Ok, I took enough of a break.
I actually considered abandoning this thread. I started losing steam somewhere around Close Encounters, but I’ve had a good break, and my Rick and Morty passion has been rekindled. I’m going the whole nine yards.
This time around, I swear I’m going to put an effort into keeping each episode analysis short (within reason). That’s the way it started out with the Pilot. I went with the assumption that the reader already watched the episode, and all I had to do was go through it one time jotting down notes, and then expand on my notes in the actual post. It was at Meeseeks and Destroy when I started taking a different approach: the approach of building each post as I watched the episode. That’s when I started recording all the minutia, every little detail that I deemed remotely relevant. I also switched attitudes about my assumption that the reader would have seen the episode already and started writing as though it was important to layout the entire storyline background. I’m going to return to my original approach: watching the episode and taking notes… then cherry picking from my notes and expanding on them where it seems most fitting. I don’t want to return to the brevity of my analysis on the Pilot or the first few episodes of Season 1, but I definitely don’t want to go over the 60,000 character limit on posts this board has in effect–I’m going to aim for something in the middle, something on the order of Meeseeks and Destroy or Rick Potion #9. We’ll see how that goes.
Anywaaay… Welcome to Season 2!!!
Rick and Morty - S2E1 - A Rickle in Time
Episode 1 of Season 2 starts off with a bang. Right away we are pulling right back into the Rick and Morty universe with an intensity double that which we went through in the first season. At least that’s how it felt to me. A Rickle in Time is pretty intense. It requires almost twice the concentration and ability to follow as any of the episodes from Season 1. It almost feels like the writers were trying to kick it up a notch–not unlike how Meeseeks and Destroy and Rick Potion #9 did the same–like saying: okay, we’re in the next season, we gotta do something extra, something more–we can’t just give you more of the same.
This episode plays on concepts from quantum physics. It’s unclear whether the writers only intended this episode to be a spoof of quantum mechanics or they were slyly putting forward a theory of quantum physics. If they were, it would mean the writers believe in some form of quantum consciousness theory. But we’ll flesh that out later.
As for the secondary plotline, it’s Beth’s turn to bring out the ego; Jerry, meanwhile, puts his aside. ← I don’t know if this counts as another case of “manning up” but it is one of the rare moments when Jerry rises above his own ego, like he has absolutely no insecurities.
This is also an episode where both Morty and Summer get to take part in the main storyline as Rick’s side kicks–in fact, we’re going to see Morty and Summer teaming up together in the main storyline (with Rick) a lot more in Season 2.
But enough with intros… the episode begins exactly where Season 1 left off: Jerry and Beth are still frozen in time, exactly in the same positions, walking up to the house with angry scowls on their faces. Morty is vacuuming Jerry’s shirtless upper body. It’s been six months. The house is all repaired and cleaned up (except for the inescapable crack surrounding it). They’re getting ready to unfreeze time.
“The whole point about freezing time was to stop giving a fuck,” says Rick. He explains to the kids that since time’s been frozen for so long, “the world’s time is gonna be fine, but our time is gonna need a little time to, you know, ‘stabilize’.”
Morty: “Our time is gonna be unstable? What does that even mean?”
Rick: “It means relax and stop being a pussy, Morty. I thought you’d have learned that by now.”
^ So echoing a few of the themes from the last episode–not just that freezing time allows them to stop giving a fuck but the idea that the solution to their oh-so-immanent problem (Jerry and Beth were right in the driveway) was so simple and Rick knew how to put it into action all along. The lesson he’s expecting Morty to learn is that there ain’t no problem he can’t fix–a little cocky, but in most cases true.
Right before unfreezing time, he warns the kids: “…don’t touch your parents or we could shatter into countless theoretical shards.” (not sure what “theoretical” means here).
Jerry and Beth storm through the door, Jerry shouting. It only takes a second for them to realize something’s suddenly changed. Jerry swears the house looked trashed. Going in for a hug, Beth is greeted by Rick crossing his arms and the kids backing away (it would “literally destroy them” as Rick puts it). Rick drops a wad of cash on the ground and kicks it over to them, suggesting they go out for ice cream. ← This–the whole notion of them shattering into countless theoretical shards–is, I think, just a device to spin off the secondary plotline–it gives Rick the excuse to send them off for ice cream, tantalizing them with $500.
(In the interim between Season 1 and Season 2, I came across an observation on the internet that Rick and Morty feature ice cream a hell of a lot.)
Jerry motions towards the stairs to get something before they leave. That’s when Beth notices his shirt is on backwards (Morty’s goof). Jerry responds: “Yeah… I like it this way, I’m not stupid.” ← Saved by the ego. Not only that, but this, to me, seems like a clever little bit of commentary about how we sometimes fear the worst when people discover that something’s off, something that is the result of some secret ploy or shenanigans we carry out. But often, we can rely on people’s unconscious confabulations (and in Jerry’s case, ego), the result of which is a much more plausible or down to Earth interpretation of what’s going on. I mean, why on Earth would Jerry interpret his shirt being on backwards as: OMG, Rick and the kids must have frozen time, removed my shirt in order to vacuum me, and then carelessly put it on backwards. Even without his ego, Jerry is far more likely to confabulate something that would make a hell of a lot more sense at least to him.
After Beth and Jerry leave is when the main dilemma of the primary plotline begins. It starts with Morty and Summer bickering over who dropped the ball on the task of putting a mattress under Mr. Benson, who was in mid-fall off his roof when they froze time. Each blames the other, which turns into a bit of shoving. The uncertainty that this causes in their heads results in time fracturing–their reality literally splits in two with copies of each of them harboring each one:
This is what Rick meant by “our time is gonna need a little time to, you know, ‘stabilize’.”
He asks: “Were either of you guys uncertain about anything just now?” Morty 1: “Am I talking right now?” Morty 2: “I think so.” Morty 1: “Wait, who said that?”
