Film Theory: The End of Rick Sanchez (Rick and Morty Season 4)

Congrats on the first half of season four Morty thanks Matt Pat glad you liked it it's a show that you know takes a lot of brainpower to understand I know we have to do another theory on your show oh geez Matt Pat haven't you done enough of those already it really seems like you're milking our franchise for cheap YouTube views tell me again how many episodes season four has turn and how many multi week breaks have you taken during the rollout of those 10 episodes well we're on number three right now so tell me again who's really milking this show for the views fill you hello internet welcome to film Theory the show where we explore all of the infinite realities and at this point I've made a theory about most of them you know I've really enjoyed doing individual episode breakdowns of Rick and Morty this season I guess you could call it Matt Pat selfish content I did it because you know what I just really wanted to talk about this show with someone other than Stephanie all the time and luckily you all seem to enjoy those little fast turnaround mini Theory episodes too which was great I would expect to see probably a couple more of those show up when the second half of the season drops that said this is not one of those theories where I spend a lot of time breaking down an individual episode or an individual character or specific moment this theory is about season four of Rick and Morty as a whole where the second half of the season and beyond goes from here because more so than in past seasons there seems to have been a lot of disgruntled Rick and Morty fans out there talking about how this has been a disjointed season one without a whole lot of focus no real themes to latch on to nothing deep being explored and a parade of toilet humor shrimp piling the Third Reich and like snakes a surprisingly large amount of snakes as the user dr. Lecter put it on reddit quote in season four were not really seeing those family dynamics anymore now the premise is just fanservice cheap laughs insane antics with no grounding and furthering the plot or the premise of the show end quote and I use that quote as an example but it's really indicative of a lot of the conversation I've been seeing around this season at the show but is that really true what is the point of season four is there a point I mean sure in earlier seasons the through lines were a lot easier to follow season one turned sci-fi tropes on their head by showing that when you fix a problem with sci-fi magic you actually create disasters you wish your dog talked if he could he'd enslave you want to shrink down to explore the human body too bad you're gonna blow up a giant floating homeless Santa in the process you want a hot girl to fall in love with you well spoiler alert she's gonna turn into a praying mantis and try to eat your head thereby necessitating you to abandon your entire dimension in season two we start to get real glimpses of just how powerful rick is but also the rampant wake of destruction that he leaves behind rick fractures time he offends peaceful planets he enslaves aliens to power a ship's battery he sells weapons to assassins and gets most of his friends killed by the end of those 10 episodes fast forward to season 3 and we see how the damage that Rick causes isn't just on a galactic scale but also on a personal one specifically with the Smith family it's an unhealthy relationship that exists between him and his daughter Beth has massive ripple effects throughout the season as it prompts Beth to leave Jerry resulting in the kids struggling with the separation and Rick ultimately not being able to provide the emotional support that any of them really need I turned myself into a pickle morty boom big reveal I'm a pickle until finally they've had enough and Rick is forced to return hat in hand specifically fishing hat in hand I'm fly-fishing Rick no not every single episode necessarily plays into these themes but overall rick and morty seasons do indeed have arcs which means that in theory season four should be no exception so what is the art here and if there is one What's it saying about the narrative arc of these characters what can we expect when the series returns whenever it decides to return which apparently according my Google News Alerts was supposedly January 12 then January 1926 seriously it got me excited each and every week seems like a lot of websites are worse at predicting things than even I am and that is saying a lot that said no in my track record I'm sure that's sometime between me writing this episode and me hitting publish on this video we're gonna get a trailer that directly contradicts everything I'm about to say in this theory so whatever selfish Content activate in case you need a little refresher on Rick and Morty season four here's the best recap of the five episodes we've gotten so far episode 1 rick and morty harvests some death crystals that show the user exactly how they're gonna die and when morty sees a version of him dying with jessica by his side he makes every decision from then on to preserve that future causing a lot of carnage on the way Maury a bunch of us girls were gonna go skinny-dipping later if you wanted to join No I must continue moving in ways that lead to dying with you meanwhile Rick gets himself killed but keeps on getting resurrected into various clone forms trying to get back to his original reality many of these realities are dominated by fascist animals but Rick is eventually helped by the wasp a version of himself to get home we're all in this together wasps monsters episode 2 Jerry makes an app so we don't know this one's gonna play out what are you guys doing did you develop an app in an episode concept to rip straight out of lag mirror we watch the world tear itself apart using Jerry's date finding app love finders which tells people who their soul mates are gonna be but changes that match constantly meanwhile Rick goes on a hunt for revenge to punish the man who used his super secret secluded toilet what begins