Rick and Morty - S1E8 - Something Ricked This Way Comes (part 1 of a 2 part analysis)
Like in Raising Gazorpazorp, it’s Summer turn, once again, to team up with Rick, and Morty, once again, teams up with his parents in the secondary story line, or at least his father Jerry. And like Rixty Minutes, the main story line doesn’t really consist of an adventure per se; it’s more like a soap opera with a lot of drama and betrayal and other crap. In fact, there’s not really any good reason to call it the “main” story line except that Rick’s in it and the title of the episode is a reference to it.
And like Meeseeks and Destroy and Rick Potion #9, we’ll see Jerry manning up in the end of this one, but this time more as a parent than as a husband or lover.
Like in Lawnmower Dog and Raising Gazorpazorp, this episode will give us a chance to explore the whole liberal vs. conservative dichotomy again, with Rick proving to be an absolutely ruthless capitalist, ruthless towards the Devil at least, proving that he can out smart even him. ← And here, the theme of capitalism is inextricably tied to another interesting and philosophical topic which we haven’t yet touched on in the series: that of science vs. magic. In his competition with the Devil, Rick is going to prove that science can overcome (black) magic (perhaps a cheeky way for the writers to say that science is superior to religion).
We begin with the family (minus Morty) around the breakfast table. Jerry’s playing some kind of mindless pop-the-balloons game on something like an ipad. Across from him, Rick is soldering together some kind of mini-robot no bigger than a grapefruit. Sparks fly at Jerry who turns to the side grabbing his ipad, looking annoyed at Rick. Already we’re playing on intelligence vs. stupidity: two different activities that require vastly different levels of intelligence to engage in: popping the red balloons in a video game that 3 year olds can master vs. inventing a robot that achieves a rather sophisticated level of AI (as we’ll see). This dichotomy doesn’t quite characterize the dynamic between Rick and the Devil–the Devil isn’t quite portrayed as “stupid” per se–but Rick’s intelligence definitely plays a part there and the episode is being setup right from the get-go to highlight that aspect of Rick’s character. Jerry’s low intelligence does play a roll in this episode, but it plays out in the secondary story line where he attempts to help Morty with a science project for school and nearly fails, risking Morty getting an F, because he allows his ego to eclipse the trends in science today.
This science project is what Morty comes into the room asking Rick to help him with. Following a dismissive “whatever” from Rick, Jerry opts to help Morty with the comment: “Well, I mean, traditionally, science fair projects are a father/son thing,” to which Rick responds: “Well, scientifically, traditions are an idiot thing.” Again, we see Jerry masking his desire to spend some quality time with his son with “following tradition”–supporting my theory about Jerry’s denial of his true passions, even the likable ones. While this is going on, Beth is texting Morty something, and then tells him: “Morty, I think it will be fun for you to work on a science project with your dad.” Meanwhile the text Morty gets says: “Your father is insecure about his intelligence.” ← This convinces Morty to accept his dad’s offer. Jerry let’s out a victorious “Yes!” and mentions brewing some coffee and getting out the crayons (almost as if to say he needs caffeine to get his brain up to the level of intelligence required for this project and it’s still going to be at the level of a child playing with crayons).
Right then, Rick finishes his little AI robot and turns it on. It turns around and says to Rick: “What is my purpose?” Rick responds: “Pass the butter.” The robot obediently follows through and passes him the butter. ← Almost as if to say: inventing a robot with artificial intelligence is about as easy for Rick as reaching over to grab the butter himself, maybe even easier since he opted to do that instead of actually putting in the effort to reach for the butter. Morty watches this in stupefaction, then looks over at his dad playing pop-the-balloons; he lets out a sigh of despair.
Then Summer comes in. She asks her dad for a ride to work. He offers Rick instead, asserting in a smug voice as if to say he’s taken over Rick’s roll as genius: “I’m helping Morty with science.” Rick declines saying he’s busy with “anything else”.
So Summer and Morty begin by asking for help from each of the main characters from each story line (typically Rick is the lead in the main story line and Jerry is the lead in the secondary story line) and end up getting passed off to the other, thus swapping story lines.
The robot asks what his purpose is a second time. Rick repeats: “You pass butter.” The robot looks at itself and says “Oh my God.” Rick replies: “Yeah, welcome to the club, pal.” ← As if to say: at least you have a purpose.
