Rick and Morty - S1E10 - Close Rick-counters of the Rick Kind (part 1 of a 2 part analysis)
The Smith family are gathered around the breakfast table. They’re eating eggs, hash browns, and sausages. Beth mentions to her dad that tomorrow is the one year anniversary of him entering back into their lives, and that she’s going to make him flying saucer shaped pancakes. “Oh, the-there’s no need to do that Beth, regular pancakes are fine,” Rick says right before another version of him, plus another Morty, come through a portal right there in the dining room and blast Rick through the head with a lazer gun. The alternate Morty shoots a tranquilizer dart into the first Morty’s shoulder. He passes out on his plate. The rest of the family scream and shout. The alternate Rick and Morty grab the first Morty and drag him back into the portal before disappearing.
Is that it for Rick? He just gets shot through the head at the beginning of the episode (by another Rick)? Well, that’s it for the Rick from this dimension. Obviously, that’s not it for the Rick who just shot him. But which is Rick is the Rick we’ve been following throughout these episodes, the one we all know and love (or hate)? This episode pivots around the implications of this very question. We already know that the very context in which the entire Rick and Morty series revolves is not only one in which there are multiple interconnected realities, but one in which there are multiple interconnected Ricks (and Morties). We were first introduced to this aspect of the Rick and Morty world(s) back in episode 6 (Rick Potion #9) when we saw how Rick’s solution to the Cronenberg disaster was to slip into the rolls of an alternate Rick and Morty from another universe. In this episode, we are going to be swarmed by alternate Ricks and Morties.
In the very next scene, for example (right after the intro credits), we find the Smith family, once again seated around the breakfast table, with Rick and Morty both alive and well (as if nothing happened). The writers are totally free to do this because there is nothing inconsistent, when the series falls on the premise of parallel, and sometimes almost identical, realities, about spontaneously, and without warning, cutting to an alternate reality in which we find another Rick and Morty in an almost identical situation to that from which they cut. So there he is–a (still alive) Rick–sitting beside a (not passed out) Morty suddenly catching the gist of Beth’s gesture to make flaying saucer shaped pancakes:
“Oh, I get it: regular pancakes are already shaped like flying saucers.”
Obviously, this Rick lived to see another day (literally), that day being the one year anniversary in which Rick entered back into their lives, the one on which Beth said she’d make him flaying saucer shaped pancakes.
As an aside, it brings up a question in my mind: do we have a right to say that this day–Rick’s one year anniversary of entering back into the Smith family’s lives–is really the next day after that during which, in a parallel universe, an alternate version of himself died? I mean, if it’s December 9th 2016 in one universe, for example, do we have to say it’s December 9th 2016 in another parallel universe? What if the parallel universe in question was defined such that it was always a day behind the one to which it is parallel? Would there even be a way to determine the matter? Do events that happen across different universe even happen “at the same time”? What would be the difference between hopping to a parallel universe in which it is 1999 and hopping to one in which it is 2016 and, in the same move, time travelling back to 1999? ← These are just some metaphysical questions to ponder over in a thread devoted to a philosophical digestion of the Rick and Morty series. The point being that, in the current scene, we technically don’t know that this is the “next” day.
(And if you look at the breakfast table, you see that everyone except Rick is, once again, eating eggs, hash browns, and sausage–would they really be eating the same breakfast two days in a row? They might be, or maybe they just didn’t have the same breakfast the previous day, or any number of things, but it does bring the question to the fore).
Focusing on something more relevant (but still an aside), I like how, when it comes to Beth, Rick doesn’t mind admitting that he missed the obvious: pancakes are already shaped like flying saucers–a bone head oversight for a genius like Rick–but one he doesn’t mind admitting to his daughter. Related to that, I also like how, when Beth first offered to make him flying saucer shaped pancakes (back in the reality in which Rick died), Rick declined saying “there’s no need to do that,” showing his affectionate side for his daughter.
We’ve seen, in past episodes, how Rick sometimes betrays an affectionate side to his personality, and you may think this is nothing new, but that’s going to be thrown completely up-side-down in this episode–almost as if we were purposefully lead, in the last episode, to conlude that it’s obvious that Rick is only masking his affection for his family with a tough, disinterested exterior, only to be thrown for a loop, in this episode, by overwhelming evidence that he definitely does not feel even a sintilla of affection for anybody, even himself–this current display, for example, possibly being just a manipulative ploy to coax Beth into keeping him around longer (he did say it, after all, in response to Beth reminding him that he’s been housed in her home without keep for a year now).
Rick continues: “I-I should be making you breakfast for putting up with me.” ← He realizes he’s hard to live with.
