Rick And Morty - General Discussion

[Galileo908]

Ha, an episode about the Citadel Ricks & Mortys while our Rick & Morty go off to Atlantis. You know, I really have wondered what the Citadel was like. It's weird that THIS many Ricks are okay with living on the Citadel, especially ones that are willing to work in a factory. Seems like every Rick has his own gimmick, I guess. I figure the Simple Rick wafers are behind that. 

Loved all the new Ricks and Mortys, loved seeing a Grizzled Cop Morty and Snape Rick. Tall Morty was great, too. Can't believe there's a Rick even more of a doofus than Doofus Rick. Yep, lost it at Willy Wonka Rick and the Mortys re-enacting Stand By Me.

At least we got an answer for what happened to the Rickless Mortys: They either go to school to become a new sidekick, or they live in the slums. 

Oh man, should've seen the twist coming. It seemed so obvious in retrospect. A Morty president the Ricks just want as a puppet to control, only to horribly backfire on them? Nah, not topical at all.

EDIT: Next week: A trip through Morty's memories in place of Interdimensional Cable.

Edited September 11, 2017 by Galileo908

[Matt K]

Man that was amazing.  Now I'm thinking eye patch Morty might be tall Morty's Rick. I love how they went after the idea of Ricks voluntarily taking these menial jobs.  No wonder our Rick wanted them gone.

[Galileo908]

15 minutes ago, Matt K said:

Man that was amazing.  Now I'm thinking eye patch Morty might be tall Morty's Rick. I love how they went after the idea of Ricks voluntarily taking these menial jobs.  No wonder our Rick wanted them gone.

I have the feeling that Eyepatch Morty's Rick is our Rick.

EDIT: On second thought, you might be right. Maybe Morty found a way to steal Rick's intelligence? I'd think they mind-swapped but I could imagine seeing a Rick-possessed Morty drinking, and I didn't see that here.

Edited September 11, 2017 by Galileo908

[Sandman87]

Tremendous fake-out. We thought we were getting R&M in Atlantis, but instead...

How many different movies did they riff on here? You already mentioned Stand By Me and Willy Wonka. The story line with the two cops reminded me of Training Day. What else?

[Lantern7]

Of course we wouldn't get an adventure in Atlantis. Rick and Morty got mermaid puss. Putting aside the physics of that, as well as the prospect of Morty getting "any," it looked like it wasn't bleak. Maybe it could have worked in the detox episode from two weeks ago. We got the alternatives: all Ricks, all Mortys. Oh, and one other guy listed in the credits at the end. He's gonna be a trivia answer.

Looks like Citizen Morty-turned-President Morty was Evil Morty from two seasons ago. I knew that was going to happen. Kinda funny how things broke that well for him. He's not a Doctor Who fan; otherwise, he would've gassed all those Ricks to death. Great that a Morty is getting a leg up, but that's probably going to smack into "our" Rick and Morty soon. The question is if that's going to happen at the end of this season, or if we'd have to wait until 2018-19 for that.

"Simple Rick" wafers. Damn. Seriously . . . damn.

Funny that we got three variations of a single Rick version, all of whom worked at the news station, each one more fucked up than the other.

Shit, I'll have to rewatch this soon. Did any of the Ricks have "our" guy's trademark spittle?

For anybody bummed about next week's episode getting put in the place of an "Interdimensional Cable"-themed episode, go to the comic book shop and get Rick and Morty #28. Right now, there's a miniseries based on the Pokemon-styled game with lots of Ricks and Mortys; Pocket Like You Stole It. And in issues #21-23, the pre-blown-up Council of Ricks meet the one foe they can't beat. I'll put it in spoilers because it's hilarious.

Spoiler

Jerry. Specifically, the Jerry from Doofus Rick's universe. He winds up fucking up "our" Rick, and that's only for starters.

[Triskan]

Damn, that was one of the best episode of the show ! Love me some Citadel ! 

And a huge bravo to Adult Swim, Justin and Dan for hiding the real plot of the episode till the very end ! :) 

[revbfc]

My only problem with this episode was the Presidential candidate called "Rick Guilt Rick."  We all know deep in our hearts that he should have been named "The Rick Is Too Damn High."  Missed opportunity, writers.

[Doyounot]

That was incredible! Simple rick wafers was amazing! This show is so smart.. But atlantis and seeing how they got that mermaid puss would also have been great! I freaked out when the music started playing and then showed the eyepatch! Lots of little jokes i died of laugher from like citadel news.. news about the citadel pretty self explanatory

[CheezyXpressed]

Simple Rick Wafers...I was recovering from the first one, only to be hit by the second.

