Rick and Morty: Auto Erotic Assimilation
August 9, 2015 10:48 PM - Season 2, Episode 3 - Subscribe
Rick gets emotional. Beth and Jerry get into a fight.
Rick, Morty, and Summer come across an ex-lover of Rick's who happens to be a hive-mind alien named Unity. Chaos ensues and Rick begins to party. Meanwhile, Jerry and Beth find an underground lair of Rick's and fight over whether or not he should be allowed to stay with them any longer.
Rick, Morty, and Summer come across an ex-lover of Rick's who happens to be a hive-mind alien named Unity. Chaos ensues and Rick begins to party. Meanwhile, Jerry and Beth find an underground lair of Rick's and fight over whether or not he should be allowed to stay with them any longer.
I gotta respect how thoroughly they made Rick the bad guy in a relationship between Rick and an assimilation-bent hivemind.
posted by You Can't Tip a Buick at 11:07 PM on August 9, 2015 [16 favorites]
posted by You Can't Tip a Buick at 11:07 PM on August 9, 2015 [16 favorites]
"You made a show for me? Awesome. Cancel it... Now bring it back!"
posted by Pong74LS at 11:28 PM on August 9, 2015 [18 favorites]
posted by Pong74LS at 11:28 PM on August 9, 2015 [18 favorites]
Sad Rick made me sad. :(
The rest of the episode was a perfect gem, but the ending really caught me off guard (in a good way). Rick can't really change too much though, so presumably he won't learn anything from his sad time lapse. I guess the post-credits thing made that clear. Speaking of which... I'm glad I noticed there was more time left than the credits for this show take or I'd have turned it off before the post-credits bit!
posted by sparkletone at 12:52 AM on August 10, 2015 [1 favorite]
The rest of the episode was a perfect gem, but the ending really caught me off guard (in a good way). Rick can't really change too much though, so presumably he won't learn anything from his sad time lapse. I guess the post-credits thing made that clear. Speaking of which... I'm glad I noticed there was more time left than the credits for this show take or I'd have turned it off before the post-credits bit!
posted by sparkletone at 12:52 AM on August 10, 2015 [1 favorite]
"Do you feel it" by Chaos Chaos, formerly Smoosh. Roiland has a thing for sad songs with female vocals. (So he says somewhere in that drunken interview.)
posted by Catblack at 1:06 AM on August 10, 2015 [7 favorites]
posted by Catblack at 1:06 AM on August 10, 2015 [7 favorites]
This episode was as good as anything in the first season.
Rick can't really change too much though, so presumably he won't learn anything from his sad time lapse.
I don't think there's much reason to worry about that. If ever a show was going to succeed with making a deplorable character sympathetic, while refusing the audience the "out" of redeeming the guy, this is the one.
posted by Ipsifendus at 5:10 AM on August 10, 2015 [1 favorite]
Rick can't really change too much though, so presumably he won't learn anything from his sad time lapse.
I don't think there's much reason to worry about that. If ever a show was going to succeed with making a deplorable character sympathetic, while refusing the audience the "out" of redeeming the guy, this is the one.
posted by Ipsifendus at 5:10 AM on August 10, 2015 [1 favorite]
Certainly the post-credits bit shows that Rick stays Rick.
posted by sparkletone at 6:30 AM on August 10, 2015
posted by sparkletone at 6:30 AM on August 10, 2015
That was a great episode! And I missed that "tv show" made for Rick on first watch, thanks for the screen cap Pong74LS!
posted by numaner at 7:07 AM on August 10, 2015
posted by numaner at 7:07 AM on August 10, 2015
It's becoming painfully clear that in all the multiverse, the one constant in Rick's life (lives) is that the former Mrs. Sanchez is no longer around.
Wubba-lubba-dub-dub!
posted by Doktor Zed at 8:51 AM on August 10, 2015 [8 favorites]
Wubba-lubba-dub-dub!
posted by Doktor Zed at 8:51 AM on August 10, 2015 [8 favorites]
The ending sans post-credit was indeed killer. Animated or not, there's simply few shows that would run with impact of emotional fallout from a past relationship. The show seemed to imply that Rick, at least this Rick seeks to be a part of something, be it his family or the center of a whirling hurricane of bodies inhabited by a hive mind consciousness. Perhaps the saddest aspect of the end montage wasn't that Rick lay unconscious on his desk (presumably after a failed attempt at suicide?), but at no point during it, did we see anyone go into the garage to check up on him. He lives with his daughter's family, but because of his behavior, no one cares to look in on him because they're used to him randomly disappearing or they're mad at him because of his behavior.
The Community joke was awesome on two levels - one for the obvious Dan Harmon connection, but two, it makes perfect sense for a hive mind to create a show about a community of people. Notable, it's season one, so we still have Unity Pierce and Unity Troy.
