Well, now that we’ve gotten through the “turning point” which I feel the last episode was, we can return once again to frivolous superficial adventures–oh I never said we’d leave them behind forever, just that now we know there is a deeper point to the Rick and Morty series than whatever happens to be going on in the midst of this or that adventure. So yes, the adventures will continue on past this point, and will remain crazy and chaotic as ever, but along side that we will also see the unfolding of each character’s life and the ways in which they grow, learn, and evolve.
In this episode, for example, we get a more in-depth look into Summer’s personality (she’s been neglected long enough now)–and even this counts, in my mind, as a “special twist” on the formulaic plot of crazy and chaotic adventure; ← not only will Summer finally get a chance to be the side kick but Morty will switch rolls with her and play an exclusive part in the secondary plotline only. Furthermore, Beth and Jerry will be, in a sense, pushed out of any plotline whatsoever, though the minimal rolls they will be playing still being situated in the secondary plotline. All they will do in this episode is heckle Morty from time to time when he screws up in his efforts to raise his son.
Yes, in this episode, Morty becomes a father, and we will not only get to have a look into Morty’s character when put into a parenting roll, but get to probe into some of the deeper philosophical questions about parenthood.
This is also a good episode to return to a philosophical topic that we only touched on lightly in the Pilot and in Lawnmower Dog–that of conservatism and liberalism; this philosophical line was, in my mind, always attached to some of the other philosophical themes we moved through quite thickly but went unmentioned for one reason or another–for example, the theme of the crazy and chaotic nature of the universe, or trying too hard having opposite consequences. ← These themes obviously echo conservative values and beliefs–in a word, we can’t really control the world nearly as much as we think we can, and many so-called “socialist” attempts to do so, to “improve” the world, end up being economic disasters when put into practice (just read my Reforming Democracy thread for a ton of examples)–for example, attempting to feed the poor making us all poorer in the long run, or raising minimum wage, which theoretically should make the poorer rungs of workers richer, in fact resulting in higher unemployment making the poorer rungs of workers even more poor. In this episode, we will focus on a much more narrow branch of liberalist philosophy (though not always exclusively liberal): feminism.
(Knowing Rick, you can probably imagine how that’s going to play out.)
We begin on a tiny planet consisting of just a parking lot (with, by the looks of it, maybe 50 stalls) and a pawn shop. Inside, Rick is negotiating with the owner over a multi-phase quantum resonator (or, as Rick sees it, a broken defraculator–resonators don’t defractulate, so by that logic, it’s a broken defraculator). Morty, meanwhile, is ogling a sex robot, and being the horny teenage boy he is, he tries to persuade Rick to buy it for him on the premise that it would be a good souvenir to remember Rick by–a clever move on Morty’s part as it predictably just takes a bit of ego stroking to bend Rick’s arm. He agrees and buys Morty the sex robot.
Back at home, the family (minus Morty) is eating breakfast around the dining room table. What’s Morty doing during this? Well, given the rhythmic thumping coming from the ceiling and the shaking of the hanging light above the table, it’s obvious that Morty is, well, fucking the robot. Morty takes a break from his sexual escapades to come down in his underwear, wiping away beeds of sweat, and “refuels”. He grabs the carton of orange juice from the table, chugs it, and says “All right… back to… back to… b-back upstairs.” The thumping begins again.
Jerry: “Well, I’m intervening.”
Beth: “Intervening with puberty? You’ll turn him into ‘Ray Finds a Red Dragon’. [<-- Anybody ever heard of this?] He’s at that age. Let’s just be proud of him.”
Summer: “Jesus, did I really set the bar that low?”
Morty: [Comes back down with a worried look on his face] “Um, Rick, could you come with me please… q-q-quickly?!”
[Rick dashes upstairs with Morty]
Beth: “Okay, now if we hear squeaking, we intervene.”
Cut to Morty’s room: Rick and Morty stand there watching a pinkish/purple mechanical ball fly/bounce around the room. Gwendalyn, as Morty calls her, has transformed into a ball and is for some reason flying around the room and bouncing off walls. Rick attempts to “steer wrestle” Gwen in an attempt to strap her down and control her, but he’s no match for her; he only gets knocked around and thrown repeatedly against the bed; which creates more thumping and prompts the family to rush upstairs, Beth in the lead exclaiming as she enters: “Okay, unacceptable!–Oh.”
Then Gwen gives birth to a baby alien-looking thingy. It plops right out of an opening at her bottom, covered in green go, and into Morty’s arms. Then Gwen settles on the bed and “unfolds” back into the recognizable sex robot she original was.
Rick pulls out something like a screw driver and deactivates Gwen. She falls back first onto the bed. Rick opens her abdomen and investigates: “Genetic compiler… incubation chamber… yep, this here’s some kind of baby maker. And that there’s half Morty, half burp wh-who knows wh–burp–at. It’s my bad, guys, I’ll–I’ll–I’ll take care of it,” and he pulls out a gun and aims it at the baby.
^ Just as an aside, another minor example of the rare occurrence of Rick owning responsibility for his actions, but of course, only because he figures he has the solution to it (which he can take credit for).
