Rick and Morty - S2E4 - Total Rickall
Again, went over in this one. I might as well accept it: each episode is probably going to be split into 2 parts from here on it. (How’d I ever get this obsessed?)
This is part 1.
This episode of Rick and Morty is, TBH, somewhat dry of juicy philosophical content (IMHO), and in rich character development. In fact, at least in the latter half of the episode, it’s more like a shoot 'em up, gory slasher flick that anything else. That’s not to say it doesn’t make you think. In this episode, we’ll see the Smith family get lost in false memories, memories implanted in their heads by what Rick calls “alien parasites”. These are creatures that infect one’s world like a bacteria. They start by planting false memories in your head of an old time family friend, or a lover, or a close acquaintance, and then slip into your life disguised as that friend, lover, or acquaintance–in reality they are an alien parasite whom you accept in your life because you are under the impression that you’ve always known them. Now if you’re like the Smith family–lucky enough to have a patriarch who not only knows about these parasites, but knows they’ve infested the household–this can lead to a lot of confusion and paranoia. In this episode, we’ll see how well the Smith family can hold it together and tease truth apart from deception.
It begins with the Smith family (sans Rick) gathered around the dinner table having a meal. Jerry’s brother Steve is with them. Jerry, on his iPad, gets a strange email hinting that Steve bought the family airline tickets. When asked about this, he says he wanted it to be a surprise, and that it was a gesture of thanks for letting him live with them “all this time” ← however long that is.
Rick comes in and dumps green glowing rocks in the garbage. When he asks who the hell this new guy is, Jerry responds:
Jerry: “My goofy brother Steve? [chuckle] He’s been living here almost a year now? Are you losing your mind?”
Steve: “Hey, someone’s been spending too much time around glowing rocks, am I right?”
Rick pulls out a gun and shoots Steve’s brains out. The blood is pink, not red. Rick calms the family down from their panic: “Everybody just relax for a second. There’s no such thing as an ‘uncle Steve’. That is an alien parasite.” Uncle Steve suddenly transforms into a parasite right in Jerry’s arms:
“But I’ve known him my whole life,” says Jerry. “No, you haven’t, Jerry,” Rick explains, “These telepathic little bastards, they embed themselves in memories, and t-t-then they use those to multiply and spread out and take over planets. It’s-it’s-it’s disgusting… this is a big one. Somebody probably tracked it in last week on the bottom of their shoe or on a piece of alien fruit.” “Someone?” Summer questions skeptically. “Get off the high road, Summer,” Rick continues, “We all got pink eye because you won’t stop texting on the toilet.”
Summer’s suspicions that Rick is the guilty party are most likely truer than you might think. There is a subtle hint that Rick did it right when he walks in the room:
These rocks, with those pink worms, are uncannily similar to the rocks Rick was loading up into his ship at the end of Mortynight Run:
In fact, it’s no coincidence that episode two ended with this and the current episode begins with it. Many on the internet speculate that this ties into the theory of the alternate Rick and Morty that we were following in episode two. As you might recall, the theory is that in episode two, we weren’t following Rick and Morty C-137, but a Rick and Morty from a different timeline. The only appearance of the C-137’s is at the beginning when Rick fills out the Jerryboree form, writing “C-137” in the dimension field, and Morty takes the ticket marked “#5126”, and at the end when, picking up their Jerries at the Jerryboree, Rick C-137 asks the Rick we were following: “Hey, wait, uh, do you have 5126?” ← Indicating that the Rick asking the question wasn’t the one we were following. And now, with Rick coming into the kitchen with glowing rocks and some (possibly) parasites, it’s as if Harmon and Roiland are saying: we now pick up exactly where we left of episode 2. It’s convenient that Urban Batoi Jerry was featured in the last episode, for if my theory is right that this is the Jerry they swapped at the end of episode 2, it means we were getting a glimpse of what happened in timeline C-137 after episode 2, and now we’re getting a glimpse of what happened in the timeline of the other Rick and Morty after episode 2–almost as if episode 3 and 4 happen in parallel. In this timeline, we don’t get to hear any more urban batoi from Jerry, indicating that this Jerry actually is a C-137.
In any case, Rick continues his explanations in response to Morty protesting that “uncle Steve taught me how to ride a bike.” He says: “No, ‘Steve’ put that memory in your brain so he could live in your house, eat your food, and multiply. We could be infested with these things. burp So, we gotta keep an eye out for any zany, wacky characters that pop up.” That’s when Mr. Poopy Butthole shows up:
“Oo-wee,” he says, “Whatever you want Rick. We’re here to help.”