Then all of a sudden, three alternate Ricks enter the room through a portal. They’re dressed in quasi-militant uniforms, wearing badges and carrying guns–still lab coats underneath but more of a formal uniform:
The center Rick says: “Rick Sanchez, Earth dimension C-137 ← Important identity tag!, you are under arrest for crimes against alternate Ricks by the authority of the transdimensional council of Ricks!”
Jerry: “Hey! What the heck!”
Center Rick: “Neutralize the Jerry.”
Jerry: “Wait! No! I’ll-”
[Left Rick shoots freezing plasma at Jerry. Jerry freezes.]
Summer: “Dad!”
Beth: “Dad! [at Rick C-137]” ← Blaming him? It is the same person, in a manner of speaking.
Rick C-137: “[Stands up] Everybody relax, if I know these A-holes, and I am these A-holes, they just want to haul me to their stupid club house and waste my time with a bunch of questions. Let’s get it over with.”
Center Rick: “Bring his M-burp-orty.”
Morty: “Oh man. [as if this sucked but wasn’t a crisis.]”
Rick C-137: “Leave my M-burp-orty out of this!”
Center Rick: “You lost the right to have a say in these things when you refused to j-burp-join the council of Ricks.”
Beth: “[Stands up] W-w-w-what about Jerry?!”
Rick: “[As they haul him and Morty off through the portal] Will you at least unfreeze my daughter’s idiot?”
[Left Rick fires anti-freezing plasma blast at Jerry.]
Jerry: “-give you anything! I have a rare antique coin collection! Just don’t hurt me!.. [Looks around; realizes the crisis is over] Ok, maybe not antique but it was a limited minting–they have little R2D2’s instead of George Washingtons.”
Beth: “Our son’s been abducted!”
Jerry: “You hate me for buying those coins!”
Let’s remember, for the sake of this episode, that the Rick we’re following–the “protagonist”–is Rick from Earth dimension C-137 (makes you wonder whether there is a “Mars dimension” or “Pluto dimension” or some other planet on which Rick happened to evolve). The first mention of the specific dimension from which the “protagonist” Rick came from was in episode 7–Raising Gazorpazorp–when he introduced himself to the femtopian Gazorpians:
“Listen, I’m Rick Sanchez from Earth dimension C-137…”
So we know at least that the Rick we’re following now is the same Rick as in episode 7 (sucks to be the Rick who died). I’m also curious to know if this is the identity tag he would have used before Episode 6–Rick Potion #9–the one in which he and Morty switched universes. Does Rick now refer to himself as C-137 because he’s taking the place of the real (and now dead) Rick C-137, or was this always his identity tag? The reason I ask this is because the Ricks who intrude into the Smiths’ home actually refer to him as Rick C-137. So either they know he’s an impostor in this reality, or the Rick whose reality this is supposed to be is the real Rick C-137.
On another note, it’s interesting how many parallels there are between the dimensions that don’t, at least not obviously, have any causal connections to each other yet play out anyway. For example, in both, alternate Rick(s) spontaneously appear on Rick C-137’s 1 year (or close to it) anniversary back in the Smith’s lives. Also, when this happens, the Smith family are having eggs, hash browns, and sausages. Also, in both cases, Morty gets abducted. This shouldn’t be a surprise–in alternate realities, we should expect a lot of similarities–but similarities that have completely different causes panning out in the same way?–like Morty being abducted in each reality but for completely different reasons? This almost plays on fatalism instead of causal determinism–i.e. that certain things are bound to happen (or almost happen) because it is fated, not because it is caused–like it doesn’t matter how it’s caused to happen, it will just happen. We’ll see other examples of this in season 2, episode 1–A Rickle in Time–(and also, interestingly, the same theme of alternate Ricks being against each other).
So where did they take Morty C-137 and Rick C-137 (I’m assuming Morties get the same identity tag)? Why, to the Citadel of Ricks, of course:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CubN7zbB9XY[/youtube]
Anybody spot the Cronenberged Rick and Morty?
A couple things to note: 1) we get the hint from this scene why Rick refused to join the council of Ricks. He didn’t like the idea of “banding together like a heard of cattle or a school of fish.” ← This is very unRick-like. 2) We catch a glimpse of what kind of trouble Rick is in: “As you know, Morty, I’ve got a lot of enemies in the universe that consider my genius a threat: galactic terrorists, a few sub-galactic dictators, most of the entire inter-galactic government, w-wherever you find people with their heads up their asses, someone wants a piece of your grandpa.” Who knew that Rick was this popular throughout the galaxy? ← In fact, the “inter-galactic government” will play a more prominent roll in the series when we get to Season 2. He forgot to mention the Zigerions (unless they’re a kind of sub-galactic dictatorship), but I guess since they’re dead, there’d be no point (unless there were other Zigerions that also want Rick’s secret Concentrated Dark Matter formula). And now he has the Council of Rick itself after him.