as a quest for bloody vengeance becomes a budding friendship when Rick learns about the premature death of the man's wife a friendship that itself is unfortunately cut off prematurely when the Phantom Cooper meets a tragic skiing accident episode 3 we get ourselves an inception level placement scheme with Rick building machine to randomize heist plans only to demonstrate how nonsensical and formulaic they are well done Rando end of the episode we get ourselves the big twist the root goal of Rick's complex heist plans was in itself a complex plan to sour Morty on the concept of heist since Morty have been working on a heist screenplay that may have gotten him a deal with Netflix and thereby prevented him from going on future adventures is probably best ignores one of the oddest Rick and Morty episodes to date which is a lot for a show that once turned a character into a pickle Marty gets himself a dragon who ultimately soul bonds more strongly with Rick thereby leading us down a rabbit hole of dragon depravity also Jerry goes to Florida with a talking cat that's presumably more depraved than even the dragon so we never really learned what the cat's deal is and in episode 5 Marty gets bitten by a space snake which he subsequently kills and feel guilty about did him descend an earth snake back to the snakes home planet with a snake planet realizes that they aren't alone in this you verse they invent time and space travel to attempt to take over the earth forcing Rick and Morty to do some Terminator style time travel to kill the snake ancestors and prevent their dominance give them proof that there was something bigger and scarier to unite against you little idiot they dedicated themselves into making universe destroying unthought out technology like time travel now that all might seem random and disconnected and honestly it is even as I sit here writing and recording the episode it's like high fantasy - snakes - death crystals - heist plans a weird mix of episodes but when you actually take a step back away from looking at individual episode plots it all points to one common theme which is ironic because the theme is about the fact that life is just a series of random events let me explain each of these episodes deals with the idea of fate and whether or not destiny actually exists spoiler alert the show concludes the answer to be no but let's look at each episode to figure out how I came to that conclusion episode 1 is pretty darn on-the-nose rick and morty pick up death crystals that show you how you're gonna die if you focus on following one extremely specific path or another throughout your whole life you're guaranteed to know how you're gonna kick the bucket it's like literally holding your fate in the palm of your hands or is it as the episode unfolds morty blindly follows the directions of the crystal in order to control the one thing about his life how it ends in the meantime he's completely lost control of everything else down to the direction that he can walk down the halls in school and even then as the end gag reveals Morty's perceived death wasn't gonna play out the way that he expected it to i want to comfort the people who are dying who have no one else in their lives the real lonely people what this in turn serves as our thesis statement for the rest of the season if you try to control your destiny you'll lose control of pretty much everything else this whole idea is underscored by Rick's plot in this episode where he hops across infinite universes and infinite versions of themselves we're reminded that there are really infinite realities a pressing number of which are fascist and the idea of following your one true destiny is laughable in the face of an infinite multiverse to show us just how futile the idea of control is we get this example towards the end of the episode here a holographic version of Rick who has been powerless to do anything to control his own fate for the entire episode finally gains a physical body for the first time the first thing he does celebrate how powerful he is he can suddenly control everyone around him he is all-powerful he can move objects he's immediately killed by the wasp a version of Rick from another universe punctuating the idea that one wasp stings are just totally terrifying no matter what universe you're in and - as soon as you think you're in control of things you're toast there's a lesson here and I'm not the one that's gonna figure it out don't worry Rick I'm doing this one for you though - lightens things up a bit with that fun romp through dating apps and destiny go figure love finders is an app that supposedly predicts your soulmate everyone on earth desperate to find answers in their own confusing lives immediately latches on to this idea showing that everyone is just looking for this elusive idea of their destiny finding their one true love the person they are fated to be with because well that would mean that there's a plan for everyone's life the problem is that people's soulmates keep changing ultimately ending up being random because there's no such thing as a soul mate and by proxy there's no such thing as destiny life is random sometimes you end up with the winner and sometimes you're attracted to a guy whose only future is as a telemarketer for diet supplements on the off chance that you use the app and there's someone out there waiting for you sorry I didn't use it did you me know we also learn a little bit more about how this destiny business applies to Rick in his bathroom habits over in his swamp life Rick's remote shy pooping habits are a desperate bid for control in a universe where he feels out of control you need the same thing I needed Rick you know what shy pooping is Rick it's a pointless bid for control you want to take the one part of life that you truly think is yours and you want to protect it from a universe that takes whatever it wants it took my wife it clearly took something from you we can spend our lives fighting that but we can choose to be free Rick know is probably better than most that the universe is