^ It’s a bit hard to follow along when the dialog splits into parallel lines like this. This won’t be the first time it happens. This is what I meant when I said this episode requires a bit of a boost in concentration and ability to follow along (one of the reasons). One thing we get out of this is that they are aware, to some extent, about what’s happening in the parallel timeline. Morty sort of hears what his counterpart says in the other timeline. ← Although, this is less than clear as well–did Morty hear his counterpart, feel him, intuit him, think his thoughts, or what? Not sure.
Anybody who knows a thing or two about quantum physics will recognize where this is going. Rick asks if either of them were “uncertain”. Uncertainty, apparently, causes a split–or what’s known to quantum physicists as “superposition” or the “many worlds” interpretation of quantum physics. “Uncertainty” in quantum parlance obviously doesn’t mean just being uncertain about something–it actually refers to the inherent state of things being undetermined. The Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle states that if you precisely measure one of a conjugate group of variables (like a particle’s position) you can’t simultaneous measure or know with equal precision any of the other variables from that conjugate group (like a particle’s momentum). IOW, if you know a particle’s position, you can’t know its momentum, and visa-versa. ← There is embedded in physics this inherent uncertainty. And they will tell you, these quantum physicists, that this uncertain really is inherent, not just epistemological or psychological, that the uncertainty of a particle’s position, for example, literally means that the particle has no precise singular position.
This has lead to a lot of popular interpretations of quantum mechanics (I’m not even gonna call them theories), one of which is the “many worlds” interpretation–not unlike the many worlds in the Rick and Morty universe (or multiverse)–although that’s a somewhat different concept (and in this episode, by the way, the splitting of timelines isn’t quite the same as the multitudes of realities that Rick and Morty venture off into in most other episodes, but that will be explained in a bit ← Just something to keep in mind). The Many Worlds interpretation of QM would have it that the superposition of particles (it’s having no precise location, or momentum, or energy, or spin, or whatever) is really the particle existing in multiple universes at the same time. For example, in one universe, the particle is over here, but in another universe, it’s over there. When we measure the particle’s position, we find out which universe we are in–the one in which the particle turned out to be at location X–but even after that measurement, the particle’s position becomes uncertain, which is to say that the universe is in a perpetual processes of splitting into ever more copies of itself, each housing particles in different positions, momentums, energy, spin, etc.
What’s going on in this episode is that the writer’s are playing off this theme at the level of human beings and spinning the concept of “uncertainty” to mean psychological uncertainty–when Rick, Morty, or Summer become uncertain about anything, that results in their timelines splitting (just like the “uncertainty” of a particle’s state resulting in the splitting of that particle’s universe). If we take this one step further–say by bringing in one or another theory of quantum consciousness–then we might be able to interpret “uncertain” to literally be psychological uncertainty. Quantum consciousness theories say that states of particle superposition are literally the result of consciousness being in a state of uncertainty or indecision, and when that consciousness finally settles on something, the particle’s state of superposition “collapses” (another quantum term) to a more precise state. It says, IOW, that particles are conscious, and sometimes get confused, resulting in their world “splitting”–just like what’s happening to Rick, Morty, and Summer.
Obviously, this is an effect of time being frozen for so long, as if to say: the longer time is frozen, the greater the scale on which the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle has its universe splitting effects.
Anyway, they make their way into the garage, Morty and Summer a bit desynchronized from their counterparts at this point, where Rick pulls out a contraption, turns it on, and sees two green dots on the screen:
“Oh crap,” Rick says, “are you kidding me? Two dots? There never needs to be more than one dot!” ← Obviously a measure of how many timelines they’ve split off into.
Rick then explains (or tries to explain) what’s going on:
Rick: “Our time is fractured. You two somehow created a feedback loop of uncertainty that split our reality into two equally possible impossibilities. We’re exactly like a man capable of sustaining a platonic friendship with an attractive female co-worker. We’re entirely hypothetical.”
Morty: “But I thought there were infinite timelines.”
Rick: “We’re not an any timeline dummy.”
I’ve tried to analyze Rick’s words “a feedback loop of uncertainty that split our reality into two equally possible impossibilities,” and came to the conclusion that they’re inherently unclear. For instance, I’m not sure what the “feedback loop of uncertainty” is. I don’t imagine it’s time looping back on itself because it seems the structure of time in their current when-abouts has simply forked, not looped on itself. The term “equally possible impossibilities” makes a bit more sense (though I think it should be the other way around: equally impossible possibilities): coupled with the notion that they’re “completely hypothetical”, it implies that they’ve entered a state that is incompatible with reality–they can’t be real–but rather than simply not exist, they seem to exist in two mutually exclusive “pending” states–that is, states whose existence are “undetermined” or “uncertain”. It’s almost as if the mutual exclusivity of each state resulted in each one harboring only half the reality of what would otherwise be a fully real state–so they’re somewhere between fully real and utterly unreal. Not quite sure this is the same as being “entirely hypothetical” ← That phrase seems to imply a different type or quality of existence rather than a degree of existence–as if the universe needs to take a moment to contemplate hypothetically on the two possibilities before deciding which is to be real and which isn’t. In any case, this is all a play, as I said before, on QM concepts–more science fiction than science fact (in case there was any doubt).
That aside, I want to point out that throughout this scene and the few to follow, Morty and Summer are a bit scattered–that is, desynchronized from each other–while Rick seems totally synchronized.
Also, I’m having a field day looking for Easter eggs in this episode. It’s like those “spot the differences” games on kids menus at family restaurants–you know, like this: education.com/worksheet/arti … fferences/. I haven’t found any, but if anyone spots something, please let me know.
Rick opens the garage door to show what he means by “we’re not on any timeline”. The world has completely disappeared. All they see in the black void of space are a few clumps of dirt and trees floating around, and cats… lots and lots of cats.