One thing I find odd about this scene is that most of the Ricks and Morties we find standing around are literally just standing around–staring off into space, a vacant/confused look on their faces. I’m not sure what this is suppose to suggest, but a kind of “take home message” this episode seems to get at is that when Rick’s get together, they become dull (and Morties are already dull). This might be what Roiland and Harmon were trying to get across with this:
Now, in the next scene we see something else peculiar: we get 3 different “salesmen” versions of Rick trying to sell Rick C-137 on something. None of them are wearing the typical white lab coat–no, they’re dressed in suits: 1) The Morty Dazzler: This Rick’s trying to sell “Morty Dazzlers”–a flashy necklace Rick’s are suppose to put on their Morties to make them into a “hot fassion statement”. 2) The Show-Me-The-Morty Rick: This Rick is trying to sell a Morty doll who, when you press a button on his tummy, says “Show me the Morty!” 3) The Morty Insurer: This Rick’s selling Morty insurance. ← Notice that they all involve Morty. Also notice that none of these Rick’s have a Morty. And if you really notice, the first two Ricks look pretty sad when Rick C-137 rejects them, the last Rick looking kinda mad. ← At least for the first two, this is again very unRick-like. It almost seems as though the idea is that by joining the Council of Ricks, each Rick loses a part of his “Rickhood”.
As Rick says: “I say the point of being a Rick is being a Rick.”
Morty C-137 is, of course, taking it all in, finding the show-me-the-morty doll absolutely fucking thrilling.
After a bit of bickering back and forth between Rick C-137 and the other Ricks, they haul him and Morty C-137 into what looks like a court room:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7rXOgL4oFQ[/youtube]
The scene continues with the council opting to get evidence: they confiscate his portal gun and scan it for all the places Rick C-137 has been–turns out he’s been to all the places and timelines in which the murders occurred. C-137 still denies it, claiming that he’s being setup. The council sentences him “to the machine of unspeakable doom, which swaps your conscious and unconscious minds, rendering your fantasies pointless while everything you’ve known becomes impossible to grasp… also every 10 seconds it stabs your balls.” “I’ve heard enough,” says Rick C-137 before elbowing the sentinel Rick behind him in the gut, allowing him to grab his gun while flipping him over to knock out the Rick behind Morty C-137. Then he frees Morty C-137 by shooting his handcuffs. He grabs him and makes a dash, being sure to grab his portal gun before escaping.
Being chased down the many corridors of the Citadel of Ricks, Rick C-137 tries to decoy the other Ricks by firing his portal gun behind him. It opens portals on the walls, the floor, and the ceiling surrounding the other Ricks. Burning flames shoot out of one portal singing a Rick. A swarm of insects come out of another and attack a second Rick. A third Rick gets pulled into another portal by giant tentacles. And a fourth and fifth slip on some oily goo that comes out of what looks like exotic melons after falling from a portal on the ceiling.
Then Rick C-137 and his Morty jump from a balcony. As they fall, Rick fires his portal gun at a platform below. A portal opens on the spot where they would have landed; instead, they fall through the portal and escape the Citadel of Ricks.
They land on a giant ass. Sliding off the ass onto the ground, they look around: it seems to be a world full of giant asses–they’re all just sticking out of the ground. There’s rolls of toilet paper on racks and plungers strewn about, and the place reeks of flatulence, the sounds of such emanating from asses all over the place. The other Ricks somehow figure out which world they went to and follow them here. Seeing them drop from a portal in the sky, Rick C-137 and his Morty run. Rick C-137 fires his portal gun into a giant ass sticking up-right out of the ground. They run right into the ass/portal, two other Ricks and a Morty following close behind.
They enter a world where people and pizza are swapped: the scene opens with a couple slices of pizza sitting in their living room ordering people on the phone: “Yeah, I’d like to order one large person with extra people please.” says the one pizza slice. “White people,” says the other slice, “No, no, no, black people, and a Hispanic on half.” That’s when the portal opens and Rick C-137 and his Morty run through. Right away, Rick opens another portal on the other side of the room. He runs through it, the other two Ricks and the Morty still trailing close behind.
They come out into a world of greased up grannies. There’s a banner overhead that reads: “Welcome to Greasy Grandma world. Population: a whole lot, sonny!” They run through the grannies who seem to be petrified (just standing there like statues). They open another portal and jump through. The Ricks and the Morty still close behind.
