Rick and Morty - S2E7 - Big Trouble in Little Sanchez (Part I)
This episode of Rick and Morty opens with a bit of a red herring. The discussion around the breakfast table veers almost immediately onto the topic of vampires. Apparently, there are vampires at Morty and Summer’s school, one of which killed one of the lunch ladies. But this episode is not about vampires. The vampire motif is just a catalyst to usher in the real theme of this episode: Rick reliving his teenage years. Helping his grand kids hunt down vampires apparently requires becoming a teenager (principle Vagina even mentions that he knows Rick is really an 80 year old man in a cloned adolescent body, and that it never really bothered him), and its this which is the real theme of this episode.
This allows Harmon and Roiland to go down a whole new scientific avenue: psychoanalysis. We explore the complexities of Rick’s mind when it gets repressed into the unconscious, and how even from there his genius breaks through in amazing ways.
The secondary plotline might also be said to explore the psychological dynamics of Jerry and Beth with respect to their marriage and how they perceive each other. As they visit an alien facility of rather unorthodox marriage counseling methods, they get a chance to see how their marriage would pan out between two alien monster versions of themselves, or rather how they perceive each other, as a means of demonstrating how, when taken to extremes, such perceptions, if they were real, could not possibly pan out in a relationship. Though this may sound a bit convoluted as phrased, it will become more clear as we get to the details. But in any case, the outcome of this will be another instance of Jerry manning up.
I’d also like to say that this episode strikes a chord with me. The idea of reliving my teenage years is something I long for–that is, reliving those years as a popular kid; it should come as no surprise that I have a Rick complex (an inner Rick, or a longing to be Rick) and it just seems so convenient that Rick, in this episode, wants to relive his teenage years. It’s almost as if Roiland and Harmon see a connection between the two–those with a Rick complex and those who wish to relive their teenage years–as if the Rick complex is borne out of “missing out” on the popularity that every angsty adolescent longs for. Those who didn’t get to experience it develop a Rick complex… or so the idea would go.
But in any case, this episode, like I said, begins with a discussion around the breakfast table about vampires. A few subtle Easter eggs hint that we are looking at an alternate timeline–not C-137: Summer bellows out: “Vampires are real!!!” and Rick answers: “Yes Summer, vampires are real. Who knew? Oh right, all humanity for hundreds of years now.” ← So if Rick is saying that the reality of vampires is common knowledge among all humanity, then that suggests that we are looking at a timeline in which vampires are commonplace (I mean, that could have been the case all along, even in dimension C-137, but I think that if that were the intent, we would have seen more of it, or at least hints of it). Then there’s the box of Strawberry Smiggles on the breakfast table. If you recall, Strawberry Smiggles was a cereal the commercial for which was aired on interdimensional cable in episode 8 of season 1. In that episode, Morty, and even Rick, are a bit shocked at the gore and violence in the commercial, suggesting that they don’t have Strawberry Smiggles in their reality (or if they do, they don’t get commercials for it like this… but I think the idea is that if they’re getting it through interdimensional cable, Strawberry Smiggles is indeed from another dimension). But there it is on the breakfast table, suggesting that this is the reality from which that channel came through to C-137’s interdimensional cable box. Even if there are several dimensions which feature Strawberry Smiggles, C-137 certainly isn’t one of them (assuming the reality featured in the interdimensional cable episode was C-137). And perhaps we get an idea of why the commercial for Strawberry Smiggle is so violent–in a world plagued by blood sucking, human slaughtering vampires, blood, gore, and violence might be commonplace, and so it isn’t a huge shock for the inhabitants of this reality to have it in their commercials.
The subject of vampires comes up because Jerry asks what’s new at school. That’s when Morty brings up the lunch lady who dies from getting all the blood drained from her body through two holes in the neck. Summer, in one of her desperate pitches to get Rick to go on an adventure with her, suggests that Rick turn himself into a teenager so that he can come to their school and help them hunt down the vampires. Both Morty and Rick call her on her desperation: Morty: “Um… wow,” Rick: “Yeah, pretty specific pitch, Summer.” Rick goes on to express his utter disgust in the very idea of becoming a teenager and voices his contempt that she even asked that (this is deliberate on the part of the writers–they want a stark contrast between what old Rick thinks of the idea and what young Rick thinks–a diametric clash between conscious and unconscious desires).
(There’s also Morty’s line: “Yeah, Summer, it’s a big universe. Get used to it. Right Rick?” ← in a tone implying he’s only saying it to impress Rick… as if to say, they’re both launching pitches, Morty out of an excess of Rick-time, Summer out of deprivation of Rick-time.)
Next, we get a little taste of Beth and Jerry’s marital issues (not that we haven’t had plenty of that already); they get into a tiff over the fact that Jerry is too busy playing on his balloon popping game on his iPad to be paying any attention to the conversation about vampires (ironic since he started the whole conversation, and Beth, who wasn’t even there when the conversation started, caught every word). Rick, fed up with all the bickering, implores them to either fix their marriage or get a divorce. Jerry brings up the fact that they’ve tried a therapist. Rick says: “That’s Earth therapy. You might as well as ask a horse to fix a marry-go-round. I mean, he’ll try his best but mostly he’s just gonna get horrified.” Then he mentions an alternative: “I know about a place that’s off planet with 100% success rate.” ← And there’s the segway into the secondary plotline. As soon as Beth mentions that they want to make it work, Rick spares not a second more. He grabs them by the arms and ushers them to his ship where he (presumably) plans to take them to this off-planet marriage counseling facility.
Morty and Summer are left alone in the kitchen. Morty voices a bit of angst about his parents getting a divorce. Summer responds with complete indifference, her only concern being to get stakes ready for the upcoming vampire slaughter.
On their way to Nuptia Four, the galaxy’s most successful couples’ counseling institute according to Rick, Rick explains to Jerry and Beth how awesome these guys are:
“They could save the marriage of a dog and a bar of dark chocolate. They could save the marriage of a porn star and a porn star.”
After a bit of bickering about who’s more ready for marriage counseling, Rick literally drops them off at the institution–through a latch at the bottom of his ship without even landing.