“I assume they’re Schrodinger’s cats,” says Rick, “er, actually, I assume they both are and aren’t… just like us.” ← Schrodinger was another pioneer in quantum physics and proposed his famous thought experiment of the cat that was both dead and alive at the same time–again, an example of “superposition”, the idea of a thing being in more than one state at the same time.
This is the state of limbo that they, and the house with most of the property (coincidentally, along the crack surrounding the house created by Morty’s inadvertent teleportation in the last episode), are suspended in–a state of being nowhere but still somewhere. They’ve been removed from actual reality for the time being. So Rick’s words “we’re not on any timeline” mean: none of the timelines belonging to the actual multiverse. But still, they must be on some timeline–time is going by, after all–just ones removed from the actually existing multiverse.
Speaking of the actually existing multiverse, Beth and Jerry are returning from Stone Cold’s Creamery, apparently having spent $480. They are driving with ice creams in their hands. Jerry hits a deer. They get out. Beth checks the deer. It’s still alive.
Beth: “[in a dejected tone] If we were near a hospital, I could treat it, but I… I think we have to just…”
Jerry: “Hey, it’s ok, this is just something that happens. And even if we were in a hospital, what could we do? You’re a horse surgeon, not a deer surgeon.”
Beth: [turns to Jerry with arms crossed] “Sooo…”
Jerry: “Well, don’t different animals–”
Beth: “Require different skill levels to keep alive?”
Jerry: “Oh God.”
Beth: “[grabs the ice creams] Get the deer and the car, Jerry.”
Jerry: “[with head hung low] Yes, Beth.”
This is how the secondary storyline begins. Jerry inadvertently sets off Beth’s insecurities. Beth is now on a mission to prove that she can fix a deer just as well as she can fix a horse. It’s no longer about the deer, it’s about her own ego. This exchange also sets the tone for Jerry’s attitude throughout the secondary storyline. Jerry starts out trying to be supportive, but when he slips up with his comment about it being a deer, not a horse, Beth takes it completely the wrong way. This will be the manner in which they play off each other throughout the rest of this episode–not a hell of a lot different than in most other episodes, but in this one, it’s about how it unfolds in the end that’s unique.
Back to the main storyline, Rick is about to (try to) fix things. He begins by saying “This is why you don’t freeze time, you guys,” which answers our question from the previous post: Why doesn’t Rick use freezing time as another form of escape? He continues: “It’s incredibly irresponsible,” to which Morty responds: “And you did it so we could clean the house after a party?” Brushing this off, Rick frantically tries to tinker with his time-fucking device (let’s just call it that). It’s the same device he used to freeze time in the last episode. In both “possibilities” (as he calls them), he puts (yet again) a pink crystal into it.
In this scene, it’s funny watching how Rick remains totally in sync with himself across both possibilities while Morty and Summer are totally out of sync. In one possibility, Morty is to the left of Rick while Summer is to the right. In the other possibility, it’s the opposite. The only desynchronicity between the Rick’s is his eyes. He’s caught eyeing Morty more often (because he tends to address him more often) and so his eyes shift towards Morty, resulting in the Rick’s eyes shifting in opposite directions… but that’s about it. It’s obvious that Rick knows what he’s doing.
“All right,” Rick finally says after sealing up his time-fucking device, “since this time crystal exists in both possibilities, and since it’s impossible that I didn’t nail this, I’m probably about the press this button in both possibilities at exactly the same time.” And he does so. The possibilities merge towards each other, but the minute they finally overlap, Summer and Morty start shouting out in pain. The possibilities tremor and don’t quite settle into each other. Then they revert back to their original separation.
Obviously, Rick doesn’t realize that they’re on opposite sides. Morty can’t merge into Summer, and Summer can’t merge into Morty (the attempt of which apparently hurts). But he soon figures out that they’re the culprits. He gives them shit for being so uncertain:
“What the hell do you either of you two have to be so uncertain about? Your brand of zit cream? Which chair to sit in while I do everything? Come on, spit it out!”
Morty begins by digging into Rick for all the unfair things he does to him. Then Summer takes her turn. The dialog overlaps between the two possibilities so it’s incredibly hard to decipher what exactly each character is saying. But for those who reeeaaally care, here’s the script.
From the dialog, Rick figures out that the two have switched places. Not sure how. Also not sure how he figured out before (when he went on that rant about what they had to be so uncertain about) that they were the culprits (obviously not so much that they had switched positions, but that there was something “desynchronized” about them). Probably because, in his mind, he himself could easily be ruled out because of how cock-sure he is about everything (though there’s obviously a difference between being cock-sure and being right), and everything else in their immediate surroundings being inanimate matter (well, except for the cats). So what else is there but Morty and Summer to be uncertain? But something about Morty’s and Summer’s grievances towards him tipped him off that they’re on opposite sides of him. So he fixes it by swapping them around… that is, in one possibility. In the other possibility, he just sits them down. How each Rick knows what action to take (whether to swap them or just to sit them down) is a mystery to me. I’m guessing their dialog must have tipped him off (somehow) about whether the possibility he was in was the “deviant” or whether it wasn’t. After all, the split happened once Summer, in one possibility, shoved Morty. Perhaps this was the deviation. Perhaps, if time wasn’t so “unstable”, only one of those possibilities (i.e. shoving or not shoving) would have happened (like a dominant vs. recessive gene). That is to say, perhaps not both possibilities are equally likely, and so the less likely possibility (Summer shoves Morty) is the “deviant”. Somehow, based on their dialog that Rick pulls out of them, he figures out which possibility they’re in. If they’re in the deviant possibility, then in Rick’s mind, the right thing to do is to return them to the non-deviant possibility (i.e. swap them), otherwise just sit them down and let the other Rick merge them.
“Now listen,” Rick says, “I know the two of you are very different from each other in a lot of ways, but you have to understand that as far as grandpa’s concerned, you’re both pieces of shit. Yeah, I can prove it mathematically. L-l-le’me grab my whiteboard. This has been a long time coming anyway.”
