Rick and Morty - S2E5 - Get Schwifty
Out of all episodes in the Rick and Morty series, I think this is my least favorite. Not sure why. I guess because it seems the most “stupid”–like Roiland and Harmon had a heavy night of drinking and wrote this one the next morning while trying to get over a couple hangovers. No offense to these genius writers–they’ve proven over and over again that they can easily blow fans away with their creativity, humor, and philosophical intelligence–just not so much in this case (at least that’s my opinion).
That’s not to say there isn’t a fair share of philosophical material to sieve through–we touch on religion, superstition, the ethics of an alien species, and we even get some further insight into the nature of Rick and Morty’s relationship–but this all seems to constitute either the secondary plot line only or is subsidiary to the central theme or the climax of this episode–namely, a song called “Get Schwifty” about shitting on the floor and somehow being deemed brilliant enough to win a game show competition against other song writing alien species. It’s like all the decently intelligent and creative material in this episode is eclipsed by something incredibly juvenile and retarded (I mean, really retarded–Get Schwifty isn’t even funny).
So the episode begins with a ginormous orange head careening through the cosmos and arriving at Earth:
It comes within the vicinity of Earth and causes great fires and hurricanes and earthquakes (all triggered by the head’s massive gravitational influence). The head can be seen in the background of a news report. The report captures the head’s thunderous utterance: “Show me what you got!!!” Watching the report from the comfort of the living room sofa is Rick and Morty. Rick takes it upon himself (and Morty) to save the day: “Oh boy, time to go Morty.” When asked where, Rick responds after putting on some shades: “The Pentagon… I mean, not the Pentagon–burp–the lame one, here on Earth.” ← Then the opening credits roll.
^ A typical Roiland and Harmon style intro–not that it happens for every episode, but there’s more than just a few that begin with an almost blatant statement going along the lines of: okay, so in this episode, the theme of the adventure is X–in this case, giant head invades Earth’s personal space, causing whole lota disasters and chaos, demanding that Earth “show it what it’s got,” and Rick and Morty have to save the day–all wrapped up in a nice little bow–oh, and something new this time: the US government will be involved, Rick of course being their only hope. ← That about sums up the intro.
Beth, Jerry, and Summer are standing outside their home looking up into the night sky at the giant head while winds and rain hit with great force. Summer asks if the giant head is God. Beth responds in the negative while Jerry defends Summer’s right to think it’s God (which Beth wasn’t really violating, just answering Summer’s question–which, by the way, seems rather groundless–if not God, what would you say of a giant head in the sky causing hurricanes and Earthquakes?).
Rick and Morty pull out of the garage in their spaceship. They tell the rest of the Smiths they’re going to look into it before flying away. Then Mr. Goldenfold pulls up in his moped and invites the Smiths to the local church where they’ll pray. “How is praying going to help?” Beth asks. “Ma’am,” says Goldenfold, “a giant head in the sky’s controlling the weather. Did you wanna play checkers? Let’s be rational.” On any other day, a staunch atheism like that which Beth is now displaying would seem the most rational position to take, but on this day, Goldenfold makes a really good point: a giant head in the sky is controlling the weather. ← In this case, praying to God doesn’t seem that irrational. This is going to be pitted against Beth throughout this episode–Beth will be the doubting Thomas going against the grain while everyone else, including Jerry, will go along with the herd.
At the Pentagon: a bunch of high officials, including the President of the United States (who happens to look a lot like Barack Obama, but a bit stockier), are sitting around a pentagon shaped table. One official (Simon) stands up and announces that broadcasters all around the world are attempting to show the giant head what humanity’s got–everything from string theory to world history to the human genome. Another official, a military general, stands up and says “What America’s got is 70 thousand megatons of ka-boom-boom.”
Amidst all the commotion that this stirs, Rick and Morty enter the room through a portal. Rick removes the shades (why he put them on in the first place goes unexplained). In reaction to the security guards who surround Rick and Morty pointing guns at them, Rick threatens to use his snake converting watch on them (a watch that turns people into snakes). The military general nods his head to the guards, signaling to open fire, which provokes Rick into transforming the security guards into snakes. He then introduces himself and Morty to the group (taking a swig from his flask). “I’ve seen enough of the galaxy,” Rick continues, “to know what we’ve got here is a Cromulon from the Cygnus-5 expanse. So you can forget about nukes and you can forget about math. This head won’t go away until–burp–Earth’s shows them it’s got… a hit song.”
Talk about telling the US government where it’s at. Rick here introduces himself to the President of the United States as the only man for the job, the expert in matters of giant heads from space disrupting Earth’s environment and demanding that Earth “show it what it’s got.” The hit song he speaks of must be new, Rick explains, so classics like Vivaldi won’t cut it. The President laps up this sales pitch wholeheartedly, investing all his trust in Rick and Morty. You can’t get any more VIP than that.
The President orders his staff to get America’s top musical talents: Pharrell, Randy Newman, Billy Corgan, and The Dream. Unfortunately, as reported by one official after getting off the phone, all mentioned musical artists, plus “all the famous ones,” died in a horrible Earthquake at the Grammies. Pretty convenient for Rick and Morty–guess who that leaves us–that’s right: Rick and Morty. The same man who reported the death of all the famous musicians updates everyone with the news that Ice-T survived and is on an inbound flight due to arrive in 2 hours. So it’s gonna be Rick, Morty, and Ice-T. But this trio is not sealed together until after the President asks Rick before he jumps back through the portal: “Sanchez, are you a musician?” Rick responds: “I’ve dabbled, Mr. President.” The President orders a black hawk to take Rick and his grandson to area 51 where a giant stage with giant speakers is setup–now they, with Ice-T, are officially part of the band.