Rick would have shot the baby if it wasn’t for the family stopping him. After Rick warns them about the dangers this creature could pose and therefore they have to be careful, Morty says “I lost the chance to be careful, Rick. I’m a father now. You know? It’s time for me to be responsible. Isn’t that right–[Rick: Don’t name it!]–Morty Junior–[Rick: Oh crap, he named it.]” ← Morty would do this–take responsibility for the position he got himself into. Then Beth says: “Well, dad, it’s a living thing. And it’s half human.” Rick leaves the room, taking Gwen down to the garage to do some investigating, and warns the group before doing so not to let the creature out of their site on account of how dangerous it might be.
In an attempt to find suitable parents for Morty Jr. on the sex robot’s home world, Rick manages to trace Gwen’s origins to planet Gazorpazorp. He says this out loud to an inquisitive Summer who happened to follow Rick into the garage, inquisitive in a way that betrays a bit of attention seeking and maybe some interest in taking Morty’s place as the side kick on one of Rick’s crazy adventures. In fact, she says:
“Don’t you need a new companion now that Morty’s in the family way?”
Rick: “I don’t do adventures with chicks, Summer.”
Summer: “Oh right, [Rick opens a portal] because there’s something about having a wiener [stands right in front of the portal] that would make me better at walking through a hole?”
A huge red, harry hand, like that of the Hulk (minus the color), reaches through the portal and snatches Summer. It pulls her through. “Oh crap,” says Rick right before jumping in after her. A big red ferocious looking beast (not unlike what you might imagine an adult version of Morty Jr. would look like) carries Summer off across a landscape scattered with what looks like broken pieces of sex robots just like Gwendalyn. The beast converges with other similar looking beasts. They soon gather in a huddle with Summer being thrown to the ground at the center. Looks like it could be a potential rape scene if not for Rick blasting holes right through their chests with his gun (always swooping in to save the day). They all pile up dead on top of Summer. She climbs out through one of the holes Rick blasted into their chests with Rick assisting her. He says: “Still think it’s a good idea to go through holes without a wiener?” Summer responds: “I wanna go home.” But before Rick can open a portal back home, a rock comes flying at them knocking his gun clear from his hand and smashes it on the ground. More beasts converge on them. Rick: “Great, now I have to take over a whole planet because of your stupid boobs.”
Clearly, at this point, the themes of feminism and sexism are what’s at issue in this episode–and clearly, we’re going to take a very, very–I’d even say Rick-like–masculine perspective on them. It’s nothing new that Rick would be this insensitive and offensive, so even though it will be undeniable (if it’s not already) that Rick is sexist (or at least, couldn’t care less about being sensitive to sexist issues), this must be evaluated in the context of Rick’s selfish prejudices affecting more or less all “isms”–he’s just an asshole in general.
And Summer here, being the young teenage girl she is, hopping on board any band wagon that happens to support whatever sounds good to her, will be the first in line to advocate feminist principles with an almost arrogant certitude.
But before any of that plays out, we cut back to the rest of the family. Sitting comfortably on their living room couch, Beth, Jerry, and Morty are spending some “quality time” (I suppose you could say) with Morty Jr. who is resting comfortably in Morty’s arms. Jerry begins by telling Morty he’s doing great. This is followed by a bit of an argument between Jerry and Beth over parenting strategies. Not that this argumentation is worth delving into, but Beth does say this to Jerry: “Stop filling it with your own insecurity; you’re gonna turn it into Morty–uh, mm, Mor-mor-more of you.”
^ I find this interesting because it does echo something she said in the previous episode in response to Jerry’s question: “Do you ever wonder what happened to Rick and Morty?” to which she responds: “Sometimes… but I’m ashamed to admit, now that they’re gone… I’m finally happy.” ← Losing Rick I could I understand, but her own son, Morty… why would losing him make her happy? Here we get a glimpse of an answer: Morty reminds her of Jerry. He has too much of Jerry’s insecurities in him. And from a certain perspective, this is true of Morty. His incessant angst over doing the right thing, of taking responsibility, betrays a certain insecurity. It still seems to me, however, that unlike Jerry, Morty is doing it because he really believes in the sanctity of morality–IOW, Morty is motivated by internal validation–whereas Jerry seems more concerned with following moral rules because that’s how to maintain social approval. I still think of Morty as a mix of his dad’s genes and his mom’s (which she inherited from Rick), not just a carbon copy of Jerry as Beth seems to think of him in this moment. More on this theme later will allow us to explore this very muddy mix of psychological baggage in more detail, but for now the point is that the same irksome unlikability about Jerry that irritates Beth so much also resides in Morty, at least from Beth’s perspective, which might explain why she could be happy if she never saw Morty again in her life.
(Do we remember, at this point, that Morty is currently engaging with strangers? i.e. people who aren’t really his parents? Does Morty?)
Morty, in a moment of intolerance, scolds them both: “Knock it off, both of you! G-Give me him! Give me my baby! [takes Morty Jr. from Beth] Y-your both nuts! I’m going to raise Morty Jr. myself!” and turns on the TV to see something like Mr. Noodles from Elmo’s World with a big giant white glove behind him, both of which are dancing (Mr. Noodles-look-alike singing) to the song: “Where’s–your hands?–There’s–your hands!–and that’s how we play handy-hands!”