They are immediately greeted by Glaxo Slimslom, the head of this institution:
Glaxo ushers them in. He leads them to a room. He tells Jerry to sit down and put on a helmet. He does so and a scan of his brain shows up on a screen behind him. Glaxo explains:
“This machine isolates the part of the subject’s brain containing all perceptions of its romantic partner,” And to demonstrate how this works, Glaxo announces out loud before pulling a lever: “And we will now render Jerry’s perception of Beth with artificial biological life!”
He pulls the lever and from a thick beam of light and flashes of electricity is produced a life form that’s supposed to represents Jerry’s perception of Beth:
The Smiths are understandably shocked, Beth fuming with rage insisting that Jerry take it back, Jerry pleading that he didn’t do anything and asking if he can take it back.
Then it’s Beth’s turn. Here’s what she thinks of Jerry:
Beth takes off the helmet, holds it in the air, and says: “Read it and weep, bitch,” and drops the helmet on the floor.
It’s interesting the manner in which each one takes accountability for their own manifestations. Jerry pleads that he didn’t do anything and asks if he can take it back, while Beth is almost proud of her creation and talks as if she did it on purpose to spite Jerry. This also highlights a bit of hypocrisy on Beth’s part: while she expects something more flattering from Jerry’s manifestation, she doesn’t mind dishing out something humiliating and insulting for her own (though to be fair, it’s not clear what her attitude would have been if she went first).
And to top it off, Jerry bellows out in the most pathetic whine: “Does everybody see what I mean?” Glaxo says: “I think we all see what you both mean.” ← Meaning that they’re treatment of each other and overall behavior couldn’t be a better example of what their manifestations represent–Beth acting out the monster bitch she often is towards Jerry, and Jerry acting out the whiny little turd he often is in response to Beth.
It’s questionable why they would go to such great lengths–or rather use such bizarre methods–to help couples with their marital problems. I mean, I’m sure it helps to demonstrate to couples the ridiculously exaggerated proportions with which their perceptions of their partners do an incredible injustice, but the money spent on these machines and the cost of maintaining the resultant monsters must be enormous (who’s paying for Beth and Jerry? Rick?), not to mention the fact that it just seems so bizarre–it’s like a marriage councillor putting on a satirical play to express the marital problems that subsist between his patients as his therapeutic method–even if it works wonders at the cost of pennies, it would just be… weird. ← But of course, it is vitally instrumental to how the secondary plot line unfolds, so Roiland and Harmon had to do their best to rationalize it anyway they could.
We then cut to Harry Herpson High School where Summer meets Morty by his locker. She asks about vampire leads. Morty mentions something about the universe being too big to care about something as small as vampires–a bit of an ironic statement considering not only that vampires are actually kind of a big deal (except that we’re possibly seeing a universe in which vampires are commonplace) but that the word ‘small’ is incredibly fitting considering what happens next: Morty closes his locker to see “Tiny Rick” standing right behind it–that’s right, a teenage version of Rick–announcing his presence with “Whatup, my helsings!!!”:
^ Notice that he still has his grey hair.
^ And a smaller lab coat fit for fourteen year olds.
Rick explains (still in his old man voice): “Yeah, I got bored and then I remembered this morning how I blew Summer off and I thought: hey, why are you such a grumpy douche, Rick? Go to the garage, transfer your mind into a younger clone of yourself, and get embroiled in some youthful hijinks. What’s the BFD? So here I am! I’m Tiny Rick!!!”
So Rick does a complete 180–from chewing Summer out that morning for daring to even ask him to clone himself into a younger body to shouting his name “Tiny Rick!!!” down the high school halls as though boasting about his latest accomplishment.
Summer expresses her appreciation for Rick being here, saying that she wasn’t sure they could do it on their own. “Don’t short sell yourself Summer,” says Tiny Rick, “you got everything it takes. But it’ll still be fun to do this as a fucking team, motherfucking Tiny Rick!”
^ We see here an interesting twist in Tiny Rick’s attitude–he’s actually nice to Summer (and to an extent, nice period)–he’s not the same old grumpy fart we’re familiar with–and this plays out not only throughout the episode but in this very scene. For example, Toby Matthews, one of Summer’s crushes, a football player by the looks of it, walks by:
Summer: Oh my God, Toby Matthews!
Tiny Rick: Hey, Toby! I’m Tiny Rick. I’m new. Hey oh, go easy on me. Ha! Ha! Just kidding [friendly punch to the arm].
[brief pause]
Toby: I like your straightforward style… and that lab coat’s pretty cool. [walks past Summer] Summer.
Summer: He knows my name!
Tiny Rick: Why wouldn’t he? You’re great!
Rick Sanchez telling Summer that she’s great! Tiny Rick is definitely a very different Rick than Old Man Rick (as I will call him). And getting it on with the cool kids, like Tony Matthews, as if he, well, likes people! It’s almost as though this switch came not only with a new body but a whole new attitude–particularly, swapping his cynicism for amicability.
The exchange ends with the three of them walking down the hall with Tiny Rick bellowing out: “Huntin’ a vampire with my grandkids! Fuckin’ Tiny Rick!” ← Almost as though he’s going to enjoy the time spent with his grand kids rather than the actual vampire hunting. In fact, I’m wondering if this is really another Rick & Summer adventure (just like Raising Gazorpazorp–both episode #7 in each season). Rick seems to have taken a rather friendly turn particularly to Summer, saying to her: “Why wouldn’t he? You’re great!” If we recall the first words that came out of Tiny Rick’s mouth when Morty and Summer first saw him, “Yeah, I got bored and then I remembered this morning how I blew Summer off and I thought: hey, why are you such a grumpy douche, Rick? Go to the garage, transfer your mind into a younger clone of yourself, and get embroiled in some youthful hijinks,” we start to wonder if Rick might have felt a bit guilty about blowing Summer off, enough to call himself a grumpy douche. And now here he is making up for it. One wonders, in other words, whether Rick is really interested in some youthful hijinks, or in some bonding time with his granddaughter, if not both grandchildren. If this is the case, it shows what Old Man Rick is repressing and what Tiny Rick has come to terms with, but as we shall see, at the cost of many things Old Man Rick has already come to terms with and which Tiny Rick now represses.