Flying to work in Rick’s spaceship, Summer explains that she’s got a part time job at a vintage thrift store, and that her boss is a “really smart, eccentric old man that treats me nice and values me,” in contrast, it’s insinuated, to Rick, a really smart, eccentric old man that treats her like shit and devalues her.
The scene cuts to a shop not unlike that which Summer described, and we are to presume that that’s exactly what it is. A rather bony man with a Dali mustache and devil’s beard, dressed in a fancy suite and top hat like he’s from early 20th century England seems to be setting up shop. The shop is full of strange and somewhat creepy little trinkets and gadget, things like voodoo dolls, skulls with candles on their top, strange African masks, a tiny elephant in a jar, etc…
Mr. Goldenfold, Morty’s math teach, enters the shop. The man introduces himself: “I just recently opened for business, Mr., um, Goldenfold.” “You know my name?” Mr. Goldenfold chuckles, “That’s disarming.” The shop owner mentions that he also knows that Mr. Goldenfold longs for love. Mr. Goldenfold admits it, and the shop owner offers him, free of charge, an aftershave that makes him “quite irresistible to women.” He mentions that no one pays at his shop, not with money. ← “Nothing to read into there!” Mr. Goldenfold exclaims as he grabs the aftershave and dashes out the door.
That’s when Rick and Summer come in. Summer apologizes for being late, addressing him as “Mr. Needful”. Mr Needful questions Rick: “What do you desire?” Rick responds as he looks around the shop touching everything “Eh, I make my own stuff.” He picks up the skull with the candle and asks: “So, what are you, like, the Devil?” Mr. Needful suddenly gets nervous: “What? Sorry?” he asks as he twiddles his fingers. Rick continues: “I don’t know, store comes out of nowhere, all the shit’s old and creepy… are you the Devil? A demon? Leprechaun?”
(^ This is the second time in the series that we’ve seen demons and Leprechaun’s being associated with each other.)
Summer scolds him. He shoots back: “Just like to shoot straight. I’m a man of science.” This tips Mr. Needful off. He grabs a golden microscope from a table and hands it to Rick: “This microscope reveals things beyond comprehension,” and then starts laughing a maniacal laugh:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3OOxBkzS3k4[/youtube]
Cutting back to Jerry and Morty making a model of the solar system, Jerry starts the project off by explaining to Morty how “Rick’s in his lab making cyborgs and wormholes,” and that what they’re doing is “real science”–again, as if he’s the best man for the science job, effectively pushing Rick out of the lime light. He suggests a ping pong ball for Pluto. Morty informs him that Pluto isn’t classified as a planet anymore. Jerry scoffs at this, saying that he learned that Pluto was a planet in third grade. Morty proves it to him by googling it on his phone, pointing out that it was declassified in 2006. Well, Jerry can’t really argue with google, but rather than admit he was wrong, he says:
“Yeah, I heard about that Morty… and I disagree.”
Morty: “You… disagree?”
Jerry: “That’s right. It’s possible to disagree in science, Morty. Pluto was a planet; some committee of fancy assholes disagreed; I disagreed back. Give me a ping pong ball.”
Morty: “Um, o-okay, [gets up] I just have to–”
Jerry: “Go find Rick and go over my head about Pluto?!”
Morty: “Je-no-Jesus! I just gotta go to the bathroom! Damn!”
Jerry: “Oh, [cough-cough] okay good. [Morty leaves] This is gonna be fun!”
Yeah right. Beth nailed it–Jerry is incredibly insecure about his intelligence, and especially after all this time of Morty teaming up with Rick and learning from him, something he must feel is his job as father (which is why he feels so proud to have this opportunity–he really wants to show up Rick and prove to Morty he is the “more fun” roll model). And of course, Morty must be feeling a bit insecure himself over the possibility that Jerry, in his pride, unable to admit that he might be wrong, could fuck up his science project by including Pluto in the model when everyone knows, including Morty’s teacher, that it no longer belongs there.