At first I was hoping we'd see some of the family instead of it just being about Rick & Morty, but wow this episode was fantastic. Probably the best one of the season, thus far.

[TeaTV]

I loved this ep and didn't miss the family being in it at all. To me it was an allegory showing that we are all each other in different forms and hurting others is akin to hurting yourself.

[Lantern7]

On September 11, 2017 at 5:38 AM, Triskan said:

And a huge bravo to Adult Swim, Justin and Dan for hiding the real plot of the episode till the very end ! :) 

Funny thing . . . there is now an episode description when I find it on the DVR. "Atlantis here we come broh!  A nice self contained episode about Atlantis!"

[Kip Hackman]

"You should use your left hand to eat some vegetables."

[Ubiquitous]

Holy crap! That was some fakeout with the Atlantis trip!

About halfway thru, I wondered if this was the evil Morty from first season. I couldn't see the proof from the Morty that was spaced. What was it?

OK, that was some sick and twisted stuff with the Rick Waffers and what the "Wish Hole" really was.

[patchwork]

4 hours ago, Ubiquitous said:

Holy crap! That was some fakeout with the Atlantis trip!

About halfway thru, I wondered if this was the evil Morty from first season. I couldn't see the proof from the Morty that was spaced. What was it?

OK, that was some sick and twisted stuff with the Rick Waffers and what the "Wish Hole" really was.

When campaign manager Morty floats by you see photos of evil Morty, one wearing the eyepatch and working on Rick's brain, one from the end of that episode when the Mortys are being loaded onto the ships, then one of him in the business suit looking all evil dictator. 

[johntfs]

On 9/10/2017 at 11:47 PM, Lantern7 said:

Putting aside the physics of that, as well as the prospect of Morty getting "any,"

To be fair, Morty has "gotten some" in then past.  There was the sex-bot in the first season.  Also, during the previous episode he was living with the hot red-head.  I think we can reasonably assume some bedroom activity from "The Cub of Wall Street."  Hell, in the same episode there was "Ben-Wa" girl.  Who knows what happened on the cab ride over to Rick?

 

On 9/10/2017 at 11:07 PM, Galileo908 said:

On second thought, you might be right. Maybe Morty found a way to steal Rick's intelligence? I'd think they mind-swapped but I could imagine seeing a Rick-possessed Morty drinking, and I didn't see that here.

Remember that in the "Detox" episode, detoxed Morty became a multi-millionaire stockbroker and scored a smoking hot older Jessica lookalike all in about three weeks.  It's not that our Morty lacks intelligence or capability (he routinely disarms neutrino bombs).  He just has all that crippling anxiety and other issues.  Replace those issues with a cold desire for power (and revenge on the various Ricks) and that's Eye-patch Morty, no Rick-possession required.

[Sandman87]

On 9/11/2017 at 8:06 PM, Ubiquitous said:

OK, that was some sick and twisted stuff with the Rick Waffers and what the "Wish Hole" really was.

Which reminds me: Where does the "wish hole" actually go? I bet that it leads to "our" Rick & Morty's Earth ("Hey, let's dump our garbage on the Earth of that asshole who wrecked our council"), and that there's a Drama Morty wandering around there now.

[Lantern7]

"And we'll be doing this instead of Interdimensional Cable."

[Galileo908]

The Man in The Moon memory was dark, and got darker from there. Man, was this a good one. I noticed that the NASA ship resembled a Saiyan pod.

Oh man, the squirrel memory was a fantastic reveal. So this is the THIRD reality they're in? At least?

Summer saving the day was great, and yeah, no surprise it's not the first time this happened.

Mr. Poopy Butthole proposed to Morty? I wonder why that was erased? Unless it was a positive memory, proving he was a parasite?

Next week: Rick and Beth adventure!

[Lantern7]

Man, either Morty's brain is unbelievably resilient, or he's basically a hollow shell going through the motions of his own life, being hapless as he was in life. His brain should be leaking out of his ears.

Basically, we don't learn much new stuff. Rick is still an asshole that needs to be dominant. Morty is the whipping boy of the universe. While I'm thinking about it: I think he was about as planned by his parents as Summer. Beth wasted zero time picking Summer to live. And Morty is a fidgeting freak, mostly because even his most innocent mistakes lead to dire consequences. Which kid from Adult Swim has the more fucked-up life: Morty Smith or Oral Puppington?

ETA for @Sandman87 . . . that was Contact. South Park ripped on it a few times in the old days. Gotta love the instructions to build a second seat for Morty, and some poor schmuck paid the price.

[Sandman87]

Bunch of shout-outs here.