Rick: “Thanks Mr. Poopy Butthole, I always could count on you.”
I have to apologize for the name–Mr. Poopy Butthole–when I try to argue that the Rick and Morty series is above juvenile potty humor, this doesn’t help.
Obviously, we’re being setup to expect that Mr. Poopy Butthole is one of these “zany, wacky characters” that Rick warned about, and Rick’s acceptance of him, betraying long held memories of how he could always count on Mr. Poopy Butthole, indicates that Rick himself has already been infected. Despite that this is exactly how the zany wacky characters of this episode will show up, don’t assume too quickly that Mr. Poopy Butthole is one of them. The reason for this will be made clear at the end of this episode. In fact, the opening credits that follow this scene feature Mr. Poopy Butthole tagging along with Rick and Morty on their misadventures, unlike in all the other episode opening credits. This has been taken by some on the internet to mean that we are indeed following a different Rick and Morty in this episode than the C-137’s, the same Rick and Morty from episode two if the theory of the parasite infested glowing rocks is right. Even though there was no mention of Mr. Poopy Butthole in episode two, it implies that the Rick and Morty of that episode did have memories of Mr. Poopy Butthole.
(A drawback to this theory is that it would seem to imply that Mr. Poopy Butthole should also have been in the opening credits of episode two, but he wasn’t.)
The Smith family, and Mr. Poopy Butthole, are in the living room searching for parasites under couches, in bookshelves, in the carpet, all except for Rick who is writing the number 6 in big bold font on a sheet of paper. “All right,” he says, “There’s 6 of us and that’s it. [tapes it to the wall] Me, Morty, Jerry, Beth, Mr. Poopy Butthole, and Summer.” He then presses a button on his watch which activates the blast shields around the house–highly sophisticated shields that come down on all sides of the house on the outside, like an extra layer of armor worn by the house.
Then the first parasite attack hits (after Steve, that is). It hits Mr. Poopy Butthole right in the memory:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZsJaVrD6js[/youtube]
This is typically the way these characters will be introduced. Someone goes on a flashback, inciting everyone to reflect with him or her, and when they come out of it, the zany, wacky character they were reminiscing is suddenly there in the room.
We know Steve, Mr. Poopy Butthole, and now cousin Nicky. I feel like laying out a list like I did for the characters in Ricksy Business or the TV shows in Rixty Minutes. It wouldn’t be feasible to list them all as there are way too many. In fact, this was one of motives on the part of the creators–to swamp the Smith family. Instead, I’ll compile a list of what I take to be the most significant characters, at least enough to give the impress of what a wacky bunch of zany characters they indeed are.
Mr. Beauregard: the family butler. Always there for the Smith family, getting them out of trouble, rescuing them from nazis, freeing Jerry’s head from the stair railing with marmalade, having pillow fights with Summer, subbing as Morty’s date to the high school dance (dressed like a girl), and so on. What would the Smith family do without Mr. Beauregard?
Frankenstein’s Monster: Not much background to this guy (except that he and Rick spent some time in Nam). Maybe a family friend?
Sleepy Gary: Beth’s husband. Yes, Jerry is still married to her, but this parasite has them both convinced that Beth married Sleepy Gary and that Jerry and him are best friends. Except for the PJs, there really isn’t anything “sleepy” about him.
Photography Raptor: Likes to take picture.
Pencilvestyr: A close friend of Rick’s. Always there to help Rick erase his mistakes. He and Rick are so close, in fact, that Rick can’t bring himself to shoot him near the end, and has Morty do it instead.
Tinkles: Tinkles is a “magic ballerina lamb,” in Frank’s words, who visits Summer in the middle of the night, coming through her window leaving a trail of rainbow behind her. She wakes Summer and whisks her away to “Never Past Bedtime Land”–a magical place full of colors, happiness, sunshine, and rainbows.
Hamurai and Amish Cyborg: Hamurai is a Samurai warrior who wears ham for armor. Amish Cyborg is an Amish man who is also a cyborg. These two are instrumental in getting Rick to remember a fake barbecue.
Ghost in a Jar: Not much to this guy. Kind of a weird form for a parasite to take.
Reverse Giraffe: In his words, “I have a short neck and legs,” but an extremely long body. Leads the group (the parasites and the Smiths) in a revolt against Rick, casting him as the real parasite.
Baby Wizard and Big Rubber Ducky: The only role these two play are to hold Rick down in the garage while Morty interrogates him at gun point.
Mrs. Refrigerator: a “perfect companion” to Beth all her life, the first to get shot when the alien blood bath begins.