To get a glimpse of how Glaxo works the monsters (the “mythologues” as he calls them) into the therapy, he takes a group of his clients on a tour of the institution:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EBfxewBLk1o[/youtube]
If we can assume this captures the gist of Glaxo’s methodology, we can glean this from his speech: that marriages, and relationships in general, fall apart because of the “mythologues” we project onto our partners. We see our partners as monsters, thus we treat them as monsters. This in turn, brings out the monster we see in them. This in turn brings out the monster within us (in self-defence from our own perspective), and this in turn reinforces the image of ourselves as monster from the point of view of our partners. Thus, the vicious cycle feeds on itself and eventually destroys itself, bringing the relationship down with it (this reminds me all too much of the self-fulfilling prophecy often seen in cases of paranoia that I touched on in episode 1 of season 2–particularly with respect to Rick’s paranoia that the other Ricks are out to kill him).
Further to this point, Glaxo also points out that we have a way to identify the falsehood of this paranoia from the start: if our partners really were the monsters we see them as, the relationship would have died a long time ago–they would be unsustainable–but the fact that Glaxo’s clients are not only still together but here at this establishment trying to resolve their marital problems testifies to the fact that neither partner can be fully the monster the other perceives them as: “We are not the monsters we sometimes see each other as because we are real and we are functional. That’s what makes us better than them. We can find solutions. We can adapt. We can communicate. And most importantly, we can work together.” It’s funny how we so seldom take this wisdom to heart–we are so ready to fully buy into our paranoid projects and completely ignore the other side of the coin. Why? Most likely because we are defensive creatures–more concerned with protecting ourselves from harm than seeing the good in others and taking a leap of faith in trust.
You might have also noticed the different kind of dynamic that goes on between Jerry and Beth’s mythologues. While all the other mythologues are attacking each other, Bethzilla (I’ll call her from here on in) is taking an entirely different approach. She wants to use Earthworm Jerry (calling him that) in some ploy to escape. This is because Jerry attributes extreme intelligence to Beth–she isn’t just a monster, she’s a monster who can out-smart pretty much anyone in the room. And Earthworm Jerry is all too ready to comply. This is because Beth attributes subservience to Jerry, obeying anything she commands out of fear and a lack of self-respect. Obviously, the relationship that subsists in their heads is different from the others–different in a way that the councillors at the Nuptia 4 institute didn’t anticipate–and specifically in a way that may be functional after all. Bethzilla and Earthworm Jerry seem to be “working together.”
(It’s weird that Earthworm Jerry turns out to be a shape shifter as well; in reaction to one of Bethzilla’s fierce roars, Earthworm Jerry flattens himself like a pancake; this is what prompts Bethzilla to signal him over to her side through the energy mesh, and also what gives her the idea evidently forming in her head which we will see later; the point for now being… I wonder what shape shifting is supposed to symbolize about Beth’s perception of Jerry? Perhaps that he’s like a sly chameleon?)
In comes Summer carrying a duffel bag full of bloody stakes: “Well, it was a tough adventure, but it paid off. Our school is vampire free!” She’s accompanied by Morty and Tiny Rick as they make their way into the garage.
^ This is what I mean when I say the vampire hunt is a red herring. It has absolutely nothing to do with the main plotline–we don’t even get to see the vampire slaughter–it’s just a device to give Rick a reason to become Tiny Rick. ← Similar to The Ricklantis Mixup from season 3 (also episode #7 like this one), in that Rick and Morty’s escapades to get some “mermaid puss” is a red herring.
In the garage with them is an incubation chamber with Rick’s original (naked) body suspended in liquid. Summer asks: “So, how exactly is your old body living in there, grandpa Rick?” “Oh, you know,” Tiny Rick says, “hyperbaric quantum fluid–burp–that kind of thing. It preserves living tissue. Not that there was much to preserve. Look at that mummy! Ha! Ha! Ha!”
^ Nothing wrong with a bit of self-directed humor, but this subtly hints at Tiny Rick’s disdain for his old age–a real contrast with his disdain for “zit-covered, hormone-addled, low-stakes” teenagers voiced earlier.
Tiny Rick prepares to transfer his mind back into his original body when Summer gets a text from Toby Matthews: “Oh my God! Toby Matthews is asking if my parents are still out of town and if we can have a party!” And then she says disappointedly: “Oooh! He’s asking if Tiny Rick will be here!” Tiny Rick thinks for a bit, then says: “Well, you know what, Summer? Tell him Tiny Rick will be here! And tell him to bring some brews!” ← It’s hard to tell here whether Rick is hesitating to return to his old body because he just loves being a teenager, or if he’s going out of his way for Summer… as if becoming a teenager has brought out some untapped compassion for his granddaughter… or both.
Both Morty and Summer are ecstatic. “Who can have fun with this old bastard hanging around, huh?” Tiny Rick says referring to his older body. They all laugh as Tiny Rick utters a variant of his famous catch phrase: “Wubbylubbydoobdoob!”
Next up to bat on Nuptia 4: Jerry and Beth’s mythologues. Glaxo says to the group while continuing on the tour: “Now, we have Beth and Jerry Smith from the planet Ee-arth. The Ee-arth relationships are simpler. It’s a primitive planet, so their dysfunctions are–” he halts at the site of an empty chamber–Bethzilla and Earthworm Jerry are nowhere to be found. It’s funny how highly complex their relation is despite Glaxo’s naive assumptions–and I think Beth’s intelligence is owed the credit.
A security guard enters the chamber and looks around. Behind him, we see a giant black blob camouflaged into the background. It opens its big bulgy eyes:
Those are Earthworm Jerry’s eyes. He’s covered in Bethzilla blood. Earthworm Jerry quickly returns to his natural form, revealing a menacing Bethzilla poised to attack the guard. She swats him with her tail, sending him careening into the energy grid where he burns instantly to ashes. Then Bethzilla leaves the room, Earthworm Jerry following close behind. Just to distract the crowd and stave off alarm, Glaxo invites everyone to the gift shop. But before he can even finish his sentence, Bethzilla bursts through the wall with Jerry wrapped snugly around her neck.
“Oh dear God no,” Glaxo whispers to himself, then out loud to everyone else: “THEY’RE CO-DEPENDENT!!! RUN!!!”
Then the slaughter begins.
