Rick and Morty Rickmancing the Stone 3

Warning: SPOILERS ahead for Rick and Morty Season 3, Episode 9

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Rick and Morty doesn't take itself very seriously, and since it's a science-fiction series (albeit with an anarchic comedy bent) Dan Harmon and the writers have always taken a particular joy in needling fans who try to take it seriously anyway. The show mocks its own sense of continuity, blows off seemingly "important" plot threads with a deliberate shrug, and uses its central sci-fi conceit (that the titular "Rick" is able to travel interdimensionally between alternate realities comprising infinite incarnations of every character - himself included) as both a fix-all for almost any extreme plot turn and a way of reinforcing Rick's omniscient-nihilist view of the universe as something like a series motto: "Nothing matters."

Except that it does, and that's the drama that's underpinned all the comedy ever since the fullest extent of what Rick's abilities (re: being the smartest man in the universe and also the only one who gets to break the "you only get one reality" rule) were revealed in season 1's "Rick Potion No. 9;" where a rare attempt by Morty to exploit his grandfather (Rick's) inventions (and lack of ethical restraint) to his own ends effectively destroyed the world. Rick "solved" this problem by casually relocating both of them to another reality - one identical to their own, save that the apocalypse had been averted and the other Rick and Morty had randomly died shortly thereafter. The concluding moments left Morty (and the audience) dumbstruck at how impossibly easy it was for them to "get away" with this and Rick's utter nonchalance; both numbed by the same chilling (to save nothing of mind-altering) question: "How many times has Rick done this?"

This, of course, is all part of the bigger (actual) mystery that sits at the foundation of the series' main plot: Rick Sanchez vanished without explanation from his daughter Beth's (Morty's mom) life when she was a young girl, only to re-appear decades later as a dimension-hopping alcoholic super-scientist who (for yet-unexplained reasons) "needs" to continue his various experiments - almost all of which involve sci-fi versions of small-time criminal activities. Why he left, what he was doing and why he's back now have all been questions whose answers are parsed out slowly, in pieces and often in contradiction over three seasons, but the overriding implication has tended to be that it involves "something bad" that Rick is either working to prevent or to bring about (season 3 has largely been all about reminding us that it's perhaps more likely that Rick is the villain of his own story), and that his coming and going are directly tied to this.

"THAT ACORN PLOPPED STRAIGHT DOWN"

But if Rick is not the most dangerous thing in the Universe, Rick and Morty has no shortage of possible other characters seemingly prepared to step into the role - if they aren't already occupying it. The Galactic Federation don't seem to be necessarily be good guys, and neither do The Council of Ricks (a collective of Rick's alternate selves from across the multiverse, who regard "our" Rick as the worst of the bunch) and multiple other occasional nemeses. There's also "Evil Morty," a memorable season 1 villain who made a shocking return two episodes back that seemed to reposition him as the new looming Big Bad. Indeed, the idea that "the enemy" (if there is one) could be an alternate version of a member of the Sanchez family (Rick, Morty, Morty's sister Summer, Beth and her now-ex-husband Jerry Smith) is a popular fan theory; and last Sunday's episode featured a shocking mid-story swerve that found one of them finally realizing - and excepting - that they were in fact "just like Rick." But it wasn't Morty (or even "a Morty")... it was Beth!

Titled "The ABC's of Beth," the episode sent Morty and Summer off to deal with Jerry in a comedy B-story while Rick (reluctantly) came clean to Beth about a few things. Specifically, after learning that a locally-infamous death row inmate convicted for murdering his son Tommy years ago was finally set to be executed, Beth recalled that Tommy had actually been a childhood friend of hers and that she had "convinced herself" at the time that he'd not been killed but rather lost in "FroopyLand," her imaginary fantasy world. Problem? As it turns out, FroopyLand wasn't imaginary: It was an actual place, a pocket-universe (designed in the manner of a My Little Pony/Lisa Frank rainbow-colored wonderland) that Rick had created for her as a girl - meaning that Tommy might still be alive and trapped there.

A rescue attempt led to some fairly disgusting (even for Rick and Morty) reveals about how Tommy had managed to survive and what had become of FroopyLand with Tommy as it's "king;" but that turned out to be misdirection for the big reveal: Every Rick, in every reality, also made a FroopyLand for "their" Beths; but not as she'd assumed to get rid of her - they did it for the protection of the neighborhood. As Rick puts it: "You [Beth] were a scary f***ing kid, man!" and "It was just more practical to sequester you before I had to start, y'know, cloning a replacement for every less-than-polite little boy or gullible animal that crossed your socio-path."

