Chris Parnell's Jerry Saves the Day in an Otherwise Disappointing New Chapter of Rick and Morty Season 9

Warning: This review contains full spoilers for Rick and Morty Season 9, Episode 5! I'm of the mind that Rick and Morty should reference past episodes and storylines more often than it does, so theoretically, I should be all over "Jer Bud." This episode is basically a sequel to Season 1's "Lawnmower Dog," finally bringing Morty's (Harry Belden) old dog Snowball (Rob Paulsen) back into the fray after years' worth of visual cameos and Easter eggs. But instead of being a fun callback to a simpler and more innocent time for the series, "Jer Bud" merely argues that Snowball was better left in the past. Sometimes the series struggles to take a fun premise and build on it in a meaningful way. Episode 5 is different in that it never really seems to have anything worth building on in the first place with the Morty/Snowball storyline. It starts off a little bland, and it never gets off the ground when Morty finds himself dragged into another conflict involving the fate of an alien civilization. In this case, Morty finds himself unwillingly thrust into the role of liberator of a race of grotesque, inbred humanoid pets called Mups. This episode leans a lot on the idea that, once they're grante