Well, despite Morty’s claim to be only going to the bathroom, the next scene shows him approaching Rick in the garage. Rick has the golden microscope under what looks like another, more sophisticated, microscope (though it’s not clear that’s what it is). Without even turning around to see that it’s Morty, Rick asks: “Hey Morty, le’me-burp-le’me-burp-le’me ask you a question real quick: Does evil exist, and if so, can one detect and measure it? [Morty: Umm] Rhetorical question, Morty. The answer is yes. You just have to be a genius.” He presses a button on his laptop; three robotic arms attached to Rick’s advanced microscope-looking device move around the golden microscope scanning it with green lasers. His laptop shows a polygon mesh of the microscope on the left and an IQ bar on the right dropping to low and turning red. Rick interprets the results: “Cute, your sister’s boss gave me a microscope that would have made me retarded.”
Morty reacts with alarm: “Ooh, oh boy Rick, I-I-I don’t think you’re allowed to say that word, you know.”
Rick explains: “Um, Morty, I’m not disparaging the differently abled; I’m stating the fact that if I had used this microscope, it would have made me mentally retarded.”
Morty: “Ok, yeah, but I don’t think it’s about logic, Rick. I think the word has just become a symbolic issue for powerful groups that feel like they’re doing the right thing.”
^ As much as this tangent seems a bit out of place, it’s obvious why the writers inserted it: not only are they voicing their anti-left-wing opinion, but they had to slot it in somewhere in this episode because, though it may not be obvious yet, the main focus, if it is indeed centered around conservative vs. liberal philosophy, is on the conservative side, and virtually nothing is brought in to exemplify the liberal side, not even to attack it. So just to give the conservative focus something to soundboard off of, they (I believe) inserted this line of Morty’s to show that this episode isn’t just a pro-conservative statement but an anti-liberal one as well (we very well can’t hold up the Devil as the liberalist figure in this episode since he’s obviously playing the roll of the ruthless capitalist who loses the competition against Rick, the even more ruthless capitalist).
Then Jerry comes in, catching Morty in the act. Though Morty denies asking Rick if Pluto’s a planet (which he didn’t even have a chance to), Jerry brings it up, giving Rick the opportunity to say it’s not anyway. “I don’t care what anyone says,” Jerry protests, “if it can be a planet, it can be a planet again.” ← All this effort to avoid admitting he was wrong (reminds me of James).
Cut back to the Devil in his shop, Mr. Goldenfold walks in with three lovely ladies following him. “This aftershave,” he protests, “made women want me but it also made me impotent!” “A price for everything,” says Mr. Needful, “a price for everything [maniacal laugh]”. ← Now we get what he meant by “one never pays here, not with money.” Now, usually, the Devil is depicted as accepting one’s soul as payment, but this is probably the next thing down the list. One (apparently) pays with something personal and cherished, something intricately connected to one’s self–for example, Mr. Goldenfold’s ability to have erections–one might say something “needful”. And of course, the irony is that it’s the one thing that makes the purchase worth making in the first place–without erections, how is Mr. Goldenfold going to enjoy being irresistible to women? We’re going to find, when Rick enters the game, how this is completely counter to the central principle of what makes capitalism work.
Mr. Goldenfold drops to his knees sobbing in tears. This sad display does not escape Summer’s attention. She stops dusting some weird antique and turns around to watch. Mr. Goldenfold wales about his lust and his greed and he deserves this and how could he not see this coming–Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata plays in the background, as if he were confronted with his own damnation–when suddenly Rick walks in and injects him in the back of the neck with some pink serum–the music halts. “This serum should-burp-counteract the negative effects.” he says. Mr. Goldenfold stands up, looks down his pants, and says “Holy cats! Ladies, let’s get out of here.” A look of satisfaction covers Rick’s face, as if happy to have done some good (perhaps a hint that the capitalist wants to know that his scheme’s to become rich nevertheless make the world better off).
Rick hands the microscope back to Mr. Needful. “You didn’t use it?” asks Mr. Needful. “Sure I did,” Rick replies, “to develop this.” He holds out a hand-held device not unlike his portal gun except with a number pad and a screen. He explains: “It detects all your Twilight Zone Ray Bradbury Friday the 13th the series voodoo crap magic.” He demonstrates how it works by going around the shop scanning all the merchandise. It detects:
-
A typewriter that generates best selling murder mysteries and then makes the murders happen in real life.
-
Beauty cream that makes ugly ladies pretty but also makes them blind.