Those men-AAH-gerie scientists were an awfully touchy-feely bunch, what with all the hugging and hand-holding. I noticed that the one scientist was playing Solitaire on his PC when the "alien message" came in. Seemed to be a Contact shout-out, with a side of Slaughterhouse Five thrown in.

The end of the segment with the Floop Floopian reminds me of the "getting dragged to hell" bit in Ghost.

Some Star Wars stuff...

Ghostbusters...

Nice pun in the ID Cable show there at the end. I'd definitely watch a show with House Hunters who literally hunt houses.

And the moral of this episode is that Rick and Morty are both jerks, but Rick is a bigger one.

Annnd, some E.T. in the stinger.

[johntfs]

6 hours ago, Galileo908 said:

Oh man, the squirrel memory was a fantastic reveal. So this is the THIRD reality they're in? At least?

I'm choosing to believe that Rick came to an arrangement with the squirrels to remove Morty's memory and keep their secret.  Otherwise that means we no longer have Season 2 Summer and I loved Season 2 Summer.

6 hours ago, Galileo908 said:

Mr. Poopy Butthole proposed to Morty? I wonder why that was erased? Unless it was a positive memory, proving he was a parasite?

That wouldn't have mattered.  The point wasn't that people had positive memories of the parasites, it was that they had only positive memories of the parasites.  Also, recall that Beth only had positive memories of Mr. Poopy Butthole, which is why she shot him.  She thought he was a parasite.

[Matt K]

3 hours ago, johntfs said:

I'm choosing to believe that Rick came to an arrangement with the squirrels to remove Morty's memory and keep their secret.  Otherwise that means we no longer have Season 2 Summer and I loved Season 2 Summer.

That wouldn't have mattered.  The point wasn't that people had positive memories of the parasites, it was that they had only positive memories of the parasites.  Also, recall that Beth only had positive memories of Mr. Poopy Butthole, which is why she shot him.  She thought he was a parasite.

It's possible that the squirrel memory pre-dates Rick's Cronenberging their universe and as we saw he wiped Morty's memories.  But I do like your idea better.

[Sandman87]

2 hours ago, Matt K said:

It's possible that the squirrel memory pre-dates Rick's Cronenberging their universe and as we saw he wiped Morty's memories.

The line "You know I said we could only do that a couple more times!" places it firmly post-Cronenberg.

[Matt K]

1 hour ago, Sandman87 said:

The line "You know I said we could only do that a couple more times!" places it firmly post-Cronenberg.

I kind of figured there was a chance that it's something Rick says.  Mostly out of hope that what we saw in the last few seasons doesn't go away (especially Summer's progression).

[Sandman87]

It also occurs to me that there's an implication here that Rick & Morty have changed realities at least once since the Cronenbergs, but we weren't told about it until now. Meaning that the family they have now changed again at least once. I find it annoying.

[arc]

The Cronenberg-y rule seems to be that they move to an adjacent-as-possible universe. So if they fled the squirrel-revenge universe, Rick would have fled to one where that Rick (call him Rick-squirrel in absence of a proper universe designation) solved the problem and then he and Morty immediately died, and so that universe's Summer should be functionally identical to s2 Summer.  (And therefore, Rick-Squirrel himself would have come from a universe where he too caused a Cronenberg problem and couldn't solve it and switched into a universe where the original Rick-Squirrel's universe did solve it, then blew himself and Morty up.)

Infinity is fun!

[CheezyXpressed]

I love how Summer keeps saving the day and Rick, even though he is a jerk (like everyone else in the family), seems to see her as capable enough of helping him out of a jam. More Summer is always a good thing and we got to see the family, though it must suck for Morty that Beth immediately said Summer's name when threatened.

The light switch part was funny when Rick sighed and explained what happened, but wow did it get dark in the end. I wonder how many people has Morty accidentally killed? It's clearly happened a lot, but damn. I can definitely understand why those memories keep getting erased. Just like that smudge on the telescope.

[Sandman87]

Part of the problem seems to be that Rick assumes that Morty knows what he knows, and doesn't bother to provide complete information. For example, he'll say something like "Go flip that wall switch", but fails to follow up with "...but don't flip the other one because a bunch of people will die." Or he'll give Morty a talk-to-animals headset, but won't warn him to steer clear of the squirrels.

And then, of course, he blames Morty and swears at him.

 

ETA: That's actually a problem for a lot of really intelligent people; not being able to relate to regular folks and frustration over having to deal with them.

Edited September 19, 2017 by Sandman87

[Ubiquitous]

For some reason, I thought it was a singularity or some kind of disintegrator at the bottom, so he died like a piece of garbage and no one cared, fitting the show's overall theme of everything being meaningless.  

