Rick and Morty - S1E7 - Raising Gazorpazorp ← Forgot the link last time, so here it is.
Rick and Morty - S1E8 - Rixty Minutes ← Remembered it this time!
This episode is a rather “odd” one in the series–it completely breaks from the formulaic theme of crazy and chaotic adventure–so if the last episode seemed to return to “business as usual” after the “turning point” I interpreted episode 6 to be, this episode very quickly undoes this–as though just to keep us on our toes, reminding us that the series is going to be anything but dull.
Having said this however, Rick and Morty, in this episode, don’t go on an adventure–rather, they just “chillax”. That’s right, the main plotline for this episode exclusively features Rick and Morty watching TV… that’s it… but it’s no ordinary TV–oh no, it’s interdimensional cable, cable broadcast from an infinite number of dimensions… exciting stuff, but still, they just veg out on the couch, soaking their brains with images emanating from the tube.
As with every other episode, however, there is a secondary storyline–this will continue in the usual manner–namely, developing the turbulent relationship between Jerry and Beth, and the relevance of that to the rest of the family. Most of our philosophical insight will come out of this secondary plotline because, frankly, the main plotline is relatively dry… and I think this is the point–this episode seems to be the writers’ way of saying: we’re taking a break in this episode–nothing exciting, nothing to keep you on the edge of your seat, nothing deep and juicy, nothing requiring any effort of thought–just a bunch of mundane shallow brain-rotting stupidity (in fact, I suspect this episode represents a dumping ground for the writers’ other creative outlets–in the sense that Rick and Morty is not the only product to come out of their creative and comedic imaginations, and they figured they’d reserve this episode to shove it all in 'cause it might be worth a laugh on the part of their fans). But like I said, there is the secondary storyline which continues to provide plenty of philosophical themes to ponder. Needless to say, most of this post will focus on the secondary storyline, but I’m still determined to come up with some philosophical commentary on the main storyline, so it won’t be ignored.
We begin with the Smith family sitting around the tele watching a spoof of The Bachelor. Rick makes a comment about how stupid the show is and Jerry challenges him: “Ok, I’ve got an idea, Rick. You show us your concept of good TV, and we’ll crap all over that.” Rick replies: “Thought you’d never ask.” He gets off the couch to grab the cable box. He lifts it above his head and drops it on the ground, busting it open. He then takes out some kind of electronic gadget glowing pink (looks like a night light) and wires it into the box. “Oh cool,” Morty says, “is that crystalized zanthinite? [turns to the family with a smug look] It conducts electrons across dimensions.” Rick cuts him down to size: “20% accurate as usual, Morty.”
I think this is the first time in the series that we see Morty actually learn from all Rick’s “mentoring” (if we can call it that), even if it’s only 20% accurate. We also get a glimpse, in the way Morty says it, that learning from Rick is making him a bit cocky, almost as though he feels it makes a bit like Rick–as if despite resenting his position as the lowly sidekick and always taking abuse from Rick, Rick in some way remains Morty’s hero and a model for him to look up to. And although that’s not quite the theme this episode revolves around (though we will come back to it in other episodes), the closely related theme of enjoying spending time with his grandfather is very much played out in this episode.
Rick seals up the cable box and plugs it back into the TV, explaining: “I just upgraded our cable package with programming from every conceivable reality.” ← This is even better than stealing your neighbor’s cable–even if your neighbor had hundreds of channels to choose from, you’d still be limited–but stealing cable from an infinite number of realities, well, the possibilities are limitless–you’d literally be able to watch anything you want (if you had the patients to flip through enough channels until you found it). ← And this is the premise on which this episode turns: how long would it take you to get bored if you had an endless supply of entertainment–not just in quantity but in quality (you can watch anything, remember)? ← And this further hints at a deeper premise: if you had an endless supply of entertainment right at your finger tips (literally), how long would you preoccupy yourself with it before you returned to face the grim realities of your actual life. I mean, let’s face it–entertainment these days, particularly television, is a form of escape. Not only that, but it is an escape that nevertheless offers a kind of catharsis which you would otherwise be forced to get only by drudging through the harsher challenges of the real world. For example, The Bachelor, which the Smith family were watching before Rick’s “upgrade”, is not just a convenient escape for the many who can’t find love in the real world, but provides a catharsis for the loneliness that comes along with that by allowing the viewer to temporarily slip into the role of the bachelor or the lucky girl who wins his hand in marriage. What we’re going to see in this episode (determined as I am to find something of philosophical significance in the mind-numbing escape from real-world adventures that this episode symbolizes) is a bit of how Rick uses interdimensional cable as a means of getting this catharsis without having to actually delving into a reality in which he could experience the same thing but at the cost of risking his (and Morty’s) life. And that idea works as a statement for all of us really–at least those of us who enjoy a good thriller or an awesome action-packed adventure movie or a really well done horror–it’s a kind of “cheat” on life, a way of experiencing what we, on some level, need to experience in order to feel we’ve gone through it, or can go through it, without actually endangering our lives.