He grabs his white board and pulls it into the middle of the garage. This is a bit of comic relief, I’m sure, especially given they have very little time to fix things. But I think there is a motif behind it: after swapping Morty and Summer, Rick figures the rest will be a walk in the park, so he takes a bit of time to just dick around (a bit less than 4 hours). ← We’ve seen this before–his wildly over-confident attitude–but when we come back to the main storyline after following up on the secondary storyline, we’ll see that his whiteboard demonstration is going to instill a tiny little something into Morty that will desynchronize the situation again (and maybe even in himself as well) such that we can say: he should have done it when he had the chance.
Beth and Jerry pull up to the animal hospital and lug the deer through the door. Beth announces to no one but patients: “Emergency! Wounded deer coming in!” Then she barges in on a surgeon and her nurse operating on a snake. “I’m a certified horse surgeon,” she says, “and this deer needs medical attention.”
Right away, we see that Beth is not in her right mind. She comes in announcing “wounded deer” to no one (there’s no medical staff in the scene, just a few patients waiting), and upon barging into the operating room, she tells the doctor that she’s a certified horse surgeon and this deer needs medical attention. ← That’s like me walking into a mechanic shop and saying: I’m a certified computer scientist and this car needs mechanical attention.
Beth and the doctor have a few words, the doctor saying: “…as a horse surgeon, I’m sure that you know that deer have much smaller, much more intricate organs…” Beth: “As a fact, I’m sure you know that a deer is much closer to a horse than you are to a doctor. So let’s save the measuring for when our dicks our out! It’s time to save a life!” (Do deer and horse actually share a common ancestor?)
The doctor pulls the snake away from the table, saying “Jeez,” as Beth slaps the deer onto it. Apparently, a deer’s life is more important than a snake’s.
I’m also wondering if these are supposed to be hints at sexist undertones. When the doctor says “That’s my nurse,” I get the impression we’re supposed to be surprised by this–as in, it’s the female who’s the doctor and the male’s the nurse? Either that or it’s totally me and my sexist expectations, but assuming it’s not, I think we’re supposed to presume that Beth was talking to the doctor when she said: “nurse, please move that snake,” and when she made that snide comment about deer being closer to horses than she is to a doctor, she’s trying to save face after her sexist goof up (maybe even projecting her own insecurities about whether being female has held her back in being a qualified horse surgeon). Either that or the writers had to make the doctor female and her nurse male in order to avoid a lawsuit from angry feminists–though if that were the case, I don’t know how they would have gotten away with Raising Gazorpazorp.
Anyway, Beth notices that the deer’s been shot, which means it would have died anyway if Jerry hadn’t hit it ← In case Beth was thinking she’s the hero who cleans up Jerry’s mess. On the contrary, if Jerry hadn’t hit it, the deer would have surely died from the gun shot wound.
Then the hunter comes in. He orders them not to operate. He informs them that he shot the deer. He saw Beth and Jerry hit it and he followed them to the hospital. He tells them the deer is his property. While Beth looks around the operating room for supplies, demanding anesthetic and deer saline, the doctor says to the hunter that she took a vow: not to allow any harm to come to an animal. The hunter calls his lawyer.
^ Please have a look at Rick’s whiteboard drawing? Can anyone make out what it means? I mean, Rick basically explains the punch line–that he’s smart and they’re dumb–and you can see it symbolized in the way their brains are depicted like steaming piles of shit while Rick’s brain is big, plump, and full. But I’m looking at some of the details. For example:
Summer ≃ Morty
iff ∃a MAPPING f[size=50]1[/size]s → M
WHERE ∀x ∈ S ∃! y ∈ MS + (x,y) ∈ f
^ What does that formula mean. Near the center of the whiteboard, Rick seems to have drawn stick figures of Morty and Summer. Morty’s blue and Summer’s pink, and beneath them are the symbols for male and female except switched around to be under the opposite sex. They’re still the appropriate color–blue for male, pink for female–and most likely has something to do with Morty and Summer having switched spots. I just don’t know what sex has to do with it. Would the merge have worked if they were same sex siblings? Anyway, I also looked for difference between the top image and the bottom image, but I’ve scanned it over multiple times and I really don’t think there’s a difference.
“So in conclusion,” Rick concludes, “you’re both equally mercurial, overly sensitive, clingy, hysterical, bird-brain homunculi, and I honestly can’t tell the two of you apart half the time because I don’t go by height or age, I go by amount of pain in my ass, which makes you both identical. All right, everything resolved? Everybody nice and certain about their position in my world?”
They both answer with dejected looks: “Yes.” ← They really look like they’ve been put in their place. Rick certainly resolved things by bringing a whole lotta certainty into their lives–certainty that they’re both little shit heads. It may not be pretty, but it least it did the trick. Or did it? Right when Rick thinks he’s got everything resolved, he tries to get the show back on the road:
“Sit still,” Rick instructs them, “A-burp-rms down. I’m gonna do this again; this time, be like grandpa.”
Morty 2: “You mean drunk?”
Rick 2: “What’s that? You got something to say?”
Rick 1: [at the same time] “And awaaay we go [pushes the button].”
Morty 2: “No.”
Rick 2: “And awaaay we go [pushes the button].”
^ Morty #2 puts the whole thing out of sync again. The two Ricks are now repeatedly pushing the button at different times from each other, both saying “Huh, that’s weird.” Rick may have made Morty and Summer pretty certain about being stupid little pieces of shit, but that comes along with resentment. Morty, consequently, felt a bit of uncertainty over whether to vent that resentment or not, the one Morty deciding to hold back, the other to say “You mean drunk?” If Rick had taken the opportunity to merge them before the whiteboard demonstration, Morty wouldn’t have felt this way. But Rick’s cocky attitude–thinking that because he fixed things, he had enough time to lecture his grandkids about why they’re so dumb–did them in again. Morty #2’s comment not only counts as a desynchronization between the two possibilities, but it desynchronizes the Rick’s as well. Rick, unable to let a jab like Morty’s slide, had to talk back, temporarily blinded by his ego to realize this may desynchronize him from his counterpart. And now they’re fucked again. This time, however, it’s Rick who’s desynchronized.
