Is he supposed to be an independent operator who somehow found out the truth, man, or is he supposed to have been doing the bidding of Evil Morty, or something else; or are we not supposed to know yet, but we’ll presumably find out in a later episode; or was he maybe just meant to have been a plot device instead of a character, only showing up to move the story along with no need to get referenced again?
I have to wonder why the Ricks would even come to the Citadel if life there was so miserable and pointless compared to what they were capable of doing. Had they boned their own worlds so badly (or were being hunted by the Federation so relentlessly) that there was was nowhere else to go? Or were they lured in and shanghaied into becoming menial laborers with no means of escape?
Or of all the infinite Ricks, are we just seeing the minute (but nonetheless still infinite) sliver that actually prefer being assigned a job over a life of independence and adventure?
Though after the Toxic Rick episode, he may have lost the implants. During the fight inside the house, he appears to get poisoned, die, then have his body regenerated.
It feels pretty heavily implied that the ricks there don’t want to live like that. Plumber Rick did not come to the citadel to be a plumber. Hillbilly rick is making bootleg portal juice. The police rick seem to, on some level, understand what terrorist rick is talking about.
The Ricks that we follow are not infinite. The counsel Ricks and Ricks that invent the portal guns and go on adventures are the Ricks of the ‘Central Finite Curve’. I don’t think that all dimensions have a Rick.
ETA: Another thing that came up in this episode, why are all the Ricks and all the Mortys the same ages? You would think that there would be some wider distribution of their ages over all.
They can still be infinite. No matter what you divide infinity by, the result is still infinity.
The Nerdist posted a theory this past week that Evil Morty was Our Rick’s original Morty.
Basically, “Toxin-free Morty” was rather amoral, intelligent, and mature beyond his years, just like Evil Morty. In other words, without things like a conscience and self-doubt, Morty can rise to his fullest potential. The Mortyest Morty.
Imagine if Morty had been raised by a loving, yet amoral Grandfather. A Morty raised in such an environment might grow up to be “healthy”. We’ve seen Rich have flashbacks to holding and playing with baby Morty, but according to the show, Rick was absent for twenty years. This discrepancy can be reconciled if Our Rick really did stay with Beth and helped raise Morty and Summer in Jerry’s absence. Afther Our Rick realized what Morty has become, he leaves for another dimension where the Rick died shortly after discovering Portal technology, which is where the show starts. That’s also why he treats Morty like shit, so he won’t grow up “healthy”.
Only the Rickest Rick can have the Mortyest Morty.
I think what I found most disturbing about the Toxic Rick episode is that Rick evidently considers his concern for Morty’s well-being to be a toxic aspect of his personality.
One of the dead Rick’s floating out at the end was the trenchcoat Rick that gave campaign manager Morty the pictures. That was a nice detail I thought. Grizzled old cop Morty speaking Morty to the street Mortys was hilarious and sad.
Didn’t the sequence at The Creepy Morty rather heavily imply that there’s a lot of gay incest going on in the Citadel? (And one of the four Mortys seeking the Wishing Portal mentioned incest.)
Anyway: this one is going to sell a lot of DVDs–so many Easter Eggs packed into it! I particularly loved that one of the candidate Ricks was the “Rent is Too Damn High” guy (in Rick form, of course).
The teleplay’s set-up of future plot developments was masterful.