Cutting back to the secondary plot line: everyone’s gathered in the church. They’re all in a bit of a panic. The preacher tries to encourage them to calm down, to have faith. Then principle Vagina from Morty and Summer’s school gets up and addresses the crowd:
“Hi, Principal Vagina. The name’s real, possibly Scandinavian. I’m just gonna come out and make this pitch. The old gods are dead. Fuck all previous existing religions. All hail the one true god, the giant head in the sky. [crowd and preacher start rabbling] De-de-de-de, Bob, Bob [the preacher], I get it. But unless this [pulls out a cross on a necklace] can beat that [points outside], what have you done for me lately? [Throws necklace to Bob; people start surrounding him.] So if you wanna excuse me, I’m going out on the sidewalk and dropping to my knees and pledging my eternal soul to the thing that literally controls the fucking weather!”
^ A bit of seeing-is-believing. All’s well in faith and belief, but when an awesome force of nature (or supernature, as it were) hits you like a sledge hammer, the latter always wins out over the former. That’s why the scientific revolution so easily overthrew the old religious institutions of Europe and North America over the last few centuries. I suppose it’s also a statement about our true motives in worshiping this or that deity over another: it’s not about piety or doing good or self-improvement, it’s about survival and personal gain; in this scene, principle Vagina makes no secret about that; he abandons the Christian God whom he presumably remained faithful to up until now in order to save his own ass–or rather that of his eternal soul–and the decision is made so easily: based on the sheer demonstration of which god has the greater power and might.
And Bob’s reaction: carrying on with business as usual–getting sally to pass the tip basket in order to repair the organ–is a testament to what faith in a provident God does–it makes you ignore the real problem as if it isn’t there, as if you just can carry on with business as usual, because (you believe) God will take care of all your problems. At least principle Vagina was thinking practically (as terrible at logic as he is).
Back in the black hawk, Rick and Morty are being transported to area 51. Morty expresses his doubts that he’s got any musical talent. Rick responds: “Yeah, not with that attitude.” ← Morty’s attitude about his musical talents will receive a lot of development in this episode, tying into themes of relaxation and going with the flow. ← This is an idea Rick will try more than once to hammer into Morty, and Bird Person will hammer home (yes, Bird Person appears in this episode)–that one can only perform at their best when they relax and go with the flow–a real challenge to a worry wort like Morty. And we’ll even see how difficult this challenge is for Rick when he doesn’t have his trusty sidekick by his side, almost as if to say Morty is the source of Rick’s confidence. But I’ll let that unfold as the episode carries on.
They cling to ropes as they are lowered from the chopper to the sound stage. Morty bitches that they don’t yet have a hit song as the jump master yells to them “Go! Go! Go!” Morty follows Rick out of the chopper to the ground. This scene is intercut with principle Vagina praying outside the church to the giant head in the sky, even asking forgiveness for ignoring the amber alerts he gets on his phone (is this a real thing with you Americans?). Rick with Morty, on stage in the middle of the desert, dust blowing in the wind all around them, the big head in the sky watching in anticipation, grabs the mic and, with a big grin on his face, utters into it “All right Morty, let’s give-let’s do it. Why don’t you, uh, find a button on one of those keyboards and lay down some kind of beat.” Morty reacts in his usual panicky way, grabbing Rick’s lab coat instead of the keyboard: “Rick! I think we need to cut our losses–w-we get our family and then portal out of here!” “Morty!” Rick responds, “Good music comes from people who are relaxed! Just hit a button, Morty, give me a beat!”
^ This is odd coming from Rick–Morty just gave him the perfect excuse to bail, an excuse that Rick himself has used time and time again–just open a portal and escape. This was the same excuse Rick used in Potion #9–he bailed on the Cronenburg reality and hijacked another–now it’s Morty urging Rick to use the same escape tactic, letting the world be blown to smithereens in their absence. So why does Rick reject this option? It makes you think: Rick doesn’t just bail on the first sign of trouble–his response that good music comes from people who relax indicates that he’s a seasoned veteran–to the point at which he doesn’t panic as easily as Morty does–he’s gotten to the point where he feels more confident with his ability to resolve the situation as it stands than with bailing on the situation for one that doesn’t involve the precarious situation they’re in. He trusts in his abilities way more than Morty does, which allows him to invest more concern for the reality he finds himself in than Morty at this point. Despite the precarious situation they find themselves in, he’s still willing to give his talents and his genius a shot, even if he could very easily save his own and Morty’s asses just by portaling out of there.
Morty obliges Rick–he hits a key on the keyboard which starts a hip hop beat, and then Rick starts “rapping” (if you can call it that):
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Vn4B4kskpU[/youtube]
So yeah, this is supposed to be Earth’s “best effort”–a rap song whose lyrics go: “take a shit on the floor”–but I gotta say, after watching this in depth and trying extremely hard to find meaning or something insightful, I did find this: I think the message here is that even though the song sucks, it really does come through to the giant heads in the sky as sheer brilliance. Why? Because, taking a page right out of Rick’s philosophy, he and Morty are relax (as relaxed as they can be). We will see later in the episode that all the other planets in the universe who have undergone the same ordeal have been put under equal pressure, equal stress, and for the most part, this is their undoing. High stress degrades performance. This gives Rick and Morty a certain leverage–that is, so long as they understand that the key is to relax, thereby giving themselves an edge over their competition–thus, even though their musical talent sucks, being the most relaxed out of their competition lands them in a winning spot in the eyes of the giant heads. ← As I say, I think this might be why Roiland and Harmon deliberately invented the most base and shitty lyrics, sung to the most awful tune, they could imagine. It was to put forward the message: even if you suck, you will perform at your best, and therefore stand the greatest chances of success, if you just relax and have some fun with it. ← Maybe. (It’s just… you know… even I could do better than that).
And just to note: Rick says “Mr. Bulldops” not “Mr. Bulldog.” My guess is Roiland, adlibing as he probably does most of the time, originally said “Mr. Bulldog,” but some no name rap star probably owns the rights to that name so Roiland was forced to dub that over with “Mr. Bulldops.” ← Just a guess.