On the surface, this seems like a bit of juvenile humor, but really it encapsulates a piercing statement on Roiland and Harmon’s part on the nature of Beth and Jerry’s marriage. Their central issue, the statement seems to say, is that they are co-dependent. Now, what’s the difference between being co-dependent and being in love? Being in love means you just want each other–you want and lust after each other for who you each are… all without having to change who you are. Being co-dependent, on the other hand, means that you need each other–not want, need–almost as an addiction–for some reason other than who you each are. And there really is a stark contrast between ‘need’ and ‘want’ here–co-dependent relationships are typically characterized by a love/hate dynamic. Though you need each other, you often don’t want each other. You see conflicts in co-dependent relationship just like we see between Beth and Jerry. An outside observer would conclude that they must hate each other, then go on to question why they remain together. They remain together because of dependency. Both have grown to depend on the other for some reason other than the love of who they are–and this need not be read onto too deeply, it’s not always something on a deep psychological or spiritual level–it could be something as mundane as money. One is financially dependent on the other. Or the law. One needs to be married in order to remain in the country legally. Being co-dependent, in other words, is perfectly compatible with hating the other person, to not want to spend a second more with them, but finding you’re hooked, utterly dependent on the other person for one reason or another, and so you cannot escape. ← They are the worst kinds of relationships–these are the kind from which you desperately want to escape but are painfully aware that you can’t.
So how does that end up in the kinds of disasters played out by Beth and Jerry’s mythologues? Yes, their mythologues are preposterous exaggerations of each one’s perception of the other, and I’m sure the caliber of chaos and mayhem they intend to cause is an equally preposterous exaggeration, but so long as it’s an exaggeration and not a lie, we have reason to question how it comes out of co-dependence. In other words, why does being co-dependent make a couple dangerous? Does it? I don’t see why it necessarily does–I mean, Beth and Jerry may cause a lot of harm and abuse to each other, but that’s true of all the mythologues here, so I don’t think it’s typical of co-dependent couples in particular; one might say the major disaster caused by Beth and Jerry’s conflicts is to their children, but this too I think can be said of any couple of parents constantly at each other’s throats–the only difference being that those parents who are only having problems getting along (as opposed to being co-dependent) will throw in the towel when the conflict becomes too great–and I hardly think it can be said, in this case, that this does any less harm to the children. No, I think that what the chaos and disaster caused by Bethzilla and Earthworm Jerry’s co-dependence represents is their distorted forms. Glaxo’s central lesson–that if our perceptions of our partners were real, the relationship would have died a long time ago (and maybe its members as well)–carries over to co-dependent relationships as well. It says that if Beth and Jerry’s perceptions of each other were real, their relationship would have destroyed the world a long time ago (or caused a lot more harm)–the fact that Beth and Jerry are not the monsters they see each other as is why their relationship, in reality, though co-dependent, has not caused any serious harm–not in any way unique to co-dependent relationship anyway (harm to the children, recall, is characteristic of any sour relationship).
It’s also a bit interesting to pick apart the characteristics of each mythologue and keep track of from whom those characteristics are projected. For example, we know that Bethzilla sees Earthworm Jerry as useful (which is why, unlike with all the other mythologues, she doesn’t immediately kill him). This obviously projects from Jerry. He thinks Beth keeps him around because she sees use in his subservience. But then again, Beth projects Earthworm Jerry as being subservient. So does this mean Beth does keep Jerry around because of his subservience? Well, let’s be careful. Beth, first and foremost, projects Jerry as a worm, as nothing but a squirmy coward–subservience falls out of that only because cowards tend to be subservient out of fear; IOW, maybe Beth is only projecting cowardice… but then again, why does Beth keep Jerry around? Well, based on Jerry’s words from Get Schwifty, “I’m sick of pretending that we’re together because of the kids,” the kids might be it. Remember, Beth got knocked up by Jerry at a very young age, and I don’t know what it’s like being a pregnant teenager, but I’ll bet that makes you pretty co-depedent (if not just dependent) on the father of your child. It’s possible, in other words, that all Beth sees in Jerry is the use to which his subservience can be put–namely, towards raising the children. I suppose the same analysis could be carried over to Beth’s perceptions of Jerry, why she thinks he sticks around. But I can’t really make much of it. She sees him as a coward. He is a coward. Her mythologue, though an obvious exaggeration, is at least pointing in the right direction. But how does being a coward make Jerry co-depedent on Beth? Maybe it’s the worm aspect, or what it symbolizes, that explains why Beth thinks Jerry sticks around. The worm obviously represents the slimy, sleazy side of Jerry, the part of him that sinks beneath the level of dignity and honor in order to get reassurance and validation from others. Beth even says in Autoerotic Assimilation, “[There] will never be enough support to satisfy you! … because you cling and you cling and you cling.” Is this why Beth thinks he sticks around? Because he leeches off her pity in order to feed his incessant need for reassurance and validation? It could be that Jerry’s clinging to Beth for reassurance and validation is symbolized by Earthworm Jerry’s clinging to Bethzilla for physical protection. Maybe the physical protection Earthworm Jerry seeks is symbolic for the ego protection that Jerry seeks. But in my mind, this is a stretch. So I’m at a bit of a loss to identify what in the mythologue symbolism represents that in Bethzilla which Earthworm Jerry is dependent on.
Overall, their co-dependence is disastrous because of this: as regular human beings, they are merely stuck in a marriage in which they are at each other’s throats, but as mythologues, they are the projections of Beth’s and Jerry’s worst perceptions of each other; though Glaxo assures us that the monsters that the mythologues are aren’t accurate representations of the real people they are projections of, the mythologues are productions of real biological life, and these exaggerated characteristics, though not representative, are nonetheless real of the mythologues themselves. Therefore, the co-dependence between Bethzilla and Earthworm Jerry means that they will reinforce and strengthen each other’s negative characteristics so as to continue to be able to depend on the other. Therefore, though they are not friends, they are a dangerous and almost unstoppable force when brought together.