Although the list seems long, it’s not even half the parasites that end up swamping the Smith family. And that’s not to mention the collection of flashbacks I could post videos of, or the counter-flashbacks we’ll see near the end.
Getting back to the plot line, Rick does a quick count and finds there are 7 people. He shoots cousin Nicky in the shoulder. Cousin Nicky morphs into the form of a parasite and dies agonizingly on the couch. Not sure why he died given Rick’s rationale behind shooting people in the shoulder–when asked by Beth how he knew it was cousin Nicky, Rick says: “I guessed. That’s why I aimed for his shoulder.” I guess parasites die no matter where you shoot them.
Next: Mr. Beauregard. Beth is responsible for this one. She flashes back to a time when the Smith family, plus cousin Nicky, were trapped in an old submarine by a Nazi intent on destroying America with the staff of rah-gubaba. In perfect timing, Mr. Beauregard appears out of nowhere and knocks the Nazi out with his umbrella. “After due consideration,” he says, “I have decided not to retire.” Next thing you know, he’s walking around the living room offering hors d’oeuvres to the family, no one being the wiser.
Now, I may be missing something here, but didn’t Beth say this flashback featured cousin Nicky? And didn’t cousin Nicky die just before the flashback, revealing his true parasite form? So Beth knows he’s a parasite, yet she seems to believe in a memory with him in it. To be fair, however, the flashback is preceded by Beth questioning its authenticity precisely because it featured cousin Nicky, but then she comes out of it, along with Mr. Beauregard who says “Perhaps I’m biased, but if that story never happened, I wouldn’t still be the family butler,” and everyone, including Beth, seems to go along with it. So the evidence that it was a false memory seems to get put by the way side.
Then more flashbacks of Mr. Beauregard–he gets Jerry’s head unstuck from the stair rails with marmalade, he has a pillow fight with Summer and Rick, and he even dresses up as a female because Morty has no one to take to the school dance, Morty all too willingly accepting the offer. In these flashbacks, three other parasites surreptitiously sneak in. Just after freeing Jerry’s head with marmalade, Frankenstein’s Monster (whom I’ll just call Franky from here on in) comes in the room making a dumb comment about British cuisine. When Rick, Summer, and Mr. Beauregard have a pillow fight in Summer’s room, sleepy Gary barges in saying “We’re trying to sleep!” And right before Morty takes Mr. Beauregard to the dance, Photography Raptor takes their picture. After the flashbacks are over, all four parasites are in the room: Mr. Beauregard, Franky, Sleepy Gary, and Photography Raptor–everyone having a good laugh.
One question I have at this point is: whose memories are these? Beth seemed to spur the flashback of being trapped on the submarine, so we’re lead to presume that this was at least Beth’s memory. And then Summer was the one who seemed to spur the other flashbacks of Mr. Beauregard, so we’re lead to presume these are at least Summer’s. But in all cases, everyone seems to laugh fondly at these memories once they come out of their flashback. Are they all having the same flashbacks together? Do they have different flashbacks all featuring the same parasite? After all, the one with the pillow fight didn’t feature Beth, Jerry, or Morty. How could they remember something in which they weren’t even there? They may have been reminiscing over their own memories of Mr. Beauregard or Sleepy Gary while Summer was reminiscing over this one. However, there is evidence that not everyone partakes in the memories as they’re happening, not even different versions of them. Rick had no memories of uncle Steve. He walks in the room and says: “Who the fuck are you?” Uncle Steve the parasite may not have known about Rick’s existence, so didn’t think to implant a memory in his brain. But whatever the case, it isn’t a hard and fast rule that everyone gets the same memory or even different versions of the same memory.
Another point to bring up: notice that the memories get more and more absurd. Starting with uncle Steve, the Smith family reports a life time of memories of him. And what would be so strange about that? Even we as the audience are taken by it until Rick blasts a hole through his head and he turns to a parasite. Uncle Steve is a perfectly normal persona. Then comes cousin Nicky–a little more wacky, a little more zany, but still somewhat believable. Then Mr. Beauregard–nothing incredibly outlandish about this character, but things start to take a turn at this point–things start seeming unrealistic. Would the Smith family really have a butler working for them? Could they afford it? Are they the type to have a butler? Does it not seem kinda strange to the Smiths that they were somehow trapped on a submarine by a vicious Nazi wielding the magical staff of rah-gubaba? How on Earth would they get into such a situation (mind you, I probably shouldn’t be saying this in a cartoon series featuring Rick and Morty getting into way more bizarre situations than that.) It gets worse in the last flashback. Mr. Beauregard dresses up like a girl so that Morty would have someone to go to the high school dance with. Is that something that a grown man would do? Is that something Morty would accept? This is all not to mention the other parasites that enter the picture during these flashbacks. Franky is patently the Frankenstein monster! Photography Raptor is, well, a raptor! But no one, not even Rick, question these things. They just go along with the memories.