You might also note that in this scene, the giant head withdraws the floods and the earthquake induced crevices and the storms, and that Summer was the first to notice this in Church, and that principle Vagina is still on his knees in prayer outside the Church when this happens. It doesn’t take much to guess what Vagina, Summer, and the rest of the congregation are going to conclude from this… but we’ll touch on this when the time comes.
After Get Schwifty wraps up, principle Vagina, still on his knees outside the Church, wraps up his prayer with: “Please be kind to us for we are but tiny things with entire bodies stuck to your ground.” ← Might be interesting to note (or it may not) that Vagina is appealing to humbleness, sympathy, and truth… I could think of worse things.
Before leaving, the giant head response: “I LIKE WHAT YOU GOT!!! GOOD JOB!!!” Rick and Morty hi-five each other, the area 51 control center, including Nathan (the trigger happy general) and the President, unanimously cheer, and cutting over to the Church, so does the congregation, lifting principle Vagina up on their shoulders like a hero sent from the gods. Summer is quite center stage in this scene, clearly in focus from the camera’s point of view. Beth, meanwhile is standing quite a ways back, a few feet outside the open doors of the Church, but several feet away from the crowd hoisting principle Vagina upon their shoulders (I looked but I don’t see Jerry at all in this scene).
Beth, at the risk of sounding like a party pooper, serves as the voice of reason: “Now, hold on a second, let’s be rational about this… [crowd looks at her as if she just blasphemed]… no, I’m, I’m just saying we don’t know there’s a cause/effect relationship-” but before she can even finish her sentence, she’s knock onto her ass on the Church steps by an Earth tremor (making her look bad in the eyes of the cause inferrers). They feel it in area 51 too–both Rick and Morty and the control center. Next scene: the Earth pops out of existence and teleports to an entirely different region in space (not clear whether they teleported to a different dimension, but if it’s not explicitly mentioned or hinted, I think it’s safe to assume it’s in the same universe). It’s a region in space with a huge multicolored planet looking like a disco ball, and several smaller looking planets, some with rings, some without, some gaseous looking, some Earthy looking, and with giant heads, each a different color, floating about everywhere.
Out of the frying pan, into the fire.
Principle Vagina: “The head has left and sent its children.”
Beth: “Holy crap!!!” [drops to her knees along with everyone else.]
[Jerry is now in the scene.]
Summer: “Oh dear giant head, we apologize for that discussion. It will never happen again.”
The crowd murmurs in prayer. So again, they form causal connections where it is only a correlation. Beth is of course right, but because of an unfortunate series of coincidental events, she is made out to be a trouble maker and Summer voices her repentance on her mother’s behalf. It’s funny how even Beth drops to her knees in this scene with a look of serious self-doubt on her face, as if even she is questioning her own skepticism (I guess that’s why she bellowed out “Holy crap!!!”). Correlation may not imply causation, but when the coincidences are this undeniable, the idea of causation is hard to ignore.
Back at the area 51 control center, they decrypt a signal coming from the giant heads which turns out to be the intro to a presumably popular alien reality show called “Planet Music”:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LdFRjBRjRXU[/youtube]
First up to bat are the Greebybobes from planet Parblesnops, a froggy looking bunch who appear to live on giant lily pads. The lead singer of the band says this: “Hold it, hold it, stop! Music isn’t about competition or captivity! If you love music, you love freedom. Let these worlds be free, please!!!” ← Sounding almost like a modern day Bob Marley (and I’m thinking the same voice as that who did Mr. President).
“DISQUALIFIED!!!” announced the Cromulon giant head in the sky, before Parblesnops gets blown to smithereens.
Next is the planet Arbolez Meterosos, featuring some pink amoeba looking creatures with four arms, two legs, and one eye: they proceed with a rather pathetic but soothingly catchy techno-sounding tune. They all look petrified as they play their simple song (one actually feels really sorry for them).
The scene cuts abruptly, opening the next scene with Rick, Morty–and Ice-T–tuning their instruments in something like a recording studio. We’re not shown the fate of the Meterosians throughout the episode, but we can presume they get blown to smithereens at the end of the competition (I don’t think it’s much of a spoiler to say Earth wins). Rick is tuning an electric guitar while Morty is tuning a keyboard. Ice-T looks to be checking his text messages.
One of the military personnel (the guy who reported that all the famous musician died) comes into the room. He comes in to inform the group that their time has just been shortened to six hours (however much time they had before notwithstanding, six hours is quite a bit considering there’s only two acts that could possibly be ahead of them after the Meterosians; Cromulonian commercial breaks must be terribly long). Morty, frustrated from the pressure they’re already under, flips a bowl of peanuts at the officer shouting “Like we’re not already under enough pressure!” The officer leaves the room as Rick and Ice-T laugh at Morty’s antics. “Geez, Morty. The guy’s just doing his job. Take it easy,” Rick says. ← This seems to be a kind of contrast between Morty’s high stress approach to the situation and the more relaxed/go-with-the-flow attitude that Rick and Ice-T seem to exhibit. Really, Morty’s outburst at the military officer does no good but to potentially worsen relations, whereas Rick’s observation that he’s “just doing his job” is not only more accurate but highlights the fact that the officer is, if anything, helping them with their situation by keeping them informed. Again, being relaxed allows for better performance. Rick and Ice-T are even relaxed enough to laugh the whole incident off, thereby reinforcing (as best they can) a relaxed atmosphere.
Morty: “Rick! Ice-T! Could you guys take it less easy?! We’ve got six hours to come up with a song!”
Rick: “Genius happens in the moment, Morty.” [hits a few notes on the keyboard.]
Morty: “Well, can we at least go get our family? You know, so we can take them with-with-with us if we lose?” ← Again, Morty is seriously contemplating a Cronenberg style escape from the world (or its destruction). But still, at least he’s still thinking about his family (which again, if you recall, isn’t actually his family considering the real Cronenberg bail they performed back in episode 6 of season 1).
Rick: “That’s planning for failure, Morty. Even dumber than regular planning.”