This time they enter a world where pizza and furniture have swapped places, and people and phones have swapped places. It’s the same living room setting as before except with a giant phone sitting on a giant slice of pizza folded into the shape of a chair. He’s on the “phone” which is really a miniature person ordering “one large sofa chair with extra chair.” His friend phone says, “High chair–no, no, no, recliner, and wheel chair on half.” Then Rick C-137 and his Morty come through, open another portal on the other side of the room, and slip through, still being followed.
They come into a world with a herd of weird animals that look like a mix of sheep, camels, and the creepy looking “Fire Gang” from Labyrinth. They’re all standing around saying something like “wopidupido!” Rick opens a whole series of portals and, with Morty, jumps through one of them. Then the other Ricks with their Morties (more than just the two who were following them) come through. “We lost them,” one of the Ricks says.
Rick and Morty C-137 finally enter the last world before resting. It’s a world in which pizza (or food in general) and phones have swapped places and furniture and people have swapped places. We see a couple of chairs sitting on a couple of people. The people are perfectly still, like statues, as though they weren’t conscious (and probably aren’t). The one chair holds a slice of pizza to his ear and says: “Yeah, I’d like to order one large phone with extra phones please.” His friend chair says: “Cell phone… no, no, no, rotary, and pay phone on half.” Then Rick and Morty C-137 come in. This time they just walk out the front door.
As they walk down the street of “furniture town” (my term), all the chairs stare in disbelief at Rick and Morty–in the same way you would stare if you saw a recliner or a sofa walking down the street having a conversation with another piece of upholstery. After questioning Rick about the facts surrounding the Rickicides, Morty gets the answer: “…someone out there is killing Ricks, and the council ain’t gonna stop thinking it’s me until we clear our names… by finding the real Rick killer.” ← So that determines the rest of the plot. After a plea to “go home and stock pile weapons,” Rick responds to Morty: “Not really my style, Morty. Besides, your home is most likely swarming with Ricks by now.”
The next scene cracks me up. I just have to post a clip:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CkmfVAdf1vo[/youtube]
Three points I want to make about this scene: first, Beth is more than happy to server lemonade to her own son’s kidnappers. Just earlier, she was yelling at Jerry for putting his coin collection ahead of the fact that their son was just abducted (which, I must say, isn’t entirely his fault since, being frozen when it happened, he was completely oblivious to this fact). And now, here she is, surrounded by the kidnappers themselves, eager to please them with good hospitality. So we see that Jerry isn’t the only shitty parent in this family. Beth’s daddy issues go so deep that she isn’t even able to fight for the recovery of her own son if it means standing up to her father–and even then, alternate versions of her father. In her eyes, daddy can do no wrong. We’ll get to the bottom of Beth’s daddy issues in later episodes.
Second, a remark on one of the Rick’s comments to Beth is worth questioning: “I have a Beth just like you in my-burp-reality, except you know what? She’s not as brilliant or-burp-attractive.” ← At first, one goes “aaawww, that’s sweet. Rick loves his daughter,” but it becomes awkward when you think about the fact that this Beth is not his daughter. What would that mean? Does Rick calling her “attractive” count as “hitting” on her? Is that something a Rick would do? Is Rick that twisted, that he would make a move on his own daughter on the flimsy excuse that, technically, she isn’t really his daughter? And even philosophically, one can question this: would it be acceptable if one made a move on an alternate version of one’s daughter (or any near relative) if by “alternate version” was meant: someone not really genetically connect to one’s self? I don’t think that one would want to viscerally, but if it were a moral question, would this count as an exception?
Third, this entire scene hints at one of the main reasons why Ricks getting together is an all around bad thing for Ricks: they seem to be distracted from their main objective by the irresistible temptation to pull pranks on Jerry. A single Rick by himself would not only find this much more difficult to pull off, but there’d be no one to get a laugh out of (except himself, but that’s never as fun), leaving him to put the idea out of mind and concentrate on the more important objective at hand. But put a whole team of Ricks together, and they seem to encourage the worst in each other. It might be compared to putting a group of drug addicts together, and seeing what happens to each one’s resolve to stay drug free (this just occurs to me: Rick is supposed to be an alcoholic, but there isn’t a single scene in this episode of a Rick drinking booz–not even Rick C-137–the closest thing coming to mind is that there were a couple Ricks sitting at Rick’s in the Citadel of Ricks but technically we don’t actually see any Ricks drinking booz. ← Don’t know if this means anything). In brief: put a bunch of Ricks together, and over time they degenerate.
Rick C-137, back in Furniture Town, predicts this (he does know himself, after all), assuring Morty that they have a bit of time before they’ll be onto them. They’re in a restaurant, sitting on people, as a chair brings them their meal: “Phones-a-la-clams and phone-ghetti with phone balls.” Rick has his portal gun open as he turns a screw with a screw driver.