The fact that the memories get progressively weirder as the episode unfolds, peeking with Tinkles whisking Summer off to Never Past Bedtime Land, is intentional, I think. It is Harmon and Roiland making a commentary about how easily people would be swayed by false memories, or any form of psychological suggestion, no matter how bizarre or absurd. Even Rick has great difficulty in this episode teasing apart fact from fiction.
This also makes me wonder how the parasites decide on a form. The parasite who posed as uncle Steve seemed to know what he was doing. Why would anyone be suspicious of old uncle Steve? But then what was Photography Raptor thinking? I suppose that given what we just said–that the Smiths will believe anything no matter how absurd–the parasites probably know that form doesn’t matter so long as the memories are securely implanted. Though it might be that the parasites gradually learned how easy it is to fool the Smiths after the first few tries, and eventually threw caution to the wind with characters like Pencilvestyr or Tinkles.
Again, Rick is onto them–counting 10 people but with 6 written on the sheet of paper–but still without being able to tell the parasites from the real people. He tries to bring everyone’s feet back down to the ground:
Rick: Everyone stop remembering! The parasites are like bedbugs and every flashback is another mattress! Look! [rips off sheet with 6 on it] There’s only supposed to be 6 people in this house!
Beth: But there’s always been 10.
Rick: NO!!! Er, uh, the fact that I wrote this number down means that there are four parasites.
Franky: Are you sure about that, Rick?
Mr. Beauregard: Begging your pardon, master Rick, but I seem to recall a great deal of confusion surrounding that number.
^ The parasites will do this from time to time, play on people’s confusions and uncertainty. Exploiting everyone’s inability to tell parasite from real person, the parasites are eventually able to overpower Rick in terms of persuasion and winning the Smith’s over, ultimately culminating in everyone turning on Rick, holding him suspect as the real parasite. But that’s later in the episode.
For now, the Smiths along with the parasites give the living room a one over, once again looking under couches, behind pictures, in the bookshelf, before Rick says:
“All right, that’s six of us-burp-and that’s it. Me, Morty, Jerry, Beth, Mr. Poopy Butthole, Frankenstein, Sleepy Gary, Photography Raptor, Mr. Beauregard, and Summer.”
Beth: Uh, dad, that’s like 10 people.
Rick: Six, ten, what’s the difference?! I just love the number six for no reason! Where’s my pencil at!
^ Is this Rick going crazy?
Pencilvestyr: Right here, Rick. Use me! [jumps into Rick’s hand.]
Rick: Aw, thanks Pencilvestyr! [writes 6 with Pencilvestyr] Yeah, I-I-I gu-I guess that is what happened, but I-I-I don’t get why I would do that."
^ We see here how persuasive a memory can be, even a false one. Even Rick is more convinced that the 10 people present in the living room (plus Pencilvestyr) are real than he is that he wrote 6 for an actual reason. ← His own methodology failed. He nevertheless writes 6 anyway (as if unconsciously he knows 6 is right). He even does it with Pencilvestyr, especially ironic since he’s the eleventh character to show up right after Rick establishes that there are 10 people, using his little pencil friend to record 6 as though establishing the fact. Now, whether that “established fact” is that there are 6 real people or 10 real people, both of which are wrong thanks to Pencilvestyr’s appearance, has me intrigued. I really wonder what kind of insanity Rick seemed to briefly go through in his response to Beth: “Six, ten, what’s the difference?! I just love the number six for no reason!” ← So unscientific of Rick. It’s almost as if he couldn’t bring himself to get into a heated argument with his daughter (he was getting frustrated with her), much like he does with Summer and Morty, for that would be too cruel (yes, he does have a glimmer of a conscience, at least with Beth). So instead he (unconsciously) fakes insanity. That way, he can get away with whatever he wants–sans rationality–and what he wants in this moment is simply to write the number 6 down, because unconsciously (or maybe consciously) he knows that’s the right number.