^ I’m not sure how significant this line of Rick’s is. I’ve never thought of him as an optimist, thinking of success, thinking of the best possible outcome at all times, but I have to admit, he does think in terms of having control over the situation more often than not, and may have an ego sizable enough to think he can never lose, so I wouldn’t put it past him to say this, but like I said: don’t know if this is something worth dwelling over. The most we can say, I think, is that if this is his ego talking, it’s only because he’s relaxed in this situation.
His comment that “genius happens in the moment,” however, is a bit more revealing. It suggests that Rick’s extremely nonchalant, devil may care, nihilist attitude towards everything is at least one of the reasons why he is such a genius. Apparently, according to Rick, one can only be a genius if such genius is allowed to arise in the moment, and it can only arise in the moment when one is relaxed. This point isn’t overwhelmingly emphasized in this episode, but it does tie into the major themes of this episode, so it’s worth keeping in mind.
Morty goes for Rick’s portal gun. Rick stops him: “Morty, Morty, stop. Listen. There’s only so much charge left in this thing. If we portal home from here and back, we’re not gonna have enough charge left to get off-world. Get it?” Morty questions this: “What?!” Rick: “Yeah-burp-you see, I try to shelter you from certain realities-burp-Morty. Cause if I let you make me nervous, then we can’t get schwifty [does a little dance move with his hands].” ← So apparently, Morty’s nervousness, his high sensitivity to stress, is contagious, at least to Rick. But what reality is Rick hiding from Morty? At first it seems like he’s saying that the reason he never informed Morty about the low charge on the portal gun is because that would make Morty too nervous, but we’re gonna see that Rick is hiding something else from Morty in this moment.
Mr. President and general Nathan are watching the group behind a one-way mirror. General Nathan expresses his lack of confidence: “I’ve seen enough. These guys are one hit wonders.” Mr. President counters that with his own confidence in the group: “And what’s your plan, General?” General Nathan pushes for his idea of nuclear warheads, targeting each Cromulon head in the sector. “Our planet’s held captive on a live game show,” replies Mr. President, “and your solution is to shoot the audience?” ← It sounds like the voice of reason against the voice of madness. It also sounds like a counterpart duo to that of Rick and Morty. General Nathan is the “stressed out” or “uptight” character here who, like Morty, focuses on the negative, whereas Mr. President is the “calm and collected” or “in control” character who, like Rick, focuses on the positive–at least, it’s being made out to seem that way.
(Just a note: as Mr. President and General Nathan are having their quarrel, you can hear Rick saying to a bitchy Morty: “Everything is music, Morty, everything is music.”)
Cutting back to principle Vagina and the rest of the Church congregation, they are all gathered out in a park or a field of some sort–an open grassy space–in which principle Vagina, now dressed like a Church bishop, with a funny hat with giant eyes presumably meant to mimic the giant Cromulon heads in the sky, is “communing” with the gods (the Cromulons) with a make-shift radio dish on a stick, looking like a grade 5 science project made of tape and paper mache, and a set of attached headphones plugged into his ears, and translating what he’s receiving from them to his “flock”. Of course, it seems obvious from his tone that he’s making up complete bullshit but nonetheless has the crowd convinced that he’s the medium between man and the gods, and therefore can be trusted as the authority in this context. We should expect nothing less from a pragmatic opportunist like principle Vagina–if he had no sense of community loyalty back in the Church when the giant heads caused so much disruption in terms of the weather and the Earthquakes and such, abandoning father Bob and the rest of the congregation at the first sign of trouble, why should we trust that he’s going to have any loyalty to the community now just because (or especially because) he’s in a position of authority in their eyes? We should keep this in mind: while principle Vagina might have been a faithful believer in the beginning, drawing a connection (falsely) between his praying in the wind and rain outside the Church and the clearing of the storm as a sign of the giant head’s appeasement, he is now exploiting the faith of his newly converted followers for the sake of his own power and authority.
“He says he’s proud of what we’re doing,” reports principle Vagina, “and hopes we have a great Ascension Festival! Happy Ascension!” The crowd echoes back, “Happy Ascension!”–all except Beth who says to Jerry eating a triple layer ice cream in a cone: “We should pack up and leave town… now.”
Jerry: “I think it’s inspiring that our community is coping with fear in a way that involves a festival and homemade ice cream. If you’d stop being such an evangelical atheist, you might start enjoying yourself.” ← Good old Jerry, always following the herd. The contrast between Jerry and Beth in this scene as that of an unthinking follower and that of a critical thinker. It’s important to stress here that Jerry’s “go with the flow” attitude is an unthinking go with the flow attitude–not like Rick’s nihilistic go with the flow–Jerry only goes with the flow because he is too lazy or incapable of thinking critically beforehand, whereas Rick goes with the flow because he has thought beforehand, and experienced extensively, the nihilistic ramifications of going with vs. resisting the flow.
Summer shows up with head hats–the same as that worn by principle Vagina, the one that makes him look like a bishop–she is wearing one and holding two more. Jerry looks impressed. Beth just rubs her eyes, looking annoyed.
Jerry: “Woa-hoaw! Look at you! [to Summer] You’re wearing the hat and everything!”
Summer: “Here’s yours! [Puts hat on Jerry) Mom, do you mind if I cook dinner tonight?”
Beth: “Yeah, sure [in exhausted tone]. Wait, what?”
Summer: “I love you guys. You gave me life. And it’s the will of the many heads that all children honor their parents.” ← Summer is really soaking this up.
Beth: “Dinner sounds nice.” ← Suddenly not so annoyed.
Then Ethan, Summer’s boyfriend, shows up and asks Summer if she’s coming to the Ascension. She asks her parents’ permission. They decide to all go (Jerry questioning what the Ascension is only as an afterthought ← thus reinforcing my take on Jerry’s style of go-with-the-flow vs. Rick’s).