A house party at the Smith’s house ensues–kinda reminiscent of Ricksy Business–with many of the same characters and the same red cups; Toby Matthews is flirting it up with Summer, complementing her blue shirt. “You’re looking real good,” he says. Pan over to Morty sipping from his cup. Jessica makes her way over: “So, is Tiny Rick your brother or cousin or–” she asks. Morty answers: “No, my grandpa just transferred his consciousness into a clone of himself so he could be in our high school.” “Cool,” she says.
As this conversation carries on, we see Tiny Rick pass by in the background with a guitar. “Hey, Tiny Rick’s playing guitar,” announces someone:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8uguHL3e-cY[/youtube]
Summer seems to be the only one who gets the awkwardness of the lyrics–and not just their awkwardness but their truth. Not even Morty bats an eye at the obvious cry for help that Tiny Rick’s song really is; he’s focused on Jessica, happy as a clam to be grooving with her. Summer too has a romantic distraction–Toby Matthews–but the message gets through to her nonetheless (proving that she’s the stronger of the two? The more mature? The more aware?).
It’s worth taking a moment at this point to analyze what just happened. It should be patently obvious that the lyrics to Tiny Rick’s song are not at all whipped up at the top of his head (as he puts it), but deliberately planned and delivered as a cry for help. The more interesting question is: deliberately planned by whom? Tiny Rick, the antsy teen he’s become, the one on the surface, or Old Man Rick, the elderly one we all know and love, the one on the inside? Tiny Rick certainly acts as if these lyrics are literally whipped up off the top of his head with no deeper meaning than a child’s nursery rhyme. We are lead to believe that if this really is a cry for help, it must be coming from the unconscious. If this is the case, Roiland and Harmon are certainly making a caricature of Freudian psychodynamics. Art, according to the Freudians, is one of the channels the unconscious uses to express itself when the usual channels are blocked–that is, expression from normal conscious thought–blocked from entering consciousness. The subject, in other words, represses certain thoughts and feelings, which forces the psyche to find other ways of expressing or venting them. Art is a viable way of doing this since it permits the subject the excuse: it’s just art. The subject can convince others, and himself, that the content of the art has absolutely nothing to do with any supposed repressed thoughts or feelings, that it’s all “whipped up off the top of his head.” Having no way of verifying the truth of this, everyone is left to just accept the subject’s word.
In most cases, any unconscious content that may come out in the subject’s art is subtle or obscure enough to go completely unnoticed. It can’t be too obvious lest everyone react like Summer in the scene above, least of all the subject himself; the point is to let it out without making it obvious. This is why I say Roiland and Harmon are making a caricature of Freudian dynamics–the unconscious content that comes out in Tiny Rick’s song are in-your-face obvious, and yet no one except Summer catches on. At the same time, however, this also has to be a statement about how intelligent Old Man Rick is. I think it becomes clear as the episode progresses that a more general statement about the teenage mind is being made here: that it is as capable of fooling itself as it is intelligent. The more intelligent, in other words, the more it can fool itself into believing anything. I think the statement being made in this scene is that Rick is so intelligent that, in the context of a teenage mind, he is capable of convincing himself to express this blatantly obvious cry for help without admitting that it is, in fact, a cry for help. In other words, he’s intelligent enough to, at once, come up with a way to express his cry for help in a patently obvious way, and have not just himself but everyone else convinced that it’s just meaningless lyrics to a song he whipped up off the top of his head. Rick wasn’t nearly as good at lying to himself this morning when he expressed his disdain for “zit-covered, hormone-addled, low-stakes” teenagers, but I guess the point is: that’s the Achilles’ Heal of the teenage mind.
(Then again, one has to wonder how much Rick represses; one has to wonder, for example, whether Rick really meant it in Something Ricked when he told Summer: Yeah, [not caring] is good. It’s the best. ← He obviously cared enough to be the over-protective father figure when Summer was fraternizing with the Devil. It might just be that the older we get, the more it makes a difference what we lie to ourselves about.)
Back on Nuptia Four, Bethzilla, with Earthworm Jerry around her neck, is tearing up the place, maiming and killing everyone in her path. Beth, Jerry, and Glaxo run together. They barely make it through a door before it closes behind them and a huge bulge suddenly forms from the impact of Bethzilla on the other side. Then Glaxo tears into Beth and Jerry:
“Your demonized mythologizations of each other are cooperating. [Jerry: Isn’t that good?] No! No! It’s bad! You have the single worst marriage I’ve ever witnessed! It shouldn’t exist! You should never… ever… ever have gotten together and I do not understand how, or why, you would ever stay together.”
All philosophies of accountability and blame aside, I think Glaxo is simply being portrayed here as a distasteful character, blaming others for the results of his own methods and technology. Jerry and Beth were literally thrown into this situation and at no point were they in control or knowledgeable of what was happening. One could say that Bethzilla and Earthworm Jerry would never have come into existence if they ended their relationship a long time ago, but they could never have foreseen this. On the other hand, Glaxo might simply be blaming them for sustaining a terrible relationship, not for their part in creating the monsters that are Bethzilla and Earthworm Jerry. But like I said, I don’t think the point of this scene is to go deep into a philosophy of accountability and blame but just to show the repugnant character Glaxo becomes when things don’t go according to plan.
This is especially true in Jerry and Beth’s case since, unlike all the other clients, they didn’t volunteer to be here. They were dragged along and dropped off by Rick. So to be fair, they can’t really be blamed for dragging their marital issues here to Nuptia Four where not only are they unqualified to handle co-dependent relationships but are proving to be self-destructive when given such a relationship.
They manage to find their way outside where a ship with other Nuptia Four therapists await them. “There’s only room for one more,” they hear. “I’m a therapist,” Glaxo reassures them, “I’ll talk to them.” He runs to the ship shouting, “They’re not therapists! Go! Go! Go!” The ship takes off as Glaxo climbs aboard, leaving Beth and Jerry stranded with Bethzilla and Earthworm Jerry lurking around the premises.
Beth suggests finding a control room to contact Rick. Jerry finds a panel on the wall that opens, revealing a small compartment behind it. “If you can find one too, we should be safe for hours, maybe days!”
^ From the looks of it, that compartment could probably fit three people… but the point is to show an example of Jerry’s petty, selfish character–indeed, the whole reason their marriage is failing (er, half the reason). Petty and selfish in such an oblivious way, Jerry has no idea, even in the midst of saying it, that he is being petty and selfish. A real man, one would think, a man a woman could fall for, would offer the compartment to his wife; he would sacrifice himself for the woman he loves. Jerry is doing the exact opposite without even realizing it.
