The Old Man and the Seat

"The Old Man and the Seat" is the second episode of the fourth season of the Adult Swim animated television series Rick and Morty. Written by Michael Waldron and directed by Jacob Hair, loosely adapting The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway, the episode aired in the United States on November 17, 2019. Plot An alien intern named Glootie serves breakfast to the Smiths, often asking for assistance in developing a mobile app. As Rick pats his belly and excuses himself for a solo adventure, which Summer surmises as defecating, Jerry is curious and offers to develop Glootie's app, even though Rick has tattooed "Do Not Develop My App" on Glootie's forehead. Glootie and Jerry's app goes online; named "Lovefinderrz", it is a dating app that entices its users to divert their full attention into finding their true love. Summer ditches Beth on their lunch for her date, leading to a fight between the two. Seeing the widespread chaos, Jerry joins Morty in demanding that Glootie take down the app. Glootie brings them to his mothership, where they meet the aliens' leader, who rebukes humanity's inefficiency in matchmaking and states that the app is a distraction to steal Earth's water resources. Beth chases after Summer, who constantly changes her soul mate with the app, while Jerry and Morty are captured. Jerry manages to convince Glootie to take the app offline, showing their similarity in being unable to find a match. As Morty chastises Jerry about his decisions, Glootie puts an ad wall on Lovefinderrz, causing all of the app's users to delete it. Rick travels to a scenic, private lavatory. Discovering that it has been intruded upon, he tracks down the culprit, Tony. Despite admonishment from Rick, Tony points out Rick's need for control and continues to use the lavatory. Rick submerses Tony in the chemical "Globafyn" which places him in his ideal reality, a toilet-filled heaven. When Tony realizes the reality is false, Rick evicts him from the illusion. Tony suggests they be friends, which Rick rejects. Rick prepares a defense measure on his toilet designed to humiliate its future user. Upon Rick visiting Tony's office to bring him laxatives and chili, Rick learns that Tony has quit his job and died in a ski accident while attempting to live life to the fullest. Rick attends Tony's funeral and gives gifts to his father but insists that he and Tony were not friends.