My brother who was so crazy about this show,recommended it to me through netflix. Since I am also a fan of cartoon series like "Southpark,Family Guy and The Simpsons he knew I would instantly fall in love with this show. As how my brother predicted, I actually did! He told me that this show would be about a crazy old genius scientist "Rick" who takes his shy, scared y cat grandson on adventures around the universe. Yeah, like literally the universe- spiralling down from multiverse to parallel universes vice versa. As I have finished the whole series up until Season 5 I have realized that there’s more to these characters, and the story lines, themes and lessons in the show than meets the eye.
I felt invested on this super dysfunctional family as they discover and accept each others strengths and flaws in the most surprisingly weird way, under the most absurd circumstances. It’s reality mixed with crazy sci-fi,their family is ridiculous and dysfunctional but in ways they showed us what family really means.
Rick and Morty Season 3 Episode 3 Review: Pickle Rick
Rick Sanchez created a serum that turns himself into an anthropomorphic pickle is for me very entertaining. This what it means to be a Pickled cyborg and transformed himself with it literally from scratch. Pickle Rick was easily the most memorable of the many twists teased in the Season 3 trailers, and the end result doesn't disappoint because of how family therapy was given high emphasis by the creators of the show.
It was so hilarious that Rick's pickle transformation was an utterly worthless one, nothing more than his plan to save him from sharing how dysfunctional he is in an hour of family therapy. Morty who knew Ricks scheme all along left Rick to deal with the consequences of his nonsense plot when they left him to stew in his pickling solution for a while. That was the beginning of a weird and filthy journey as Rick unnervingly clawed his way up from the sewers, transformed himself an exoskeleton out of cockroach and rat corpses and eventually fought against an entire Russian embassy.
Crazy right? C'mon Rick just for family therapy?
That's one of the great strengths of Rick and Morty. It's not enough for creators Justin Roiland and Dan Harmon to point out bizarre sci-fi suppositions; they have to keep emphasizing those these scenarios in progressively otherworldly and more unlikely directions. For me, the killings where on an entirely different level with gore from killing roaches and rats and shooting spree to the embassy, its very obvious that this episode gave me the hyper violent movie kind of vibes.
Rick & Morty's Heartbreaking Family Therapy in 'Pickle Rick'
As an aspiring therapist this episode definitely left a long lasting impression in me. I realized how important therapies are and why toxic behaviour shouldn't be tolerated at all. This part of the episode cut my heart wide open.
Dr. Wong, Smith family's therapist interconnected Rick’s adventures during their counseling. This episode highlighted Beth’s relationship father front and center, and “Pickle Rick” reflects her need for emotional strength from her father, her admiration of Rick and her desire to imitate him. Dr. Wong emphasized that their family dynamic does not shed off love and but rather punishes them. This line dividing them is blurry. But Beth wants her father’s respect that she’s forced herself admire his dad's bad personality and that “independence” she wants is also what makes that distance between them.
Rick admits that he had transformed into the vegetable form to avoid spending time with his family.
Therapist: Why didn't you want to come here?
Rick: Because I don't respect Therapy. Because I'm a Scientist. Because I invent, transform, create and destroy for a living and when I don't like something about the world, I change it...
Sad because Rick refuses to acknowledge how psychologically disturbed he is and how this frailty affected his family.
This is a monologue from Dr. Wong which I really liked from the episode and an eye opener about Rick's habit of ignoring anything in his life that feels like useless work really cut to the core of his selfish, narcissistic traits:
Dr Wong: "Rick, the only connection between your unquestionable intelligence and the sickness destroying your family is that everyone in your family, you included, use intelligence to justify sickness. You seem to alternate between viewing your own mind as an unstoppable force, and as an inescapable curse. And I think it's because the only truly unapproachable concept for you is that it's your mind within your control. You chose to come here. You chose to talk, to belittle my vocation, just as you chose to become a pickle. You are the master of your own universe. And yet you are dripping with rat blood and feces. Your enormous mind literally vegetating by your own hand. I have no doubt you would be bored senseless by therapy. The same way i’m bored when I brush my teeth and wipe my ass. Because the thing about repairing, maintaining, and cleaning is: it's not an adventure. There’s no way to do it so wrong you might die. It’s just work. And the bottom line is: some people are okay going to work and some people... well, some people would rather die. Each of us gets to choose."
The episode ends with Rick asking Beth to go and get a drink together. After spending time in the sewers and becoming human again. It looks like therapy did made his realize putting his daughter and her family first. Well based on this series I guess Rick isn’t going to change anytime soon but its not without hope.
Its very obvious that what Beth has ever wanted was her father’s approval, which was something he lacks confidence in achieving . All Morty and Summer want is a loving family. Rick’s simple act of asking Beth to get a drink with him in the her plans for divorce from Jerry is the most admiring gesture he could have done. It’s a sign that Rick is willing to change parts of his erratic behaviours to fix the emotional damages he’s created, but it’s going to take some time, much patience and a lot of struggle from Rick always putting intelligence and personal advancement over his family.