^ I don’t know if this is meant as a bit of irony here, but it almost looks like Morty’s impulsive reaction at attempting to “raise Morty Jr. himself” is to turn on the TV in order to escape an “issue”–something we often do as parents as a knee-jerk reaction to wanting to shield our children from the horrors and obscenities of reality. Probably not the most effective parental strategy, but not too bad for a 14 year old boy trying his first hand at parenting (in a moment of rising above the level of immaturity displayed by a couple of actual parents in reaction to their personal issues with each other). So not great but not bad either.
Cut back to Rick and Summer: they’re in a tent with Rick repairing his portal gun out of a bunch of sex robot parts while Summer sits on a sort of cushion-looking thingy.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6e720KziBF4[/youtube]
Rick’s sexist comments not withstanding, Summer here is portrayed as the archetypal spoiled little rich bitch, the ultimate clueless liberal who knows nothing more but to echo the ethics she’s been conditioned to defend and uphold while arrogantly confusing them with wisdom–giving absolutely no thought to what would really happen if the principles she voiced were actually put into practice. What would happen if Rick really considered the burqa a human rights violation worth defending–even in this situation? Well, nothing much to be honest, not so long as Rick kept one hand pointed with his gun at the horny Gazorpians while the other kept working on repairing his portal gun. But Rick’s point–that he has to do his work single handed–is obviously not appreciated. The least Summer could do, in other words, is make life a bit easier for Rick by hiding her sexuality from the mindless dumb-dumbs so that he can focus his full energies on getting them back home where she doesn’t have to worry about getting raped. It’s not like Rick is making Summer wear the burqa to exercise his male dominance over her, but rather to protect her–to temporarily protect her–until he can get them home–at which point he would (presumably) care less if she wore the burqa or not. But this temporary–and frankly harmless–compromise is too much for Summer to tolerate–no, not even that, it doesn’t even register on her radar as a compromise. It’s only the “human rights violation” that shows up on Summer’s radar. The issue here goes deeper than feminism per se, deeper than the violation of human rights–it’s an issue with stupidity and ignorance vying for power, with the dangers of carelessness calling the shots, and when practiced with an arrogant righteousness that blocks off any willingness to listen to criticism that might after all be reasonable, it is not only dangerous but destructive, even to one’s self.
On the other hand, we do see a bit of arrogant righteousness on Rick’s part in the same scene. When Summer asks how such backwards idiots invented robots, Rick, the typical male if there ever was one, acts like he has all the right answers: “Obviously, at some point, the Gazorpians became so evolved that they replaced females with birthing machines. The resultant lack of distraction and hen pecking allowed them to focus entirely on war so they bombed themselves back to the stone age and now they just fight with each other over fake pussy with sticks and rock[s?] all day long.” ← Remind anyone of koala, mixed with rattle snake, chimpanzee, cactus, shark, golden retriever, and just a smidge of dinosaur? ← We will see just how wrong Rick can be even in this episode (just in case we missed it in the last episode).
Then, in the midst of their bickering, a voice from outside distracts them saying something like “Dropping loads!” (<-- really, I have no idea what it’s saying). They rush outside to find a giant stone head flying above the crowd of Gazorpians, the crowd chanting in response: “Dropping loads!”
It’s conspicuously obvious that this is a parody of the 1974 film Zardoz starring Sean Connery in a distrubingly revealing outfit that no one should have to see. But here it is anyway:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbGVIdA3dx0[/youtube]
I’m tempted to do a side project on the parallels between the themes of Zardoz and this episode of Rick and Morty, but I’ll save that for another time.
Anyway, the giant flying head spits out a bunch of sex robots, the Gazorpians mate with them, and then they fly back up as orbs into the mouth of the flying head. Rick says to Summer: “Summer, grab-grab hold.” She does as Rick fires a grappling hook from a gun, aiming for one of the orbs (apparently, a regular Batman). It hooks and he reels himself and Summer in. They slip on board like a Trojan horse.
They find themselves in a chamber surrounded by something like glass compartments in which the robot orbs settle into and come to rest, like a storage point.
Summer, dispensing with the burqa, asks: “Grandpa Rick, where are we going?”
Rick: “Well, obviously, Summer, it appears the lower tier of this society is being manipulated through sex and advanced technology by a hidden ruling class. Sound familiar?”
^ So just a minute ago, Rick was arrogantly pointing out how “obviously” the Gazorpians invented the sex robots themselves. But now it’s “obvious” that some hidden ruling class invented the robots. ← This capricious swapping of theories doesn’t exactly lend Rick a lot of credibility despite his over-inflated ego convincing him of just the opposite.
Besides that, his “sound familiar?” innuendo hearkens to the more paranoid extremes of feminist thoughts–i.e. the caricature of the “patriarchy” being raised to the level of a hidden ruling class, a kind of secret government conspiracy run by men and designed deliberately to keep women down–something on par with the illuminaty. Little does Rick realize, however, how true his words are about to prove–except in the exact opposite sense that both he and Summer expect.
Two hooded figures approach them from behind. Rick, acting all street smart, like he’s been around the block and knows exactly what to say to these two strangers, starts with: “H-Hey brother–h-h-uh-hey bro. Nice racket you got going on here. Listen, I’m Rick Sanchez from Earth dimension C-137, don’t mean ya any harm, comin’ in peace [raises the peace sign], it’s all cool… in the… uh… good in the neighborhood… is what I was tryin to com–is what I meant…” The hooded beings look at each other and then disrobe.