Edited September 19, 2017 by Ubiquitous

[Lantern7]

Got this from Omaze by mail: Win a Rick and Morty prize, where you record Season 3 commentary for the DVD alongside Dan Harmon and Justin Roiland in Los Angeles. There are also chicken nuggets drenched in that sweet, sweet Szechuan sauce.

[Lantern7]

Somebody had the bright idea to play the cold open backwards, revealing what the Truth Tortoise told Morty. Par for the course for the poor bastard and this demented show.

[Sandman87]

Pretty low-hanging Easter egg there. Ought to make the fans work for it, like Aphex Twin did with that one song that has the obnoxious math title on Widowlicker (if you feed the audio into a spectrogram, you get a creepy picture of Richard D. James leering at you.)

[Lantern7]

From TVGuide.com:

Quote

Jerry encounters a lady and Beth revisits her childhood...

"It's a Rick and Beth adventure! RICK AND BETH EPISODE!!!!!" That probably won't be said, but it is implied.

[Galileo908]

Oh of course Tommy was stuck in Froopyland and mated with all the imaginary creatures and became God to all his abomination children and ate the rest. And of course Rick (all of them) created Froopyland in the first because if Rick was the most dangerous man in the universe, his only child was of course even crazier. Oh and hi Thomas Middleditch. It was weird hearing Penn Zero's voice coming out of...that.

"Whatever you say, Stone Cold Steve Austin." I think Rick found his new catchphrase.

Really loved Jerry's plot. He's a beta piece of shit, and yeah, he'd be a rebound for a sexy alien hunter. The answering machine gag at the end was great, very reminiscent of Marzipan's answering machine from Homestar Runner.

 

Next week: Season finale already? Where's Phoenix Person? I hope he shows up.

[Sandman87]

First off: Fuck you Rick & Morty. I use an answering machine.

Between them Rick and Beth managed to turn a magical unicorn candy-land into a den of incest, bestiality, cannibalism, and (worst of all) bad theatrical productions. Just exactly how old was Tommy when he got stranded there? Because he had to start churning out incest food-babies to keep from starving to death, and it'd be weird for someone who's old enough to produce babies to even be in that preschool fantasyland.

I wonder how long Jerry gets to keep the TK powers. I wonder how long his apartment retains its Swingin' Bachelor Pad look.

[Lantern7]

So . . . Beth is, at baseline, a horrible person. Getting knocked up by Jerry didn't make her a better person, but I reckon that she's more of her father's daughter, unburdened by 140 lbs (or whatever) of ultimate fail. Jerry is still Jerry . . . fucking useless, fucking cowardly, fucking stupid. Also, the most useless character Chris Parnell has played, but I'll probably change my mind when Archer starts back up.

Still, it was a fun episode. Of course Beth's friend would wind up the god of Froopyland, and he would basically fuck and eat the creatures Rick created. Of course Beth would be a sociopath . . . .or, at minimum, a girl who really wanted those old-timey gimmicks from the comic books to be real. Also awesome how Rick and Beth figured out the plot and dealt with Tommy's backstory, like the boys in the "Towlie" episode of South Park. Jerry gets a rebound, turns out to be a rebound, and endangers his children's lives. Not as badly as a typical Rick adventure, but he still sucks. Rick loses an arm, but he's probably done that a few times. Par for the course for this series.

Next week: President Keith David! Kennedy Sex Tunnels!!! The possibility of a bigger tease than the last season finale!!

[Galileo908]

Also, the Beth at the end of this episode may or may not be the real Beth, most likely a clone. I'm leaning on clone, although I don't want that to be true.

[jbrecken]

When they showed the letter magnets on the fridge, I realized that Beth and Jerry gave their kids the initials S & M.

[patchwork]

I know the ending heavily implies clone!Beth but the big personality switch makes me wonder if she didn't ask Rick to reduce her intelligence.  

[Ubiquitous]

I finally saw this year's alternative to Interdimensional Cable but Rick telling us was just too funny!

Dream chasing them around the Eisher Painting place amused me for some reason.

Did I hear correctly that Morty routinely mistakens smudges on his telescope for people in town and ruins their lives?

As soon as I saw the astronomers from SETI getting that signal, I know there was a Contact spoof coming! What I didn't see coming was Rick fast-talking thrm into switching places in the Interdimensional zoo and leaving them totally clueless.