The Ascension turns out to be Headism’s (the name of their new religion) equivalent of a crucifixion, or a trial, or a gladiator spectacle–a public gathering around which some kind of justice is served to a person or small group of people for some kind of crime or wrongful act. Three such people are on display on this occasion–looking very much like Jesus on the cross with the two thieves on each side. They are being held down by ropes tied to steaks in the ground while balloons tied to their arms and backs pull them above the ground. Hanging from their necks are signs that say: “THiEF,” “GOTH,” and “MOVIE TALKER.” The one in the middle is patently goth, and the “THiEF” looks remarkably similar to Justin Roiland:
^ Shows you where their principles lie.
The idea is, as principle Vagina makes clear, that as soon as he snips the chord anchoring them to the ground, they will rise up to be “inhaled by the many heads” and then sneezed out as “better babies”. He goes through each one and, like a doctor, cuts their chords and utters: “Headward, free now to rise.”
^ It’s an interesting look at the way religion can work wonders at reconciling our need as a social species to rid ourselves of criminals and those who just don’t fit in without disturbing the tranquility of our conscience. I’ve explained this concept before here on ILP thus: it doesn’t matter what our religious convictions are–our brains will always find a way to allow us to behave according to our biology’s demands–with our basic needs for food, shelter, sex, freedom from harm, etc.–without feeling any cognitive dissonance or guilt over the prospect that we are going against our religious convictions. For example, in Christianity, it is preached that we ought to turn the other cheek, that we ought to lay down our lives for those who would harm us–yet in the middle ages, there is no question that the religious authorities sanctioned the use of torture and punishment upon those who would defy the law and all that was sacred (i.e. those who would harm us). How is this possible? How is it that a religious people could go from one extreme–the sanctification of martyrdom for one’s enemies and the forgiveness of their sins–to the polar opposite–the torture and persecution of those whose crime was no less innocent than doubting? The answer is: the brain is just that capable. It is capable of staying fully committed to certain moral principles and belief while allowing one’s behavior to go in the exact opposite direction. How? Simply by forming excuses–that is, reasons that, in principle, conform to one’s beliefs and values, while in practice permit those actions and practical consequences that allow for one’s basic biological needs (in this case, to deter and remove criminal and socially harmful behaviors) to be fulfilled. So long as such excuses make sense in one’s mind, one can allow one’s self to engage in any behavior regardless of one’s principles, beliefs, and values. In this episode of Rick and Morty, we see the cult of Headism finding a way to removing “troublemakers” from their community without having to consider it actual “removal”–they’ve convinced themselves that they are actually doing these criminals a favor–much like the torture, persecution, and killing of heretics in the middle ages was seen as a vindication of their sins in the eyes of God, thereby balancing their “check book” of sins and righteousness so as to give them the opportunity to get into Heaven. In Headism, letting an identified criminal to float away under the levitating force of a few hundred balloons (thereby getting rid of him) is seen as giving them the privileged opportunity to be reborn as “better babies” once the heads “inhale” them. ← Aren’t they just a bunch of saints?!
The Smiths watch as each one of them rise into the air. Summer, with jubilant vigor bellows out: “Oh yes, yes, rise to the giant head! You are free to be free!” while Beth and Jerry stare in stupefaction, Jerry’s ice cream falling off the cone–so much for Jerry’s going with the flow (<-- ice cream is often a motif in the Rick and Morty series; here it seems obvious what it represents: the creature comforts of pleasant falsehoods, for as soon as Jerry’s comfortable illusion of going-with-the-flow shatters before his eyes, the ice cream drops).
Back at the recording studio, Ice-T and Rick are cracking each other up with stories about lobsters and squeegees. Ice-T notices they’re out of fig newtons. “I should get going anyway,” he says. Rick encourages him to stay by temporarily portaling into another dimension and then returning with loads of snack (including fig newtons). “Daaamn,” says Ice-T, “You didn’t tell me you fucked around with portals and shit.”
This pisses Morty off. How can Rick, in one instance, insist that he and Morty preserve the already-low charge on his portal gun so as to give them the best chances of portaling out of there when the need arises, and in another instance, so recklessly use up charge portaling into a different dimension just to get snacks and encourage Ice-T to stay. It seems the gig is up. Morty grabs the portal gun. Morty calls Rick on his bluff. There was plenty of charge left after all. Rick essentially lied to Morty.
Morty begins to act rashly. Rick tries, speaking calmly and rationally, to encourage Morty to put the portal gun down: “You don’t know what you’re doing,” he warns. Whether Rick is in the right or wrong here, he’s at least right about that. But Morty isn’t having any of it. He opens a portal and before jumping through, yells: “I’m going to go find mom and dad.” Then it closes, leaving Rick and Ice-T behind… and no portal gun.
This begins a sort of quasi-mini-adventure on Morty’s part as he jumps in and out of worlds he’s completely unfamiliar with and hasn’t the faintest idea how to make heads or tails of:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dh6EedzBNiY[/youtube]
Morty clearly had no clue what he was doing.
Cutting back to the rest of the Smiths, the residential streets have been transformed to a potato farm. Principle Vagina rides down the street on his bike and announces into a megaphone: “Hi folks, head priest Vagina. Thanks for farming all those potatoes. It’s 6:00 PM so if you’re a parent, you’re now entitled to adoration from your children.” Summer, a little too eager, offers to make dinner. Beth and Jerry are more than happy to let her do this. They agree that Summer’s recent happiness, attributed to the influence of headism on her, is a healthy thing. “She’s aced every test in potato class,” says Jerry, “and look how important potatoes have become.”
^ Beth is being won over to headism, the selling point being Summer’s happiness. And just to drive the point home, another man hanging from balloons floats by asking for help. Beth says: “That’s not our business as long as Summer’s thriving.” So whereas before, Beth and Jerry were shocked at witnessing the ascension, prompting them to question the appropriateness of headism, now they simply ignore it so long as it is helping their daughter.
Summer makes tacos. Jerry expresses his appreciation and also that Summer doesn’t have to do this, to which she replies: “Of course I do, silly!” ← Then she goes on a major guilt trip apologizing profusely for calling her dad “silly,” and falls to her knees in prayer begging the heads for forgiveness: “Heavenly head and cranial creator, forgive my transgressions against family and community! May my chores complete me as I complete them!” She then scurries up stairs as Beth and Jerry watch in stupefaction. ← What at first appeared to be good for their daughter suddenly appears to be terrible.