They are a couple of gorgeous, and very tall, females with six arms (two protruding from their head, not unlike the Gazorpian beasts) and gaudy, almost Egyptian, looking outfits. Kind of reminds me of a cross between the image of Amazonian warrior princesses and the Hindu goddess Kali.
They immediately silence Rick with a psychic choke hold (not unlike Darth Vader’s signature move) and lift him off the ground with their telekinesis:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BOhndxgjScM[/youtube]
From the frying pan into the fire.
(It’s interesting here how both Rick and Summer could be construed as treating the other in a demeaning and sexist manner on the surface, but underneath that, they’re really trying to protect each other–Rick telling Summer to put the burqa on, really just to protect her, and Summer claiming Rick as her slave, really just to protect him–and neither one appreciating the fact… we’ll see more of this from Summer throughout the episode as she will be in charge from her on in).
Cutting back to Morty and Morty Jr., Morty and his (incredibly fast growing) son are having some bonding time as Morty plays “coochie-coo” with his son.
Morty Jr.: “Da”
Morty: “Oh, what was that, Morty Jr.? Were you–were you gonna say dada? Say dada.”
Morty Jr.: “DEATH!!!”
Morty: [A look of consternation on his face] “Mm… dada.”
Morty Jr.: “Domination!”
Morty: “Dada?”
Morty Jr.: “Destruction. Domination.”
Jerry: [In the recliner reading a news paper] “cough-cough Nice.”
Rick’s warning from earlier rings through. And we’ve seen how barbaric these creatures can be as grown ups (even if mixed with human DNA, you gotta expect this kid ain’t safe).
In an underground labyrinth on Gazorpazorp, Rick and Summer are being lead by the female Gazorpians through an elaborate femtopia. Everything appears built according to a woman’s design. And there are absolutely no men. An announcement is broadcasted on the intercom: “The spider, in sector C, is still alive. Plan your route accordingly and expect delays. We’re not telling you what to do, we’re just sharing how we feel.”
They are introduced to Marsha, ruler of Gazorpazorp. She explains after Summer asks what this place is: “Paradise. We built it after the Great Passive Aggression, when the females separated from the males due to their increasingly destructive behavior.” They stop in front of a chamber of some kind. Inside the chamber are an assembly line of sex robots just like the one Rick bought for Morty. Marsha continues as they walk: “From here, we dispense mechanical surrogates to maintain our population. Fertilized surrogates are returned here to our nursery.” They stop in front of the nursery to witness one of the sex robot orbs dispensing a baby Gazorpian into a tube-like thingy. It drops into a machine that flashes with the female symbol . The baby comes out on a conveyor belt and moves them into a crib looking thingy. Marsha explains: “The females are placed into an educational programs where they can discover a service to our paradise that fulfills them most…” We see a male baby Gazorpian drop into the device, it flashes the male symbol , and the baby comes out onto a different conveyor belt and into a giant sling shot. “The males” Marsha continues, “…they get to play outside,” and the baby gets flung through a tube to the outside.
“That was just a baby,” Summer says. “And within a day,” Marsha’s assistant says, “he’ll be an adult male Gazorpian, one of the most aggressively violent creatures in the universe.”
Clearly, we are to understand that this femtopia is steadfast against men, not just Gazorpian men, but men in general (otherwise, Rick wouldn’t be in handcuffs). As with most episodes of Rick and Morty, we once again get a taste for thought provoking contrasts. We see a contrast between this femtopia where the women are smart, civilized, beautiful, and of course sexist, and the tribe of male beasts who are dumb, brutal, ugly, and of course homicidal rapists (I’d say sexist but they seem too dumb to achieve even that).
It isn’t explained, but it seems reasonable to assume that ever since the Great Passive Aggression, they evolved along different lines, thus explaining their noticeably different appearances. Considering how the Great Passive Aggression sounds historically situated, it would seem a rather quick genetic shift in their evolutionary transmutation to have develop such a stark contrast in their phenotypic appearances, but we do have to recall how quickly Gazorpians grow.
Speaking of male Gazorpians, Rick explains that the reason they’re here is because a male Gazorpian was born on their planet. After slapping him across the face for speaking, Summer explains that it’s true. Marsha asks if Summer is the ruler of Earth. “How did you know?” she responds. Marsha responds that it’s the quality of her top, a yellow blouse that I guess is “fabulous”. She goes on to explain that Earth is in grave danger and that they will give them passage back home in order to terminate the half-Gazorpian beast… after Mojitos.
This is outrageous according to Rick. Mojitos before saving the Earth from a deadly, terrorizing, rapist beast? Rick, being the unhindered, outspoken, insufferable person he is, can’t help himself. He makes a stink about it. He shouts: “This place is the worst! I wanna go home!” Summer responds: “Well, it doesn’t matter what you want because this is a sane place where women rule.” In other words, the blatant unabashed sexism of this femtopia is lost on Summer. Because it caters to her kind, it is “sane”. This vain unthinking narrow-mindedness is typical of the teenage mind, but especially in Summer’s case. We’ll see more of her shallow character in other episodes, especially in episode 11: Ricksy Business. Rick continues: “Yeah, you know what I have to say about that?” and lets out the loudest, most obnoxious, wet-sounding fart–loud enough for the whole femtopia to hear, lasting long enough to do the cameo to get the idea across that the whole femtopia can hear it.