-
A fox (or mongoose?) scarf that ends up wearing its owner after three hours.
As Rick is doing this, customers are overhearing him and leaving the store in alarm. Mr. Needful is also looking quite alarmed, and very stressed. He stands up for himself: “I find this all quite preposterous!” and “Do I need to call the police?!” “Here,” Rick says, “you can use my phone. Don’t worry, it won’t make you def because I’m not a hack!” Mr. Needful swats it out of Rick’s hand. Rick wacks his top hat off. They end up in a slapping match. Summer intervenes.
Summer: “Grandpa Rick, I like working here!”
Rick: “You work for the Devil!”
Summer: “So what?”
Rick & Needful: “So what?!?!”
Summer: “Yes, so what if he’s the Devil, Rick. At least the Devil has a job, at least he’s active in the community. What do you do? [starts ushering him out] You eat our food an make gadgets. Bu-bye.”
Before leaving, Rick knocks over something like an urn letting free a ghost who laughs creepily before floating through the ceiling and disappears.
Summer, in the typical rash apologetic display of subservience that most amateur employers trying to impress their boss exhibit, quickly motions towards the urn with a broom and starts cleaning it up. She apologizes on behalf of Rick. Mr. Needful tells her there is no need and that Rick was right: the store curses people. He says it in such a calm and forthright manner, as if to a dear friend–as if he’s nothing like the Devil we’re all familiar with–that one can’t help but to sense a bond exists between him and Summer. Summer excuses him: “Well yeah, fast food gives people diabetes and clothing stores have sweat shops. Is there a company hiring teenagers that isn’t evil? This is my first job. You’ve been nice to me Mr. Needful. You respect me.”
It’s funny how it’s Summer saying this: excusing the evils of capitalism when just a couple episodes ago, she was all up in arms about human rights violations. In that episode, she was the spokesperson for liberalism and feminism, and in this episode, she defends the conservative ideal of capitalism. She still labels it as “evil” but nevertheless stands up for it. Why? Because Mr. Needful has been nice to her and respects her. In a sense, it could be inferred that this is a mild form of “grandpa issues”–Mr. Needful is the eccentric old man that respects and values her that Rick, her grandfather, never was. She’s willing to put aside her liberalist values for the sake of having this grandfather figure in her life, a grandfather figure that does the job so much better than Rick ever could.
What’s also interesting is that, if my interpretation is correct on this one, this episode plays heavily on the theme of substitutes for Rick–Jerry being a substitute science mentor for Morty and Mr. Needful being a substitute grandfather figure for Summer–and this will take a bit of a toll on Rick near the end.
Back at the Smith’s home, Jerry is on the phone with NASA angrily trying to file a declaration that Pluto is a planet and that if Morty fails science on account of their refusal to accept his declaration, he’s suing them. Yes, this is the length Jerry will go to to avoid admitting to being wrong–he is willing to allow his own son to fail science because he can just pass the blame onto NASA. Morty tries to reason with him: making 8 planets is easier than making 9. Jerry makes a dumb ass comment about burning Galileo at the stake for saying the Sun is round and impresses onto Morty: science isn’t always easy.
Then they along with the pieces of the solar system model start levitating in the air. Suddenly, they get sucked up through the roof by a blue tractor beam. It pulls them up into a flying saucer hovering just a few yards above their house. The flying saucer takes off into the night sky and disappears:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXXh1QzPp6g[/youtube]
They get taken to Pluto.
Upon disembarking, king Flippy Nips, ruler of Pluto, introduces himself to them. He comes down a long opulent hallway being carried on a throne by four servants:
He explains that Jerry and his son were discovered by accident during a routine surveillance of Earth. “You really gave it to those guys at NASA.” he compliments Jerry. “Sometimes,” Jerry responds, “science is about conviction.”
^ Jerry seems to have some odd ideas of what makes science science. He seems to think of it, and probably most things by extension, at the level of mentality of mere associations. That is, because sometimes he’s seen scientists standing with conviction for what they believed, that defines science itself. He also insinuated earlier that building a model of the solar system is science–just because models of the solar system are usually associated with science–for example, stating that science isn’t always easy when Morty suggests building an easier model of something that science studies. Science, of course, is a highly structured method for acquiring knowledge about our physical world–it’s a method–not a bunch of ping pong balls strung together like an infant’s mobile; and this is most likely how he gets through life: arguing points on the basis of mere association and making it out to seem like logic.