I just love the next scene. I think it’s worth posting a video:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGESJUsYF0g[/youtube]
Now a word on paranoia. This scene sums up pretty much everything I’d like to say in the Society, Government, and Economics forum (if I ever posted there). Even there, we have people feeding their own paranoia, making it real. This is one of the dangers of paranoia, that it has the tendency to be a self-fulfilling prophecy in exactly the way Rick’s paranoia about his counterpart trying to kill him resulted in his counterpart really trying to kill him (and visa-versa). I tried to explain this to James one time (whether he bought it or not, or understood it, I cannot say):
But back to Rick & Morty, everybody understand what happened there, right? Rick took the crystal, which transcends time lines, and attached it to a loop-kinda-thingy. The loop-kinda-thingy in turn was attached to a gun. It’s basically setup so that the bullet, when fired from the gun, goes through the loop, and the crystal in turn turns the loop into a time-line hopping portal. In effect, when the bullet is fired from the gun, it goes through the loop, which is a portal, and gets transported to the other time line. Rick fires the gun at his own head so that when the bullet goes through the portal, it will penetrate the other Rick’s brain. Pretty clever… and at the same time stupid. This, of course, causes Rick to be incredibly uncertain which ends up splitting both time lines, once again, into two, for a total of four.
(Ironically, it was Rick who sabotages himself–by coming back at Morty–but not intentionally.)
(Also notice, in the scene above, that Morty and Summer become desynchronized again).
I like how Rick felt like he was defending his grandchildren: “Is this what you want, you sick fuck! You wanna see children die!” ← It’s one of those moments where the good in him comes through.
“You son of a bitch,” Beth says, “You don’t stop living until I say so!!!” ← Yeah, no ego there. I think this happens a lot–ego beating its chest in the name of altruism, or at least selflessness. It’s one of the few outlets the ego gets in order to stroke itself–being the hero: we get to, at once, stand in the spotlight and do it for a (allegedly) selfless cause.
The hunter’s lawyer enters the operating room, informing everyone about “Brad’s Law”. Brad’s Law states (according to Rick and Morty): “Any deer shot by a hunter is that hunter’s property regardless of how far it runs or who intercepts it before it dies.” He goes on to say that he can’t stop Beth from performing the surgery but technically she’s performing it on venison (deer meat). The hunter responds to this: “Actually, I’ve decided not to eat it. All this fear and conflict… I’m sure it’s ruined the meat. I’m just gonna use the head for my rec-room wall.”
^ I can’t help but get the impression that this line is meant to boost the public perception of conservatives. It almost seems to say of this 2nd Amendment loving riffle carrier: I really do only use guns for food. And moreover, I’m a very spiritual person deep inside–I believe the food I hunt is sacred–“fear and conflict” end up ruining the meat. Oh, it’s such a travesty! I’m depressed! ← Maybe? Maybe not?
Anyway… Beth is going nuts at this point: she’s yanking the intestines out of the poor creature, splattering blood on everyone, shouting: “I will reach into Heaven and pull your screaming deer soul back!” to which the doctor, once again, says “Jesus”.
The gun fire has ceased at this point, but the Rick’s are still extremely paranoid of each other. They are creeping around the room trying to “watch out” for each other. They are completely desynchronized. Interestingly, the Morty’s and Summer’s are all synchronized again. Rick, once again, gets the bright idea to shoot himself. This time Morty comes up behind him (in all possibilities) and knocks him on the head with a fire extinguisher before he can do it.
Rick’s out cold. Now Morty and Summer have control of the situation.
Morty: “…if all of me knocked out all the Rick’s, and you peed in all of your pants, doesn’t that mean that we’re all synchronized?”
Summer: “Right.”
Morty: “Ok, so from now on, whatever we do, we have to be certain. [picks up the gun and removes the crystal, places it on the counter]”
Summer: “Right.”
Morty: “I think I’m certain we’re F’ed in the A.”
^ At least he’s certain about something.
Some time passes…
Cut to a scene in which Rick is in a cage. The Morty’s and the Summer’s are, again, desynchronized. They’re not all on the same sides as each other. One Morty is sitting down cross-legged. One Summer is also sitting. Rick comes to. He asks what they did. Morty explains what happened–that he was acting crazy and caused another time fracture. Summer adds that he tried to kill himself. Rick explains that now that time is fractured into four pieces “our problem is two times bigger and we’ve got half as much time to solve it.” He asks to be let out and Summer demands proof that he’s not a threat to himself. So Rick does this:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1SS3uiYvTM[/youtube]
(^ Again, one of my favorite scenes.)
Then Rick just breaks out of the crate without any effort. Apparently the bars and roof weren’t actually hinged together. Not sure if Morty and Summer knew they weren’t hinged together, then again I don’t know how they wouldn’t know–they put it together with Rick inside–but then why didn’t they seal it shut? Maybe they couldn’t. Maybe they didn’t have the materials and just hoped Rick wouldn’t know or try. It’s just misleading that Morty says: “If you could get out that whole time, why didn’t you?” ← Maybe it should have been: “If you knew you could get out that whole time, why didn’t you?” ← That way, at least, it would be clear that Morty and Summer were playing on Rick’s knowledge, not his actual physical entrapment.
In any case, Rick responds that he wanted to be certain before doing it–and I guess Summer set him up to be so certain–that is, by prompting him to calling himself and making up for his attempted homicide (suicide?) earlier. They start bickering.
