Rick and Morty season 6 episode 3 spoilers follow.
Rick and Morty has a rather odd relationship with incest, which is quite fitting given that incest is perhaps the ultimate when it comes to "odd relationships".
Earlier seasons often joked about it, like when an alternate version of Morty wished incest porn would have "more mainstream appeal… for a friend". And that makes sense, because Rick and Morty isn't exactly one to shy away from gross stuff. In fact, it's this desire to push through boundaries that often sets the show apart from other comedies of its ilk.
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However, season five arguably took this too far with the much-maligned Giant Incest Baby episode. The concept itself probably isn't the most outrageous idea this show has ever had, but there was nothing smart to ground the joke. It was just dumb and gross for the sake of it.
Then, a few weeks later, the seventh episode of season five, titled 'Gotron Jerrysis Rickvangelion’, doubled down on this with the return of Naruto, Morty and Summer's Giant Incest Baby.
It's a lot, especially when you combine all that with the "C-137cest" community. Oh, you're not a member? Basically, there's an online community who are obsessed with the notion that Rick and Morty must be banging somewhere in the multiverse. Because anything and everything is possible in the multiverse, right?
Also, there's a lot of disturbing artwork and fan fiction out there if you're keen to learn more about this "C-137cest" phenomenon. RIP to your search history if you do decide to look though.
Bearing all that in mind, Rick and Morty's relationship with incest is rivalled only by Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon's obsession with all-out family loving. So it's with much trepidation that we approached the latest episode of Rick and Morty where Space Beth and Earth Beth get closer than ever...
That's right. Rick's two cloned daughters make the 'Beth With Two Backs' in the third episode of season six, which sounds pretty grim on the surface. Off the back of that alone, you'd be forgiven for assuming that Rick and Morty is just playing more into incesty grossness for the sake of it again.
But that wouldn't be fair, because 'Bethic Twinstinct' is so much more than that. Not only is it the best episode of the season, it's probably the best Beth episode we've seen since The ABC's of Beth aired all the way back in season three.
The story starts off innocently enough, aside from when Jerry says he'll kill himself if Beth would ever leave him. It's a classic Jerry-ism, but it also reminds us that Beth has long felt trapped by this idiot of a man. It's no wonder that she's able to find solace in another version of herself then, one who knows Beth better than anyone else ever could.
As we learned a few years back in Beth's origin episode, she's more like Rick than we ever realised before, so now, the only way she can survive suburbia is to suppress those darker, crueller aspects of herself. But that's not all she is. Beth is also loving in many ways too, and while she might not win a Mother of the Year award here, or anywhere else in the multiverse for that matter, she's always there for her family still.
Still, this claustrophobic existence remains suffocating for Beth, even as her father and children go off to explore the impossible and leave her behind in the house with Jerry. It seems that no one really understands her or the trauma Rick once put her through, except Space Beth, of course.
Space Beth is the carefree, independent version of herself that Beth's always wanted to be, and crucially, she hasn't had to change herself to reach this point. This maybe-a-clone-maybe-not-a-clone lives the life that Beth has long dreamed of, and now it's literally in her grasp.
Sure, there's an implication that Rick's special wine acts as some sort of catalyst for their attraction, but it runs deeper than any chemical sci-fi mojo. Beth has always wanted to love herself, but she's never been able to fully take that step. Too much guarded pain holds her back. Is it any wonder then that she would fall for the version of herself that she wants to be most?
Both Beths acknowledge that their love could be considered a weird form of narcissism, which was likely the case when Rick hooked up with his own double. Yet it's not a vain form of self-love in this case. It's a validating one for them both. Regardless of Rick's machinations and their own choices too, they're still both worthy of being loved and celebrated on their own merits.
It's a passionate love too, which is where some of the incestuous ickiness hits a bit harder, but there's always an underlying tenderness that makes BethBeth – as we now ship them – more believable than any other romance seen on this show to date.
And besides, didn't we all celebrate Loki and Sylvie when they got it on in Loki? Well, not all of us did, to be fair. But that's because their relationship fed into some tired, misogynistic tropes that Marvel revels in far too often still. Here, Rick and Morty crafts a far more convincing romance which provides us with some real, vital insight into Beth(s).
Plus, it's quite literally worlds away from all the gratuitous uncle-f**king that goes on over in Westeros.
Meanwhile, back in Rick and Morty, the rest of the Sanchez family, is pretty freaked out by it all, aside from Rick. But by the end, Jerry sneaks off to tongue another version of himself, plus Morty and Summer are still reckoning with their Giant Incest Baby, so, hypocritical much?
Bethic Twinstinct might be a bit lighter on the jokes than we're used to, but that's no bad thing when the writing is this good, especially in regard to something Rick and Morty isn't historically known to nail. Ahem.
So grab a glass of Venusian wine and join us as we raise a toast to BethBeth, the oddest, yet most likeable example of incest — or self-love, or whatever the hell it is — that we've seen on our screens all year.
Rick and Morty season 4 airs Sundays on Adult Swim in the US, and airs in the UK on E4 and All 4 at 4am every Monday.
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After teaching in England and South Korea, David turned to writing in Germany, where he covered everything from superhero movies to the Berlin Film Festival.
In 2019, David moved to London to join Digital Spy, where he could indulge his love of comics, horror and LGBTQ+ storytelling as Deputy TV Editor, and later, as Acting TV Editor.
David has spoken on numerous LGBTQ+ panels to discuss queer representation and in 2020, he created the Rainbow Crew interview series, which celebrates LGBTQ+ talent on both sides of the camera via video content and longform reads.
Beyond that, David has interviewed all your faves, including Henry Cavill, Pedro Pascal, Olivia Colman, Patrick Stewart, Ncuti Gatwa, Jamie Dornan, Regina King, and more — not to mention countless Drag Race legends.
As a freelance entertainment journalist, David has bylines across a range of publications including Empire Online, Radio Times, INTO, Highsnobiety, Den of Geek, The Digital Fix and Sight & Sound.