King Flippy Nips takes Jerry by the arm and ushers him into the next room saying “I’d like to introduce you to a few people who very much agree with you.” He steps out onto a balcony with a podium, overlooking a sea of Plutonians down below. Jerry and Morty are standing right behind him, a couple delegate Plutonians on each side of them. “Plutonians!” announces King Nips into the microphone to a roaring crowd, “Jerry Smith is a scientist from Earth where he’s creating a model of our solar system! Jerry, tell Pluto about your decision!” Jerry clears his throat and leans into the microphone: “Um… Pluto’s a planet.” The crowd goes wild. King Nips echoes Jerry’s statement with the excitement of the crowd: “Pluto’s a fucking planet bitch!” Morty says to himself as he looks up to his dad: “Oh man, this is definitely gonna go to his head.”
This is even better than winning an award for his ad slogan: Hungry for Apples. I don’t think we need confirmation of Morty’s statement to know it’s true. If the award Jerry won in M. Night Shaym-Aliens! made him feel “finally complete,” imagine what being the equivalent of a rock star in the eyes of a whole planet will do to him? What seemed impossible odds just a few minutes ago–that he would be hailed a great scientist for declaring Pluto a planet–has now happened.
It’s funny that this should lend itself to M. Night Shaym-Aliens! for comparison–not only do they both feature Jerry getting the spot light and being loved for it, and not only for the most unlikely reasons, but there is reason, in both, to believe the whole thing is a sham. Jerry learned that firsthand in M. Night Shaym-Aliens! as his award disappeared from his hands when the simulation shut down, and some on the internet speculate that in the current episode, this excursion of Jerry’s and Morty’s to Pluto is also a simulation. There was a brief scene, they point out, in M. Night Shaym-Aliens! when Rick and Morty are propelling themselves upward in 0G through a tunnel of what appear to be “simulation props”–one of which appears to be a Plutonian:
And there’s also the scene when Rick, Morty, and Jerry are trying to escape the Zigerions:
Some speculate that these “props” are really being used to pose as Plutonians in a simulation that Jerry is oblivious to being in–I means, this entire segway is deliberately setup to come out of nowhere, to be thrust upon Jerry and Morty (and us) very suddenly. It’s also too good to be true (for Jerry). And it’s especially absurd that an entire planet would make such an enormous deal out of the fact that some creature from a different planet thinks that their’s is, in fact, a planet–such an enormous deal that they bothered to kidnap him and his son in order to make him some kind of intellectual star loved and adored by all Plutonians. Not to mention the fact that Pluto cannot sustain life (although that’s not the only absurdity the writers of Rick and Morty indulged in–an entire planet made of corn, for example). It seems more like something out of a dream than reality. But if it were all a simulation, none of that should alarm us. It would be easily explained by the fact that the Zigerions (or whoever was overseeing the simulation) were just whipping up whatever they thought Jerry would accept–it wouldn’t have to be realistic at all. And then the more interesting question is: why? What are they testing Jerry for? In both simulations–this one and in M. Night Shaym-Aliens!–Jerry seemed to be put through almost identical tests, tests that seemed rigged to give Jerry the experience of being famous and loved, a star in the eyes of a whole crowd of people. In M. Night Shaym-Aliens!, the test ended (the simulation shut down) the minute Jerry, I guess you could say, “embraced” his fortuitous situation (announcing that he was “finally complete”). In this episode, he will be on the brink of taking that same step but will decline at the last minute, thus preventing the test from “ending”.
^ And if any of this is true, it has implications for Rick as well–for everybody as a matter of fact–they are all in the simulation (and then who is a simulation and who isn’t?). ← Although there is a counter scenario to this: we saw in M. Night Shaym-Aliens! that the simulation existed aboard a ship. Well, Jerry and Morty got sucked up into a ship. We don’t get to see what happens to them aboard the ship; we only get to see them disembarking once they get to Pluto. It could be, therefore, if this is indeed a simulation, that the simulation started at some point when they were aboard the ship and they didn’t realize they had entered it.