Morty, when Rick tells you to ignore the sqirrels, do it! :-D

[CheezyXpressed]

Even though Jerry is a selfish jerk, he still stuck around for his kids and tried to save them even though he's the reason why they were in danger to begin with. He has his faults, but at least he's not a clone. I really hope Beth didn't actually leave, but if she did then that might be the worst thing she's done on the show. All of the parents on the show have some serious issues and I kind of like how it was displayed here. Rick knows he's a horrible dad, but stays. Beth has daddy issues and is so wrapped in that that she doesn't mind leaving her kids and exploring life. And Jerry is just an idiot.

I don't know how Summer turned out so well considering everything around her. Perhaps this is why she's so awesome. It also makes sense why Morty could easily become evil.

Season finale is next week. :(

[Galileo908]

1 hour ago, CheezyXpressed said:

 

I don't know how Summer turned out so well considering everything around her. Perhaps this is why she's so awesome. It also makes sense why Morty could easily become evil.

Season 1 Summer had a desperate need to be popular (See: Meeseeks, Rick Party). More likely, a need for attention or to be liked by others, definitely stems from her incredibly selfish parents. I honestly think her time with Rick (any of them) was what caused her to develop into the awesome character she is now.

Edited September 25, 2017 by Galileo908

[johntfs]

7 hours ago, Galileo908 said:

I honestly think her time with Rick (any of them) was what caused her to develop into the awesome character she is now.

That was part of it.  You really had a kind one-two-three punch with Summer in the latter part of the first season.  She pushed herself into an adventure with Rick in Raising Gazorpazorp (and saved his ass), learned how she was an unplanned (and unwanted) pregnancy in Rixty Minutes, but found an odd kind of acceptance when Morty confessed that he wasn't her original brother and concluded with "Nobody exists on purpose, nobody belongs anywhere, everybody's gonna die. Come watch TV."  Finally, she sort of cemented her metamorphosis from shallowish teenager to awesomeness incarnate ultimately beat the Devil (and other awful people) up in "Something Ricked This Way Comes."

Finally in "Close Rick-counters of the Rick Kind" we discover that Rick takes Morty on his adventures because he "has" to, but he takes Summer along mostly because he wants to.

Edited September 26, 2017 by johntfs

[revbfc]

The answering machine gag had me wishing for a Jerry episode that's an homage to the Rockford Files.  It'll never happen, the joke is too specific, and kids don't watch Cozi TV, but I have this feeling that Jerry trying to be a PI would make for a good b or c story.

[Ubiquitous]

On ‎9‎/‎25‎/‎2017 at 6:10 AM, patchwork said:

I know the ending heavily implies clone!Beth but the big personality switch makes me wonder if she didn't ask Rick to reduce her intelligence.  

Or create a "Beth's Mindblowers" collection?

[CheezyXpressed]

6 hours ago, Ubiquitous said:

Or create a "Beth's Mindblowers" collection?

Well, there were some test tube colours that they didn't touch. Maybe you're on to something there.
 

13 hours ago, johntfs said:

That was part of it.  You really had a kind one-two-three punch with Summer in the latter part of the first season.  She pushed herself into an adventure with Rick in Raising Gazorpazorp (and saved his ass), learned how she was an unplanned (and unwanted) pregnancy in Rixty Minutes, but found an odd kind of acceptance when Morty confessed that he wasn't her original brother and concluded with "Nobody exists on purpose, nobody belongs anywhere, everybody's gonna die. Come watch TV."  Finally, she sort of cemented her metamorphosis from shallowish teenager to awesomeness incarnate ultimately beat the Devil (and other awful people) up in "Something Ricked This Way Comes."

Finally in "Close Rick-counters of the Rick Kind" we discover that Rick takes Morty on his adventures because he "has" to, but he takes Summer along mostly because he wants to.

They also got closer after the whole Tiny Rick thing happened.

[VCRTracking]

I'm not remotely shocked Beth chose Summer without hesitation to be spared over Morty. She lets him get taken on insane adventures with Rick where he could easily be killed just to keep her father around.

[Ubiquitous]

OK, I did find it amusing that Summer apparently is in charge of fixing things via Rick's emergency repair kit and has done it enough times to know what to do.

[rmontro]

On 9/26/2017 at 4:31 PM, CheezyXpressed said:

Well, there were some test tube colours that they didn't touch. Maybe you're on to something there.

Oh, good observation!

[johntfs]

11 hours ago, Ubiquitous said:

OK, I did find it amusing that Summer apparently is in charge of fixing things via Rick's emergency repair kit and has done it enough times to know what to do.

If given a choice between self-absorbed, occasionally drunk Beth, generally incompetent Jerry and Summer and you telling me you wouldn't choose Summer as the person to reboot your brain?  I know I would.