This, I think, is the main philosophical insight to be drawn out of this episode of Rick and Morty–at least, the main storyline–but I feel this analysis wouldn’t do this episode justice unless it actually gave the particular programs they will be watching some kind of fair hearing, so just to get it out of the way, I will begin my analysis by briefly checking off each program they, to a reasonable extent, get into (I say reasonable because Rick flips through quite a few channels at first and I really don’t think it’s worth doing a serious dissection on each of those). I don’t think there’ll be much to say as it really doesn’t go that deep (like I said, this to me seems like a dumping ground for the writers’ to slip in some of their miscellaneous, but still hilarious, material). And after we get through this, then we’ll get back into the thick of things with the secondary storyline.
Rick introduces the family to interdimensional cable by flipping through a bunch of samples. He flips the channel to a dimension where man evolved from corn: a corn version of what’s presumably Ice-T is in a show down with another corn-person in a program that’s presumably the equivalent of Law and Order (it just occurs to me now that both Ice-T and corn are themes that will recur in later episodes). He flips through a few more channels: a guy eating a bowl of shit, an antique show where everyone’s just beating the shit out of each other, Jerry being interviewed on David Letterman (because he (Jerry) is famous in that reality), a teddy bear spinning a web on some street corner from web-strings coming out his ass, etc…
As all this is going on, Jerry and Summer question why this is so much more entertaining:
Summer: “Boring.”
Rick: “Summer–burp–you just spent–burp–three months watching a man choose a fake wife.”
Jerry: “So what? It would be better if the people were corn?”
Rick: “Jerry, you don’t get it. This is infinite TV, from infinite universes.”
^ This echoes my point above: that the real point to interdimensional cable, which Jerry doesn’t get quite yet, is that anything you want is available. So what if Jerry doesn’t find that the people featured in some program being corn makes it more entertaining? Whatever does make it more entertaining for Jerry is available–somewhere, in some universe, being broadcast to the Smith’s home–he just has to find it.
Jerry almost gets this right after Rick switches away from his interview with Letterman–he suddenly finds interdimensional cable interesting–he insists that Rick goes back–so he does, back to the man eating shit, admitting that Jerry’s right–this is entertainment!
===============================================
So here’s the tedious list of programs that the Smith family (not always all together) flip through:
- Shmloo’s the Shmloss: a parody of Who’s the Boss from a dimension in which all proper nouns begin with “schml”.
Commentary: none.
- Cloud Atlas: a real movie but featuring, in this dimension, Jerry in the (many) roles played by Tom Hanks.
Commentary: It isn’t so much said, but it is sort of hinted in this episode that whenever we are introduced to a reality in which Jerry is famous, it is the same reality (so presumably the reality in which Jerry is interview by Letterman is the same reality in which he stars in Cloud Atlas). It’s also interesting that Cloud Atlas was chosen by the writers of Rick and Morty as the themes in the former overlap almost perfectly with those of the latter–more specifically, the theme of individuals, not only living many lives, but of having all the opportunities to live all such lives at any moment (if they only choose to). Admittedly, I’ve never seen Cloud Atlas and I’ve only done preliminary research on it, but this is what I’ve gathered about the movie so far, and I feel, based on my research, that the themes go deeper and relate even closer to those of Rick and Morty than what I’m letting on.
- Untitled: Yes, this one didn’t introduce itself properly (no title), but we can speculate that it’s called “Quick Mysteries” as the host repeats the phrase “another quick mystery” (not unlike the 80’s Unsolved Mysteries–anyone remember that?) before the (temporary) mystery resolves itself by way of the murderer spontaneously confessing (in front of the camera) his crime (murder in all cases).
Commentary: none.
- Ants in My Eyes Johnson: Now this one’s hilarious. Not a lot of philosophical material here, but I gotta say it made me laugh. It’s a commercial hosting Mr. Johnson from Johnson’s Electronics. He’s pushing the typical crazy/excited sensationalism that most wholesale outlets advertise, except he’s got ants in his eyes so he can’t see anything. Check it out:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sBvV1miNoA8[/youtube]
Commentary: It’s just funny.
- Mr. Sneezy 3D: A commercial for a car whose horn makes a sneeze noise, driven by Mr. Sneezy himself (who sneezes).
Commentary: I wish I didn’t have a comment on this one, but I do: it’s this commercial after which the writers kind of hint that this was just a bunch of their amateurish material that they decided to dump into the Rick & Morty series (and by “amateur” I don’t mean they aren’t professional writers and cartoonists, just that this material seems to have been written in a “off duty” style). Morty says: “Huh, seems like TV from other dimensions has a somewhat looser feel to it.” Rick replies: “Yeah, it’s got an almost improvisational tone.” The writers here aren’t hiding anything–they’re saying straight out: this is just us fooling around, having some fun; in all other episodes, we got down and serious about creating Rick and Morty episodes in a professional manner, but here we’re letting loose a little, relaxing, just having a good time. ← And it actually shows–listening to the narrative in each program really does sound like they were winging it in the recording studio and didn’t bother with re-takes–they just went with whatever came out the first time. And I think this was the perfect point for Rick and Morty the make this observation as this improvisational tone (as Rick calls it) really becomes obvious in the next program.