random but has always thought that just maybe if he's smart he can control it the thing is his fixation on control ruins everything else in his life just like Morty controlling his fate ruined Morty's life in Episode one Rick is desperately lonely he can't even connect with other people like Tony who he has a lot in common with and instead he spends most of his time sabotaging the people and relationships around him for wrecked relationships present elements that he can't control like emotional vulnerability loss obligation so keeping these things at distance is the best way to control his own fate interestingly enough this episode also presents what could have been a lesson for Rick towards the end of the episode Tony decides to not let his need to control things rule his life anymore and instead he sets out to do the things that he loves to do that he's been too afraid to do this could have been an example for Rick about how great life can be when you just let go of control but it's not because Tony dies anyways just wanted to drop these off and you tell him the toilets all his Tony died he quit his job started living life to the fullest he crashed into a tree space skiing down mountain space ever is because the universe is random and letting go of control doesn't give you any more control over whether or not you live or die CSUN is a downer but I think you're getting the drift episode threes in cept oh hi stint in use the themes of fate and Rick trying to control it with an arms race for the most randomly executed controlled heist in the universe again the idea here is that it's futile to control your destiny even for an AI even for the smartest guy programming AI it's all wrapped up in a totally confusing a plot the whole heist was all just Rick trying to exert control over Morty's future by getting him to turn down a deal with Netflix yet another grab for control by Rick that being said Netflix if you have an opening in your schedule now I would love to share with you my super-secret goal of being a game show host promise it won't be as obnoxiously edited as the circle I really tried to watch that show I know you really want me to watch it you've been shoving it down my recommended feed all the time but man I watched like the first 10 minutes of it as it's rough anyway episode 4 keeps the fatalistic destiny defying party going by taking every D&D fans fantasy and ruin in it with dragon stuff doesn't seem like this one would tie into theme directly but it's no coincidence that the show takes the high fantasy themes of dragons and soul bonds and heroic quests and then completely undermines them all historically these fantasy elements appear in stories that have some kind of destiny drop the jewelry into the volcano save the world go on an epic journey because it is your destiny you are the hero in our random chaotic universe we use high fantasy as a means of escape because those stories are nice and linear and they make sense kind of like the heist stories but no one in Rick and Morty is the hero and this isn't a D&D game where there's a Dungeon Master guiding the story of your character this is a real universe we are best friend dragon that you were contracted to have suddenly soul bonds with a senior citizen and it ain't pretty and it certainly isn't Destiny's high fantasy more like grotesque reality the TLDR here is your fantasies won't save you and there's nothing romantic about our story it's just kind of icky and uncomfortable just like reality the last lesson this season teaches us is in Episode five which is less about trying to control your own fate and more about trying to control the fate of other people or snakes snake people's sentient snakes it's just a weird season all right in an effort to control the fate of an overpopulated snake planet morty sends an earth snake to replace one he accidentally killed in outer space in the process more tea directly tampers with the fate of an entire species he changes their perceived destiny unfortunately not only as fate not a real thing he shouldn't tamper with someone else's because it's gonna come back and bite you literally over the course of the episode we see that trying to affect your future or worse go back to your past to fix your future just results in a big ol mess the universe is too complicated to tamper with what's supposed to happen or attempt to control anyone else's future he can't do it even if you're a sentient snake even if you're Rick Sanchez at the end of our half season we have a lot of open questions but one thing we know for certain is that we can't control the answers there's no tricking your way into controlling your fate because you don't have one and on that uplifting note we're left to piece together what this lesson means for Rick the people in his life and the rest of this season everything around Rick the season is telling him that there's no controlling your place in the universe and frankly his family is starting to tell him that too directly morty refuses to blindly follow rick in episode 1 by failing to resurrect him not even listening to his arguments before flying off in a spaceship morty knows that rick will say anything to control the situation whether or not it's in his best interests in short more tea leaves Rick for dead in Episode one of the season and isn't concerned about it in the slightest he's also become bored with adventures by the time that Rick and Morty aren't grave-robbing in Episode two and in Episode four Morty has to be bribed with promises of a dragon before going out with Rick robots with you I said no his relationship with Rick which has been the foundation of this franchise is on the rocks he is sick and tired of Rick's antics Morty's not the only one either that Rick's devoted daughter is also finally standing up to Rick's manipulative control over her and her family's life starting as soon as episode 1 I don't know if adventures fit into my son's life I'm fine and again in episode 4 if Morty ever gives up on a single dream it better be because of his own disillusionment this is a