Morty: “You know Rick, when I first saw all those Ricks and Morties, I thought: Gee, that kind of devalues our bond. But then I realized it just means that our relationship must be pretty special to span over all those different timelines.”
Rick: “Yeah, it’s gotta be that way. You’re a camouflage.”
Morty: “Camouflage? W-w-what are you talking about, Rick?”
Rick: “Ricks have a very distinctive and traceable brain wave due to our genius. The best way to hide from an enemy’s radar is to stand near someone with complementary brain waves that make our’s invisible. See, [pulls out pen] w-w-w-when a Rick is with a Morty, [starts drawing waves on paper] the genius waves get cancelled out by the, uh… [clears throat] Morty waves.”
Talk about taking the wind out of your sale. If there was any doubt that Rick is completely without any compassion or inclinations towards selflessness, this pretty much kills it. Unless Rick is totally making this up (as another mask), it means there is no reason to believe that Rick enjoys spending time with his grandson for sentimental reasons; Morty is, and all this time has been, used as a cloaking device. So if in the last episode, we thought we caught a glimpse of a softer side to Rick, a side that actually cares for his family, this completely undoes it. Some on the internet speculate that Rick is making this up, that it is another mask to hide the fact that he, in fact, likes Morty, but later scenes in this episode don’t support this very well.
In fact, this hints at one of the main reasons Rick entered into the Smiths’ lives after all these years. The actual reason is never mentioned in either Season 1 or Season 2, but it seems obvious from this scene that Rick was getting into so much trouble with the inter-galactic (or just galactic) government, that he needed a cloaking device. He needed Morty. This is most likely why the episode begins by mentioning Rick’s 1 year anniversary back in the Smiths’ lives. It’s a refresher. It’s meant to raise the idea in our minds that Rick did indeed come back into the Smiths’ lives and we still don’t know why. That way, we are more likely to make the connection.
But just not to spoil the mood for the soft hearted, there is still hope for Rick’s human side: just because Rick is using Morty as a cloaking device doesn’t mean he can’t also care for his grandson and enjoy spending time with him for the usual reasons; even if this wasn’t the case at the beginning, Morty (and the rest of the family) might still have grown on him.
And it seems noteworthy to point out that Morty certainly expresses a fondness for his grandpa in the way he talks about their relation being “pretty special to span over all those timelines.” Again, Rick is the man you love to hate and hate to love. We don’t need to enumerate the occasions when Morty expressed resentment towards Rick for all the shit he puts him through, how he detests Rick for the way he treats him, but after all that, there seems to be a fondness on Morty’s part, not only for Rick as a grandfather, but for the fun they have together (usually in retrospect, but still). It’s almost as if Morty’s grievances over Rick are merely on the surface, but underneath are planted the seeds of attachment and affection, a sort of gratefulness for all the thrills and excitement that a life as Rick’s sidekick have given him.
After hacking at his portal gun a bit longer, Rick figures out that his portal gun was indeed hacked remotely by the real killer, and furthermore is able to trace the signal to the source. That’s when two Rick guards and a Morty come in announcing that they’re looking for a couple “dangerous criminals”. They mark their own foreheads with a red X so as to distinguish themselves from the C-137s. The one Rick points to the C-137s’ table, saying “Hey, check it out.” From behind, it looks like Rick C-137 and Morty C-137 crouching on the ground like seats. The alternate Ricks turn them around only to find it’s not them. They look out the window to see a shirtless Morty C-137 and Rick C-137 in a muscle shirt hopping in a police ship (presumably theirs). They escape.
Next scene: Rick and Morty (C-137), in the stolen police ship, are hovering over a bluish green swampy looking landscape, moving forward through fog at a leisure pace. It’s on a distant, exotic planet. Innocently enough, Rick remarks:
“Hey, it’s a good thing that space outlet had lab coats and your favorite kinda shirt in stock, huh Morty?” ← Almost hinting at the conspiracy theory of the “simulated clothes” I described in Episode #4–M. Night Shaym-Aliens!
After a snide comment from Morty, Rick continues:
“Man, this place is way off the grid; this guy does not want to be found.”
Morty: “Well, if he’s a Rick, doesn’t he just have to stand by a Morty? I mean, isn’t that what Morties are? Human cloaking devices?”
Rick: “Morty, you’re making a bigger deal out of this than it is.” ← Like nothing happened.
Then they come into a clearing in the fog, and before them, about a mile ahead on the landscape, stands a mammoth black egg-shaped edifice. It looks like a cross between a sky scraper and a massive leather stud with spikes sticking out of it:
Morty: “Oh my God, Rick, look! There’s a bunch of people strapped all over that building!”