Then Testicle Head shows up (that’s not his actual name, but Rick later describes him as having a giant testicle for a head):
Testicle Head is a being from the “4th dimension” as he puts it–a being who whips through time and across dimensions like driving around the neighborhood. To him, Rick hopping across dimensions with a portal gun is like child’s play. He notices that they’d fucked up their timeline:
“Oh, see, you broke time, and you thought you could just stick it back together with this? How you think you gonna move time while you’re standing in it, you dumb ass 3 dimensional monkey ass dummies?”
He gives them all electronic collars. They’re devices that latch closed around their necks, a green light blinking on them to indicate they’re on. In three out of four of the timelines, they put the colors on. Testicle Heads says in all timelines: “Eh! Eh! Eh! The three of you, put your collars on!” Three out of four of them say: “We have them on.” In the fourth timeline, Rick says: “We’re not wearing collars.” Testicle Head repeats himself. The fourth Rick, Morty, and Summer concede.
You can tell Testicle Head knows what he’s doing. Not only does he keep himself synchronized in all timelines, saying “put the damn collars on” even in the timelines where they do have their collars on, but the three version of himself in the latter timelines somehow know that there’s this one oddball timeline in which they don’t have their collars on. He calls himself an omniscient 4 dimensional being so perhaps he knows exactly what’s going on in all timelines, and furthermore, being 4 dimensional, he might just be a single individual that coexists in all timelines (implying that he can’t be desynchronized from other versions of himself).
Anyway, they put the collars on and immediately disappear from the four timelines. They reappear back in the garage of the ordinary reality. Testicle Head fixed everything.
He tells them: “Now keep those collars on so you don’t break your weak ass time again.”
Rick: “How long exactly do we have to wear these things? They’re really embarrassing.”
Testicle Head: “Well, since you’re going to time prison, I’d say you can keep them on forever.”
Testicle Head pulls out a weird worm-like thing and points it at them like a gun. He explains that the only way Rick could have gotten his hands on those time crystals is if he stole them.
Beth is sweating beads as she continues arduously to save the deer’s life. The doctor, her nurse, the hunter, and the lawyer are all standing around watching. Jerry comes into the room with a couple men. He says:
“Honey, it’s gonna be okay. These men are from the Cervine Institute of Elk, Moose, Deer, and Stag. They can take this deer to a helicopter and fly it to the country’s top deer surgeon on a wildlife reserve across the state border, [turns to the lawyer] where your jurisdiction ends.”
^ Jerry really pulled it off this time. While Beth, in a hysterical frenzy, is blinded to the fact that her insufficient qualifications and her emotional state of mind are probably causing more harm to the deer than good, Jerry is thinking more rationally. He’s actually thought it through: what would be the best course of action to take in order to save this deer’s life, he asks himself. This is also one of the rare moments when he’s not just doing what he’s “supposed” to do, not what Beth expects him to do. He’s doing what’s right. In fact, we will see later in this episode that there’s more here than meets the eye, that Jerry is up to something, something that highlights these points even more, even to the extent that we might say he exhibits a bit of Rick-like genius.
Outside the clinic, the deer is loaded into the vehicle. At the last minute, the lawyer brings up one final snag:
“There is just one more thing: according to the state’s veterinarian statutes, this animal can’t be transferred until the current attending physician verbally confirms their inability to provide adequate care.”
“You heard the man, horse doctor,” says the hunter, “You have to say you couldn’t hack it.”
This really puts Beth into a moral bind: do what’s right for the animal or defend her ego. The cognitive dissonance she’s probably feeling in this moment must be overwhelming.
Jerry, trying cleverly to reinforce a pride-preserving perspective, says in a timid tone: “We did it.” ← Even when faced with this moral dilemma, Jerry is trying to hint at the idea that even if Beth admits to not being able to hack it, that is hacking it–that is to say, that by saying she couldn’t hack it, she allows the deer to be transferred to a place where it will get the proper care that it needs. Jerry’s suggesting that Beth can still think of it as “all her”–that in this moment, she can make the decision to allow the deer to be saved or to allow it to die. As challenging as this task if for Jerry–trying to persuade Beth of this point of view–he is quite relentless in trying to handle the situation in the most mature, rational, and diplomatic way possible.
In response to Morty questioning why he’s doing this, Testicle Head explains: “You think I want to be an omniscient, immortal being transcending time and space my whole life? I’ve got ambitions, man. Bringing you in is my ticket up.”
Grabbing a monkey wrench from the counter behind his back, Rick attempts to fool Testicle Head into turning around. He doesn’t fall for the bit, so Rick tries something else:
“All right, hear me out on this; you’re immortal, right? Which means your life is infinite. Okay, well then that means there’s a 100% chance that you’ll eventually do everything including turning around to look behind you.” ← It’s interesting how Rick’s thinking works: because it’s inevitable, why try resisting?.. even though resisting would actually work. In any case, this is good enough for Testicle Head. He says “I cannot argue that,” and turns around. Rick knocks him on the head with the monkey wrench. It doesn’t knock him out but he loses his grip on his worm gun. Rick catches it. It starts squirming. “God! Gross and weird!” Rick yells before letting it go. The creature squirms towards the road and gets run over by a car. “You killed my gun!” screams Testicle Head. “Summer, Morty,” says Rick, “take off your collars!” They do it. Rick takes off his. “What the hell are you doing?” asks Testicle Head. “Good question,” answers Rick, “I suppose the answer is… I’m… not… certain.”
Their time begins to split again… and then again… and then again. In all possibilities, Rick starts kicking the shit out of Testicle Head. “Stop it!” Testicle Head insists. “Maybe I will… maybe I won’t… I’m really uncertain about everything… even kicking your ass!” (although he doesn’t seem to be hesitating).