- Alien Invasion Tomato Monster Mexican Armada Brothers Who Are Just Regular Brothers Running in a Van From an Asteroid and All Sorts of Things The Movie: It’s a trailer (I think) for a movie about two black dudes driving in a van when a meteor hits and they run from it only to be chased down by giant cats when a tornado comes followed by an invasion of Mexicans in an armada of space ships shaped like huge sombreros and weapons made of tomatoes coupled with old women dressed in ancient Greek style warrior outfits and then the Moon crashes into Earth.
Commentary: the most hilarious part of this spoof of a trailer is the way Justin Roiland (I think) can’t help but to laugh at the end–reinforcing the ad hoc manner of these takes and the one shot amateurish style I alluded to above. He laughs because there’s a hint that he’s trying to remember the name of the movie but quickly gives up in virtue of its complexity and says: “It’s called… Two Brothers, Two Brother… It’s just called Two Brothers [trails off laughing].”
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wRMW2vhC9Hs[/youtube]
- Ball Fondlers: A spoof of the 80’s TV series, The A Team–except with nothing but shooting, fighting, and violence (well, not that different then). The one recognizable character is some beefed up black dude who reminds me of Mr. T. Other characters feature a bunch of men in sun glasses, long flowing hair, and late 80’s suites that resemble those seen in Miami Vice–and there’s also a crocodile dude firing a machine gun from a helicopter. More on these wacky, zany characters to come at the end of this episode.
Commentary: Nothing really except that in the scene of the crocodile dude shooting up the place from the helicopter, the pilot looks a lot like Mr. Poopy-Butthole, a character we’ll be introduced to in Season II, Episode IV:
Also, I have no idea why it’s called Ball Fondlers.
- Saturday Night Live: In this dimension, SNL features a piece of toast, two guys with handlebar moustaches, a guy painted silver who makes robot noises, Garmanarnar, three yellow alien-like creatures that the announcer doesn’t know how to describe, a hole in the wall where the men can see it all, and returning for his 25th consecutive year, Bobby Moyniham.
Commentary: none.
- Real Fake Doors: An advertisement in the same style as Ants in my Eyes Johnson for Real Fake Doors, a shop that sells fake doors. The commercial seems to end and the host walks off the set. He gets into his car, makes his way home through rush hour, gets home and makes a sandwich, then walks onto what appears to be the same set and continues the commercial.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4270c5qWPBg[/youtube]
Commentary: Weird. Funny, but weird. There’s something to this one that I swear I’m not getting. When the guy walks off the set, Morty asks: “Hey, wait a minute, Rick. Wha-I thought this was a commercial. Wha-what’s going on? I mean–” Rick answers: “Relax, Morty. Don’t-don’t worry about it. Let’s just-just see where this goes.” When they guy finally comes back to the commercial, it’s like they’re blown away. Morty: “What?!” Rick: “Oh my God, it’s still the commercial!” I guess it’s how gripped they both are into this meaningless commercial.
- Gazorpazorpfield: Garfield as a Gazorpian. He and his owner John both have arms growing out of their heads. The actual Gazorpians have six arms total, but for some reason Gazorpazorpfield has only four (John has all six). Also, the arms growing out of his head are, for some reason, skin color, rather than the orange that the rest of his body is. In this episode of Gazorpazorpfield, Gazorpazorpfield really digs into John, cursing and swearing at him, kicking over his cup of coffee, calling him things like “dumb, stupid, weak, pathetic…”
Commentary: none.
- Anti-Trunk People: a play on the anti-gay lobbyists. Trunk people are people who have had trunks surgically sewn to their face (oddly enough, covering up one eye) so that they can have sex with both a man and a woman (not sure how that works exactly). Apparently, in this dimension, trunk people want to pass a bill allowing them to get married to both a man and a woman, and this commercial is steadfast against it.
Commentary: none.
- Pro-Trunk People: a pro-trunk person commercial.
Commentary: none.
- Strawberry Smiggles: A spoof of Lucky Charms, with the Leprechaun and the children and everything, plus a bit of disembowelment.
Lucky the Leprechaun doesn’t really try to get away from children hungrily eyeing his lucky charms anymore, but here’s a commercial from the early 90’s in which he does:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=foghWSflbIA[/youtube]
and here’s the Strawberry Smiggles commercial:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iVgMFY1JFGU[/youtube]
Ah, the selling power of blood and violence… and demons.
Comments: This is just the tip of the iceberg that is the minds of Justin Roiland and Dan Harmon. They have a field day with this sick obsession with blood and violence in Season 2, Episode 9–Look Who’s Purging Now–as this theme is the center piece around which that episode revolves. The only thing I find distasteful about it is how it has to stand behind humor in order to expose itself–why pretty it up by pretending it’s funny?
- Turbulent Juice: A commercial for some kind of all purpose cleaning ointment (or something like that). It’s white and it comes in a squeeze bottle, and the commercial plays on a kind of homo-erotic theme (where white goo gets splashed all over the place, including other men and on themselves). It starts off in some kind of prehistoric tropical setting with a bunch of muscular Tarzan look-a-likes who seem like their going to gang up on 3 scrawny looking “Michaels” (as the announcer calls them). The Michaels hide behind a tall phallic looking rock structure. One of them touches it, causing it to shake and suddenly erupt with Turbulent Juice. The white goo covers all 3 of them turning them all into muscular beef cakes just like the others… then the commercial switches settings: some buffed up dude with long blond hair is shown squirting Turbulent Juice from his crotch all over the house. Everything it touches turns clean and shiny.