Back at Needful Things, the Devil is trying to sell principle Vagina on a basketball (to enhance his “athletic prowess”). He doesn’t have to try very hard. Before the Devil can even finish his sentence, principle Vagina snatches the basketball from his hands, saying “I’ll take it!” “Uh, bu-bu-but I haven’t even-” says the Devil. Receding towards the door, principle Vagina cuts it short: “Thank you very, very much. Great store. Great place. Bye.” and closes the door behind him.
Mr. Needful finds this display a bit odd but pays it no mind; in fact, he’s quite happy with how sales have been lately. He says to Summer: “I must say, Summer, I thought your grandfather’s outburst would have disrupted business, but this is the best weekend I’ve had since Salem.” They talk about lunch when Mrs. Tate suddenly comes in. “Mrs. Tate, is it?” says the Devil, “What do you desire?” Mrs. Tate dashes around the room in a rush, grabbing a whole bunch of items. She doesn’t even answer. “Woaw, woaw, slow down honey.” the Devil says. “Oh, is there a limit?” she asks, “Everything’s free, right?” Summer gets this one: “Let’s just say you don’t pay with money.” They both snicker under their breath. “You pay with the curses, right?” asks an informed Mrs. Tate. The Devil doesn’t know what to say: “Um… I… well…” Mrs. Tate doesn’t wait for an answer. She proceeds out the door. Before she leaves though, Mr. Needful stops her with a question: “But Mrs. Tate, why do you want cursed items?” “Well, I’m gonna get the curses removed,” she says, “at Curse Purge Plus. You know, the guy on TV?” and she points to a commercial on the television above Mr. Needful’s head. It’s featuring Rick:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWQXQwhmUOQ[/youtube]
So yeah, Rick fucks him over royally. Not only does Mr. Needful now understand why he’s had such a good weekend, but he now realizes it was a horrible weekend. He actually lost, well, not money, but curses (I’m not really sure how that works from an economics point of view). What we just saw here was the chief principle of capitalism at work. The ruthless evil sleazy soulless business man being eaten up by an even more ruthless evil sleazy soulless business man. What’s more, keeping in line with capitalist theory, this competition, this pitting of evil against evil, benefits the consumer. With Needful Things being the only business in town, it, like a monopoly, was able to suck the life out of the consumer–“life” being a metaphor for money and soul, respectively–but when a bit of competition enters the picture, the consumer benefits.
Now, I’ll be the first to admit that this particular scenario–between Rick and the Devil–is atypical to say the least; most of the time, in a free market, “competition” is constituted by similar businesses playing in the same market and competing with each other for customers. But in this case, we have what economists would otherwise call “complementary” businesses–like milk producers and cookie makers, or florists and chocolate shops on Valentine’s–when one experiences good business, the other usually does too; but in this case, this “harmony” between Curse Purge Plus and Needful Things, the complementarity, is damaging–to both–first, to Needful Things because obviously, by having the curses purged from the merchandise, the business cannot thrive (again, I’m not sure how curses substituting for money works economically speaking, but we are to presume they at least function to keep the business alive); second, to Curse Purge Plus for the fact that, in virtue of running Needful Things out of business, it cannot stay in business (where are the customers gonna get all their cursed items?). And this is all because Needful Things doesn’t thrive on money (if it did, normal complimentary economics would presumably ensue). Needful Things (somehow) thrives on the curses the items inflict on the buyers. The buyer needs to undergo the curse in order for Mr. Needful to get “paid”. This is what Rick interferes with. He removes the curse (with science) for cash “like how every other store in the world works”. So how would that pan out with money instead of curses? Would that be like a service that allows you to keep some membership, like at a gym, without having automatic monthly withdrawals taken out of your account? And then the gym goes out of business? ← That, obviously, would be illegal. But because it’s not illegal to purge items of their curses, even if that’s how another business stays afloat, Rick can do something like this. If cut throat capitalism of this sort were legal, Rick would be the most ruthless devil of all.
We also see Rick’s superior intelligence playing out here. Not only is he smart enough to create scientific inventions capable of overcoming the powers of dark magic, but he’s a genius at playing the capitalist game–even against a foe as intelligent as the Devil.