Morty finally emerges into Bird Person’s reality. We don’t know this at first, only that there appear to be tree dwellings in the distance, something an aviational creature might appreciate. Morty looks badly beaten, weak and exhausted. He flops to the ground immediately after coming through the portal. A shadow of a winged figure falls over him. He pokes Morty with a stick, then flips him over. Then we see that it’s Bird Person. “You appear to be dying,” says Bird Person, “I will make efforts to prevent this, but can promise nothing.”
(It can’t just be coincidence that Morty happened to stumble into Bird Person’s world (even if there are multiple versions of Bird Person), which leads me to believe that Rick’s portal gun has certain “pre-set” realities programmed into it–like how there’s typically 6 slots on a car stereo to which you can set specific stations–and Morty probably happened to hit the “Bird Person world” setting.)
Back at the studio, Rick is slapping together a mediocre song on the keyboard. Ice-T is sitting in the corner texting. Rick turns around to ask his opinion. “A bad song’s a bad song,” he says. Rick asks for some help. Ice-T responds: “Ah, hell no man, you do your thing, but I can’t afford to get my pride wrapped up in your shame, you know what I’m saying?” Rick responds: “Ice, I don’t want to be a negative Nelly or anything, but-burp-if Morty doesn’t come back with my portal gun and I eat it out there, it’s, uh, kinda your problem too.” Ice-T expresses that he doesn’t care about the Earth getting blown up. When asked why, he says: “Yo, this is why,” and then transforms into this:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4kTksiW7fE[/youtube]
This almost seems to hint at a parallel between Rick and Ice-T, like Ice-T represents an earlier version of Rick, aimlessly travelling through the cosmos not caring about anything. Rick even seems to speak from personal experience when he says: “Take it from me, Ice, y-burp-ou can’t just-burp-float around space not caring about stuff forever.” Like he’s been there, done that. ← Perhaps he hearkens back to the days before he reunited with the Smith family.
I’m also unsure why Ice-T’s ice form lacks arms. In the post-credit scene, where we get to see him transformed back into his true water form (he’s really Water-T), he at least had arms which formed the horizontal line at the top of the T. So along with being turned to ice, he apparently lost his arms.
Still dedicated to helping Rick “get schwifty”, the president expresses his intention to get Rick everything he needs. This is the last straw for Nathan, an aggravated general, as he pulls out a gun and points it at the president. He expresses his intention to launch nuclear missiles at the heads one minute into Rick’s performance, and then knocks the president out by wacking his gun into his head.
Bird Person places a bowl of little bits and crumbs on the table in front of Morty who digs into it with a spoon. Bird Person, sitting beside him on the couch with the portal gun, says: “I believe I can access the history of Rick’s gun and help you get back to him.” Morty asks him if he can help him get back to his family. Bird Person questions this: “Is your intention to abandon Rick using his own portal gun? In bird culture, this is considered a dick move,” to which Morty snaps back: “All of Rick’s moves are dick moves!” He then questions what he’s eating. Bird Person answers: “It is random debris. I found it in my carpet. I don’t know what humans eat.” Then Tammy comes in wearing a robe and says: “You know what this person eats,” and then whispers to Morty: “Bird dick.”
Brushing aside Tammy’s lewd comment, Morty digs into Bird Person for standing up for Rick: “Bird Person, you always stick up for Rick, but he doesn’t care about anyone but himself. He doesn’t think about the consequences of anything he does,” to which Bird Person responds: “And as a result, he has the power to save or destroy entire worlds. And he is the reason you and I know each other. And the reason I’m alive at all.” Bird Person points to the wall where Morty sees a series of pictures featuring Rick and Bird Person. There’s one with a younger version of Rick putting his arm across Bird Person’s shoulders with what looks like one of Da Vinci’s airplane models behind them (not sure what the gag is here: the irony of Bird Person inventing a flying machine?). Another has Bird Person, Rick (again much younger, blond hair), and Squanchy rocking out in a band called “The Flesh Curtains”. And then there’s one with Rick holding what looks like a baby Morty about to cry as he looks at his grandpa (almost as if looking into his future and seeing the horror).
I suppose Bird Person’s point is that one ought not to think of a person who doesn’t care about anything or think about the consequences as guaranteed to bring nothing but disaster and hardship to those around him. A person who truly doesn’t care can be expected to make much more random decisions, just as likely to bring good to the world as bad (I now think about season 3 episode 6: Rest and Ricklaxation; Rick is healthiest, at his most likable, and has the most positive influence over those around him when he utterly doesn’t care about anything). A person who doesn’t care wouldn’t care what consequences he brings to the world. And this certainly seems to play out in the theme of performing at one’s best when completely relaxed. Rick is relaxed because he doesn’t care, and because this allows him to perform at his best, he is in the best state possible to save the world from the Cromulon’s death ray. Morty’s insistence that Rick care more (to the point of stressing out) is therefore ironic since it would potentially bring about their destruction.
“What’s that? Who’s that baby?” Morty asks. Dismissing the question, Bird Person drives his point home: “Morty, suppose you could retrieve your family from Earth but had to abandon Rick. I could give your loved ones shelter on Bird World, even jobs, possibly as worm ranchers. How often do you think you might look up at the stars and wonder what might have been had you just put your faith in Rick?” Morty thinks for moment.