Yet, at the close of this sequence, Rick hints at one of the few means by which they should all be making calculated guesses as to who’s a parasite and who isn’t: questioning why he would write a number down even though it doesn’t match the number of people in the house. He’ll do this again later in the episode, question why he remembers doing something he’d never do. Morty could have done this upon reminiscing over going to the high school dance with Mr. Beauregard as his date: why would I do that, he should be asking. Beth could have done this when she and the rest of the family posed for one of Photography Raptor’s pictures: why would we have a raptor taking professional photographs as a family friend? But only Rick comes somewhat close to using this method.
Beth, on the other hand, comes up with her own clever method: photos. She looks through her iPhone and says: “You’re not in any of my photos, Mr. Poopy Butthole.” Mr. Poopy Butthole responds: “Well, whadya know about this. You’re not in any of mine.” A bit of tension flares up between them. I don’t mind dropping the occasional spoiler alert, and at this point, I think it’s no secret that Mr. Poopy Butthole is indeed real. Nonetheless, for a viewer seeing this episode for the first time, it would be natural to back Beth on this one (this is incidentally why I skipped Mr. Poopy Butthole in the sequence from most normal to most outrageous; he’s definitely quite outrageous from the very start).
But Summer quickly reveals the flaws in this method: “All I have are pictures of me and my friends from school… What? What teenage girl has pictures of her family? It’s not like we’re Mormon or dying.” ← She’s got a point. Maybe pictures aren’t the best method.
Then Franky ushers in the memory of Tinkles: “I will admit it’s suspicious that Summer’s only friend is a magic ballerina lamb that we’ve never seen.”
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nIUVhSYVOdk[/youtube]
Summer has no problem fully believing this happened to her.
So far, Frank and Mr. Poopy Butthole play a move in this game that constitutes a typical strategy on the part of the parasites–to turn the suspicions onto the real people, hinting that maybe they are the real parasites. We’ll have to forgive Mr. Poopy Butthole since technically he’s not a parasite, but he does contribute to this turning of tables in pointing out to Beth that she’s not in any of his photos.
However, I should point out that this scene in particular–starting with Franky casting suspicion upon Summer and ending with Frankly apologizing with “I was on the wrong side of the pitchfork on this one”–is not an example of casting suspicion, though it looks like it on the surface. This is Franky using suspicion casting as a mechanism to usher in Tinkles. Once Tinkles shows up, he admits to being wrong. ← Why would he do this if he knew the introduction of Tinkles would mean having to apologize, and in fact bolster everyone’s trust in Summer. Nonetheless, casting suspicion is in general an obviously well practiced method with the parasites.
Before Tinkles shows up, however, Rick says something quite revealing: “That is-burp-suspicious. We’re always hearing about this Tinkles character but we never get to–” “Hi everybody!” Tinkles suddenly says popping out from behind the couch. I find this interesting because it seems to be one of the few exceptions to the rule about shared memories. Whereas with every other character, the Smiths reflect on shared, or at least closely related, memories of that character, in Tinkles’ case, it’s the opposite. Only Summer gets to reminisce over her adventures to Never Past Bedtime Land with Tinkles, while the rest get to reminisce over Summer’s hearsay about Tinkles but no actual memory of the magic ballerina lamb herself–OTW, everyone but Summer inherit memories of a lack of Tinkles. ← Just thought that was curious.
I’m also puzzled by the way Summer snapped out of her little “trip” to Never Past Bedtime Land. She ends up bouncing on her bed, eyes closed, flailing her arms in the air with flash lights in her hands, shouting “Hoo! Hoo! Hoo!” when Beth and Sleepy Gary come in and sternly say “We’re trying to sleep!” “It was Tinkles!” she snaps back, pointing out the window with one of the flash lights. “Tinkles?” she finally questions. ← But this is still part of the memory. Why did the parasite implant that? This would only make Summer doubt her own memory, prompting her to wonder whether it was just a dream and she happened to be “dream dancing” (or something like that). One would think the most plausible memory to lay down (well, as plausible as you can make a memory about being whisked away by a magic ballerina lamb to Never Past Bedtime Land) would be for Tinkles to fly Summer back to her room after the party’s over and tuck her into bed, perhaps kissing her good night on the forehead before disappearing out the window. Then at least Summer can be at her most certain about the reality of Tinkles. Well, maybe that’s the whole catch of Never Past Bedtime Land–no one ever has to go to bed, it’s a non-stop party. Or more likely: Harmon and Roiland just wanted not only a memory of Tinkles but a memory of Summer claiming it was Tinkles without anyone believing her. But as far as the parasites are concerned, not a very good strategy.
