Warning! This article contains spoilers for Rick and Morty #3Even though season 4 of Rick and Morty is generally regarded by the fandom as perhaps the worst one yet, it did present a number of thought-provoking questions and even some life lessons for the characters. While Rick himself wasn’t greatly impacted by any of them, he does have to face one lesson in particular in the latest Rick and Morty storyline–and it’s heart wrenchingly brutal.
In Rick and Morty season 4 episode 2, “The Old Man and the Seat”, Rick discovers that someone else in the universe has used his secret toilet, one which is hidden on a paradise planet seemingly uninhabited by industrialist lifeforms. As it turns out, Rick is a shy pooper, so the idea of sharing a toilet with someone–especially someone he doesn’t know–is unacceptable. Using his inventive genius, Rick is able to track down the person who used the toilet: an office-working alien named Tony. When Rick threatens to kill Tony in one of his office’s conference rooms, Tony accepts his fate. Tony tells Rick that his wife died not too long ago, and that using Rick’s toilet was a nice reprieve from the pain he suffers by missing her. After he hears this, Rick travels to an alternate universe where Tony’s wife was still alive, yet Tony still used that version of Rick’s toilet. Rick then told his Tony to not use his ‘dead wife’ as an excuse for his actions, because the other Tony proved that he would have used Rick’s toilet regardless.
Rick Learns the Lesson he Taught Tony in Rick & Morty Season 4
In Oni Press’ Rick and Morty #3 by Alex Firer and Fred C. Stresing, Rick is battling a version of Mr. Goldenfold (Morty’s math teacher) who is just as smart as he is. This Mr. Goldenfold is on a mission that threatens every version of Rick across all universes, so Rick has to stop him. Meanwhile, Morty is forming a romantic relationship with Noelle, Mr. Goldenfold’s niece, though that is of little consequence for Rick, as he found another version of himself who is willing to help stop Mr. Goldenfold. The main difference between Rick C-137 and this new Rick is that the alternate Rick’s Diane is still alive. Diane is Rick’s wife who was murdered by an alternate version of himself, though that only happened to the Rickest Rick. This new Rick, who is just a simple math teacher, is still married to a living Diane, with no multiversal threat to her life in the foreseeable future. However, this Rick essentially says that he wishes there was.
During the mission, math teacher Rick says that he doesn’t want to go back home because he hates his life, and most of all, he hates his marriage. He even says that he sometimes wishes Diane was dead, and he says this right in front of C-137. The Rickest Rick freaks out at the math teacher, screaming that he’s spent his whole adult life mourning the loss of his murdered wife, and math teacher Rick just shrugs it off. This entire scene plays out exactly like the one with Rick and Tony from season 4. Rick has always been under the impression that his nihilism stems from losing his wife, but that isn’t the case. This Rick’s wife is alive, and he’s still a selfish, arrogant man who truly only does things because he wants to do them.
Seeing a Rick whose Diane is still alive, but who still had every single negative trait that Rick C-137 had, was a grim lesson forced upon Rick. Rick couldn’t just blame his ‘dead wife’ for his actions anymore, because he has living proof that he would have turned out like he was anyway–the same brutal lesson Rick taught Tony in Rick and Morty season 4.
Rick and Morty #3 by Oni Press is available now.