^ The bigger, more ruthless, more intelligent demon conquers the lesser demon, and just as a fortuitous side effect, everyone (except Mr. Needful) benefits. ← You hate him, but you have to admit you want him around. This is the same theme that shows up in various parts of the series–from Morty hating Rick for always treating him like his little lackey yet being glad he’s around to get him out of sticky situations to Summer hating Rick for being so sexist yet being glad he’s there to protect her from the Gazorpian rapists–it’s the frustration and paradox of knowing that you love the man you hate.
Jerry is a guest on Good Morning Pluto:
What are they talking about? Of course, Jerry’s monumental and scientifically solid decision that Pluto is, in fact, a planet. He’s become a celebrity overnight. Meanwhile, Scroopy Noopers, a Plutonian scientist, approaches Morty, who is watching his dad off stage, and asks him if he can show him something. Morty hesitates, saying he’d better not. Scroopy pulls out a gun and says “Right now.” He ushers Morty away from the set, and in the next scene they’re at the center of Pluto. “Pluto, Mr. Smith,” says Scroopy, “is made of a substance called Plutonium.” ( ← Now this right here should be a dead giveaway. Pluto is, as a matter of scientific fact, not made of plutonium. The notion that this would go right over Justin Roiland’s and Dan Harmon’s heads is preposterous; they obviously new that Pluto is not made of plutonium, which is a very strong indication that this really is a simulation setup to deceive Jerry, and maybe Morty too). Morty looks around. They’re in a cavern lit blue, with tubes at odd angles projecting from the ground and into the ceiling, and emanating turquoise light. Small fist sized rocks are being carried upwards through the tubes.
“Mines like these,” Scroopy continues, “suck plutonium up to the cities where corporations use it to power everything… and the more we remove, the more Pluto shrinks… but a few years ago, your scientists noticed Pluto had gotten so small, they couldn’t even call it a planet anymore*… and they love your dad telling everyone Pluto’s a planet because that means they can keep mining until Pluto goes from planet to asteroid to meteor and finally poof.” After getting to the punch line, Scroopy tries to persuade Morty to convince his dad that Pluto is not a planet so that he might “save 4 billion lives.” Morty responds: “Uh, yeah, you know, the thing is: my dad’s really insecure.”
- This is verifiable. But seeing as there’s no way for Morty to verify this, it’s safe to insert it into the simulation.
Sweeping an empty shop after the mayhem that Rick caused, Summer discovers one small remaining trinket out of all the cursed trinkets that used to fill the store. It’s a monkey’s paw. She goes to show Mr. Needful in the back room saying “You’ll never guess what we couldn’t get rid of,” only to discover him hanging on a noose from the ceiling. He’s squirming and gurgling, obviously still alive. Summer runs to him, tries to get him down. She can’t. She runs to a desk and tries to push it over. She can’t. She suddenly realizes: she can use the monkey paw! She grabs it and says “I wish this desk was lighter!” One finger goes down. She tries again. This time the desk moves–right under Mr. Needful. Summer climbs the desk and tries to loosen the knock. She can’t. “I wish this knot was looser!” Another finger goes down. The knot loosens and from the sheer weight, it unties causing Mr. Needful to fall to the ground. He’s unconscious. Summer jumps off the desk and tries to do CPR on him (I think I’m probably reading too much into this, but is this a sexual innuendo slipped in on the part of the writers?). It doesn’t work. She uses her last wish: “I wish I knew CPR!” The last finger goes down (the monkey paw only has 3 fingers, and not just because it’s a cartoon because Summer has all four fingers and her opposable thumb). She preforms CPR on Mr. Needful (presumably correctly this time). He wakes up choking: “Jesus! What a waste of a monkey paw.” ← Indicating what? That he deserved to die? That his life is worth nothing? That he wanted to die?
Fans of Rick and Morty will probably note at this point how Summer’s use of the monkey paw seems not to have cursed her in any way. Throughout the rest of this episode, there’s nothing so horrible that happens to Summer such that we can say: she’s been cursed. I mean, she sort of experiences an unhappy ending in this episode (but then gets big time revenge) but I would hardly call that comparable to the caliber of curses customers of Needful Things underwent (like sneakers that make you run until you die). Plus the fact that Summer’s misfortune isn’t supernatural (in fact, the Devil just does it to her deliberately in an act of cruelty). So why didn’t she get cursed? Is it because she wasn’t using the paw for her own personal interests? She was trying to save Mr. Needful’s life? And did she know she wouldn’t be cursed? If not, did she think she was going to be cursed? And if so, was she knowingly sacrificing herself for the Devil? I mean, it’s hard to say when you’re in a panic–all thoughts and emotions rushing through your head in a flurry–but with a level head, I’m sure she would have realized that she’d be cursing herself by using this monkey’s paw–unless she knew the curses don’t apply when you’re trying to help someone else. ← That’s if this theory’s correct–that the curses don’t apply when you’re trying to help someone else–I mean, it could just be a defective paw.