The show really likes to toy with a given morality, or rather, ideas that we want to embrace as better ideas. It's a good thing not to kill, as Morty tried to argue last episode, and in this one, Summer steps up and tries to argue for the value of individuality. Yet, when everyone gets it, a race war erupts, versus the utopia of prostitutes turned scientists and hobos turned philosophers. And pushing that boundary, Rick's own place with his family, wherein when he's excluded as an individual to the family unit, it's when he's miserable.
I'm really curious to see where this show will be three or four seasons from now and how much of the events and experiences of current episodes will play out on our characters. Will Summer become as jaded as Morty over a race war? Will Beth and Jerry EVER improve their own marriage? It does seem like Rick has been affected by season one, when Unity blew up the neighboring city, he did appear genuinely worried whether Morty and Summer were in it.
Great episode.
posted by Atreides at 11:31 AM on August 10, 2015 [10 favorites]
The Community joke was awesome on two levels - one for the obvious Dan Harmon connection, but two, it makes perfect sense for a hive mind to create a show about a community of people. Notable, it's season one, so we still have Unity Pierce and Unity Troy.
The show really likes to toy with a given morality, or rather, ideas that we want to embrace as better ideas. It's a good thing not to kill, as Morty tried to argue last episode, and in this one, Summer steps up and tries to argue for the value of individuality. Yet, when everyone gets it, a race war erupts, versus the utopia of prostitutes turned scientists and hobos turned philosophers. And pushing that boundary, Rick's own place with his family, wherein when he's excluded as an individual to the family unit, it's when he's miserable.
I'm really curious to see where this show will be three or four seasons from now and how much of the events and experiences of current episodes will play out on our characters. Will Summer become as jaded as Morty over a race war? Will Beth and Jerry EVER improve their own marriage? It does seem like Rick has been affected by season one, when Unity blew up the neighboring city, he did appear genuinely worried whether Morty and Summer were in it.
Great episode.
posted by Atreides at 11:31 AM on August 10, 2015 [10 favorites]
The line readings of "they made hamburgers!" and "if I wanted to be sober, I wouldn't have gotten drunk," slayed me (and I can't even pinpoint why with that first one)
posted by elr at 12:06 PM on August 10, 2015 [3 favorites]
posted by elr at 12:06 PM on August 10, 2015 [3 favorites]
On Harmontown, I've heard Dan Harmon bristle and get awkward when guests (usually from-the-audience, non-celebrity guests) mention Aliso Brie or Gillian Jacobs in a sexual-crush way.
I wonder what it's like for a guy with such a frequently addressed redhead fetish (that he's since gifted to Jeff Winger and Rick Sanchez) to work with Cristina Hendricks. Armchair psychology prediction: it was cool to work with a great actress but a bit of a bummer to put her in the "real person not fantasy person" column of his brain.
posted by elr at 12:20 PM on August 10, 2015 [1 favorite]
I wonder what it's like for a guy with such a frequently addressed redhead fetish (that he's since gifted to Jeff Winger and Rick Sanchez) to work with Cristina Hendricks. Armchair psychology prediction: it was cool to work with a great actress but a bit of a bummer to put her in the "real person not fantasy person" column of his brain.
posted by elr at 12:20 PM on August 10, 2015 [1 favorite]
I love this show soooo much. The ending was spectacular. As good as the best episode of the Simpsons (which is clearly Bart of Darkness). I'm still wincing. And that song is amazing.
Nice Patton Oswalt guest spot!
posted by bq at 2:09 PM on August 11, 2015
Nice Patton Oswalt guest spot!
posted by bq at 2:09 PM on August 11, 2015
town of cats: "First race war?" Amazing. Love it when Morty can lord his adventures over Summer.
I felt that was more Morty shaking his head in sad wonder at the naiveté of Summer. Morty has aged a lot, due to his misadventures with Rick, and Summer is still new at all this galavanting around multiverse.
"They just put you at the center of their lives because you're powerful, and because they put you there, they want you to be less powerful." Delivered with some somber reflection, before flashing to the Unity version of Community. (Shit, that's a great fit on so many levels.)
posted by filthy light thief at 7:39 PM on August 11, 2015 [5 favorites]
I felt that was more Morty shaking his head in sad wonder at the naiveté of Summer. Morty has aged a lot, due to his misadventures with Rick, and Summer is still new at all this galavanting around multiverse.
"They just put you at the center of their lives because you're powerful, and because they put you there, they want you to be less powerful." Delivered with some somber reflection, before flashing to the Unity version of Community. (Shit, that's a great fit on so many levels.)
posted by filthy light thief at 7:39 PM on August 11, 2015 [5 favorites]
"They made burgers" killed me because it's such an informed line. It draws on many episodes of development. Morty's seen a lot of shit, and he's learned to accept a simple pleasure when faced with insane absurdity.
posted by French Fry at 7:07 AM on August 12, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by French Fry at 7:07 AM on August 12, 2015 [2 favorites]
If there was any ambiguity left over from the inception scene in s1e2, this confirms what was said at ComicCon, Rick is pansexual, and unity is consistently referred to without gender. Which makes the post credit scene interesting, where Rick calls Beta 7 gay.
posted by gryftir at 3:41 PM on August 12, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by gryftir at 3:41 PM on August 12, 2015 [1 favorite]
Also, the song switching to the chorus at the end syncs up with the little creature that rick is comforting being disintegrated. And when the song says, "lay it lay it down," he lays down two things.