Rick: “Not people, Morty… Morties.”
Indeed the faint sounds of yelling and screaming can be heard as they approach the massive structure–and, I must say, with a bunch of Morties strapped to it, it almost reminds me of the Matrix (same directors as Cloud Atlas). These are the screams and yellings of the Morties being put into agonizing pain:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PvO3s4w-Vdo[/youtube]
This is worse than the Holocaust; at least in the Holocaust, the Jews weren’t deliberately put into torture contraptions every hour of every day–they were free to roam around the concentration camps doing their own business–and while this sounds horrid to say, I’ll bet if those Morties had the choice, they’d opt for the concentration camps in a second. The Rick who’s orchestrating all this is evil!
Rick C-137 says: “…one Morty’s enough to hide from the bureaucrats, but you get-you get a whole matrix [reference to The Matrix?] of Morty’s and put them in agonizing pain, that creates a pattern that can hide even from other Ricks, motha’ fucka’. [As they land:] I fiddled with a co-burp-ncept like this once. [Morty looks at him like: are you out of your mind?] On paper, Morty, on paper! I wouldn’t do this! It’s barbaric overkill. I mean, you could accomplish the same results with like 5 Morties and a jumper cable… [Morty gives him another look]… which I also wouldn’t do! I’m just saying, it’s bad craftsmanship.”
^ Even if we are to trust Rick’s word on this–that he wouldn’t really do it–the fact that he even toyed with the idea shows that he’s not that far off from doing it–I mean, he seems well beyond the sensitivity to even hold back in saying it to Morty–what little empathy is really left in him to hold back from actually doing it if only to hide from the bureaucrats and all the other Ricks? Doesn’t seem like much.
Back at the Smiths’ home, Beth invites the Ricks for coffee. They halt their game of poker (or whatever it is) and move to the next room. Their Morties take over the game, like lionesses coming in for the feast after the males have finished. Again, when Ricks get together, they become distracted (in this case by poker) from the more important objective.
Then Doofus Rick comes in:
He initiates a conversation with Jerry. Jerry explains to him that he’s busy working and that he’s between advertising jobs. Doofus Rick says “Advertising! Wow! [sits on the sofa next to Jerry] So, people need help figuring out what to buy and y-y-you help them?” ← This odd-ball Rick actually seems genuinely interested in Jerry. And like Morty who, as Rick C-137 pointed out, was easy to impress, this Rick seems enthralled by Jerry’s line of work. ← This is very un-Rick-like, especially for a member of the Council of Ricks.
In response to Doofus Rick’s question, Jerry responds: “Well, it’s a little more complicated than that.”
Doofus Rick: “Well, I mean, you do it, and you seem like a guy who really has it all together.” ← A Rick that’s actually impressed by Jerry… WOW!!! Especially since Jerry doesn’t have it all together, particular being between advertising jobs.
Jerry is taken aback by this. He looks around, he looks behind the couch–expecting this to be another prank.
Jerry: “Dude, are you-what?–You’re being a dick, right?”
Doofus Rick: “Oh gosh, I-I hope not. I mean, I-I-I wouldn’t want to offend you in anyway.” ← This is unprecedented: a Rick that worries about being offensive.
Doofus Rick, or Rick J-19 zeta-7, is really an interesting case as far as Ricks go. While coming off as a total doofus–even at the level of physical appearance, what with the Beatles hair cut, the buck teeth, and the wonky eyes–we mustn’t mistake him for an idiot. He’s definitely as smart as any other Rick (which we’ll see later in the episode) but he’s just super nice and sensitive–to a fault. He’s even doofus-level nice for an ordinary person, almost child-like.
He’s an outsider even to the Council. One wonders why he’s even a member. As a nice-guy doofus, it’s probably a fair guess that he doesn’t have the backbone to defend and stand up for himself against those who are after him–like the (inter-)galactic government–so he takes refuge among the Council of Ricks for his own protection. After all, if it’s just their intelligence that the (inter-)galactic government finds most threatening about Ricks (which Rick C-137 stated earlier), Doofus Rick has that in the bag as much as any other Rick.
Not surprisingly, the Council had to assign a Morty to him (an Eric Stoltz version with the same facial deformities he had in Mask) because, in his words, “I never had any kids of my own [big surprise], but if I did, boy, I’d love them if they were as smart and as successful as you are, Jerry.” ← Wrong on both counts, of course–Jerry is neither smart nor successful, but that’s Doofus Rick for you: never short on the compliments.