Then Jerry adds his two cents: “Ok, look, we shouldn’t need evidence or logic to know who’s family and who isn’t. I know who the Smiths are. [puts hands on Beth’s shoulders] I’ve known Beth since high school. And her husband [pulls Sleepy Gary into the scene], Sleepy Gary, is hands down my best friend.” ← The irony being, of course, that he’s got it completely wrong. Jerry betrays here a common expectation of most simple minded people: that tricks of the mind–hallucinations, delusions, false memories–will feel “fake” whereas real experiences can be taken at face value. Jerry thinks that if his memories of Beth and Sleepy Gary feel certain and real, he can trust them; that if they weren’t trustworthy, they would somehow feel untrustworthy. Jerry doesn’t get it. He doesn’t get that you can’t distinguish the real memories from the false based on how they feel subjectively. They are designed to fool you, to feel as real as any other memory.
Rick dismisses Jerry’s comment: “Look, I’m not used to being this unsure for so long. I’m just gonna aim for shoulders starting with the weird girl [Summer].” He fires at her and hits the TV behind her. Sleepy Gary jumps between her and Rick: “Rick, that is my daughter!” He tries to reason with Rick, tries to convince him this is insane given that these are friends and family. He tries to stir sentimental feelings by urging on memories of “the barbecue”. He is joined by Hamurai and Amish Cyborg who also urge him to remember the barbecue. Then everyone joins in: “Remember the barbecue… Remember the barbecue… Remember the barbecue…” Even the Smiths are caught up in the rally. ← Why would the Smiths want Rick to remember the barbecue, unless they’ve got the memory already implanted, and for sentimental reasons, want Rick to be convinced that these are family and friends.
It would be a bit complicated to describe the barbecue flashback; suffice it to say, this is what happened once Rick came out of it:
Sleepy Gary and Pencilvestyr try to urge Rick to take down the blast shields. Pencilvestyr argues that keeping them up is an overreaction and suggests that he’s had a tendency to overreact in the past. This brings on a memory of Rick going nuts over a sale on Nintendo 3ds systems at Walmart for $149.99, cracking open a safe on the wall filled with stacks of money. When he comes to, he says “Ok, yes, I definitely remember doing that, but also I would never do that.” ← Again, the approach of questioning whether one would do the things one remembers doing. Rick seems to be the only one to recognize this as a sign of a false memory.
Jerry requests a private moment with Sleepy Gary. They go into the hallway. Jerry opens up to Sleepy Gary, expressing a near existential crisis: “How do we know I’m real?” he questions, tears welling up in his eyes. ← This is going beyond suspicions of false memories and parasites. Doubting one’s own existence is definitely a different matter than doubting the authenticity of a character in the room whom you have fond memories of, the reality of which is in question. The parasites may be able to pull off disguising themselves as some wacked out character and implanting false memories in your brain, but to trick you into think you exist when you really don’t is just paradoxical.
But Sleepy Gary consoles Jerry by spurring on memories of a homoerotic love affair they had on a yacht while on vacation somewhere:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tpgzq4iTJd4[/youtube]
“You and I,” reassures Sleepy Gary, “are going to survive this.” “Ok,” says Jerry before Sleepy Gary leans in for a kiss. Jerry pushes him away and says “Hey, we agreed: never in the house.”
^ Seems like the parasites aren’t the only ones who can fabricate false memories. This inability to question the rationality of these memories now has Jerry convinced that he’s gay. What’s more, as this scene shows, is that the implanting of false memories does a lot more than convince the victim that the memories in fact happened, but ties them together with feelings and sentimental attachments. Think of the trauma the Smith family had to deal with over the death of uncle Steve, trauma they still had to suffer through even when they were shown that uncle Steve was a parasite and didn’t have a history with the Smith family. Think of Rick and his inability to kill Pencilvestyr even when he knows he’s a parasite. Jerry may not be gay, and he may have no history or prior feelings for Sleepy Gary, but now that the memory is implanted, he’s wrapped up in a love affair that means the world to him (as we’ll see near the end).
I also question why the parasite Sleepy Gary chose this memory. Was it just to fortify a stronger bond between himself and Jerry? So that Jerry would be aligned with him more than with Rick or the rest of the Smith family? The parasite himself isn’t gay, is he? It certainly doesn’t seem to address Jerry’s existential crisis, providing no better reason for Jerry to believe that he’s real.
I also wonder if the parasites have the ability to erase memories. Otherwise, how would Jerry reconcile the fact that he has two conflicting sets of memories: one set featuring not only his romantic love affair with Sleepy Gary but the fact that Sleepy Gary married Beth, and the other set featuring him and Beth meeting in high school, knocking Beth up with Summer, getting married to her, and living with her under this roof raising both Summer and Morty for years. Did the false memories of Sleepy Gary push the authentic memories out? Or is Jerry going along with this despite different memories not making sense with respect to each other?