Comments: Sex sells.
- Baby Legs: ← I don’t know if that’s the name of the show, but the main character is a cop named “Baby Legs” because he has baby legs (with a diaper and everything). The upper half of his body is that of a regular adult. The chief (a black dude as typical) tells him that he’s partnering him up with “Regular Legs”. Baby Legs has an issue with this; he needs no partner, he’s good enough as it is. So they go to track down the killer in some kind of warehouse. Baby Legs attempts to chase him down only to trip and fall. That’s when he realizes he can’t do it on his own. So Regular Legs chases down the bad guy and catches him. Back at the station, the chief expresses how proud he is of Baby Legs, having the balls to admit that he needs help.
Comments: None.
- Last Will and Testimeow: Weekend at Dead Cat Lady’s House II: Another movie trailer. This one’s about an old cat lady (Mrs. Sullivan) who dies and her cats prop her up like a rag doll in order to convince a young attorney that she’s still alive and would like her estate to go to her cats. The guy falls in love with her, even makes love to her, and the movie (supposedly) takes off from there.
At the end of the trailer, Jerry says “Well, somebody in Hollywood just lost their job,” right before the voice over says “Written and directed by Jerry Smith.”
Comments: This one really tripped me out (high on drugs remember) because Mrs. Sullivan reminds me of my mother. She lives alone and at the time, was on the verge of death. I took it as an omen that she was about to die or was dead already. Luckily, my mother’s still alive and in better condition now than she was back then… but there were still some eerie incidents that revolved around the prospect of her being dead at around that time.
- 6 News: It’s a live special report on a slow speed pursuit down the freeway: the cops are chasing Jerry whose moving along on a mobile scooter; he’s in his underwear, his head is half shaven, one eye looks black, and there’s a needle stuck in his chest. The report says “…academy award winning actor, Jerry Smith, is leading police on a slow speed pursuit after suffering an apparent breakdown.” ← This is where the secondary story line merges with the first, so…
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Secondary story line:
Rewind to the beginning, and we’re back watching TV. The entire Smith family is sitting on the couch (except Jerry who’s in the recliner). Rick is just getting bored of Shmloo’s the Shmloss and changes the channel, enticing Jerry to complain that we’re not returning to him on David Letterman. Rick keeps flipping through the channels. That’s when they find him on Cloud Atlas (probably a preview on Letterman) and Jerry’s gripped again. Rick tries to explain how they’re getting the wrong aspect of infinite TV. He tries to sway them by flipping the channel to Quick Mysteries, then says:
“Now who wants to watch random, crazy TV shows from different dimensions, a-a-a-and then who wants to narcissistically obsess about their alternate selves?”
Everyone agrees to narcissistically obsess about their alternate selves. Rick sighs, gets up, and pulls out a set of visors from his lab coat:
“Here, these scan your retinas and let you view parallel time lines through genetically matching versions of your eyes. Go fetch.” and throws the device into the next room. They go running after it like a pack of dogs.
^ You might recall the same visors being used in Episode 6–Rick Potion #9–when Rick scanned alternate realities looking for a world in which they fixed the Cronenberg disaster.
Morty is the only one who stays on the couch. Rick says: “I’m proud of you Morty.” Morty replies: “Hey man, I don’t give a crap about myself, Rick. Let’s watch some crazy stuff, yo,” and Rick flips it to Ants in My Eyes Johnson. ← It’s very much like his reaction to the Meeseeks box at the beginning on Episode 5–Meeseeks and Destroy–in that he is far less vane than the rest of his family when it comes to the things that interest him. This also kind of sets the tone for the time Rick and Morty are going to have with each other on the couch. Rick expresses affection towards his grandson and Morty, just in the way he says “Let’s watch some crazy stuff, yo,” expresses a kind of chillaxed attitude, the kind you can only have when hanging with a bud.
This physical split between Rick and Morty and the rest of the Smith family initiates the story line split. We already know how Rick and Morty spend this episode, and now we know how the rest of the family will spend it: watching their alternate lives through Rick’s visors.
And again, this is another version of escape from reality–only that while Rick and Morty will be escaping into a falsehood, the rest of the Smith family will be escaping into another reality (except at the end, of course, where the story lines will merge once more).
Beth, in the kitchen with Jerry and Summer, at least contemplates the ramifications of looking at their alternate lives. Jerry has no second thoughts. He grabs the visors from Beth and puts them on (kind of a twist from Meeseeks and Destroy). At first he sees nothing but white. Then he lifts his head (or at least it seems that way from within the visors) and he’s looking across the table at an extremely well dressed Jonny Depp, with two babes in bikinis on each side of him, and he’s looking at him over what looks like a pile of cocaine. Depp says: “You’re my best friend, Jerry Smith. I love doing cocaine with you.”
“Woooaaaw, I love doing cocaine with you too Jonny Depp!” Jerry says before Beth rips the visors off him contemptuously exclaiming: “Haven’t we spent enough time on you?” and straps it to her head. She says “I’m performing surgery… but not on a horse, on a human!” (though, if you notice, she does split an artery on the intestines). Jerry reacts with: “That’s great, Beth. You always wanted to be a real surgeon.” Beth, taking off the visors, says “I am a real surgeon.” Jerry, in a panic, grabs the visors and hands them to Summer, saying: “Summer’s turn.”