^ Adding to his previous point, Bird Person seems to be saying that though it may not make sense to Morty why Rick is so relaxed, that doesn’t mean Morty is right. Faith is what we must fall back on when we don’t have reason. Bird Person seems to be saying that perhaps Morty needs a bit of faith in Rick. Given that, in the past, Rick has always gotten himself and Morty out of every sticky situation they’ve gotten themselves into (though it’s usually Rick who gets them into those situations), and given that Rick is a super-genius, Morty doesn’t have to understand the methods behind Rick’s madness in order to keep faith that Rick will save the day in the end… and if Rick seems relaxed about the whole thing, maybe that means Morty can relax too. Up until this point, Morty has been fighting Rick, mistaking his relaxed attitude for not caring enough to try, and therefore approaching the problem as if he’s the only one who can do anything about it. Morty, lacking faith in his musical talents, is stoked to bail on the situation, preferring instead to get to his family and portal out of there. But there is a lesson he hasn’t learned yet: Rick always saves the day, all the more smoothly the more Morty just goes along with it.
Tammy has the TV tuned into Planet Music. Earth is next up. Despite Bird Person’s recent lesson, Morty panics: “We’re up?!?!”
Principle Vagina, in a church with others in the “priestly cast” are commending Jerry and Beth on being upstanding examples of good headists. Vagina informs them that they want to make headism a world religion, and would like Jerry to be the head of advertising, and Beth, head of medicine. Beth jumps up: “That’s my dream!!! That’s my dream.”
Before they even have a chance to respond, the priestly cast are shaking each other’s hands. Then Jerry and Beth drop the bomb: they reject the offer. Beth explains that even though they are thrilled that Summer is thriving because of headism, they would rather see her thrive as the person she really is, not what headism has made her into. Summer’s display of being overwhelmed with guilt over calling her father “silly” obviously made an impression on Beth and Jerry. Though happy to see Summer doing so well, they don’t want it at the cost of her psychological well-being. This is especially admirable on Beth’s part given that she is giving up what she just admitted was her dream. And though he didn’t say it, I think the same would go for Jerry as well–I mean, if winning an award for Hungry for Apples made him feel complete, imagine what being promoted to head of advertising would mean to him (incidentally, the way the priestly cast shake each others’ hands reminds me of the way the simulated suits shake each others’ hands after listening to Jerry’s Hungry for Apples pitch; I wonder if this is one purpose). But they both give up their dreams for Summer’s sake. Maybe there’s hope for them as parents after all.
To top it off, Jerry then turns to Beth and says: “I’m sick of pretending that we’re together because of the kids in the first place. I married you because you’re the love of my life!” Beth responds: “And I’m lucky to have you and I never tell you that! You know, we will come out of this stronger as a family!” ← As touching as this moment is, I wonder what the connection is between it and their rejection of the headists’ offer. Jerry does tell them right before expressing his undying love for Beth: “We’ll take our chances raising her without fancy new jobs outside of a potato-based religion.” ← It’s almost as if they are relocating their faith. If at first, they placed their faith in headism, then after renouncing headism (which I suppose is what their rejection of the headists’ offer amounts to), they must place their faith in something else: each other. ← If this is the case, it makes me wonder if Jerry’s words are actually true, or he just all of a sudden feels this way about Beth because he just put his faith into her (and Beth him).
^ And on this point, is it just coincidence that the topic of faith comes up again? We didn’t have to search for any hidden meaning in Bird Person’s speech to Morty in order to understand it was all about faith–where Morty places his–and there is no question that the secondary plot line centers around faith–religious faith in this case. Maybe this is really what this episode is all about.
But the next scene has Beth and Jerry tied to balloons about to ascend to the many heads. Beth pleads with Summer to do something as Summer fills another balloon with helium. Summer’s faith in headism still runs strong as she reassures her parents, and seems to fully believe, that they will come back as babies. She is completely okay with this, not seeing any potential harm that could come of this at all (reinforcing the point I made earlier: that the mind always finds a way to be okay with doing what our biology compels us to do as a means to survive). Jerry cries out: “I am a baby! I’m a baby now!!!” ← Anything to get out of a sticky situation.
Morty portals back into the studio. He finds the president on the floor with his arms and legs tied and a rag around his mouth. Morty sets the president free. The president informs Morty of the general’s plan to nuke the giant heads mid-way through Rick’s performance. Morty asks him if he can fly a black hawk. The president responds: “Can the pope’s dick fit through a donut?” Morty says: “Uh… I’m not sure?” “Exactly!” says the president.
Rick’s on. All the heads are watching him. The head head utters his signature line: “Show me what you got!!!” Rick, with a huge pair of shades on, starts playing something pathetically amateurish (worse than the Meterosians). The look his face betrays a lack of confidence. He starts chanting some meaningless garbage: “Uh… Labu, labu, labu, nups. Labu, labu, labu, dups.”
^ It’s obvious that Rick is not comfortable, as if to say that he needs Morty by his side to feel confident. We might glean from this that Rick’s talent and his genius depend to a certain degree on Morty. Or it might just mean that Rick is nervous because he knows that without his portal gun, he can’t just bail on the situation should the Cromulons disapprove of his performance. Or perhaps Rick just feels compelled to act dumb because without Morty by his side, there’s nothing to shield his brain waves from being detected by his enemies (why he would risk his own life and that of the Earth just so as not to be detected is not entirely explained, but perhaps he figures that if his brain waves are discovered, he’s dead anyway). In any case, it’s obvious that without Morty by his side, his performance suffers.
While this is happening, Vagina is about the cut the chord on Beth and Jerry: “Free now to rise,” he says. Mr. Goldenfold interrupts: “Hey! Look at the heads! Looks like the heads are gettin’ angry!” ← They still seem to be drawing causal connections where it is only a correlation. The angry look upon the heads are obviously in response to Rick’s poor performance. But it is nonetheless a fortuitous connection as it suggests that the heads disapprove of what they are about to do to Jerry and Beth, which will lead to their salvation from floating away.
Meanwhile, the president is flying a chopper (badly) to Area 51. Morty is in the passenger seat. “I’m really bad at this, Morty,” says the president, “There are way too many buttons in this thing.” “Mr. President,” says Morty with a fed up expression on his face, “if I’ve learned one thing today, it’s that sometimes, you have to not give a fuck!” ← Imagine that, Morty telling the president of the United States where it’s at.
