Rick and Morty Episode 73: Valkyrick

Space Beth is trying to carry out the assassination of the Gromflomite Queen on her own, but when she reaches the Queen’s quarters she finds the Queen already dead. Before she can get clear, she is identified and trapped on the Gromflomite ship, so she reluctantly calls Rick for backup.

Rick arrives and joins Space Beth in investigating the assassination. They interrogate a surviving Gromflomite soldier and learn that the hit was ordered by Fantabulous, the Queen’s personal doctor. Rick and Space Beth then infiltrate Fantabulous’s lair, where they discover he has been experimenting with a fungus that mutates Gromflomites and other insect aliens into powerful but mindless super-soldiers.

Fantabulous unleashes more of the mutated soldiers, but Rick and Space Beth fight through them. At the same time, the fungus begins spreading more widely, and Space Beth is eventually infected herself. Rick works through repeated failed attempts to develop a cure until he finally produces an antidote that works on both Gromflomites and humans, saving Space Beth.

With the situation escalating, Rick brings in Birdperson and Birddaughter to help storm the hive beneath the planet. The group heads into the caverns, where Fantabulous arrives riding a giant super-soldier to stop them from activating the payload they brought with them. Rick and Space Beth manage to activate it anyway, and the survivors flee as the explosion destroys the hive, kills Fantabulous, and wipes out the mutant threat.

At the end, the conflict is effectively brought to a close, with the surviving Gromflomites and the Defiance moving toward a truce after the destruction of Fantabulous’s operation.