At first, Summer doesn’t see anything. Beth suggests: “Well, you should select a different timeline. I mean, if your father and I achieved our dreams, there’s a chance you weren’t even born. That came out wrong, that came out very wrong.” Summer tries switching the “reality” dial, saying: “Fine, I’ll find a world where you bothered to have me.” She flips through a few until she finds one where they’re playing Yatzi.
Meanwhile, Rick and Morty are watching the Mr. Sneezy commercial followed by Alien Invasion Tomato Monster Mexican Armada Brothers Who Are Just Regular Brothers Running in a Van From an Asteroid and All Sorts of Things The Movie.
Then we cut back to the kitchen. There’s a lot of issues that are hashed up in this scene, so I’m just going to post a clip:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2vKlJpsOjhU[/youtube]
In the first scene of the secondary story line, we got a taste for what each of their lives would have been like if Beth had aborted Summer (and in Summer’s case, just what another boring alternate version of her life would have been like). In this scene, it becomes the center piece around which their many resentments towards each other revolves and explodes into nasty shouting and bickering. Both Jerry and Beth accuse the other of resenting the fact that they stayed together now that they know they could have had it so much better. The cat is let out of the bag that staying together was a decision they came to after contemplating an abortion. This is news to Summer: “You thought of getting an abortion?” Beth replies: “Everyone thinks about it! [Do they???] Obviously, I’m the version of me that didn’t do it, so you’re welcome.”
Summer replies: “Yeah, thank you guys so much. It’s a real treat to be raised by parents who force themselves to stay together instead of being happy.”
Beth and Jerry just hang their heads low. Then Rick comes in and makes his comment about backing the wrong conceptual horse. It’s questionable (at least to me) what his point is. Is he saying that it’s better to lose one’s self in a fictional reality like TV than an actual, but alternate, reality like that which Beth and Jerry are exploring through the visors? At least with fictional realities, there’s no grounds to be disappointed that you could have had that life instead of the one you’re living. However, most of the commentary online seems to suggest that Rick is touching on the fact that nothing matters, so why obsess over the many ways your life could have turned out when you could have a much better time indulging in cheap, mindless entertainment.
But whatever the message Rick’s comment is supposed to convey, the point of this scene in its entirety is that Summer finally realizes that she was an unplanned (and by the sounds of her parents’ gripes, an unwanted) pregnancy. This is some pretty hard news to swallow, and it will prompt Summer to want to move out, but that comes later.
The scene cuts to Rick and Morty watching Ball Fondlers and then back to the others:
Jerry suggests that maybe Rick was right, maybe they ought to just veg out in front of the TV and watch Ball Fondlers. He justifies his statement: “Every family on this block has to wonder whether they’re together by choice. Our family just has interdimensional goggles to show us for a fact that we’re not.”
Now, I’m not so sure about this philosophy. To see an alternate version of yourself in an alternate reality making different choices than those that you made in your current reality might be taken to mean that you really do have a choice. I mean, if we really have no choice, then we’re talking determinism, and determinism would say that if you start with the same preconditions (in Jerry and Beth’s case, they had unprotected sex on prom night and Beth got pregnant) then the course of events that follow would have to be exactly the same in all possible worlds. If they are not, as seems to be the case for Jerry and Beth, then free choice must be real, and they are definitely staying together by choice.
But I suppose that the way Jerry means it hinges not on determinism but on identity. That is to say that if there is anything essential to Jerry being Jerry or Beth being Beth, then part of that would surely have to involve what they each want–especially on decisions so crucial as to what life to live and whether or not to be parents (even if by an unplanned pregnancy). So if their choice to stay together for the sake of the children (for the sake of just having the children) was a choice that any version of Jerry or Beth would make–because that’s the kind of people they are at their core–then they should see that choice pan out in any reality in which they in fact have the choice. The fact that they are seeing first hand that such a choice doesn’t pan out in every reality means, according to the foregoing, that such a decision isn’t essential to who they are, and so they cannot say that this choice was made because it’s the kind of choice that Beths and Jerries just want to make. Therefore, there must be other reasons, other forces, that determine why they made such a choice, reasons and forces other than just that they want to. Something else of which they are unconscious is making them stay together.
Summer, in a moment of rash thinking, announces that she’s moving out. She storms out the kitchen and heads to her bedroom via the living room, walking between the TV and Rick and Morty on the couch as they watch SNL. Morty takes notice, Rick doesn’t (this, to me, is an intentional device inserted to remind us of one of the difference between Rick and Morty–whereas Rick doesn’t care about anything, Morty still does). SNL is followed up by Real Fake Doors which is followed up by Gazorpazorpfield. They have a moment of reminiscing over the previous episode until Rick distracts Morty by turning up the volume on Gazorpazorpfield (almost as if to say: don’t dwell over the past).