To prove his point, Rick revealed a both of toys that young Beth had asked him to invent for her - all of them either horrific variations on stereotypical "little girl" toys (a stuffed animal with biologically-correct organs for dissecting, a pink talking switchblade, a cat-o-nine tails "that makes people like you") or just practical tools that a serial killer might need - fake fingerprints, "rainbow" duct tape, a replica police badge.

Rick and Beth work in Rick's lab in Rick and Morty

EVIL... OR JUST SMART?

Ultimately, Rick and Beth solve the Tommy problem, but in a decidedly Rick-like fashion (i.e. violently and dishonestly but "okay" because those wronged but still living will never know the truth). It also leads to Beth finally admitting "I'm my father" - first with horror, but then with exhilaration. And if one could ignore what it was they were actually doing, the climactic coda of them finally acting out the kind of relationship Beth has been yearning for - the two of them working together on a "problem solving" experiment as partners - would almost be sweet. But it also means that Beth can't hide from her own truth anymore: Her father isn't a misunderstood good guy she wants to be like; he's a bad guy who she's exactly like.

"Am I evil?" "Worse," Rick says "you're smart;" which to Rick means that she (like he) "gets" that the universe is a giant pointless joke of a thing and has the option (like he does) of taking off and riding life until it throws her off. He even offers to give her a guilt-free way out: He'll make a perfect clone, with all her memories, that can step into her place, lovingly raise her kids and do her job with no discernible difference and "zero chance of going Blade Runner" for as long as she wants to be gone - even if it's forever. She makes a decision, but we don't get to find out what it was, with the scene instead cutting to Morty and Summer returning home to share a blissfully-unaware family dinner with Rick and (a?) Beth.

Along with reminding us that Rick is decidedly not the "hero" of Rick & Morty, Season 3 has also been about teasing fans with the prospect of what happens when his influences infects the rest of the family. We've already met one Evil Morty, we've now seen what "our" Morty might look like with his cowardice and indecision removed (short version: he becomes Jordan Belfort) and Summer has actively tried to become detached and dark, but "Evil Beth" - armed to the teeth with the weapons Rick had made at her request as a girl - is really the first time we've seen any of them be good at it and not ultimately reject it as a persona. That's pretty scary, but (because Rick & Morty does, secretly, take this part of itself pretty seriously) not without precedent. It's been established before that Jerry was a codependent weakling who relished her abuse, and at one point a machine designed to generate a projection of his view of her created an unstoppable monster.

It also, perhaps more importantly in the long-term, adds a dark new dimension to all of the still-unanswered big mysteries about Rick himself. The question of why he abandoned Beth and her mother (whose identity is also still unknown, at least to the audience) now comes with an option most wouldn't have considered: Did he leave because of what Beth was? Is he back now for the same reason? Have his previous actions i.e. forcing Morty and Summer to keep most of their exploits secret from their mother and engineering her divorce from Jerry been about protecting them from her - and is that why he's willing to make the clone? Keep in mind: The customary post-credits "stinger" this time served as an extra comedic kick in the teeth for Jerry's B-story - including the reveal that, sometime in the interim, Rick had found time to save his life.

Is whatever is "wrong" with her really only the result of inheriting his pathology, or is it something else? It might be important that, when Rick wearily interjects "Firstly, you're not my daughter" into their argument this time, it's Beth who cuts him off an explains that she already understands about The Multiverse... Rick doesn't actually finish his sentence. Remember: Interdimensional travel "exists" here, but time-travel doesn't - Rick can't prevent or fix mistakes, only anticipate or escape them. Only one thing can be certain: Whether Beth chose to leave or not, somewhere there's at least one version of Beth who only just realized the "freedom" of living like a Rick; and while the show doesn't necessarily believe in that nihilistic vision of the truth, it feels like Beth absolutely does... and might think she has some catching up to do. And given that a good deal of the biggest problems Rick and Morty tend to face involve Rick's "creations" going out of control, it feels entirely plausible that the series' next big threat... has been close to home all along.

Next: Rick and Morty Reveals Rick's Toxic Worst Enemy