Beth suddenly begins to see reason in Glaxo’s words: “You stay put, Jerry. I’ll send help if I make it. [Jerry: You don’t want to find your own little hatch?] Jerry, I believe that if you hide by yourself, you might survive, and I believe I, by myself, have a shot of getting out of here, but the two of us? Together? I don’t know… Look, maybe the shrink was right… Good luck.”
I guess the lesson Beth is getting out of this is that the outcome of any situation either of them might find themselves in is bound to be better if they face that situation separately rather than together. Together, they are more of a destructive force to each other and everyone around them than they ever could be apart. Beth is not saying she wants to abandon Jerry–she’ll send help if she makes it–but that their best chances of success will be met if they take their own measures into hand separately. If she hides in a compartment like Jerry, they may survive for a few days but not indefinitely. If Jerry follows her in her attempts to escape, he’ll only slow her down and ultimately spell both their dooms. But if Jerry hides and she tries to escape, they both stand a chance of surviving.
But before Beth can get very far, Bethzilla makes an explosive entrance. She bursts through the floor and knocks Beth on her ass. Bravely, Beth points her finger at Bethzilla and admonishes, “Ok, you listen to me!”–almost as if to stand up against Jerry’s image of her. Bethzilla picks her up in her claws. “Or don’t,” Beth says. Jerry, kinda bravely, steps out of his compartment and pleads with Bethzilla, “Hey!.. Don’t… please!” Bethzilla sics Earthworm Jerry after him. Jerry runs in fear as Earthworm Jerry chases him down the halls of Nuptia Four.
I find it interesting that when Jerry sees Beth is in trouble, he steps out of his hiding place and at least pleads with Bethzilla.
Mr. Goldenfold gives Morty’s class the day off for having an awesome party with Tiny Rick the other night. Everybody cheers and abruptly leaves the classroom, all except for Morty and Tiny Rick. Summer walks in. She inquires about Tiny Rick’s plans to merge back into his old man body. “No can do,” says Tiny Rick, “Tonight’s the big dance and Morty’s bringing Jessica. He needs his tiny wing man.” Morty and Tiny Rick hi-5 each other. After pressing Tiny Rick to say when he plans to return to his old man body, and being brushed off by both Tiny Rick and Morty, Summer pulls out a drawing by Tiny Rick which says at the bottom: “Help me Morty and Summer.”
“What if the you that likes [being young] isn’t you?” she questions. “Come on, Summer,” says Tiny Rick, “That’s the title of the art.” That’s when Summer lays it on thick, hitting Tiny Rick with the harsh truth: “Grandpa, I think that when you put your mind into this body’s young brain, it did what young brains do: it shoved the bad thoughts into the back and put a wall around them. But those bad thoughts are the real Rick. The fact that you’re old, the fact that we’re all going to die one day, the fact that the universe is so big nothing in it matters. Those facts are who you are. So you’re trapped in there and you can only come out in the form of Tiny Rick’s teen angst.” But again, Tiny Rick and Morty brush it off treating Summer like she’s just being lame. (Marty’s “get your shit together” speech follows.)
Despite the irony of Summer encouraging this idea to begin with, she shows quite the depth of insight here, admitting profound truths that, as she claims, people her own age shove into the back and put a wall around. Morty, though a bit younger than her, serves as a prime example: “Summer, he’s happy! I’m happy! I-I-is that why you’re doing this? You don’t want me and Rick to be happy?” Though obviously feeding a bit of denial here, Morty might have a point. Arguably, Tiny Rick isn’t doing anything wrong. So what if he lives the rest of his life having recovered his youth (at least, in the beginning)? So what if his old man body is left to die and rot away? What’s wrong with having a little fun in life? There is the question of what Beth would think: her father now being half her age, but that’s an awkwardness she could get used to. But Summer’s beef with this is not rooted in moral righteousness but in Rick’s glaringly obvious cries for help. Summer just sees this–she’s picked up the distress beacon–and is trying to respond. Overall, it seems Summer is right, and Tiny Rick and Morty are just distracting themselves from the harsh truth with a bit of adolescent fun.
Back on Nuptia Four, Jerry’s still being chased by Earthworm Jerry, that is until he gets backed up into a dead end in the hallway. He turns around and puts up his fists, and still with a tone of fear, beckons “Get back!” Earthworm Jerry recoils, letting out a fart. “Wait, for real?” says Jerry, “You’re how Beth sees me? […] How can Beth have these thoughts about me?! That judgmental monster bitch!” Jerry’s right to be surprised by the fact that Earthworm Jerry is how Beth sees him because, as Glaxo explained, “we are not the monsters we sometimes see each other as.” Jerry is far less of a cowardly worm than this mythologue conjured up in Beth’s mind makes him out to be. The proof is in this very scene. While Jerry may have started out running away from Earthworm Jerry, when he is forced to confront him (due to the dead end), he finds that he can take command, just like Bethzilla did, wearing the pants, so to speak, in the relationship: “Turn around.” he says, “I said turn around!” and Earthworm Jerry immediately obeys. “I want to know where my wife is,” he commands, “You are going to help me.” So in a standoff between Jerry and Earthworm Jerry, Jerry comes out on top, proving that he is not as much a coward as Beth sees him. He does have his moments.
Where is Jerry’s wife at the moment? Being used like a tool by Bethzilla. She (Bethzilla) shoves Beth into a chair, rips out a metal trust from the under the floor, bends it into an arch, and anchors Beth to the chair with it like a metal harness at an amusement park ride.
“What do you want?” Beth questions. “Jerries,” Bethzilla answers. Bethzilla straps the helmet onto Beth’s head and pulls the lever to start the mythologue generating engine. Predictably, a bunch of Earthworm Jerries start popping out of the materializer. When questioned about why she would want Jerries when Beth herself doesn’t even want Jerry, Bethzilla explains that she wants to create an army of Jerries (we’ve seen the destructive force Earthworm Jerry can exact, even if it isn’t on his own initiative, by virtue of his sheer body squashing earthworm strength). “The value of his subservience is wasted on you,” says Bethzilla, “I will use it to dominate the universe.” Beth challenges this: “Wouldn’t it make more sense to put my dumb ass husband in this chair, so you can make an army of your bad ass self?” Bethzilla responds with a bit of logical sense: “There could never be more than one of me.” ← So not only does Jerry think of Beth as an evil monster bitch, but someone who wants power all for herself.