Back to Jerry and Beth in the kitchen, they’ve simmered down from their heightened emotions. In fact, they’re sitting on the floor, leaning against cupboards and such, looking a bit more relaxed. Beth has an excuse: she’s been drinking. In fact, she’s holding a wine box which is obviously empty by the way she’s shaking it and trying to peer inside to see if there are any more drops. A half filled wine glass sits beside her. She questions Jerry: “Did you really talk me out of the abortion? [Jerry responds] I think, in my head, I was doing it all for the kids, and now the first kid is going to do something with turquoise. [another response from Jerry] So we didn’t do the kids any favors. So we should stay together for each other and ourselves [which, by now, is obviously a moot point] or…”
This is probably the first scene in the entire series in which Beth and Jerry actually rise above their petty bickering and resentment based issues with each other and finally have an honest conversation about the problems in their relationship. This almost happened in Meeseeks and Destroy when Beth and Jerry went out to dinner, but that time was more or less one sided only–Beth sort of started to open up about her true issues and what she really wanted in life, but Jerry, at that point, was still too oblivious to meet Beth on the same level. But in this episode, they have both broken through the defense mechanism and are speaking seriously about the truth of their issues. The result? They come to the conclusion that the only justification for staying together that they’ve been feeding themselves is no longer valid: not only is Summer going to run away from home, but she’s doing so because her parents are staying together for all the wrong reasons (might this be another spin on the old theme of the universe thwarting one’s intentions?). Despite this crisis, this is the first time in the series that Jerry and Beth have come to grips with the fact that they are not right for each other and that perhaps the best solution to their marital problems is to get divorced.
Rick and Morty sit through the trunk people ads, the Strawberry Smiggles commercial, and Turbulent Juice before Jerry comes in and sits on the couch next to Morty. He informs him that he and Morty’s mother will be spending some time apart and that Summer just found out she was an unwanted pregnancy–which apparently is news to Morty as well–not exactly the best thing to say to one’s son just after having such a conversation with one’s spouse (usually such a conversation is followed by another conversation about how to break the news to one’s children). But now Morty knows why Summer passed between him and the TV in a huff. Rick, after hearing this, tries to distract Morty from such a weighty issue by drawing his attention back to the TV: “Speaking of wh-burp-at, Morty, wh-buuurrrp-at should we w-buuurrrp-atch next?” He switches the station to Baby Legs.
Once Baby Legs is over, the scene switches back to Rick on the couch to show that Morty is no longer there (Morty’s convictions weren’t swayed by Rick’s distractions apparently). Morty, unable to ignore his sister’s dilemma, makes his way to Summer’s room to find her packing her stuff. What follows is a speech Morty gives his sister that’s worth posting:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_qvy82U4RE[/youtube]
This news that Morty drops on Summer is not just a reminder of what we have (most likely) forgotten from Episode 6, but a signal that Rick’s solution to the Cronenberg disaster is meant to be tied into many other events and themes throughout the series–it is not just an isolated (though shocking) event to be forgotten, but full of meaning that impinges on almost everything in the series. Morty, in this scene, conveys to Summer the lesson that he’s learned from this: “Nobody exists on purpose, nobody belongs anywhere, everybody’s gonna die.” If we are to interpret this in the current context, Morty is saying: even if you were a planned pregnancy, it wouldn’t be on purpose; running away won’t help you find where you belong. And no matter how you cut it, you’re gonna die anyway. If we are to interpret this in the context of Morty’s transition from the Cronenberged universe to this one, he’s saying: I’m not supposed to exist (not in this universe anyway), I certainly don’t belong here, and I’m already dead anyway. After being hit with this news, Summer realizes that there’s no point to getting into such a huff about being an unwanted child, and she might as well just go down with Morty and watch TV as he invites her to.
It also says something about Rick’s escapism: though one can clearly see that Rick has many forms of escape from the harsh traumas of reality, does it really matter that it’s a form of escape as opposed to facing the harshness head on? Are we “supposed” to resist the temptation to delve into one or another form of escapism and face our issues instead? Have we really lived the wrong kind of life if escapism is the only way we have lived it? One can only imagine that, from Rick’s point of view, a point of view that says that absolutely nothing matters, why not give in to escapism? One could have the full understanding that it’s a form of escape, and that it amounts to a form of weakness and cowardice, yet if none of that matters, there would be absolutely no motivation to resist it.
They come downstairs to join Rick and Jerry just after the trailer for Last Will and Testimeow: Weekend at Dead Cat Lady’s House II. After being informed by Rick that he just missed his father’s “Citizen Cane”, Morty replies: “Doesn’t matter,” and winks at Summer. Jerry asks the children: “Hey, if your, uh, mother and I had to split custody, who would you guys choose?” Summer answers: “Doesn’t matter,” and fist bumps Morty. Apparently, Morty’s little speech worked. Summer, with this new perspective that nothing matters, has been spared all her angst and hurt feelings and now sees why she might as well just veg out in front of the TV. And she does seem genuinely happier.
This wink on Morty’s part and their fist bump seems to indicate that resigning to the fact that nothing matters may in fact nurture bonding between people. It is the same reason Rick and Morty seem to be bonding over mind numbing television. It’s almost as if to say that the riffs that come between us are due to things mattering to us–religion, politics, how to raise our children–and if we were only to let all that go, we would have no reason to war with each other. But if one was to point out that there would be no reason to bond either, the scenes in this episode seem to answer that the bonding that goes on between Rick and Morty and between Morty and Summer is completely unintentional and happens as a side effect. When Rick and Morty sit in front of the tube, it is with the purpose of indulging in a momentary escape. That’s the intention. There is no intention for any bonding to result from this. It just happens. The same ease with which hippies and Buddhist seem to get along with each other and with others seems to be caused by the same thing: the perspective that nothing matters.
