Today (monday) on Rick and Morty, American Dad! we travel the multiverse

So yes, the multiverse, like Hansel, is so hot right now. It’s the cornerstone of the current iteration of the MCU and Rick and Morty has been doing it for 6 seasons almost from the jump. But does that mean that we can’t get a few good stories told by others. No! In fact this was a pretty solid Multiverse take from our good old American Dad!

We join the Smith’s watching a news report and the announcement of the Shaggy concert. Stan and Francine tell Hayley she’s going as long as she takes Steve. She’s happy to (which gives us a hint something is up). But soon a buff looking Steve hops in and shoots Steve dead and absorbs his essence. Buff Steve then teleports away to the prime universe we all know and love.

Hayley prime is also given tickets to the Shaggy concert but doesn’t want to take Steve. He runs off upset before buff Steve can kill him. Buff Steve is eventually hit by a car and a couple of Lewis’s hop in to explain the situation of the multiverse. Upon hearing the multiverse theory, Steve thinks it’s a great way to find a Hayley that actually wants to spend time with him. Hayley has to track him down, knowing its the only way she is going to the Shaggy concert.

She hops around meeting all different Steves (including two Black Steves, you racist); and a pregnant Snot, which eh. Jumping around causes her to have a change of heart on Steve. She lets him make his own decision and he decides to hop back with her. Just in time because the multiverse is being torn apart thanks to Lewis (below)

Over on the B-plot, cyborg-Lewis and Lewis-Prime team up to get some revenge for Lewis-Prime. They first attempt to hurt Billy but then they decide to track down the person that hurt Lewis Prime. The B-plot then converges with the A-plot when it’s discovered that Shaggy is the one that slept with Lewis’s wife. Their beating of him causes damage to the multiverse because Shaggy is the one constant in every universe. Steve and Hayley are able to reach the Lewises and convince them to become a family

Stray Observations

• Stan’s brother is barely canon.
• Reginald makes a cameo at the Shaggy concert (Hayley! Shaggy!) and turns back into his human form because of the multiverse shenanigans
• Some of the universes the Lewises make are anime and South Park

Final Thoughts. I really enjoyed this one. All good multiverse episodes should be used as a character study for the characters that we know, so that they can look inward at their own actions. This was the case and handled really well here. It subverted expectations at the beginning and made it a story about brother and sister relationship