It made me go back to Rick Potion #9, and see how the lyrics synced up.
When marty walks past his fighting parents who don't notice him, "Everybody seems so far away from me"
And then when he goes to the couch where summer and Rick are looking at screens "Everybody just wants to be free"
And then the lyric is "look away from the sky" and morty looks away from the screen, at the tv, and staring into the camera the words are:
It's no different when you're leaving home
I can't be the same thing to you now
I'm just gone, just gone
Anyway, it seems like the animation for both is maybe created listening to the song. Even the end of Something Ricked This way comes with DMX is synced to the beat pretty well.
posted by gryftir at 4:12 PM on August 12, 2015 [4 favorites]
It made me go back to Rick Potion #9, and see how the lyrics synced up.
When marty walks past his fighting parents who don't notice him, "Everybody seems so far away from me"
And then when he goes to the couch where summer and Rick are looking at screens "Everybody just wants to be free"
And then the lyric is "look away from the sky" and morty looks away from the screen, at the tv, and staring into the camera the words are:
It's no different when you're leaving home
I can't be the same thing to you now
I'm just gone, just gone
Anyway, it seems like the animation for both is maybe created listening to the song. Even the end of Something Ricked This way comes with DMX is synced to the beat pretty well.
posted by gryftir at 4:12 PM on August 12, 2015 [4 favorites]
gryftir:If there was any ambiguity left over from the inception scene in s1e2, this confirms what was said at ComicCon, Rick is pansexual, and unity is consistently referred to without gender. Which makes the post credit scene interesting, where Rick calls Beta 7 gay.
Rick can still be a dick and use the language of a hetero dude, because let's face it, hetero dudes are often the biggest assholes in terms of flinging language when hurt.
French Fry: "They made burgers" killed me because it's such an informed line. It draws on many episodes of development. Morty's seen a lot of shit, and he's learned to accept a simple pleasure when faced with insane absurdity.
Also, Morty is the perpetual side-kick, and it is well known that side-kicks rarely get anything that isn't a hand-me-down from their alpha person/being, so when someone makes something for Morty, score! Also, huge statues are great and all, but a mountain of hamburgers are good food (well, good enough to make a side-kick excited).
posted by filthy light thief at 12:45 PM on August 13, 2015 [4 favorites]
Rick can still be a dick and use the language of a hetero dude, because let's face it, hetero dudes are often the biggest assholes in terms of flinging language when hurt.
French Fry: "They made burgers" killed me because it's such an informed line. It draws on many episodes of development. Morty's seen a lot of shit, and he's learned to accept a simple pleasure when faced with insane absurdity.
Also, Morty is the perpetual side-kick, and it is well known that side-kicks rarely get anything that isn't a hand-me-down from their alpha person/being, so when someone makes something for Morty, score! Also, huge statues are great and all, but a mountain of hamburgers are good food (well, good enough to make a side-kick excited).
posted by filthy light thief at 12:45 PM on August 13, 2015 [4 favorites]
Rick can still be a dick and use the language of a hetero dude
Rick being an asshole about language is strongly established in the Something Ricked episode. He tells Morty the Devil's microscope would have made him retarded, which Morty says isn't okay to say. Rick launches into a reasonable-sounding defense of the term as clinical within certain situations, not an insult. When Morty says he thinks it's still just not cool Rick shows his true colors/rationalization by saying "that's retarded."
posted by phearlez at 1:56 PM on August 13, 2015 [6 favorites]
Rick being an asshole about language is strongly established in the Something Ricked episode. He tells Morty the Devil's microscope would have made him retarded, which Morty says isn't okay to say. Rick launches into a reasonable-sounding defense of the term as clinical within certain situations, not an insult. When Morty says he thinks it's still just not cool Rick shows his true colors/rationalization by saying "that's retarded."
posted by phearlez at 1:56 PM on August 13, 2015 [6 favorites]
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I guess I'd never thought too much before about how shitty it would be to know all the alternative-universe versions of yourself and hear about their exploits (even though this is ground that we've covered before in this show, it's always been more of a curiosity than anything else; heck, with Jerry and Beth it was actually really great for their relationship to see their "successful" alternate-selves never stopped thinking about one another). It'd weigh heavily on anyone, especially on someone so smart and driven.
"First race war?" Amazing. Love it when Morty can lord his adventures over Summer.
I almost added a "giraffe" tag but decided it was in poor taste.
That ending! Oh my god! I've never watched a TV show that pulled so few punches. I just don't even know where to begin. I feel like I'm just waving my hands and jumping up and down because I don't know what else to say about how amazing this episode was.
posted by town of cats at 11:02 PM on August 9, 2015 [3 favorites]