Despite being shielded by the Council from menacing governments, he’s certainly not shielded from the Council itself–at least not from insults and verbal attacks:
Alternate Rick 1: “Hey, get a load of this: Jerry’s hanging out with Doofus Rick.”
Alternate Rick 2: “Hoh-hoh! This is perfect.”
Doofus Rick: “I’m not Doofus Rick! I’m Rick J-19 zeta-7!”
Alternate Rick 1: “Oh, is that the timeline where everybody eats poop? Jerry, you know this guy eats poop, right?”
Doofus Rick: “Hey! I don’t eat poop! You guys are always so mean to me! [drops his face into his palms]” The alternate Ricks laugh.
In his defense, even if Doofus Rick does eat poop, alternate Rick 1 mentioned that he’s from a timeline where everyone eats poop. Supposing this wasn’t just another jab, it means that at least Doofus Rick is normal in his own timeline.
Doofus Rick: “[tearing up] I guess it’s only fair to tell you now, Jerry. I’m the worst Rick of them all.”
Jerry: “According to who? Other versions of you? If I’ve learned one thing, it’s that before you get anywhere in life, you’ve gotta stop listening to yourself.”
Doofus Rick: “Wow, you really are wise, Jerry. I-I guess that’s why you work in advertising.”
Jerry: “The fact that you think so, makes you the best Rick of them all.”
^ These few lines sort of play on the whole internal/external validation dichotomy. It throws it for a loop and brings out a bit of irony. Jerry’s life lesson–that you gotta stop listening to yourself–almost suggests that this is the main reason he can’t internally self-validate–but it’s said under very odd circumstances–namely, that the “self” Jerry is advising Doofus Rick not to listen to are “other versions” of himself–essentially, sources of external validation, that which Jerry advises not to listen to. Then, as another twist of irony, Jerry offers some external validation by telling him that his opinion of Jerry being wise makes him the best Rick of them all–doubly ironic since this exemplifies Jerry’s dependence on external validation himself: he’s basically saying he approves of Doofus Rick’s opinion of him as wise because that is external validation for him.
They make a lovely couple, don’t they? Both serving as sources of external validation for each other.
Back to the leather stud fortress, Rick and Morty are making their way down the many dark and grungy hallways of this presumed secret hideout. Morty is infuriated. He’s lashing out, quite loudly, at Rick for being used as a human shield: “You don’t care about me at all! I’m no different than that jacket you’ve got on!” Rick, however, has other things on his mind: trying to get the drop on the killer Rick and also to keep a low profile ← something Morty’s making exceedingly difficult right now. Which is why he says: “…you’re as dumb as I am smart, which is why when I say-burp-‘shut up’ it’s really good advice.” Tears well up in Morty’s eyes as a stiff lip sits upon his face, he’s that infuriated
Rick, ever the pragmatist, has a point of course. Morty is being very unwise to be shouting at Rick as they make their way down the halls of this labyrinth, a labyrinth in which the enemy they’re seeking is most likely lurking. But can you blame him? How easy would you find it to just shut the fuck up and listen to a man who just openly admitted to toying with the idea of torturing you with jumper cables just to use you as a human shield. As much as Morty is being somewhat stupid in this moment, Rick has his share of the blame: if he wasn’t such an asshole to Morty, Morty would have no reason right now to be shouting and screaming.
But it’s too late: they’re discovered. Four purple giant lobster-looking creatures with enormous claws emerge from various doorways and openings. They’re surrounded. Rick suddenly pulls some wicked Ninja-like Chuck Norris moves on them: he elbows, karate kicks, and round-house kicks the creatures, severing one of their claws and using it as a weapons against another (who knew he knew Kung Fu). Then more come out. Rick sighs in despair.
They’re saved by the killer Rick suddenly making an entrance. He’s there with his Morty. They’re the same Rick and Morty who killed the other Rick at the opening of this episode. The Ricks argue about who invented the slow clap. The next scene features the C-137s being escorted down the hall by a couple of those lobster creatures, being held by their claws, the evil Rick and Morty in the lead. Evil Rick commands his Morty to take Morty C-137 away. They split up, the Morty going down one prong in the hallway fork, the Ricks and the lobsters going down the other.
“Ricks, huh?” says Morty C-137, “Hey man, you seem to know how this place works. Is there any way we can shut down that grid and rescue all those Morties outside?” “It would be pointless,” Evil Morty says, “Morties have no chance of defeating a Rick.” He opens a door: “In here.” Morty C-137 looks inside the chamber. It’s filled with Morties crouching in the fetal position on the floor. They’re all sitting in a sort of crescent shape as a group. They’re shaking and moaning, trembling over what they’ve been through for who knows how long and what they predict they’ll continue to go through for who knows how long. Evil Morty closes the door behind C-137.