Back to principle Vagina: he counters Goldenfold’s statement with “I’m sure that has… that has nothing to do with this.” ← Only now that it inconveniences him does Vagina refrain from making a causal connection. And this is so true of human thinking in general. We only think rationally when it serves our purpose. When it doesn’t, what’s the point of using logic and rationality? Vagina snips the rope. The heads start booing. Summer, having an ulterior motive to just getting rid of Jerry and Beth, takes the causal connection more seriously. “The heads are displeased!” she yells, and tries to pull her parents back down by clinging to their legs and hanging on. Ethan, Summer’s boyfriend, helps.
Then Rick looks up to see the black hawk hover over the stage. Morty and the president slide down on ropes and onto the stage. The heads stop booing and start cheering “Hooray!!!” The headists take this as a sign that the heads approve of Summer and Ethan pulling Jerry and Beth back to the ground. Goldenfold exclaims: “The heads love this! They love it when we don’t kill the Smith family!” “No! Stop that!” counters Vagina, “You’re not allowed to interpret the will of the heads!” ← Again, motive is everything: Vagina is losing credibility here, and thus his authority and power too.
Despite the president speaking into the microphone and the cameras, saying “Call off the nuclear strike! This is the President! Stop the nuclear missile launch!” Nathan personally overrides the order and launches a couple missiles. The missiles hit the main head on the chin, making only a fart noise, hardly causing a dent. (Though the point is obviously to show how meager the damage done to the giant head, these are supposed to be nuclear missiles; at least the explosion should have been colossal, but that wouldn’t have had the cinematic effect Roiland and Harmon intended.) So short of destroying the heads, thereby saving Earth, Nathan did nothing but piss the heads off, thereby endangering the Earth.
The heads start booing again. Back to principle Vagina, who attempts to assert his authority with “I’m the only one that speaks to the heads!” the main head moves closer to the Earth and utters: “Disqualified!!!” The headists, of course, interpret this to mean principle Vagina’s authority has just been revoked. The group storms Vagina and takes him down to the ground.
The heads repeats: “Disqualified!!! Disqualified!!!” as Rick, Morty, and the president watch. The giant planet destroying gun turns to the Earth and starts charging up. Just as it fires a giant laser, Ice-T, still in ice form, intercepts the laser. The laser is effectively blocked, Ice-T’s ice body taking the impact, cracking and breaking apart. “That’s right,” he says, “it’s me, Ice-T! I care now! You made me care more! With all due respect [to the giant heads], I’d like to hear what Rick and Morty have to play.” ← He must be made of an amazingly solid block of ice given that the laser is meant to destroy entire planets within milliseconds!
Morty with all his faith in Rick, and Rick with his confidence restored, suddenly get their second wind. They begin to play “Head Bent Over”:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQtOJXiBkx0[/youtube]
^ You’ll note in that scene that the headists place principle Vagina in the position of being raised by balloons. Also that, whether due to Rick and Morty’s stellar performance or because it was pre-planned, the Cromulons decide that Earth is the final winner after 988 seasons, after which point Planet Music will be discontinued. Earth is teleported back to the solar system.
Overhearing the announcement about Planet Music the reality TV show, Mr. Goldenfold asks “Did he just say… musical reality show?” “Yeah,” Jerry replies, “It’s possible that we may have been correlating some things that weren’t actually related… at all.” ← So that’s it, they become disillusioned and Headism falls.
Back at the stage, the president is thanking Morty for saving the world: “I hope I can call on you and Rick again if I need you, Morty.” “Sure thing,” says Morty pulling out his phone, “And I was kinda hoping that I could get a selfie with you.” “Actually,” says the president ushering in a few of his men-in-black, “if you try to tell anyone what happened here, we’ll deny it and probably worse.” The men in black take Morty’s phone and break it. ← Now, it isn’t obvious unless you’ve seen the season 3 finally, but the president’s request to call on Rick and Morty again, plus the selfie Morty wants, will come up again and be a pivotal mechanism in The Rickchurian Mortydate, the last episode of season 3.
Then, like a mad man, Nathan comes charging in with a gun screaming. Before he does any damage, Rick zaps him with his snake transforming watch. We don’t immediately see a snake though, just a puff of clouds and Nathan’s gone. When the president questions why Nathan didn’t turn into a snake, Rick says: “Trade secret, Mr. President: Particle beam in a wrist watch, snake holster on the leg.” He lifts his pant leg up to reveal a holster from which a snake (previously Nathan) slips out and slithers away. The president laughs a hardy laugh, hugs Rick, and shouts out: “I love this man!!!”
Credits roll and then we get the post-credit scene:
Ice-T is reuniting with his own kind. He is greeted in a giant hall by Magnesium-J, Hydrogen-F, and Fire-Q. Ice-T greets Fire-Q as his father. News of his nearly self-sacrificial act back on Earth has arrived here. They declare his exile terminated and transform him back into water, both his arms fully restored, allow him to take the form of a capital T. Then the “Numericons” attack. Pieces of the hall begin to fall from the ceiling. Fire-Q, his father, gets crushed by one. In a brave act to avenge his father, Water-T pulls out a couple guns, one in each hand, and moves towards the door. When told there are too many of the Numericons, he simply says “Then I’d better crunch the numbers.”
He steps out the door, yelling and firing his guns in both directions, get a few numerals. ← The scene freezes and that’s the end.
WOW!!! All in one post! Well, except for the PHILOSOPHICAL THOUGHTS and FINAL THOUGHTS, but still, that’s saying something. I guess it’s because this episode, save for the rich religious material it dishes up, is rather dry of philosophical insight. Maybe there’s a reason for that: maybe Harmon and Roiland weren’t even trying for a reason. They wanted Get Schwifty to suck so bad they couldn’t fill it with anything worth writing about. Shitting on the floor will do. If there’s a moral to this episode, it might be that even if you suck, so long as you’re relaxed in your suckhood, everyone else around you will suck even worse. ← And this remains true for me: even though this is probably my least favorite episode, it still blows its competition out of the water (ex. Family Guy).