far cry from the bet that we saw in season 1 who was desperate to make sure that her father stayed as a part of this family no matter what even as recently a season 3 she still wanted him as a part of the family but now she's over it she sees Rick for who he really is and she's had enough she's also stepping up in her own life taking an active role in mothering summer in episode 2 as part of her new mantra a role that we have never seen her take on before I'm in a mother you until your 18th birthday even if I get thrown in prison for non-consensual mothering we also see Beth reconnecting with Jerry criticizing him less making choices that show that she's rebuilding a stronger healthier relationship with him which we all know is not making Rick happy and though she may be non-consensual II mothered summer ain't takin any guff from Rick this season either he offers to take her on adventures and she couldn't care less you want to go to boob world summer not today this sucks again a far cry from summer that we've seen in previous seasons she's more self-assured than we've ever seen her as a pop culture taste maker or I will tweet and you will be canceled and demonstrates repeatedly that she don't need no man or grandpa Rick to help her make decisions can you back then lastly we have Jerry yeah even Jerry for crying out loud is maybe the most pronounced arc in the series become a stronger person less influenced by Rick's constant demeaning he gets reassurances from Beth that they're together for the right reasons in Episode two on the off chance that you usually happen there's someone out there I didn't use it did you know we're all good dog in episode 5 Jerry actively problem solves even if it's in his own haphazard Jerry s Quay refusing Rick's help to show Beth that he can function on his own and not giving in to Rick in situations where he would have previously run away to a Jerry daycare I won't let you die and I won't tell Beth that you almost killed yourself sounds like a win-win to me if I survive it'll be without you and if I die it'll be on your wha Merry Christmas Wow long story short the family is moving away from Rick four seasons in the family finally recognizes that Rick's tight fist of control isn't for their own good he isn't some benevolent genius force of the universe he's just a lonely depressed drunk jerk and they're all done tolerating it that's why throughout these five episodes Rick is either alone or finding a new companion in most of them he's alone in episode 1 he's alone again searching for Tony's friendship throughout episode 2 he's reconnecting with old friends in episode 3 and he's spending his time with Bartholomew the dragon in episode 4 completely disconnected from his family proper as we head towards the back half of the season my money is on the storyline of Rick becoming more and more isolated as his family loses interest in his antics and his weird novelty because the guy's just toxic he's self-destructive he's a vortex of sadness that will eventually get himself and anyone near him at the time killed they don't need him anymore Rick for his part has abandoned his family in the past but this time it looks like the family will be the one abandoning him or probably more likely Rickles see this happening and just leave first so he can get the last laugh and say he was the one who chose to leave if the theme of the season continues it seems likely to end with Rick completely broken off from the Smith family alone with no one and with nowhere to go which in turn sets up the next season as his quest for either character growth or the hunt for a replacement family so say what you will about the comedy of the season or the overall episode structures they're not my favorite but they're also probably not the worst no one else episode four is probably the worst but anyway the rest of them are pretty darn good I love the toilet episode but one thing that you cannot say is that the season isn't forwarding these characters their growth and their story arms they've changed dramatically throughout this season from where they start in the first place and Rick as the one who is slowest and most resistant to change is looking like he's gonna get left behind Rick and Morty has never one to beat the message over your head too hard which is one of the things I like best about it but regardless of what comes next you can bet one thing I'll be there to break it down selfishly selfish content for the win selfish content that at the end of the day is still just a theory Oh film theory and before I let you go one favor I gotta ask of you YouTube lately has been asking its users for satisfaction surveys basically they'll see a video that you've watched they'll throw it back into your feet and be like hey on a scale of 0 to 5 stars what did you think of this video if you could rate us at a high ranking that would be tremendous that is seriously the single best thing that you can do for this channel right now because sometimes theories are controversial whether or not people agree with you they might like give you a thumbs down or whatever but quality of the video is still there right and so rating at high quality video so that way YouTube is like wow this is a channel that produces high quality videos let's spread it out onto the platform and not hide it away from the rest of the world that would be great so if you see one of those surveys pop up I'm showing them on screen right now they kind of looked like this they tend to happen more often on mobile devices but if you can rate us a 5 star that would be tremendous thank you so much for doing that and hey if you haven't subscribed yet make sure you subscribe because when Ricky Morty does eventually come back later this year you can bet that we'll be covering it this is my last one for a while we got a lot of other fun theories coming up but I can't wait for the second half of season make sure that you're there make sure you hit that subscribe button thank you so much for watching I've been Matt Pat this has been real I'll see you next week you