That’s when 6 News comes on with the breaking story about Jerry suffering a breakdown and being chased in a slow speed pursuit down the highway. Here we have a merging of the two forms of escapism: Rick and Morty’s escapism into falsehoods and the rest of the Smith family’s escapism into alternate realities. TV isn’t always about falsehoods–the news, for example, is (supposedly) about real world events–and in this case, alternate reality events–though it is being viewed on the television as opposed to through the eyes of alternate versions of themselves via a pair of interdimensional goggles, and this is what we get as a result of the “merge” between the two story lines… but it doesn’t end there:
Rick motions to switch the channel. Jerry admonishes: “Don’t even think about it.” Rick responds: “Come on, J–are you kidding me, Jerry? It’s just a bunch of dumb tabloid crap.” Jerry snatches the remote from Rick: “It’s my life and we’re watching it.” (kind of ironic since it’s not really his life). Most of the time, when Jerry pulls something like this, it’s easily cast in the light of his usual egoism, but in this case, I kind of side with him. I kind of like the way he stood up to Rick, probably because something as significant as what’s happening in one’s life is worth standing up for. In any case, they continue to watch.
Meanwhile, Beth is still sitting on the floor in the kitchen, now definitely drunk, empty wine bottles all over the place, a glass of wine in her hand, and the visors still strapped to her face (this is the first time in the series we see signs of impending alcoholism on Beth’s part, much like her father, and it won’t be the only time–though I question whether the sheer number of wine bottles and wine boxes in the scene was a bit of overkill–I count 9 bottles and 3 boxes (not necessarily all of them are empty, mind you) which would probably render one in the hospital for alcohol poisoning–but I suppose the point was to get the message across that she’s been drinking, and drinking a lot).
“Ya did it, Beth,” she says to herself in a slurred voice, “Ya really nailed it,” in a less than satisfied, almost sarcastic, tone. The visors show her dumping some bird seed into a bird cage. In the background there’s seven other bird cages. They’re pictured against a grey gloomy background. Even in this alternate reality there’s wine bottles and wine glasses strewn about. There’s also a mirror in the center bird cage in which she can see her own reflection: she looks very sad.
She continues: “Y-burp-ou’re a surgeon… aaa human surgeon.” (<-- she almost caught herself there guilty of the same insult Jerry inadvertently threw at her earlier).
This almost seems to say that though, in this alternate life of hers, she made it as a human surgeon, she really was meant for animals. That coupled with the fact that, in the earlier scene, she accidentally cut her patient’s intestinal artery might be meant to indicate that making it as a human surgeon isn’t necessarily the best course that her life could have taken. There’s also no indication in any of the scenes of her alternative life that she’s got a man to share it with, and the look of sadness in her reflection, coupled with her being surrounded by birds (much like an old cat lady), might indicate a severe loneliness.
Almost the same twist of irony can be gleaned from the breaking news report of Jerry’s breakdown: though throughout the episode, it seemed like Jerry, in his alternate life, had it made–snorting cocaine with Jonny Depp (his best friend), being interviewed on Letterman, banging Kristen Stewart on DiCaprio’s yacht–he ends up suffering this breakdown and being pursued by the police. But this is nothing compared to what happens next:
The live news feed shows Jerry driving up to some house. He rings the doorbell. Suddenly, the scene switches back to Beth: she turns her head in the alternate reality and looks at the door. Clearly, the news report they’re watching on TV and the alternate reality Beth is watching through the visors are the same reality–merged indeed. She stumbles towards the door. She opens it. Of course, it’s Jerry. He says:
“Beth Sanchez [so she isn’t married], I have been in love with you since high school. I hate acting. I hate cocaine. I hate Kristan Stewart. I wish you hadn’t gotten that abortion, and I’ve never stopped thinking about what might have been.”
Talk about the grass being greener. The moral of the story, if it needs to be spelled out, is: though it seemed like they were so much happier in their alternate lives, the truth is both were miserable, and that maybe they don’t have it so bad in their actual lives after all.
This also says something about Jerry’s feelings towards Beth, something that we should have known all along (because there’s been ample signs): Jerry isn’t staying with Beth because he has to, not because of some altruistic moral calling for the sake of the children–Jerry really is in love with Beth. He may be all wrapped up in his ego and his image in the eyes of others, but he needs no convincing on account of some abstract morale or some impersonal reasoning that he should stay with Beth–he really wants to (whether he realizes this or not). He may not know how to love–at least not how to nurture love so that it sustains itself and grows (that requires a sensitivity to the needs of others and a fair degree of selflessness)–but one certainly can’t say there are no feelings there for Beth.
Furthermore, this has implications for how Jerry feels about Summer. Beth may have considered abortion, but Jerry was the one who talked her out of it. Why? Obviously, being madly in love with her, he could easily see them raising a family together. He actually wanted to have Summer with Beth.
