Rick + Morty: Pop Culture Analysis
One of my favorite shows of all time is Rick and Morty - that says a lot about my own character.
I’ve asked myself many times why that particular show has resonated so deeply with me.
Growing up my family was a serious sci-fi/fantasy household: Star Wars, Star Trek (all iterations), Doctor Who, Terminator, Alien, Back to the Future, on and on.
In these universes, generally “good” and “evil” are distinct and it's clear whose side you’re meant to be on. The “heroes” are generally heroic - they act on behalf of the greater or common good. They emphasize the value of humanity and humaneness, especially in an expanding sociocultural and technological universe. We follow the lens and perspective of “goodness”, we see “evil” primarily through their eyes.
In Rick and Morty, it’s purposefully less clear - it’s intentionally a perversion of these particular conventions. It’s heavily symbolic and almost dream-like in the way it distorts, inverts, and even mutilates the tropes.
No one is a hero, at least not all the time. Good, evil, right, and wrong are completely subjective and highly contextual.
Carl Jung talks about how everything operates along polarities - there can’t be good without evil and there can’t be evil without good. Usually our culture, especially from the dominant Christian lens, looks at this as a battle. Good and evil are at war and ultimately good will win and eradicate evil.
Jung would likely argue that this misses the point entirely. It’s not a battle, it’s a relationship. One literally cannot exist without the other, they need each other. He also argues that one doesn’t have more inherent value than the other.
Rick and Morty engages with “good” and “evil” as an interrelated spectrum. Even at its most nihilistic, some might say its most “evil”, there is a presence of “good” in the form of (highly flawed) relationships and connections. As much as nothing matters, relationships still do.
The show also asks the question - in pursuing the outer reaches of the universe in the name of new discovery and adventure, what are you leaving behind? What are you running from?
Similarly here, the answer seems to be relationships. Attachments.
The show explores how relationships are also not inherently “good” or “pure”. They’re complicated, flawed, damaged. As much as they can bring value and meaning to your life, they can also bring tremendous suffering and even destruction.
Our dominant cultural narrative is that loving relationships are always “worth it”, no matter the turmoil or outcome. The show boldly asks, over and over, are they? Really? Is it always worth it?
To me, this is Rick’s core internal struggle, his deepest complex. He prides himself on his almost godlike autonomy via his superior intelligence that separates and elevates him above all others. He insists he doesn’t need others, doesn’t value others - and the way he treats others often aligns with his self-professed sociopathy.
But he has chink in his armor, as much as he wants to be a sociopath, he’s not. Not fully.
As much as it disgusts him, he does have a strong capacity for relationships. He does experience trust, faithfulness, and commitment. He often notices it and then rejects or sabotages it, but it's there.
He’s both, he’s all at the same time. Just like we all are. We contain the things we hate about ourselves just as much as the things we like or love. We’re both the outer expression of our values and dreams, as well as our darkest inner thoughts and fears.
I believe a lot of suffering comes from our inability/resistance to be with the both/and, to be with the “all”.
We can all be heroic, and we all have some capacity for monstrousness.
Why does this matter?
Why would I want to engage with my monstrousness?
Because what we reject, push away, and don’t relate to tends to find its own ways out of its cage: the things we do unconsciously to harm ourselves, sabotage our goals, or wound our relationships.
If we can be with the everythingness of who we are inside, then we can actually make conscious choices about how we want to be out in the world.
Rick doesn’t go on a conscious journey to be with his everythingness, but his sense of Self seems to drive him along that path anyway.
When we first meet Rick he’s willing to blow up the world and take only one attachment, his grandson Morty, with him to a new universe.
Morty is a “wide-eyed unremarkable” who exists to witness Rick’s marvels and provide positive feedback.
Morty is also couched as an attachment only because he serves a specific purpose - he helps keep Rick hidden. When they’re together, it’s harder for Rick's enemies to find him. While this is likely true, it’s not the only truth.
We later learn that Morty isn’t even his actual grandson.
Rick has curated versions of reality where only the universes in which he is superior (called the “central finite curve”) are easily accessible. There are nearly infinite superior Ricks, and many of them have Mortys, but some of them don’t.
This version of Rick doesn’t have any grandchildren because his wife and his daughter were obliterated by his nemesis - an alternate universe version of himself that’s called “Prime”.
Prime is talked about as a superior version of Rick because he’s actually a sociopath. This version creates portal technology (the ability to leave any situation at a moment’s notice for something more preferred) and wants to share it with another part of himself.
When that part (our Rick) rejects his offer to adventure together, Prime destroys what Rick values more: his relationships. Prime seeks to leave Rick alone in the universe as punishment.
There’s a part of Rick who would genuinely obliterate his attachments if given the chance, and there’s a part of him that would do anything to save them.
Rick actually chooses to be in relationship with the parts of Prime that he leaves behind.
Rick doesn’t have a Morty, but he builds a relationship with Prime's Morty - even when he resists it.
In the next few essays I’ll be diving deeper into these themes. I hope you’ll come along if you’re interested.
