“You’re one of those creeps who moves in with abandoned adult Beths,” Memory Rick notes. That’s because, as Memory Rick tells present day Rick, Beth is dead.
While there’s a lot to unpack when it comes to Birdperson’s subconscious, in general, the big bombshell in this episode is that being a clone should actually be the least of Beth’s worries. Young, Memory Rick is ultimately not impressed with present day Rick. And in the process, he ends up teaming up with a younger version of himself. While the Smiths are off on a mild-mannered cruise adventure, Rick Sanchez instead takes an adventure of the mind. This episode even has a “Risky Business”-type premise set-up, with Beth’s dialogue having her play the role of the parent who’s going out of town at the beginning of a movie. An episode that teases a “Pickle Rick” redux, “Rick and Morty” is actually a bookend to the first season finale, “Ricksy Business,” the episode that introduced Birdperson (and Squanchy and Gearhead) and also kicked off the Birdperson/Tammy relationship.