (which the company is printing) true. Meanwhile, the evil successful businesswoman finds Jerry’s mother and brings her to the factory. Rick and Jerry meet an old man that takes care of the alien. His name is Old M. Huxby; the M stands for Man. When Old Man explains that he wants to free the alien so that he can marry it, evil businesswoman bursts in with Jerry’s mom. A sci-fi battle ensues when the factory’s security uses prototype fortunes to get only headshots or control fire, and Jerry gets comically close to his mom.
Eventually, Rick is able to confront the company’s head, and she reveals that her fortune is to become the most successful businesswoman in the world. Since this hasn’t come true yet, she can’t be killed. Rick defeats her by quickly hacking into Goldman Sachs on his phone and giving her all of their money, thus making her the most successful businesswoman in the world. But then, a black hole opens up through a factory accident, sucking everything in it.
As Rick tries to save the alien that controls the future to use its power, Jerry’s pants fly off, and he’s pulled, crotch first, to his mother. At the last second, Rick lets the alien go and saves Jerry by writing “Jerry no sex mom” on a blank fortune and shooting it into his mouth. With chaos restored to the universe and Jerry saved from his Oedipal fate, the two head home, a little closer than they were before. And Morty saw a commercial about people eating Zebra food and murdering each other in the Zoo. The end.
