Hey everyone, meat-boat Jared here. Season 3 episode 7 of Rick and Morty is one
of the darkest and DENSEST of the season. In less than half an hour, the episode manages
to build a rich, complex, and utterly dismal political world, only for the show to summarily
dismiss it. Still not curious about what might have happened at that crazy citadel place? Psh, not at all Morty, that place will never have any bearing over our lives ever again. But in that short time, the The Ricklantis
Mixup paints a REALLY interesting picture of modern politics, specifically as it pertains
to hope, resistance, and revolution. Welcome to this Wisecrack Quicktake on The
Ricklantis Mixup. And you guessed it- spoilers ahead. But before we get into that I want to thank
Quidd for sponsoring this video. Quidd is a really cool app that allows you
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to grab the app for free. It's available on iOS and Android. I’m on there as JaredC137. Last time we did this, about 600 of you added
me as a friend and had some cool chats and trades with some of you. So add me as a friend and trade me all your
meeseeks swag. Thanks a bunch, back to the show. So a quick recap: Rick and Morty go on an adventure to Atlantis,
but don’t worry, that actually doesn't matter. Instead, we’re thrown into the Citadel of
Ricks as they rebuild after the catastrophic events of The Rickshank Redemption. Democratic elections are being held for the
first time in the wake up of the uh, dissolution of the council of Ricks. Hold on, hold on, *gun zapping* AHHH! The world building in this episode is freaking
amazing, especially in how it cleverly mirrors our current political climate - from a news
organization that’s one “N” away from “CNN” that trivializes dissent in order
to maintain the status quo, Anyway so yea, the suspect says that citadel is a lie, built on lies and some other s***. I say appreciate the life you have, because it can always be worse. to an inner city devastated by drugs and guns, to a Hogwarts that teaches the disenfranchised Mortys to accept their lot in life. This is a great adventure This is a great adventure This is definitely one of the harder narratives
to follow, and certainly more complex than your traditional episode. So I want to lay out the many subplots as
follows: Evil Morty comes to power on a platform of
unity and change, before revealing his grander, and more totalitarian intentions. In an allusion to Training Day, A fresh out
of the academy police Rick has to join a crooked cop Morty and confront the corrupt underbelly
of the Citadel where he is forced to confront his ideals, and abandon them. It seems reminiscent of the ending of "L.A. Confidential",
where an idealistic cop has to break the rules and kill his superior- undermining the same
justice system he thought he was protecting. A group of orphaned Mortys set off for adventure
a la "Stand By Me," before sending their hopes and dreams into the literal trash. Garbage dump. Stand *burp* back. A Rick is passed over for a promotion and
realizes he’s wasted his life on an assembly line. He revolts, but his triumph is quickly ruined
by the powers that be. In all of these cases, we see any kind of
political or personal optimism for change crushed by a cruel and indifferent reality. This episode really builds off the themes
that we talked about earlier in Rickmancing the Stone. Specifically, alienation, or the way modern
society estranges us from the world and our peers, making us all dead inside. In the case of Rickmancing the Stone the creature
comforts of society turn the exciting world of the apocalypse into a domestic nightmare. Now, we see many versions of the smartest
man in the universe reduced to the drudgery of modern life. And mixed in, we see signs of a deeply divided
society. Candidate Morty, the number of displaced Mortys is soaring while Rick satisfaction levels are plummeting. And the divide between the two groups has never been whiter. Solve that one real quick. But as Evil Morty suggests- this is a distraction. The citadel's problem isn't homeless Mortys or outraged Ricks, The citadel's problem is the Ricks and Mortys feeding on the citadels death. The real divide? -- the Rich vs. The Working
Class. I don't see a divide between Ricks and Mortys the division I see, is between the Ricks and Mortys that like the citadel divided, and the rest of us. What’s interesting is that, despite the
apparent ruling class of Ricks, everyone is a victim
of alienation. They told us we were special because we were Ricks, but they stripped us of everything that make us unique That doesn't sound like Rick work. You didn't come to the citadel to become a plumber, did you? Even the cops are likened to just workers
on the assembly line of justice. We know how you feel, we're working stiff Ricks just like you, but our assembly line is justice. But in addition to being victims of those
individuals in power, the Ricks are also victims of an impenetrable system. And here’s where
my favorite part of the whole episode comes in. His name is Simple Rick, but he's no dummy. He realized long ago that the greatest thing he'd ever create was his daughter. I love daddy! We captured that moment, we run it on a loop for Simple Rick's mind. And the chemical that makes his brain secrete goes into every Simple Rick Simple Wafers Wafer Cookie Come home to the impossible flavor of your own completion. Come home to Simple Ricks. This gets at a really smart question, tackled
by a lot of different philosophers. But I’ll summarize the issue as this: Is
our escape from the alienation of modern life just strengthening the foundations of the
system that drives that alienation? Simple Rick follows what I’ll call the ‘Ron
Swanson” trope - someone who fights our fast-paced world by slowing down, working
with their hands, and spending time with the family. In a world that crams us in cubicles and hunches
us over assembly lines, our only respite is the "simple life.” Running away from the urban clamor, living
off the land, learning a trade like woodworking, reconnecting with your family, etc. Not surprisingly, this kind of idea gained
prevalence as the world was industrializing, and subsequently corporatized. We saw the rise of organizations like the
boy scouts and the establishment of national parks - where you could practice not being
crammed in a city. But it could be argued that this escape to
the simple life, whether in the form of nature, or family, or woodworking, is not in fact
retreating from the system, but an essential part of its functioning. We can view the Simple Rick wafers “brand”
as a kind of fantasy that reinforces the system. Ricks show up for work because they know they
can go home and allegedly unplug from the system with the distilled essence of simplicity,
even though this “unplugging” comes in commodity form - one that requires, you know,
money that you have to work for at an assembly line. And we’ve all seen enough cereal commercials
to know that advertisers love selling us a kind of “pure, wholesome” family who actually eats meals together without screaming at each other Sociologist George Ritzer says that our enchantment
with, and disenchantment from, the modern world are not so easy to distinguish from
each other. He even says they exist in a reciprocal relation. In other words, the fantasy of unplugging
with some Simple Rick Wafers further entrenches you in the very system you want to unplug
from. But it gets even more devious. As one Rick decides he’s had enough, he
engages in an actual act of rebellion: killing his boss, and trying to get a portal gun to
ACTUALLY escape the system. But instead of affecting change, his rebellion
is commodified in the form of the “simple rick freedom wafer selects.” Come home to the unique flavor of shattering the grand illusion. He endlessly lives the joy of rebellion, while
the system distills this joy in a consumable form. Freedom from the system entraps you in the
system. Ritzer goes on to say that “Fantasies draw
people into the new means of consumption, and those fantasies can be rationalized in
order to further draw people in.” And this, for me, makes this the darkest episode
of the season yet. The message seems to be - In the terrifying
political reality that is 2017 - the best we can hope for is the illusion of making
a difference. If you don’t believe me, remember the orphan
Morty’s plot. They go on a coming of age adventure, trying
to escape their terrible orphan existence and their bondage to some future Rick. But the wish portal turns out to be a garbage
portal - the system turns wishes into literal trash. Slick Morty sacrifices himself to wish for
a better world, and it happens - sort of. Holy crap. Slicks wish came true. I don’t think we’re meant to believe that
his sacrifice magically made things better - especially because the change promised was
just a ploy by Evil Morty. The subplot has no actual bearing on the overall
narrative, it only seems to exist for the writers to show us the naive ideas of these
children - that Slick Morty’s sacrifice could have changed something. Nothing they did mattered, but they get to
believe it did, just like our revolting Rick. So what do we make of Evil Morty? He sold a kind of class consciousness to the
Ricks and Mortys of the citadel - that Ricks and Mortys should join together to make a
better world against the ruling elite. But with the brutal purge of his political
opponents, it seems like this was nothing more than lip service as a means to power. But hey- could we really expect any kind of
real progress from this show? There is just SO much going on this episode
that we haven’t touched on - like Is there some connection between this Latin phrase
on the chalkboard and Evil Morty’s view of how society functions? We'll discuss this, as well as dive into the
show’s commentary on the media, state violence, and who really controls the government - on
The Squanch, Wisecrack’s Rick and Morty podcast. Check it out on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play,
or wherever you get your podcasts. The link is in the description and don’t
forget to subscribe. Wub a lub a dub dub yall! Peace.