Mr. Needful explains himself: “People like Rick are making me obsolete. I mean, seriously–I may be the Devil, but your grandpa is the Devil.” ← Echoing my earlier take on the capitalist message I think this episode sends: the bigger fish eat the smaller fish. Summer protests: “It’s not fair! Everyone in this town got something they wanted from you, even Rick! I was your only friend, and I get nothing?” “Ok, I’ll give you one thing. Name it.” says Mr. Needful. “I want to help you.” Summer responds. Right to the bitter end, Summer is a selfless and loyal friend to the least deserving person in the universe. Why? She says it’s because he’s been kind to her, that he respects and values her, and indeed this may be a reason, but this can’t be the only reason. Mr. Needful is a gentleman and he is respectful and kind to Summer, but he can’t be the only one Summer’s ever met to treat her this way. Perhaps the real reason is that, as we’ve just seen, Mr. Needful is really the second least deserving person in the universe–right after Rick–and perhaps Summer, in her mind, is juxtaposing him next to Rick. Perhaps after having a grandfather like Rick, even the Devil seems like a kind sweet old man that deserves friendship and support.
Cutting to Rick at Curse Purge Plus, we find him scanning a pair of boxing gloves in front of a customer: “Looks like we’ve got haunted boxing gloves that will make you the heavy weight champion… in 1936, and then you’ll be trapped there winning the same fight for eternity. I can take out the eternity and the padding and then you’ll have some time traveling mittens.” ← It doesn’t sound like customers always get the full benefits of the cursed items, even though Rick does remove the curses. Rick only mentions time travel as the feature he can preserve, but nothing about winning the heavy weight championship. Still a pretty sweet deal (perhaps at a reduced price), but it also demonstrates some of the realism that comes with capitalism: though a business will advertise that it can deliver exactly what the consumer wants, it’s not uncommon in practice for them to fall short (though this can be compensated for with a price discount, or some such). They’ll try to do what they can, like Rick at least giving the guy time traveling abilities, which says that even if the advertising is deceptive, there is at least an honest effort to deliver what one can.
Then Summer comes in carrying a box full of stuff, the last of Needful Things’ inventory. She explains that they’re going to file chapter 11 and do some restructuring. Rick replies: “Sounds like code for ‘You win Rick’!” “That was important to you, wasn’t it?” says Summer. Rick explains that it wasn’t, that it was important to Summer’s “Devil friend”, and that to him, it was just a bit like when Bugs Bunny fucks with the opera singer for 20 minutes.
Summer: “…you know what, grandpa Rick? He’s strong. And he’s never gonna give up.”
Rick: “Uh-huh, yeah, I don’t care.”
Summer: “Oh, I know. Eeeveryone knows you don’t care.”
Rick: “So?”
Summer: “Sooo, have fun not caring.”
Rick: “I always do.”
Summer: “Good.”
Rick: “Yeah… it is good. I-burp-it’s the best.”
Summer: “I’m sure it is… [turns around to leave]… Bye.”
Rick: “Laaater!”
Rick certainly seems to care about having the last word. In this scene, in fact, he seems to go out of his way to assert that he doesn’t care (rather than actually not caring which would entail just shrugging Summer off and ignoring her) which might indicate that he cares more about people thinking he doesn’t care than actually not caring… but more about that later.
Now, I’m going to have to cut it short here since I’ve been reaching the limit on post sizes lately (for some reason, these dissections are becoming longer and longer–probably because I’m seeing more and more relevance in all the minutia of the plot elements, finding how almost every little event, every little line, is connected to broader themes, philosophies, take home messages, etc.–and so I feel compelled to touch on it). So we’ll continue with part 2 of this analysis of Something Ricked This Way Comes in the next post.