It’s funny watching Testicle Head get his ass kicked. If you look at any one timeline, every punch that Rick delivers is matched by Testicle Head seemingly being knock around by invisible forces. It seems even in getting the shit kicked out of him, he remains synchronized across all possibilities. He doesn’t fight back, claiming that his arms are only “vestigial”. Summer and Morty cheer Rick on, Morty also claiming to be really uncertain about things. From all the blows from all the Rick’s in each timeline coming at Testicle Head from all directions, he finally gets his giant testicle head squashed into a flattened mass of flesh like making pizza crust out of a ball of dough (no blood and gore, just flattened). He lies against the counter defeated.
Their world is crumbling before their eyes. The house is shaking, pieces of ceiling are falling, the walls and floor are cracking. Rick explains that they have very little time left and that he needs to fix their collars quick.
“Now hand me that Phillips screwdriver,” he says, “Actually, make it a flat-head.” At least he says this in half the timelines. In the other half, he says it in the reverse order. This little extra bit of uncertainty causes their timelines to split again for a total of 64.
Jerry: “Look, I know I was kind of a nuisance today, I know it’s my fault we hit the deer, and I know you wanted to be the one to save it.”
Beth: “Whatever [staring out the passenger side window], how petty would I have to be to care less about an animal’s life than my own ego?” ← She’s finally admitting it, though still with an unappreciative tone in her voice.
Jerry: “You’d have to be pretty petty… but you’d still be the woman I married.”
The car starts shaking. They’re going off road.
Beth: “Where are we going?”
Jerry: “One… last… stop.”
They pull out into a clearing in the woods right behind the Cervine Institute vehicle, the one carrying the deer. The men are pulling the deer out on a stretcher. Beth and Jerry get out.
Beth: “Where’s the helicopter?”
Jerry: “There is no helicopter. [One man peels off the “Cervine Institute” sign from the back of the vehicle, revealing the “Stone Cold’s Creamery” sign instead.] And there is no Cervine Institute.”
Beth: “But the top deer surgeon–”
Jerry: “I’m looking at her.”
^ This is the surprise. Not only did Jerry’s cool and collected thinking back at the clinic get them out of hot water, but it allowed them to get into a situation in which Beth could fulfill her desire to both save the deer and redeem her ego without upsetting everyone and getting into legal complications. He’s even rising above his own ego here–he could have just told the Stone Cold gentlemen to toss the deer in a lake while the two of them went home, and he could have gloating about the fact that Beth was wrong–but he orchestrated all of this for Beth’s sake, to allow her the chance at finding satisfaction both at fueling her own ego and at saving the deer’s life. In fact, in Jerry’s eyes, this isn’t even a moral dilemma: he really believes she can do it, that her technical background in horses is no barrier to her ability to perform surgery on a deer. He seems to believe it more than Beth does herself, for part of the stress she was under back at the clinic was her own insecurity in her abilities–her determination back there was a bit overkill simply because she felt she had to try that hard to prove herself–but here, out in the woods, with only her husband to watch her (and a couple of Stone Cold’s Creamery employees who can’t be that significant in Beth’s life), it relieve a lot of the stress, thereby giving her time to focus more on the deer than her ego, and ultimate allowing her to do a better job.
Like I said, it’s almost a stroke of Rick-like genius–a concoction that satisfies everything: Beth’s ego, the moral dilemma of saving the deer’s life, the ideal conditions under which to do so, and even scoring a few brownie points for himself. It even redeems Jerry’s outrageous tip of almost $480 to Stone Cold’s Creamery–without such a hefty tip, would the two Stone Cold employees have bothered to help Jerry out? It’s certainly one of the rare moments when Jerry comes through.
A montage follows of Beth performing surgery on the deer while a kind of soft spiritual song with Native American singing plays. Beth finally stitches the deer up just before it wakes up. It hops off the operating table like nothing happened (usually not recommended to ordinary human patients). It gleefully leaps off into the woods. It pauses to look back at them as a Native American steps out from behind a bush and pets the deer. He nods in gratitude to Beth for saving the deer and then goes off with the deer into the woods. All this while they eat ice creams. ← A bit hyperreal but it’s supposed to be a real emotional and meaningful moment.
Beth: “Jerry, this was the most romantic weekend I’ve ever had.”
Compare this to the last episode when Jerry went all out to create a bit of romance between himself and Beth on the Titanic. Why didn’t that work? Because he was too focused on his idea of romance. This time, Jerry is 100% focused on Beth… and she sees this. ← This is what moves Beth, this is what stirs her heart and softens her up (like ice cream).
Rick’s got all the collars fixed. He instructs them to put them on. They do. Summer disappears (back to ordinary reality). The other two remain despite having their collars on. Why? Because in one of the 64 possibilities, Morty’s collar won’t latch closed. His Rick doesn’t have his collar on either because he won’t do so unless he knows for sure Morty can put his on. All the other Ricks dig into their Morty’s, blaming them for not knowing how to put their collars on. “Bring it here,” says the Rick in the timeline in which Morty’s collar won’t close. Morty steps towards him and falls through a hole in the ground, a hole that leads out into the nothingness of this half-real/half-unreal state of ontological limbo. “MORTY!!!” Rick yells.
While all the other Ricks and Morty’s are bickering at each other, trying to pass the blame (ironically because it’s not either one’s fault, but that of some other Rick or Morty in another timelines), the Rick of interest says “God dammit!” and jumps through the hole after Morty. He glides through the emptiness passed chunks of yard, pieces of house, and cats, cats, and more cats. His hair and lab coat flap in the wind, indicating there’s at least some oxygen (and maybe air pressure) in this infinite void of nothing, allowing them to survive at least for a while. He catches up to Morty and grabs him.
“Morty, where’s your collar? I’ll fix it!” he says. “I dropped it!” Morty yells. Without even thinking, Rick puts his collar on Morty. Morty instantly disappears. ← That goes for all the Morty’s. We focus in on one timeline in which Morty suddenly disappears. The Rick of that timeline yells “What have you done to me, Morty!” possibly implying that he thinks Morty, in at least one timeline, killed Rick, explaining why Rick hasn’t yet disappeared with Morty. Back in the timeline in which Rick sacrificed his collar for Morty, he says: “I’m okay with this. Be good Morty. Be better than me.”