Rick really doesn’t know when to call it quits. Not only is he unhindered, outspoken, and insufferable, but it really seems, from this scene, that he is incapable of holding back and keeping his mouth shut. Either that, or he is oblivious to the situation he’s in (maybe cocky enough to think he can get himself out of any situation he finds himself in) or doesn’t care what happens to him (which we will see, in episode 1 of season 2, isn’t so implausible a theory).
The women are absolutely appalled, even Summer: “Grandpa!” she exclaims, a big mistake. “Grandpa?” Marsha questions. “That sounds patriarchal,” says another. “It means father of fathers,” says Marsha’s assistant. The gig is up. Rick is not Summer’s slave and Summer is certainly not the ruler of Earth. Again, both are put into a Darth Vader style psychic choke grip and raised into the air.
I’m going to skip the scene of Morty Jr. as a toddler and come back to it later. By now, you get the idea that this new addition to the family is growing into a ferocious monster. I’d like to wrap up with the main storyline and then continue with the secondary one.
Returning to the main storyline, we find Rick and Summer (now also in handcuffs) waiting in line to be judged in something like an express court of law. The girl in front of them is being tried for messy bangs and is sentenced to the silent treatment. Rick “pshaws”: “This is gonna be cake.” Next, Rick and Summer are up to bat. Summer is charged with treason against womankind and Rick, for “creating the sound of which we do not speak because it doesn’t exist.” “You are hereby sentence to–” says the judge before being interrupted by Rick: “Wha-wha-what? A night on the couch?” “Death.” ← Crushed by a giant bolder.
As a few last words to let her know how he feels, Rick apologizes to Summer for letting her drag them into this, and that he wishes he could be a better grandpa, and that, for what it’s worth, that really is a cute top. This sparks an idea in Summer’s mind:
“My top! My top! The same top you complemented earlier! Look! Look at the tag! Read it! [Marsha’s assistant: It says ‘Marc Jacobs’] [Marsha: Marc? Jacobs? These are the names of the penis.] Yes. An Earth man made this top. Maybe on your planet, separation of the genders is the right thing to do, but on Earth, a certain percentage of our males are born gay, which is why my clothes are better than all of yours.”
This speech leaves the crowd of Gazorpian women speechless. Summer seals the deal by concluding: “If you think my top is cute, you cannot execute.” ← Which is silly logic, of course, but if having messy bangs is as serious a crime as it is, wearing a fabulous top is surely worth a pardon.
Thus, Summer saves their bacon. They are provided transportation home where, in Marsha’s words, “women are kind of equal but not really.”
So back to the secondary plotline, while Rick and Summer are in the thick of their ordeal, Morty gets a gift from Morty Jr., now about 3 or 4 years old (or days considering the Gazorpians’ rate of growth). His son hands him a picture he drew. Now ordinarily, this would melt a father’s heart, but in this case, the content is rather questionable and would scare any parent to death:
It’s a picture of him and Morty standing on top of the world, a sword in his hand, a pitchfork in Morty’s, and bloody body parts strewn across the rest of the world. Morty decides it’s time to have a talk with his son: “Ok, listen to me, Morty Jr… I’ve got to tell you something very important, Ok? Killing is bad! Bad!” Morty Jr. simply laughs and calls his dad silly. Morty emphasizes that he’s being serious and that he’s got to channel his aggressive energies into something else. Again, he turns on the TV to find an obvious parody of The Wiggles dancing. “I mean, what about dancing?” Morty suggests, “Would you like to learn how to dance?” “I’d like to dance,” Morty Jr. says, “on the graves of my enemies.”
The mailman comes by and drops some mail through the mail slot. This catches Morty Jr.'s attention. He runs for the door. “Daddy, can I go outside?” Morty, fearing for what might happen if he lets his homicidal son outside, tells him that he can’t because the air is poisonous. He brings Morty Jr. back to the living room where he tries to encourage him to dance. “We love to dance,” he says. “Why do we love to dance?” Morty yells: “'CAUSE I SAID SO!!!” Morty Jr. runs off crying. A nearby Jerry and Beth reading the paper say: “Nice.”
^ What I find interesting about this scene is not so much the horrible little monster we see Morty Jr. turning into, but the exceptions to this. While he did draw a picture of him and his dad seemingly celebrating their victorious massacre over the world, we can note that he’s holding his dad’s hand and that they are smiling together. He obviously loves his dad. And while he wants to go outside to kill and slaughter his “enemies” (as he puts it), he has no desire to do so to the residents in the house (i.e. his family). I think this theme can be tied into the central moral of the story, which we will come back to at the end.
Anyway, we cut to the court scene at this point (where Rick and Summer are being tried) but we’re going to skip that since we’ve been through it already and get back to Morty and Morty Jr.
Morty Jr. is a teenager now, growing sideburns (or armpit hair), wearing a varsity jacket, and smoking a cigarette while sitting on the couch watching TV.
Morty comes in the room and catches him red handed:
Morty: “Morty Jr.! Smoking?! That is not OK!”
Morty Jr.: “What are you gonna do? Ground me? I can’t go outside anyway!”