For that matter, what about the memories just prior to each character showing up? When the parasites plant their memories, they would have to not only plant the specific flashback we see in the episode, but at least a few memories of why they’re there in the room. I mean, if I flashed back to a time I had with my aunt, and then all of a sudden, she was here in my living room, I’d still be take aback my it–unless in addition to the flashback, I also had a memory of my aunt saying she’d be over for dinner (or something), a memory of her ringing the door bell and me answering it, a memory of her being there in the living room just before I flashed back, etc. It would be impractical for the writers to overtly reflect each and every memory the parasites would have to plant in order to be convincing, so I think we’re supposed to assume the memories are more than just the one we see in the flashback. But if the parasites are planting memories of how each one got there in the room, do those memories conflict with the real memories of the parasite not being in the room before the flashback? And if so, are the Smiths ignoring it? Confused about it? Fabricating some kind of rationnel?
Back in the living room, Frank is checking out Rick’s watch. “Trying to figure out how to lower the blast shields, huh?” says Rick. Frank accuses him of being paranoid: “You’ve been paranoid since 'nam,” leading him into another flashback. Rick snaps himself out of it (much like he did with Fart) at the same moment when Frank tries to grab the gun from him. They wrestle for it. The crowd eggs on the fight. They roll across the table and onto the floor. Frank wins. He gets the gun from Rick leaving him with a nice shiner. Two parasites (a big robot and the sun) grab Rick by the arms and throw him into a chair. Then he gets interrogated by Reverse Giraffe:
“You know me. I’m Reverse Giraffe. I have a short neck and legs. I went to college with Hamurai. [Hamurai: Hai!] I saved Ghost in a Jar’s life in Vietnam. [Ghost in a Jar: Hurrah!] And Beth, how many times have I been a shoulder for you to cry on? [Beth: sigh Too many.] Ok, so maybe, we’re just all fake. [crowd murmurs] Or maybe, there’s only one deceiver here, the person who keeps telling us the path to salvation is being held prisoner and mistrusting each other… I know we all have beloved memories of Rick, but are we really supposed to believe that a mad scientist inventor with a flying car just showed up on our door step after being gone for years?”
Morty concurs with this: “Yeah, you know, he does have a lot of really weird, made up sounding catch phrases.”
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ofz0t1PondY[/youtube]
If this scene seems out of place, it’s probably because Roiland and Harmon were looking for a place to insert it. My guess is they wanted a montage of scenes that made the audience question their own memories. For my own part, I remember watching each scene fly by and wondering: did I see that before in a previous episode? Or is it fake? Are Roiland and Harmon playing with my memory, making me feel confused about whether my sense of deja vu is real or artificially induced? Although it does seem out of place with respect to catch phrases, it fits perfectly well with respect to the suspicions Reverse Giraffe is trying to raise–namely, that Rick is the real parasite and any memories the Smith family has of him since he moved in after years of absence are fake. The uncertainty we feel about our memories during this montage are what the Smiths are supposed to feel upon reflecting on their own memories of Rick over the last year or so, and Reverse Giraffe spurs this on.
In fact, Beth is the first to bite:
Beth: “And don’t forget his incredibly vague back story.”
Rick: “Beth, I’m your father!”
Beth: “Oh, are you dad? Are you?”
Morty steps between them and beckons Rick to lower the blast shield. After being called an “implausible naive pubescent boy with an old Jewish comedy writer’s name,” Morty takes the gun from Frank and, getting Big Rubber Ducky and Baby Wizard to help him, drags Rick off to the garage:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ojUnwt8G8MY[/youtube]
Putting aside Rick’s umpteenth display of total disinterest in his own life, I really think Morty’s “take charge” display comes through here, and it is no doubt thanks to Rick’s influence. Despite the obvious signs of anxiety (the sweat, the shaking hands), Morty here is acting very Rick-like. “All right, you listen to me you son of a bitch parasite scum. We could either do this the easy way or the hard way,” is exactly something Rick would say. No doubt, a lot of it is motivated by Morty’s repressed anger towards Rick, but it’s still quite a display of Rick-like control over the situation.
Rick’s response: “Well, I remember you as a winy piece of shit, Morty… I’ve got about a thousand memories of your dumb little ass and about six of them are pleasant. The rest is annoying garbage…” gets Morty thinking. He suddenly realizes who the real parasites are: Big Rubber Ducky and Baby Wizard. He shoots them both, guessing correctly on both accounts. He explains to Rick: “The parasites can only create pleasant memories! I know you’re real because I have a ton of bad memories of you!” A montage follows of bad times Morty’s supposedly had with Rick (again, none of them from previous episodes).