Channel: The Film Theorists

Views: 5,224,380

Rating: 4.8971868 out of 5

Keywords: rick and morty, rick and morty season 4 episode 4, rick and morty season 4 episode 5, rick and morty cat, talking cat, rick and morty talking cat, rick and morty 4x04, rick and morty season 4 episode 3, rick, morty, rick and morty season 4, rick and morty season 4 episode 2, rick and morty theory, adult swim, rick and morty super bowl, super bowl rick and morty, rick and morty pringles, pringles rick and morty, film theory, film theorists, matpat, film theory rick and morty

Id: WYTAdDJ75vk

Length: 21min 27sec (1287 seconds)

Published: Thu Feb 06 2020

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[u/ReifuTD]

I'll add one step more and say Morty will betray Rick because all the Mortys have been talking to each other over an interdenominational forum ran by Evil Morty and been slowly turning all the universes fascist it been hinted in the first episode of season four that other Mortys been behavioral issues. As the Mortys talk with each other they slowly turn each other against their Ricks.

[u/Hot_Daimond2019]

Sorry, u/MatPatGT , but this theory is absolutely wrong.

When you make a decision to commit to an act, and you're determined to make that commitment, once you have committed an act, you should expect a consequence; you should expect results. Otherwise, the consequence to your chosen act will eventually come to haunt you. If in your life you haven't yet figured out that there are consequences to your actions, it will be as if the universe has controlled you, and you definitely don't wanna feel like you were never in control of yourself.

In a way, fate only exists as much as your awareness of free will. You are your own being. It is you who can control your own fate. There may be guidances coming to you from the outside, but only you can decide to carry on with your own life. It may seem like the universe has everything predestined for you, but only time will tell what path you'll take.

Unfortunately, that's exactly how random the whole Rick and Morty series has become at this point. Apparently, Rick has exactly enough tools and resources to solve different problems taking place in the many different worlds he has stumbled onto, ultimately not being careful how he himself interacts with them. That is the message you should've taken from Season 4, and now you see that it's not the case....

[u/BermudaIncorperated]

yay, new video, thanks Mat....also in your joker video I disagree, i think Arthur was just kicking trash cause he was mad, not Imagining killing his boss

[u/shadow0wolf0]

Exactly how long has Rick been living with the Smiths now?

[u/sinabey]

Theory: in case Rick is completely pushed away from his family as MatPat suggests, there is always another castaway Rick, amongst infinite Ricks, to take that episode's Rick's place. It's just a flux with no point or destiny and the Sanchez family, a Sanchez family, will never realize the grandpas have switched. As there is no point and everything is random, Ricks and Sanchezes included. A Rick's self-sacrifice of leaving his family is thus in vain and makes no change and experienced by no-one except for the two Ricks.

It's not even certain whether or not there is "Rick permanence" between each episode, so an arc is not entirely relevant. Executing and following a character arc that will be made totally obsolete at the last minute, completes the overarching theme of meaninglessness in an all-encompassing way.