Morty: “So what?! Y-y-you can do things inside. I mean, you can play guitar, you can masturbate!”
Morty Jr.: “I don’t want to masturbate! I want to conquer the planet!”
Morty: “Oh, here we go again. You know, who do you think is gonna love you if you conquer the planet, Morty Jr.?!”
Morty Jr.: “Love, that’s all you care about! What about weapons?! What about domination of the enemy?!”
Morty: “All right, that’s it, no more history channel.”
Morty switches off a program of what looks like footage of the Third Reich. They get into a physical struggle over the remote control. Morty pushes Morty Jr… Realizing what he just did to his son, Morty anxiously apologies claiming that he didn’t mean it. “I can’t take this anymore,” says Morty Jr. heading for the door, “I’d rather breathe poison than live another minute living with you!” He opens the door, steps outside, and takes a deep breath. After realizing that he’s not dead, he exclaims “My life has been a lie!” and starts running down the street continuing his rant: “God is dead! The government’s lame! Thanks Giving is about killing Indians! Jesus wasn’t born on Christmas! They moved the day! It was a pagan holiday!”
Morty rushes to his father: “My son is going to take over the planet and I’m too young to drive! Can you help me get him back?!” Jerry clears his throat: “I suppose, Morty, I suppose… but first, a deep sip from a very tall glass of I-told-you-so,” and mimics gulping down a tall glass of I-told-you-so juice. He takes his sweet time too. “Oh my God,” says an impatient Morty, “please, dad, come on!” ← Again, we see where Jerry’s priorities lie: he’s more concerned with pointing out that he’s right than with doing what’s right.
We cut to a scene of Morty Jr. entering something like an abandoned factory in the middle of the night, holding what looks like a bottle of wine. He chugs a huge gulp. He finds an old radio on a window ledge in the factory. He turns it on. It plays a kind of rundown imitation of Moving Picture’s Never–the song that plays during Kevin Bacon’s dance solo in the abandoned warehouse from Footloose. In fact, just like Kevin Bacon, Morty Jr. breaks out into dance and rips it up all around the building, screaming with rage and anger (not that Bacon did that). The scene ends with Morty Jr. looking up to the sky and ripping off his jacket and shirt. He roars a beastly roar. (reminiscent of the Hulk). He bursts through a brick wall. Roars again. He smashes a truck and flips it over. He rips out a lamp post from the ground and throws it into a smoke stack. Next scene, we see people running and screaming down the street as a car crashes into a parked truck. Morty Jr. comes running around the corner chasing after the people. He continues to smash shit up all over town as he chases them down.
Morty and his dad are driving down another street witnessing all the damage. They see him straight ahead. “Dad! There he is!” yells Morty. Morty Jr., caught in their headlights, turns to them and smashes the hood of the car. They jump out of the car just as Morty Jr. lifts it up above his head. It looks like he’s about to crush them when Morty shouts: “Morty Jr., no! It’s me! It’s dad!” Morty Jr. takes notice of this but doesn’t quite seem ready to put his rage aside. He raises the car higher as Morty tries harder: “NO! No! Whe-where’s your hands?! Where’s your hands?!” This triggers something in Morty Jr. He throws the car to the side (Jerry running to it, saying “My car!” like it’s his son). Morty Jr. finishes the song: “And that’s how we play handy-hands!” ← Does this show that with experiences of a loving bond with family in the background of one’s memory, one can overcome even the most fierce rage?
Summer and Rick enter the scene. They land in a pink spaceship. Rick jumps out: “Get out of the way, Morty!” and pulls out his gun. Morty jumps in front of Morty Jr.: “No!” “Morty!” Rick tries to reason, “That’s one of the most violently aggressive creatures in the universe!” Morty tackles Rick to the ground. “He’s my son!” he says, “And if you hurt him, y-you’ll have to kill me, Rick!” The look on Morty Jr.'s face upon hearing this speak’s volumes:
This is not something any male Gazorpian has ever heard–the idea of someone willing to sacrifice their life for another. Indeed, no male Gazorpian (as far as we know) has ever experienced having a father, let alone a loving father, and the sudden realization in this scene of what the love of a father means is priceless.
Morty Jr. suddenly looks around him. He looks at all the damage he’s done (including Jerry’s car and the hurt feelings caused by that seen on Jerry’s face).
“Dad,” he says, “I’m so confused!” Then he and Morty sit on the curb and have a father-to-son talk:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oxF_hemcdCM[/youtube]
Then Brad Anderson, creator of the nationally syndicated comic strip Marmaduke, shows up. He concurs with Morty’s advice of channeling one’s murderous energies into something creative, claiming to be “haunted by uncontrollable thoughts of mutilation and sexual assaults on a near daily basis,” but he channels it into his work. Well, this convinces Morty Jr… He says he always wanted to see his face on the back of a novel: “What I really want to do is slit people’s throats, but beyond that…” Morty gives him some encouraging words, and Morty Jr. decides it’s time he gets a place of his own. They hug and Morty Jr. takes off, jumping from house top to house top (like the Hulk) until he disappears.
Jerry approaches Morty: “Soooo, I assume this novel your son writes is going to be pay for my rear axle?” ← Completely oblivious to the meaningfulness of what just went on between Morty and his son (but we already know Jerry for the dufus he is).