^ Morty’s quick thinking in this scene, to see through the immediate distractions straight to the solution, is again very Rick-like–showing that not only is Rick’s take charge propensity rubbing off on Morty, but his genius too (though I wonder how much of that has “rubbed off” and how much is innate–Rick is Morty’s grandpa, after all). In fact, Rick himself seems quite impress: “Holy crap, Morty, you’re right!”
Rick then proceeds to the washer and dryer against the back wall, turns the nob on the washer (or dryer?), and suddenly the washer and dryer lower into the ground on mechanical platform while a sliding door on the wall opens to reveal a rack full of hi-tech gun (if all it takes is turning the nob on the washer, I wonder how Beth never discovered this–actually, she probably did and just excused Rick).
“Now let’s go, Morty,” Rick says, “We’ve got a lot of friends and family to exterminate.”
Rick and Morty storm into the house shooting their guns in the air. “We need to kill everyone that we can only remember fondly,” says Rick, “Who’s got a bad memory about Mrs. Refrigerator?” In a panic, Mrs. Refrigerator conjures up the memory of her and Beth on a roller-coaster. “Oo-hoo-hoo, man, we couldn’t stop screamin’,” she says with her hand on Beth’s shoulder. Beth removes her hand and says: “Uh, roller-coasters aren’t bad Mrs. Refrigerator, they’re thrilling. And you’ve been a perfect companion to me my entire my life.” That’s when Mrs. Refrigerator starts to panic and runs around the room. She ends at the patio door, breaking the glass, and tries to get by the blast shield when Rick shoots her. She transforms back into parasite form and dies.
Rick next targets Summer: “What about Summer?” Morty ponders over a bad memory: while watering the lawn, drinking a soda, Morty gets canned from behind by Summer. “Never go in my room again,” she says. “I didn’t!” says a squirming on the ground in the fetal position Morty. He snaps out of it and says: “She’s real. She’s my bitch of a sister,” and throws her a gun.
Each member of the Smith family goes through a brief moment of recollecting bad memories of each other, each one in a moment when they’re about to shoot the other, then realizes they’re not a parasite (these are the “counter-flashbacks” I mentioned earlier).
Summer vs. Beth: Summer remembers having to wake her drunk mother because she wasn’t sure whether she was driving her to school for picture day. Bottle of wine still in hand, Beth swings around and accidentally hits Summer in the eye with it, giving her a nice shiner. While Beth puts a half-ass job into masking the bruise with makeup, Summer cries “I want the police to take me!”
^ A bit of commentary on Beth’s alcoholism is in order but there will be a more appropriate time for that near the end.
Summer vs. Morty: She remembers catching Morty jerking off in the kitchen. They were all out at a consert but returned because they forgot the tickets. Neither expected that.
Beth vs. Jerry: Beth remembers being chased by a homeless guy while Jerry hides in the car leaving her to fend for herself. It begins with Jerry, carrying a dozen eggs, running past Beth, carrying two heavy loads of groceries, because a crazy homeless person is chasing them ready to use a broken bottle as a weapon. Jerry gets in the car and locks it. “Look out for that homeless guy!” he yells through the closed window. That’s when Beth notices. She runs to the car. Jerry won’t open the door, claiming “There isn’t time! Just run!” She drops the groceries and fends the homeless guy off with a shopping cart. “Get out here and help me!” she beckons. “They say you shouldn’t do that!” Jerry excuses himself, “Just run!”
^ So like Jerry to follow the rules, and for all the wrong reasons. So like the rule makers to make up a dumb rule like that. It’s like they say: if you see someone injured, possibly bleeding to death, for heaven’s sake, don’t help them. Call 911 and wait for the professionals to get there. Meanwhile, as they take their time getting there, the man dies because you did nothing. ← Sorry, pet peeve.
Anyway, getting back to where we left off, the duo is now a trio–Rick, Morty, and Summer. Next: Beth. That’s when Summer reflects on the shiner incident. “Morty, give a gun to the lady who got pregnant with me way to earlier and constantly makes it our problem.” Morty throws her a gun. She catches it and says in such an appreciative tone: “Thank you, sweety.” She turns around and aims the gun at “Disco Bear” (for lack of a better name). “I thought it was too good to be true that we’d have compatible kidneys,” she says before shooting him. She steps back and joins the other three in a classic Rick and Morty pose: