There's a lesson here and I'm not the one that's gonna figure it out don't worry Rick that's why I'm here Hello Internet Welcome to film theory where I'd like to personally congratulate Dan Harmon for finally getting to work on a fourth season of one of his shows I Mean sure six seasons in the movie didn't quite work out for you But hey, things are looking a bit brighter when it comes to Rick and Morty, right? Morty I mean that's a big promise Stan but to be fair so few shows on television right now combine such subtle humor with big brain Concepts that only us with the highest of IQs can totally understand so I can see it sticking around for a long time And yes, by the way, I do have my Rick and Morty tattoo and no you cannot see it It's for the ladies eyes only. Thank you very much So season four just started and Rick and Morty is back showing that it ain't pullin any punches the season four premiere Rick - I repeat is everything that we've come to love about the show hilarious What do you want meta you ruined the season four premiere and most importantly? Smart this episode throws a lot at us and I mean a lot in this single episode It does everything from showing us a universe full of fascist. Shrimp to Holograms gaining corporeal forms to even referencing the anime classic of a kid Ah, Oh real nice Rick turning our son into an Akita leave it to Jerry the Normie to go and ruin anime for all of us and Because it does throw so much at us in this one episode It's actually really easy to lose track of what this episode is really all about Rick even calls it out for us in the episode almost like it's a challenge There's a lesson here and I'm not the one that's gonna figure it out. So today I wanted to try something new something That's a little bit more laid back with fewer edits a bit more of a casual discussion Not so much a theory as it is an analysis of what this episode was really all about what was the season four premiere trying to tell us because once you look past all the body horror and skinny-dipping this is a shockingly upbeat episode of Rick and Morty and the message at least the message as I see it is perhaps the most Humanitarian one that this show has had to date the entire plot of the episode seems to be based around two conflicting Ideas that send Rick Sanchez and Morty Smith into diverging directions it all starts when Rick takes Morty on a mission to fetch some death Crystals rocks that when they're touched give you a prophetic vision of your future Specifically the death II part of your future death crystals show you how you're gonna die Your future stems from your the present which if you're living right keeps changing Rick Of course only wants the crystals to sell to the highest bidder He doesn't want to know his own destiny, except what it helps him to avoid death in the immediate present I don't use them people that spend their life avoiding death are already dead. They're also rich With their money Rick's philosophy here boils down to one key phrase truth Is anyone that knows how they're definitely gonna die is either boring a chi double hockey sticks? Morty however seems to disagree Ignoring Rick's advice he decides to keep a death crystal in his pocket and by touching it He sees the various futures laid out before him including one that involves him dying of old age in the loving arms of Jessica the girl he's had a crush on since episode 1 Marty decides that this is the death that he wants and he decides to Relentlessly pursue that death by taking whatever steps necessary that will cause him to have that fate Using the crystal in his pocket as a compass every move he makes and every word he says from that point forward is Directed towards that end goal Which as it turns out leads him to crashing the space-cruiser and killing Rick in the process and then not taking the steps necessary to revive Rick Luckily for Rick operation Phoenix is still online in other parts of the multiverse. What the heck I act this protocol Oh and for those of you who don't remember operation Phoenix was actually the protocol introduced in season 2 episode big trouble in little Sanchez a Sort of immortality project for Rick to be reborn into a clone body if his main body ever bites the big one and yes He did literally acts that program So he gave the program the axe But Rick isn't the only Rick in the multiverse so that didn't stop him from being Reincarnated in clone bodies that other rigs across that multiverse were cultivating in other dimensions rick and morty spend the rest of the episode on their separate adventures Morty relentlessly follows Whatever the death crystal tells him will lead him to dying with Jessica which includes a meeseeks filled Rampage and skipping a skinny dip with the girl of his dreams. I'm Assuming we maybe get together in our 40s eventually It all ends with him turning himself into a giant akira inspired goo monster in the desert as he waits for further Instructions from the death crystal shoutout to all the fans of classic 80s anime out there Marty seems to be pretty soulless and not to be fully enjoying the present moment But hey, you got to secure that future with Jessica, right Rick Meanwhile is off living and dying in the present moment Visiting a fascist universe a fascist shrimp universe and a fascist teddy bear universe the cuddliest of all Fascism before finally being reincarnated into a lost body which surprisingly turns out to be the chillest of all the different dimensions We eat our prey alive and when we don't we lay our eggs in their eyeballs so that our young can feast on their brains when they hatch When you're born that big a doodoo head the least you can do is have a little empathy Wasp Rick helps our Rick get back home and together They take down Morty in the desert freeing him from the self-imposed bondage of the death crystal after defeating an AI Hologram with a little help from wasp Rick, they all head home to not contemplate the moral of today's story There's a lesson here and I'm not the one that's gonna figure it out Okay, maybe they talked about it a little because I got to learn how to live in the moment a little more Oh boy, so you actually learned something today. I was living in the moment all day and I kept getting me killed I think you have to think ahead and live in the moment seems like a pretty straightforward Moral right the constant dichotomy of living the moment versus plan for the future and the solution that they come to shock Sox's you need to do all things in moderation you need a little bit of both or at least that's what it appears to be at first glance But there's actually more to this philosophical debate than meets the eye you see that isn't the real message of this episode Brix Philosophy of living in the moment actually sounds similar to the core teachings of Zen Buddhism Now I could stand here and describe it for you but British author Tim lot actually sums it up really well quote from him the emphasis on the present moment is perhaps Zen's most distinctive characteristic in our Western relationship with time in which we compulsively pick over the past in order to learn lessons from it and then Project into a hypothetical future in which those lessons can be applied The present moment has been compressed into a tiny sliver on the clockface between a vast past and an infinite future Zen more than anything else is about reclaiming and Expanding the present moment it tries to have you understand that there is no purpose in getting anywhere if when you get there all you Do is think about getting to some other future moment life exists in the present or nowhere at all? And this seems pretty spot-on when it comes to Morty, right? Morty is so obsessed with how he's gonna die in this episode that he doesn't care about how he's living I mean, he's a teenage boy who wants to wind up with Jessica yet? He turns down an opportunity to spend more quality time with her and her friends Where he'll get to know them all just a little bit better a bunch of us girls were gonna go Skinny-dipping later if you wanted to join. Yeah, he would get to know them a little bit better I am sure the conversations that they would have had would have been very meaningful Anyway, he pursues some vague idea of this future happiness but in doing so he ignores the happiness that's sitting right in Front of him undressing itself and jumping into the nearest lake in this way. He is the antithesis of Zen Buddhism teachings, which is why Morty's first words with the death crystals are so ironic in this episode Why don't you do what I do and just go with the flow nice and sane baby. Sorry Morty You're not being Zen at all In fact Morty's philosophy is probably closest to what's known as objectivism The idea that there are certain ultimate objective truths and that those truths supersede all of our subjective Experiences like perceptions emotions or imagination for Marty his objective truth in this episode Is that dying with Jessica and old age is the best possible wait and his life and rather than trust his own feelings or instincts Morty follows the death crystal who serves as his objective and impartial guide to life Sorry, Rick I'm going with the crystal on this one - Marty Everything else in his world exists only to help him towards making that future a reality He evaluates the moral rightness and wrongness Of each action based on whether it's gonna lead him closer to that end goal. So allowing Rick to die and stay dead Well, it moves him closer to that ultimate goal So it's okay same with attacking bullies same with attacking the police All of these are morally reprehensible things, but they become morally justified under Marty's new value system Which only cares about one thing whether or not it will benefit him and lead him to dying with Jessica in his mind the ends Justify, the means the show concludes by saying this I think you have to think ahead and live in the moment It makes it sound like Rick and Morty's philosophies both have problems that run in opposite directions but in truth Rick and Morty are both wrong for the exact same reason you see both Rick and Morty fall victim to the same trap and that trap is ethical egoism It's not catchy in the slightest. Ethical egoism is a theory a consequentialist theory that the Consequences for any individual are the thing that matter the most when evaluating the morality of that individual's choices now that sounds really complex and confusing and it it is when it's phrased that way but it's really Not that hard to understand So let me simplify it in short egoism is all about taking actions that benefit you even if they might be hurtful to others So Rick taking Morty on deadly adventures example of egoism morty vaporizing bullies because he wants to get with jessica Egoism if that sounds like an inherently self and potentially dangerous philosophy with which to look at the world Well, you're not wrong, but it is founded on a reasonable core principle Right the fact that each individual person is the best expert on how to make themselves happy By allowing everyone to be free to pursue whatever makes them happy in life Well, everyone will just take care of their own happiness and society will be all the better for it That's the idea. But I think you can probably see a couple problems with it Right, if you're only looking out for your own self-interest those interests might wind up being detrimental to others I mean in a Rick and Morty context just look at what makes chrome Bob Ulis Michael happy. Hi Morty I'm chrome Bob Willis, Michael. I'm an assassin I just love killin if he's set free on society out to pursue his own happiness Means a lot of other people are gonna have their happiness prematurely cut off the episode makes it seem like the solution is to find a compromise between the extremes of plan for the future and Live in the present moment, but both Rick and Morty missed the point. It's not about either of those things It's not about planning for the future or living in the moment It's about not being a selfish jerk in the immediate not being a pure Egomaniac Morty throughout the episode is willing to do whatever it takes to achieve his goal in the long term But the same is true for Rick in the short term Rick throughout the episode is willing to do whatever it takes to get himself home, even if it means piling wasp Hitler Los Hitler look I'm a primate. I'm having a hard time. I'll think or say whatever gets me home wasp Hitler We'll see if that's a search term that Flags YouTube's algorithms. It's the same Consequentialist theory egoism what eventually saves both Rick and Morty isn't learning to plan for the future but learning the importance of empathy From wasp Rick. Well, here's how it works with wasps We eat our prey alive and when we don't we lay our eggs in their eyeballs so that our young can feast on their brains When they hatch when you're born that big a jerk, well the least you can do is have a little empathy It's that moment of empathy from wasp Rick that allows our Rick to eventually return home and it's that Empathy that he learns that gets him to save and care for Morty I mean look at how caring and gentle he is - Morty when he's rescued from the akhirah monster He has never expressed that level of care - Morty and yet here it is on full display Morty similarly has an eye-opening revelation in the post-credits scene when he learns that the future he foresaw this entire time was actually just a vision of him dying without any friends or family With Jessica working as a hospice nurse who stayed with him simply because he had no other loved ones there to comfort him Rick doesn't abandon his philosophy of living in the moment and Morty doesn't have to abandon his philosophy of planning for the future Instead both of them learn to see outside of their own self-interest Ultimately, whether you prioritize the present or plan for the future doesn't matter if you're only focused on selfishly serving yourself It'll lead you down a path of destruction sure, all that talk about living in the moment versus plan for the future may have been a point a Point to the episode but it wasn't the point of the episode in the end What really matters is about balancing your own interest with the needs of the world around you which? feels like an especially pointed message considering some members of the Rick and Morty fandom have sometimes gotten a bit of a toxic label in their behavior Bullying others trashing McDonald's for Szechuan sauce. I mean it is a message that's big under a lot of layers in this episode But you know the Rick and Morty fandom has super high IQs, so don't get it But hey, what just think of this new more laid-back style. Did you like it not I'd love your thoughts So let me know down in the comments section below and while you're down there Clearly telling me how much you loved this episode special Thank you to our sponsor for today audible for making it happen And I mean that in a very literal way audible Which as I'm sure you know by now is the best option for all your audiobook needs helps me do research for these episodes much Faster because I'm able to listen to audiobooks everywhere while I'm at work while I'm playing with Oliver while I'm driving through LA suddenly that time has a double use I'm accomplishing the Task at hand, but I'm also using that time to research and learn and for this episode in particular I specifically listened to Zen Zen for beginners as well as a concise history Of Buddhism because I a fan of Rick and Morty am an intellectual who listens to that sort of stuff regularly in my spare time But seriously, we are all busy people. We don't have time to sit down and read books But at the same time who wants to just stop learning right? Well audible is the solution for us It's the optimized way for us busy people to keep up with the latest releases from our favorite authors The sequel to Handmaid's Tale the test met zoom listen to it with audible and now is the best time to get your membership with a special offer of Fifty three percent off your first three months because why settle for half when you can go above and beyond that is just six Ninety-five a month for audio book goodness poured into your earholes you get three titles every month one audiobook and two exclusive Audible originals that you can't hear anywhere else don't like the book. Well, they have an easy audio book exchange And for the ones that you do end up loving you keep that audio book library forever Even if you cancel, so give yourself or Peck another super-smart person in your life the gift of listening this holiday season Just go to audible.com slash Film theorists or click the top line in the description because film theorists is way too long to type in yourself. That's audible.com slash Film theorists and start optimizing your listening experience today
I feel like Morty should be more like rick in some ways, like he should care more about himself and try to live up to Rick’s potential, kinda like evil Morty.
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