Rick And Morty has always been good, but this season it has scaled up the stakes of its greater sci-fi mythos precipitously, using it as a lens to make increasingly rich, pointed jokes about its characters. Last week’s fantastically dense look at a world of infinite Ricks and Morties was the perfect example, using a trio of miniature narratives as a means to illustrate different facets of the titular duo’s personalities. “Our” Rick—the one the series is following—is defined by being an asshole, and this new video essay from ScreenPrism attempts to tease out just why.
Just as the show sees its preposterous sci-fi premises through to their logical and emotional conclusions, so too does the video take the series’ myriad gags seriously, imagining an infinite cartoon cosmos and empathizing with the hyper-intelligent scientist trapped within it. The video soars through a lot of possibilities: perhaps Rick’s wife really did suffer some tragedy that closed him off emotionally, or maybe he knows he’s in a TV show, or just a textbook narcissist. The increasingly compelling character of Evil Morty is even a possible cause. Whatever the case, it’s an appropriately rich analysis of the show, and proof that its density holds up to scrutiny as deep as you want to take it.
Anyway, maybe one of these theories will help explain this whole “Suicide Helmet” thing?