Rick and Summer kind of wrap things up with a short discussion about what they’ve learned from this whole affair:
Rick: “Isn’t it interesting Summer that after all that stuff we just did, nothing really mattered and there was no point to it? Kinda makes you wonder, huh? About nothing!”
Summer: “Are you sure it doesn’t make you re-evaluate your policy about taking girls on adventures?”
Rick: “No. [in a thoughtful tone] I’d say given what we’ve been through that I was right the whole time and any epiphanies about gender politics were a projection of your feminine insecurities. But Heeeyyy! Why don’t you have a pink spaceship! [drops keys into her hands] Go ride around and have a jolly old time. Maybe that will shut you up.”
Rick’s point is a bit reminiscent of the theme we encountered in the last two episodes–namely, about how the universe thwarts our attempts to control it. After all, they set out to return to Earth in order to save it from the blood thirsty monster that Morty Jr. had become, ready to kill him on sight with Rick’s gun, but Morty (the thwarting force of the universe, at least in relation to Rick) not only stopped him but solved the problem by a completely opposite approach–not through aggression but through love. He had a heart-to-heart talk with his son and thereby convinced him to channel his aggressive energies into something constructive (we’ll see in the post-credit scene how this pans out). In other words, Rick and Summer didn’t have to do anything at all. (Makes you wonder what would have happened to them if the femtopians could have predicted this).
Anyway, Beth somehow rendezvous with the group, questioning where Rick and Summer were this whole time. Summer explains that they were on Gazorpazorp and asks: “Where were you?” “I was reading a newspaper,” she responds. Rick plays on this: “Oh, that’s interesting Beth. You know, it’s funny, I-I-I heard about a little news myself. Take a look. T-t-take a listen.” And he farts. The girls just laugh. Rick reacts: “Wubulubudubdub! Thi–burb burb–s world’s–burb–still gotta–still gotta chance! Yeay! Ha! Ha!” Even Morty and Jerry enter the scene and laugh with the group.
Now, I don’t think Rick’s point is that if women would just laugh when grown men fart, the world would be a better place–I think his point is that, when it comes to the sexes, we are not as polarized as the Gazorpians. In fact, I think this is the take home message of this episode: that for all the faults each sex finds in the other, segregation is not the answer. In fact, all segregation will do is amplify the faults in each sex. Men will become more vulgar and brutal and women will be more stuck up and vane (they actually wouldn’t laugh at fart jokes! Imagine that! ). Taken to extremes, they may become so polarized in their ways that it will determine their evolutionary path, making their flaws genetically hard wired. And why wouldn’t they become polarized? All they have to learn from is each other (I believe psychologists call this effect: group think). Each member of the group reinforces the flaws of that same group. What happens, in contrast, to a society in which men and women are mixed together is that we water down each other’s extremes and faults. The result is not just that women can (sometimes) find the humor in men farting but that men can learn to be better fathers, to care for their offspring, to understand the value of altruism as opposed to conquering the enemy. What Rick sees here is an appreciation on the part of each sex for the other, and this signals to him that the inter-mingling of the sexes, the close intimate contact, is (so far) still working.
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The post-credits scene sheds a bit more light on Morty Jr.'s relation to his father, and on Gazorpian aggression in general. We see Morty Jr. on TV being interviewed about his new book “My (Horrible) Father”:
In a well-groomed suit, looking all civilized and educated, like a true intellectual, Morty Jr., now probably around 50 in Gazorpian years, reveals to being locked in the house throughout his childhood, and being threatened by poison gas, and that there was violence (not mentioning that this was more from him than his father), but that there was also dancing.
Beth says: “It’s a thankless job, Morty. You did the best you could.”
Morty: “I hope he’s eating enough.”
It brings up a question in my mind: so Morty Jr. has done away with violence, but at what cost? Or rather I should ask: has he really? If publishing a book named “My Horrible Father” and going on national television to promote it doesn’t count as violence, then at least it should count as passive aggression–not unlike the “Great Passive Aggression” the femtopians went through. Morty Jr. is violent–by nature–and purging that through writing a book doesn’t get rid of the violence–it merely diverts it through other channels–in this case through an attempt to publicly shame his father and tarnish his reputation (I also question why Morty in particular is targeted–Morty Jr. could have taken out his (passive) aggression on anyone, but he chose his father in particular; does he resent his father for making him curb his violent tendencies?).
And what does Beth’s statement mean: it’s a thankless job but you [Morty] did the best you could? On the one hand, it echoes a kind of resentment: she’s gotten no thanks for all her efforts raising two children, but yet she understands the position Morty’s in–she understands that “parents are just kids having kids.” And speaking from experience, this rings so true–parenting is just winging it–so you just try to do the best you can.
And then there’s Morty’s response: I hope he’s eating enough. Right in the midst of watching his own son tear apart his reputation before the whole nation, all he can think about is whether he has enough to eat. A true parental instinct if there ever was one. While Beth is griping about not being thanked for being a (frankly quite shitty) parent, Morty is ever thinking about his son’s welfare while receiving the most thankless criticism a child can give a (frankly quite awesome) parent.