Can we say the same for Beth? I’m not so sure we can–with respect to either of them–Jerry or Summer. What we’ve seen of their relationship so far seems to say that Jerry, though clearly in love with Beth, can’t deliver what she needs in order to feel satisfied. She is her father’s daughter, after all, and so the kind of man she needs in order to feel stimulated and alive, to feel swept up in passion and romance, at least requires a level of intelligence and self-awareness that far surpasses what Jerry’s capable of. And we’ve seen from Rick Potion #9 that she needs a lot more “manliness” than what Jerry can afford. There’s probably other things. But she nonetheless stays with Jerry. Why? Well, certainly the kids are one reason, but it’s not the only reason. We saw in Meeseeks and Destroy that, on occasion, and particularly in the moments when she is at her most profound doubts about any hope left in their relationship, Jerry does something to reel her back in, something to keep her hooked. And this merging of events, this crossing of paths, that we just saw, is another example:
Upon seeing this–hearing these words spilling from Jerry’s lips–she drops her glass of wine (in the original world). She begins to tear up, tears dripping from the visors. Everyone in the living room is bewildered (except Rick who looks quite unimpressed). She comes in the room, drops the visors, and meets Jerry’s eyes. He looks at her, still stunned. She’s a blubbering mess. They run to each other and hold each other in a passionate embrace, and then they kiss.
So just like in Meeseeks and Destroy, the minute Beth is sure that Jerry is not the man for her and that she’d be better off breaking away from him, this happens–she’s suddenly pulled back in–and not by guilt or by force, but by this sudden realization that some spark of love is still alive between them–or at least, that there is something that keeps igniting feelings of love, something that doesn’t allow her to follow through with her resolve to leave him (I’m hesitant to say that she’s reminded that they belong together since, despite these rare occasions of love rekindled, it’s clear that they are absolutely wrong for each other).
The other three, still on the couch, look rather disgusted by this display of icky mushy romance, and Rick breaks the tension by suggesting Ball Fondlers. They agree.
The post-credit scene involves the Smith family–all of them in front of the TV now–watching the weather from a reality in which hamsters live inside people’s asses. They are literally protruding from people’s rectums and get around the world by way of the people they host crawling on all fours like vehicles. The Smith family ask a million questions (as I would) about how all that works. Rick gets annoyed by all the questioning so they go on a “family vacation” to hamster butt world (via his portal gun) so they can get all their questions answered.
Not that any of this interests me, but I bring it up only because I like how Rick says to Beth after she asks if the hamsters actually live inside their rectums: “Yeah, sweetie, they–that’s where they live.” ← Really, I just like how he calls her “sweetie”–it not only shows a side to Rick that actually cares but it echoes my feelings for my daughter. I just get all teary eyed every time Rick shows affection towards his daughter (and this is not the only scene). ← That’s all.
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RANDOM THOUGHTS:
So we’ve been talking about television as a form of escape, but this has to have something to do with Rick’s other forms of escapism–namely, reality hopping and his alcoholism. Yet at the same time, I can’t help but to interpret this escape into television as an escape from his other forms of escape. I’m pretty sure I don’t remember a single scene in this episode in which Rick drinks from his flask and obviously he’s not jumping across dimensions. What is it about this form of escapism that could make it better than reality hopping or alcoholism? Well, the latter two forms of escape aren’t always really escapes. You can have a good time getting drunk on alcohol, you can forget all about your troubles, but of course it takes it toll–you end up puking, hung over the next day, and generally feeling like shit after the good times are over. (This carries over to other forms of drugs as well–trying to use drugs as a form of escape is hit and miss at best, and when it’s a miss, it can be a fucking hard miss ← like literally seeing clones from an alternate reality possessed by demonic alien spirits from another dimension’s future). And as for reality hopping, well we’ve seen how harsh this can be–quite traumatizing to Morty–and it’s questionable whether this is a form of escapism at all. Of course, it is a form of escapism, but that’s only when Rick has the opportunity to choose which reality to hop to and what the reasons are. For the most part, the dangers and tribulations that Rick and Morty undergo in the series are either unintentional or necessary evils for something else. This episode represents a break from the trials and tribulations of both Rick’s other forms of escape: reality hopping and alcoholism. Not only does escaping into television provide a break from these other forms of escapism, but as we can see, it helps to form bonds between him and his grandchildren, and maybe this is the ultimate reason why this form of escapism is so much better than the other forms.
Now, just a question on what we’re actually watching on interdimensional cable: 6 News was like the visors in that it was footage of actual events from an alternate reality whereas Shmloos the Shmloss was a sit com. But how to we know this for sure? I mean, with an infinite number of realities that the Smiths are getting cable from, who’s to say Shmloos the Shmloss isn’t a form of news in that reality? What if, in that reality, that’s just how they report the news? What, with an announcer saying “Coming up next on Shmloos the Shmloss, Shmlony has a nightmare”? Yes, how do we know that’s not just the style with which they report the news in that reality? In fact, with an infinite number of reality, there has to be a reality in which that is precisely the case.
So technically speaking, Rick and the rest of the family never know whether what they are watching is a fictional program or an actual reality happening in a parallel dimension.
Now I’ve really got to start cutting these posts short. I’ve just been told by the ILP bulletin board that my post is too long. So I’m going to split it here. The “philosophical springboards” will appear in the next post.