Lawnmower Dog

"Lawnmower Dog"
Rick and Morty episode
Episode no.	Season 1 Episode 2
Directed by	John Rice
Written by	Ryan Ridley
Original air date	December 9, 2013

"Lawnmower Dog" is the second episode of Rick and Morty. It premiered on Adult Swim on December 9, 2013, was written by Ryan Ridley, and directed by John Rice. In the episode, Rick gives Jerry a device to enhance the dog's intelligence, whilst Rick and Morty get lost in the dreams of Morty's math teacher. The episode was well received, with approximately 1.5 million viewers when airing.

Plot

Morty's dog Snuffles messes with Jerry by peeing on the carpet. Upset, Jerry asks Rick for device that could make Snuffles smarter. Rick makes the device, and it makes Snuffles so smart he could even use the bathroom like a normal human. Also, Rick plans to enter Morty's math teacher, Mr. Goldenfold's, dreams in order to make him give Morty good grades, thus letting Morty adventure with Rick more often. The two enter Goldenfold's dream. The dream takes place on a plane, and Rick, strapping a fake bomb to himself, pretends to be a terrorist threatening to blow up the plane if Goldenfold doesn't give Morty better grades. When Goldenfold decides to fight back, attacks with razor sharp Wheat-Thins, and pulls out two machine guns. Rick realizes that Goldenfold has control over his dreams, more than he had anticipated, and also reveals that if they die in the dream, they die in real life.

Meanwhile, Jerry showing the family how he is using Snuffles's smartness to his advantage. Snuffles is starting to develop the ability to speak, and soon finds out that Rick didn't put more batteries in the device, which would enable him to control other things.

Still stuck in the dream, Rick tries to negotiate with Goldenfold using his dream girl, Mrs. Pancakes, as a human shield. Instead, him and everyone else starts to panic. One guy opens the doors to the plane, and everyone gets sucked out. Mrs. Pancakes finds a parachute and opens it, while Goldenfold has already landed the plane. Rick and Morty grab onto Pancakes, but Goldenfold has created a device to pluck Pancakes out of the sky and leave Rick and Morty to fall in a pool of lava. The two then, venture into Pancakes's dreams to slow time down. Pancakes's dreams are of a intergalactic sex club and S&M dungeon, filled with dominatrixes. Rick plans to blend in using an S&M outfit, but a bikini-clad Summer makes the two feel uncomfortable, making them standout. A centuar guard threatens to kill them, and they venture, once more, into another dream. In the centuar's dream, the three have to run away from a knockoff of Freddy Krueger, named Scary Terry.

Meanwhile, Snuffles has created a robotic arm and a speaker that he uses to grab things and communicate with. While Jerry wants to remove the device from Snuffles, Summer convinces him to leave the dog alone. Snuffles's views on life changes after watching a TV special about dogs being domesticated. Still finding an escape, Rick and Morty travel into a little girl's dream to escape Scary Terry. After returning to what looks like the same dream, the two also find out that Terry can travel across dreams. After building himself into a robot hybrid, Snuffles changes his name to Snowball and assumes dominance over the household.

While in a new dream, Rick and Morty are still being chased by Terry. The two decide to hide from him, and evade him for several hours. The two follow him back into his house and enters his dreams. They see that he is afraid of being bullied and save him from being embarrassed and the two get him to kill Goldenfold into giving Morty an A. Now returning to the regular world, they see that Snowball and his army of smart dogs have overrun Earth and have beaten humanity into submission. Snowball allows Morty to live, and the rest of the world is taken down by the dogs. While the dogs are neutering humans and the world lives in anguish, Morty lives in paradise with as many girls as he wants. Rick appears to him one day, and reveals that the two are actually in Snowball's dream. Snowball instead decides to inhabit a world instead of taking over the Earth.

Reception

The A.V.Club gave the episode an A- rating, with reviewer Zach Handlen noting that it was the "pinnacle of the show thus far". Junkey Monkey's reviewer William Manzo praised the episode, saying that the episode was "a welcome surprise when compared to the pilot." giving it a 10/10. Topher Ruse of Bubble Blabber gave the episode a 9.5 out of a possible 10. The episode received a 9.1 rating on IMDb.

External links

• Lawnmower Dog at IMDb