Bethzilla continues: “I’m the smartest, strongest being alive because Jerry thinks you’re that much stronger and smarter than you are.” ← A bit revealing. Some of this, no doubt, comes from Beth being Rick’s daughter–and we all know Rick as “the smartest man in the universe” (at least according to the Gromflomites). Oddly enough, this seems to spawn off Earthworm Jerries at an alarmingly faster rate. What does this mean? Does it mean that when a person thinks highly of you, but you don’t think highly of yourself, the person just ends up looking lowly in your eyes (albeit, if Beth doesn’t think highly of herself, it might be just because Bethzilla insinuated it by saying she’s not as strong or smart as Jerry thinks she is).
Morty and Jessica arrive at the high school dance. They meet up with Tiny Rick dancing by himself. Another musical number with psychoanalytic undertones ensues:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gj1kTnfBXDo[/youtube]
Morty finally catches on: “Okay, that last part was really weird. Maybe Summer’s on to something here.” Jessica denies it, then asks Morty to slow dance (seems she likes him after all). Morty quickly forgets his angst.
^ I think this is the first time in the series Morty and Jessica have a “romantic” moment (aaawww)–but then again, everyone loves Tiny Rick, which would make anyone close to Tiny Rick (like Morty) quite popular by proxy, which is probably the reason Jessica is so into Morty in this episode.
Then principle Vagina pulls Tiny Rick aside (outside the gym) and has this to say: “Tiny Rick, this conversation is gonna break my heart wide open. You’re a great student and the fact that you’re an 80 year old man in a clone body never bothered me. But this here is another matter. You recognize this? We got a tip it was in your locker. [shows him the duffel bag of vampire blood* soaked stakes.] Now, because the gym coach was a vampire, the school board is embarrassed and won’t take it public. However, they can’t have students killing teachers. I gotta expel you for this one, TR. I’m sorry.”
(* Don’t vampires lack blood?)
TR, predictably, is pissed off. He walks back into the gymnasium and chews out Summer in front of everyone: “Summer Smith is a fucking psycho nerd and she just got me kicked out of school!” Summer swears up and down that she did it because she loves and is trying to save him. But Tiny Rick storms out of the gym, leaving Summer to be lambasted by boos and hisses. “Summer, I thought you were cool!” says Toby. Summer runs past Jessica and Morty crying. “Oh my God, Morty,” says Jessica, “Your sister crossed Tiny Rick? Talk about self-destructive.” Morty, with an obvious look of concern on his face, replies with a half attentive “yeah.” Not that it shouldn’t be expected, but Jessica betrays a bit of insensitivity here, if not towards Summer, then towards Morty for the fact that this is his sister they’re talking about (which further indicates she’s more interested in being popular, or maybe in Tiny Rick himself, than she is Morty).
Bethzilla has her Jerry army well on its way. The room is filling with Earthworm Jerries:
That’s when Jerry enters the room, gun in hand, announcing his presence: “Hey! Jerry lover! How 'bout a taste of the real thing?!” Beth is just as shocked as Bethzilla. “Jerry!” she shouts as her image of Jerry changes: instead of Earthworm Jerries, the device now pumps out ordinary Jerries, each one stepping into existence with an inquisitive “huh.” Then Jerry starts using the gun, bludgeoning whole flanks of Earthworm Jerries. Beth’s image of him changes once again… to shirtless beef cake Jerries:
Then, thinking he found the secret to winning Beth’s love, he tries to milk it (with all good intentions, of course, to produce more beef cake Jerries): “Beth! It’s me, your husband. I’m here to save you, or my name isn’t Jerry Smith!” But this, of course, back fires. Now Beth starts pumping out pompous self-congratulating Jerries… literally standing around congratulating each other:
“Ok, fair enough,” Jerry finally says.
The irony is that the destruction of Nuptia Four, the blame for which can be pinned on Beth and Jerry’s mythologues, and therefore Beth and Jerry indirectly, turns out to set the stage for Beth and Jerry to rekindle a flame in the marriage, a flame lit buy Jerry’s bravery and Beth’s libido. ← This is the latest instance of Jerry manning up.
On the other hand, I wonder how much of Jerry’s courage depends on having someone subservient to him–namely, an Earthworm Jerry under his command. Earthworm Jerry lead him here, like a servant, which might make Jerry feel a bit like Bethzilla. I wonder if this is feeding Jerry’s courage and his ability to man up.
Tiny Rick, meanwhile, is, out of a fit of rashness, stepping into the Smith’s garage, picking up an ax, ready to destroy the vat sustaining Old Man Rick. “Say good night, old man,” says Rick before Morty sneaks up behind him and tackles him to the ground. They get into a bit of a tiff which ends in Morty pinning Tiny Rick to the ground. “Rick, I know you’re in there!” Morty says, “I know you’re trying to get out!” “That’s it, Morty!” says Summer, “Hold him down!” She plugs her earphones into Tiny Rick’s ears and forces him to listen to Eliott Smith’s Between the Bars:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p4cJv6s_Yjw[/youtube]
Tiny Rick resists but finally gives in. He cries. He suddenly has a breakthrough. He starts asking deep philosophical questions like Old Man Rick would: “Oh God, what is life? How can someone so talented die so young? What is being young? I’m not young, I’m old. I’m-I’m gonna die. My body isn’t real. Summer! Morty! It’s me! It’s Rick! Regular Rick!”
It seems Summer’s right: the adolescent mind shoves all the bad thoughts to the back, include difficult questions, the answers to which can give one vertigo. But here they are coming out in Tiny Rick’s mind, giving way to Old Man Rick.
When Morty asks how they can get him back into his original body, Tiny Rick answers: “OK, listen carefully. There’s a set of diodes on the vat’s control panel, a blue one and a red one. Oh God, what kind of world is this? I didn’t ask to be born. I need you to connect the blue one to my left temple and the red one to why doesn’t anyone really like me?”