Meanwhile, Rick C-137 is strapped to a bed sorta thingy. He and Evil Rick are in something like a control center, televisions plaster across the wall, each one focused on a Morty from behind being tortured outside. It’s sort of like the scene from Goldfinger where James Bond is strapped to a bed sorta thingy as a gold searing laser beam slowly creeps closer to his crotch. After Rick C-137 cracks a few inappropriate jokes, Evil Rick shushes him: “Quiet, you’re missing my symphony.” He presses a button on the control panel and suddenly all the wails and cries of the Morties outside can be heard through the speakers. He waves his arms around like he’s conducting an orchestra.
^ There’s no question here that Evil Rick not only doesn’t care about the Morties outside, but takes a sadistic pleasure in torturing them, like listening to his favorite symphony. ← Unlike Rick C-137, who’s intentions–good or evil–are questionable, those of Evil Rick are clear as day: he’s evil through-and-through. He continues:
“You see Rick, you’re not as clever as you think you are. I wanted you to find me. [Opens a holographic display with a line of Rick profiles, like mug shots, sprawled horizontally like a deck of cards.] We’re not so-burp-different, you and I. [Rick C-137: Yeah, d’uh!] See this right here, Rick? I crunched the numbers. I created a spectrum of all the Ricks. [Flips through the Rick profiles like swiping on an iPhone.] I listed them out from most evil to least evil. Here’s where I am. [Stops on the profile of himself.] And here’s where you are, Rick. [flips two to the right.] This guy right here… [flips back to the Rick between them.]… super weird.”
Evil Rick is essentially saying he’s found a way to measure evil–not a huge surprise given that Rick C-137, in the last episode, answered his own question “Does evil exist, and if so, can one detect and measure it?” with a resounding “yes”–and, well, if one Rick found a way, most others Ricks probably did too. What’s interesting about this case, however, is that, whereas in the last episode Rick C-137 was measuring the evil of Mr. Needful, in this episode Rick himself is being measured. We even have a benchmark: Evil Rick. Rick C-137, in other words, is two “Rick-evil-units” away from Evil Rick, and we get a prime example, with the Morty Matrix, of exactly how evil that is. Mind you, we’re not told whether Rick C-137 is towards the evil end of the spectrum compared to Evil Rick or away, but I think it’s fair to say that if Rick C-137 would only toy with the idea of torturing Morties for the sake of camouflage, and Evil Rick would actually do it, Rick C-137 is towards the less evil end. We’re also not told whether the spectrum is linear, quadratic, or any other graphical shape. These “units”, in other words, aren’t necessarily all uniform. The degree of evil at which each Rick on the spectrum stands may take giant leaps as you flip from one Rick to the next. For instance, it’s possible that the “super weird” Rick between them is just slightly less evil than Evil Rick, but then it takes a giant leap away from evil when you go from “super weird” Rick to Rick C-137.
It’s also quite telling that Evil Rick says: “I wanted you to find me.” ← It means that the point of framing Rick C-137 wasn’t just to distract the Council of Ricks with a decoy, but also to lead Rick C-137 to him. Somehow he knew that not only would Rick C-137 be able to evade the Council, but also that he would be able to trace his portal gun’s hacker to the source. Now, I know he’s a Rick, and is therefore capable of predicting what other Ricks would do, but sometimes these tired old plot elements become rickdiculous.
And finally, an aside: several on the internet have pointed out the fact that this spectrum of Ricks is finite–even Evil Rick says “I created a spectrum of all the Ricks.”–which is kind of odd to say the least given that there are an infinite number of alternate realities in the Rick and Morty universe; given an infinite number of realities, the logic follows that there should exist an infinite number of Ricks, one for each conceivable type of Rick. Even in Episode 6–Rick Potion #9–Rick says: “There’s an infinite number of realities, Morty, and in a few dozen of those I got lucky and turned everything back to normal.” ← Why only a few dozen? Even if the realities he’s talking about are quite specifically ones in which the world got Cronenberged and he somehow found a way to fix it, there’s still an infinite number of ways in which that could have panned out. This idea is also echoed by the lead Rick in the Council of Ricks: “Of all the Ricks in the central finite curve, you’re the malcontent.” (Is the “central finite curve” the same as the Spectrum Evil Rick currently has on display?) One possibility, also voiced on the internet, is that though there may be an infinite number of realities, and by implication an infinite number of Ricks, only a finite number of those are accessible to Rick C-137 and his portal gun (possibly to all Ricks that C-137 has access to). Who knows if any other Ricks (assuming they exist) have access to their own local finite network of Ricks.