^ This is one of those moments when Rick’s inner goodness, his humanity, really shines through. It’s a moment where push comes to shove, where Rick has no choice but to either sacrifice himself or sacrifice Morty, and he has no time to think it over. He has to act instinctively, and the outcome is that he sacrifices himself for Morty. The good that resides within Rick is buried way deep down, but when it’s called for, it bursts through to the surface with undeniable force.
The words Rick speaks after saving Morty are also very telling. “I’m okay with this,” seems to hearken back to Rick’s nihilism, his utter indifference to whatever happens in this world, even to himself. That he could be okay with streaming through a dark void of nothingness forever, or perhaps disappearing in virtue of the unsustainability of a half-real/half-unreal state of existence, or whatever may happen to him, testifies not only to the radical indifference he holds towards his own destiny, but to how he values the destinies of others close to him more than his own, as his words “Be good Morty. Be better than me,” reveal. He deems his own life a worthwhile price to pay for Morty’s, that Morty represents the potential for goodness whereas it is too late for himself. Such moments are far and few between, but when they happen, they prove that Rick is clearly capable of rising above his own self-interest, that he is capable of recognizing things that matter beyond his own ego. ← This instance here is just a sample of what Rick is capable of, and in the Season 2 finally, we will see another example that blows this one clear out of the water.
But things aren’t so bleak for Rick after all. He suddenly spots Morty’s collar. “The other collar!” he yells, “I’m not okay with this! I am NOT okay with this!” ← It’s funny how one can accept such a grim fate when things seem hopeless, but then when hope shows its face, the acceptable suddenly becomes totally unacceptable. And why wouldn’t it? If you had the opportunity to make a dire situation better, why would you passively accept the situation as it is while letting that opportunity slip through your fingers? Rick swims towards the collar exclaiming what could almost be construed as prayers to Jesus: “Oh, sweet Jesus, please let me live! Oh my God, I gotta fix this thing! [grabs it]. Please God in Heaven! Please God, oh Lord, hear my prayers!”
^ I still haven’t quite figured out the full implications of what the writers had in mind with the religious connotations of these words, but I’m sure it must have something to do with the metaphysical implications of a quantum world of half-real/half-unreal possibilities–like God throwing dice and deciding on a whim which possibilities stay and which disappear into oblivion. On a more personal/psychological level, Rick here is demonstrating what he resorts to in moments of desperation. Rick–a staunch atheist most of the time (he says in the Pilot: “There is no God, Summer. You gotta rip that bandage off now, you’ll thank me later.”)–all of a sudden, in a moment of desperation, believes. And this may be statement on the part of the writers about human psychology in general, that in moments of desperation, we pull out all the stops–even things we wouldn’t even dream of trying in less critical situations. Take the other Rick’s, for example. We see in the next scene (after the current Rick puts his collar on and disappears) that another Rick (which presumably represents what all the Ricks are doing) is on his knees, eyes closed, and hands clasped in prayer, saying: “Please God, if there’s a Hell, please be merciful to me.” ← If the current Rick (the one trying to fix the collar) is only half serious about his prayers to God, the other half meaning it as just a figure of speech, this Rick is totally serious. It shows that so long as Rick has some modicum of hope of getting out of a desperate situation at his own hands, the desperate need to fall back on something that he would otherwise scoff at as a silly superstition meant only for the blind and naive will be minimal, whereas if he has absolutely no hope at all, like the Rick on his knees who knows that he’s at the mercy of another Rick getting his collar to work, he’ll have nothing left to do but to completely fall back on that silly superstition with full conviction.
It’s a nice complement to his last words to Morty before finding the collar: “Be better than me.” ← That coupled with his prayers for God’s mercy as he burns in Hell indicate his painful awareness of his own sinfulness, that he doesn’t just cover up his imperfections with his typical self-induced ego boosts, or that if he does, they don’t completely work. He knows he’s a scum bag who deserves to burn in Hell. And if there is any doubt of that, such doubt is wiped away the minute Rick gets the collar fixed:
He puts it on, the light turns green, and just before disappearing, he sticks it to God: “YES!!! Fuck you, God! Not today, bitch!”
Talk about gratitude. On the one hand, it seems like a total lack of appreciation for providence, like biting the hand that feeds. But on the other hand, it might indicate that though Rick prayed desperately to be saved by God, he didn’t think there would be a chance in Hell (or Heaven) that God would actually follow through. His words “Fuck you, God! Not today, bitch!” almost seem to indicate that, all the while, Rick thought God was trying to thwart his efforts at saving his own ass, that God was the reason Rick was in such a dire situation. It’s very much like Rick, after all, to reap in the full credit for his own actions when he gets himself out of a sticky bind. He fixed his own collar, he got himself out of what would otherwise be a bleak and dismal fate, but he only sees it this way after having gotten himself out of the sticky situation he found himself in. And therefore his success represents, for him, a kind of triumph over God’s attempt to snuff him out. He may have been praying to God for help before this happened, but an ironic combination of his own ego (he can do this on his own) and his own self-doubt (he’s not worthy of God’s help) culminate in his sticking it to God when he succeeds.
As I said, however, I think there’s more to this scene than the above (assuming I’ve got it right in the first place), for this bit of commentary about God and Rick’s defiance of Him must have something to do, I’m certain, with the greater theme surrounding this episode–namely, that of quantum uncertainly and states of ontological limbo, and what that has to do with divine creation and omnipotence. ← Can’t quite put my finger on it for the moment, so I’m just going to leave it.
In any case, Rick gets the collar on and disappears. The Rick on his knees also disappears in mid-prayer.