^ It seems despite Old Man Rick breaking through, Rick’s teenage angst still lingers. He’s still stuck in a 14 year old body, after all, and the 14 year old brain inside that body still does what 14 year old brains do. At the same time, however, it’s curious what the actual subject matter of his angst is. What kind of world is this? Why was he born? Why does nobody like him? ← All questions Old Man Rick would never ask. Why? Because Old Man Rick has grown immune to these issues. It is only because he has been put back into a teenage body that he whines about this stuff. Tiny Rick wasn’t unliked–he was the most popular kid in school. He certainly didn’t dwell over what kind of world this is. He just enjoyed engaging in a bit of teenage shenanigans. The only reason he’s hung up on these issues now is because these are the issues Old Man Rick deals with, but still being stuck with a teenage mind, he can’t deal with them. But it’s revealing that Old Man Rick has to deal with them at all. Though he’s used to covering them up and maintaining a kind of numbness over them, this reveals, as Bird Person pointed out at the end of Ricksy Business, the depth of the pain he suffers underneath the dumbness and the covering up (and the drinking).
The mayhem on Nuptia Four continues. All sorts of Jerries are at war with each other. Bethzilla and her army of Earthworm Jerries are inflicting blood and carnage against regular Jerries, beef cake Jerries, self-congratulatory Jerries (who are standing around congratulating each other), and the original Jerry, who in turn are inflicting blood and carnage against Bethzilla and the Earthworm Jerries. The original Jerry, with two beef cake Jerries on each side, attempts to bend the metal bar keeping Beth trapped.
Beth: “Jerry, you can’t bend metal.”
Jerry: “Then make a me that can.”
Beth: “How can I do that while I’m watching you totally fail to bend metal?” ← I have to say, this is a bit of a dick move on Beth’s part. Sure, Jerry’s doing something stupid at the moment, but can’t Beth suspend that for just a sec and fantasize about a sexier, manlier version of Jerry? Is it really that hard?
Jerry: “Good old Beth! The mind of a robot and the heart of an insect!” ← Jerry’s not helping here either.
Beef Cake Jerry #1: “Don’t talk that way about her.”
This gives Jerry an idea:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVtIXr90n9c[/youtube]
Note that while the Beef Cake and Earthworm Jerries stare in awe at Beth-the-goddess before they kneel down before her, Original Jerry is focused solely on Original Beth.
While this melts Beth’s heart (or makes her horny), it should be noted that it’s Jerry’s display of intelligence, not his idea of Beth the goddess, that wins her over. That is to say that while Beth the goddess is the product of Beef Cake Jerry’s mind (how Beef Cake Jerry sees Beth), it was original Jerry’s idea to put the helmet on Beef Cake Jerry, thereby bringing Beth the goddess into existence. In fact, there’s a slight hint of insult in his idea. Jerry’s idea is based on his image of Beth as a narcissistic egoist–a person who expects her lover to see her as a goddess (turns out he’s right)–which is why he’s the Steven fucking Hawkinson of Beth’s ego.
And those words at the end: “I love you,” bring closure to the secondary plotline in, yet again, another one of the many twists of irony the Rick and Morty series is so well known for. If Beth is now saying to Jerry that she loves him (and Jerry, well, Jerry’s always loved Beth), it seems that the one couple whose relationship was so bad that their mythologues destroyed the entire Nuptia Four establishment is now reaping the full benefits of their time here by way of their mythologues, which are in turn a representation of their destructive and toxic relationship.
Summer and Morty have figured out the wiring on Tiny Rick’s head as well as how to transfer his mind from the teenage body to the old man body. They hit a few keys on the laptop keyboard and the transfer completes without a hitch. The vat opens up, letting out all the water, and Old Man Rick falls on his face. He gets up, completely naked, hacking out whatever liquid is in his lungs.
After thanking both kids for their hard work and persistence, Rick decides that Summer deserves the gratitude since she was the one who saw through the veneer all along while Morty was “that willing to sell [his] existence out for some trim.” While Summer shields her eyes from the gruesome site of Rick’s naked old man body, he pulls them both in closer and sums up the episode in a cheesy one liner: “The teenage mind is its own worst enemy. Oh, I also learned this:”
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rRndq_9HyAA[/youtube]
^ I guess this was Rick’s plan to attain immortality (like a phoenix). If so, I’m not sure why he had to destroy all clones; if the lesson he learned is that the teenage mind is its own worst enemy, then why doesn’t Rick just transfer his mind into one of the grown up copies of himself? And also, what does it say that Rick has such an elaborate plan to become a “phoenix” and rise from the ashes not long before he dies? Does he have a secret yearning to be young again? To achieve immortality? To cheat death? Quite odd for a man whose nihilistic pretensions supposedly make him indifferent towards life or death.
Rick arrives at an incinerated Nuptia Four where a romantically intoxicated Beth and Jerry await him on a park bench. “So, what do you think?” says Jerry, “You wanna keep this marriage going a while longer?” “At least until Morty has graduated high school,” replies Beth with eyes closed, holding Jerry close.
“Ah ha!” says Rick from his spaceship, “You see? What did I tell you two? It worked.” ← He’s right despite the irony that it wasn’t by design.
Upon leaving Nuptia Four, Rick warns them: “Uh, just so you’re prepared, there’s a bunch of dead me’s in the garage.”
Jerry: “Huh! Sounds like our stories were connected by a theme.”
Rick: “Not really, Jerry. Probably a cosmetic connection your mind mistakes for thematic.”
Jerry: “Oh.”
^ How would Rick know? In fact, he doesn’t, and he’s wrong. There’s a bunch of dead Jerries sprawled across the floor of the mythologue generation chamber back at the establishment, some at original Jerry’s own hands. But Jerry accepts Rick’s assessment with a sullen “oh.” Jerry probably doesn’t even know what “cosmetic” and “thematic” mean, yet he goes along with whatever Rick says regardless, mostly because he sees Rick as smart and therefore probably right no matter what.
The post credit scene features a bunch of vampires playing a comedic bit before the lead vampire sinks his teeth into a young beautiful woman’s neck… not really worth digging into… just something to remind us that this episode has a vampire theme running through it.