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I think a comparison between this episode and episode 5, Meeseeks and Destroy, is in order. Both involved one of the Smith children taking the lead in the adventure. How did Summer measure up to Morty? Well, if you think about it, Summer blew Morty out of the water. Not only did she simply take the lead without Rick’s consent, but Rick was powerless to do anything about it (no training wheels for Summer), and there was no question, at the end, who saved their bacon, unlike in Morty’s case in which he “caved” prematurely. Not bad for girl.
On the other hand, one might say it was too easy for her–surrounded by femtopians in a woman’s paradise–unlike in Morty’s case where there were numerous and constant dangers all around. But back to the first hand, this creature comfort Summer enjoyed didn’t last–when she let slip that Rick was really her grandfather, they were both in deep doodoo. None of this was her choice, however, unlike Morty who willing dove into the heart of danger, but the fact remains that she did save the day in the end–indeed, she saved Rick’s ass–whereas Morty bailed and Rick had to hold him by the hand in order to redeem the adventure.
On a completely unrelated note: I find it interesting that in this episode, Morty learns (and practices) some of the most important lessons of parenthood–and yet at the same time, he is technically an orphan himself–we must recall that he is in a reality that is not his–these are not his real family–in fact, you could say, in a twisted sense, that fathering this alien Gazorpian might be the writers’ way of “connecting” him into this new reality such that he can now say he really does have family here, he is genetically connected, he belongs. (it should be noted however that we technically are not told that planet Gazorpazorp is necessarily in the same reality in which this episode takes place–all Rick tells us is that Gwen’s origins are from planet Gazorpazorp… but in the same universe? But even if not, at least we know that Morty Jr. is Morty’s true son, and therefore the ties that bind them together are real, whether or not either of them truly “belong” to the reality the reside in).
^ And just as an aside, let me mention a point that’s been made amongst Rick and Morty fans and theorists that at the beginning of each episode, we technically don’t know that the world we’re situated in, the world in which we find Rick and Morty (and all the rest) at the start of the storyline, is the same world that we ended with in the last episode–if there are an infinite number of world, each one potentially featuring a version of Rick and a version of Morty (and versions of all the rest), then technically we have no right to say that this Morty, in this episode, is the same one who was forced to abandon his home reality in episode 6. In other words, my point above may be completely ungrounded. Maybe this really is his true family after all. ← Just sayin’.
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So what are the philosophical springboards this episode gives us?
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Sexism and feminism! This is a whole can of worms that can’t just be opened without going into a whole novel of questions, issues, and points that one can raise. For all the nasty details, I refer the reader to my thread feminism and sexism. But in the context of this episode, these questions, issues, and points can be narrowed down. How 'bout this: do we only see the extreme of each other’s faults–men and women that is–do men who are bitter at women see them as the snobby passive aggressive femtopians that are depicted in this episode, even though most women are more like Summer and Beth–capable (with some effort) at finding the humor in dumb male fart jokes? And what about women who are bitter at men? Do they see men as like the male Gazorpians? Sadistic, dumb, rapist animals, ready to go to war and rip the shit out of innocent victims just to satisfy some psychopath need for violence? And is this just a distorted exaggeration when really most men are more like Morty–able to show love and selflessness when put in a position where that is the morally right thing to do? And what about women? Would a more realistic lens focused on women reveal an openness to being more laid back and easy going?
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How much can love and selflessness, when shown to another, help that other to overcome tendencies towards violence and aggression? Does demonstrating love and selflessness show others another way besides violence and aggression? What about those for whom violence and aggression comes natural? Is love and selflessness enough to overcome genetically hardwired tendencies towards violence and aggression? And furthermore, how healthy is it, really, to divert one’s natural tendencies towards something more constructive or socially acceptable when that natural tendency is completely destructive and socially unacceptable? One could say that Morty Jr. certainly made a success of his life–publishing a book and being interviewed on national television is quite an accomplishment indeed–and no one got hurt (at least not physically)–but is he happy? Does he seem fulfilled? Or will he be, like Brad Anderson, “haunted by uncontrollable thoughts of mutilation and sexual assaults on a near daily basis” for the rest of his life? Would he have been better off being allowed to give in to his violent tendencies and his aggressive impulses? He certainly would have ended up in prison if not eventually killed; not to mention at the cost of several innocent lives. But could he have felt more fulfilled (even in prison)?
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Liberalism and conservatism: as I said earlier, this philosophical topic has always been there in the background, but only in this episode does it come glaringly to the fore. Summer is clearly an outspoken advocate for liberal principles–to a fault: she defends them at the most inappropriate times–not just inappropriate, but at times when it is dangerous to do so–this without having the faintest clue how dangerous it really is. Are the conservatives right in criticizing liberals on this point? And do liberals have an equally weighty criticism to level against conservatives? What would that be? In the context of this episode, that might be the insensitivity of conservatives to the issues that really matter to liberals–this hearkens back to Rick’s inability to shut his mouth in situations when not only is he being offensive, but oblivious to the dangers that his outspoken, opinionated mentality get him and Summer into. So it stands to question: are both sides stubbornly insensitive to the important issues and perspectives of the other side? Would learning to be more sensitive, to try to understand things from the other side’s point of view, be conductive to lessening the animosity and polarization that divides each side from the other?
^ There you go–a smattering of philosophical questions to chew on–do with them what you will. Until then, I’ll be working long and hard on my next installment to this thread: episode 8: Rixty Minutes.