"Rest and Ricklaxation" is the sixth episode of the third season of Rick and Morty. It is the 27th episode of the series overall. It premiered on August 27, 2017. It was written by Tom Kauffman and directed by Anthony Chun. The episode is rated TV-14-DLV.
Synopsis[]
After another exhausting adventure, Rick and Morty decide they need a vacation. But things go a little haywire when they try a special detox machine.
Plot[]
The episode begins at school, where Morty hears that Jessica broke up with Brad, and attempts to ask her out. The moment is interrupted by Rick, who asks Morty to go with him on what he promises to be a quick twenty-minute adventure for a crystal. Said adventure goes on for six days and, despite being heroes and Rick getting the crystal, both Morty and Rick finally break down. Over-stressed from non-stop adventures, Rick finally decides it's time for a vacation.
While relaxing at an alien spa, they decide to try out a machine that supposedly removes all the toxicity of its users. Upon use, Rick and Morty find themselves in a toxic wasteland full of disgusting creatures, at first believing the machine blew up the rest of the spa, only for Rick to discover that they aren't the real Rick and Morty: they are literally the toxicity of themselves, Toxic Rick as the rude, lying, alcoholic, god-complexed, genius asshole part of himself and Toxic Morty being the nervous, desperate, and self-loathing part of himself. While the real Rick and Morty leave the spa refreshed after their vacation–Rick also has a normal skin color instead of his gray-alcoholic skin color–Toxic Rick begins plotting a way to get out.
Morty, freed from all his insecurities, suddenly becomes confident in school, helping the self-esteem of almost all of the students and impressing Mr. Goldenfold by openly insulting him in class. Getting so popular at school, Jessica even notices him, to which he even works up the courage to ask Jessica out, which she happily accepts. However, Rick reveals to Morty he started receiving strange signals on his phone that he traced back to the spa and upon further investigation discovered what actually happened to their removed toxicity. Though Morty tells him to ignore it, Rick feels obligated to re-merge with his toxicity as he removed the part of himself that would not care, thus he does care that they accidentally created life.
Morty's date with Jessica does not go well, as Jessica is thrown off by Morty's complete openness and seeming inability to stop talking. Morty is fine with it and convinces another girl named Stacy to come home with him. Upon arriving, he learns Rick purchased the machine from the spa and in cooperation with Toxic Rick and Toxic Morty rigged it so they could re-merge with their toxic selves. Morty refuses, claiming that Toxic Rick could be lying, so Rick tries to force him into the machine. However, just as the machine is activated, Morty says an agreed upon "safe word" (Sea Cucumber) and Stacy pulls the two out and takes their place, teleporting her into the tank and replacing her with Toxic Rick and Toxic Morty, who revel in having tricked their real selves until they realize they are all in the same room.
Toxic Rick at first continues to try to get Rick into the toxic tank, but eventually resolves to make the whole world toxic instead, using a Moon Tower to transmit the toxicity around the planet. At first Rick refuses to stop them, saying it's not his place to decide which dimensions are saved or destroyed, but upon getting slapped by Morty, he realizes that the detox machine removes toxicity in a user based on that person's definition of toxicity. Toxic Rick manages to turn the world toxic, driving it to total depravity and violence, just as Rick and Morty arrive. Rick realized that his normal self considered his irrational attachments to people toxic, thus he knows Toxic Rick cares too much about Morty to allow him to die: with this knowledge, he shoots Toxic Morty with a nanobotic virus that will destroy him in twenty minutes, cutting that time in half with each progressive shot until an agonized Toxic Rick finally agrees to re-merge with him. Restored to his former self, Rick turns off the toxicity beam and restores the world, but Morty flies away with a jetpack to avoid having to re-merge with his toxic self. Rick is left shocked that he didn't expect this.
Three weeks later, Morty has become a Wolf of Wall Street-esque salesman in New York and living an altogether healthy lifestyle with his attractive girlfriend Jacqueline. While at his apartment he receives a call from Jessica begging him to come back, which he knows is part of Rick's plan to trace his location. However, he does not manage to hang up in time, and Rick and Jessica track him down. Using a group of drones to tie Morty down, Rick forcibly re-inserts the boy's toxicity, turning him back into his miserable self. While Rick and Jessica argue over who actually wanted regular Morty back, Morty amicably breaks up with Jacqueline. He offers her the apartment and the drones. However, Rick refuses to give up the latter because he loves their ability to form a Voltron-like combination.
Mirroring the opening scene, Morty listens to Jessica talking about going out with Brad again, which she insists was not a date but her friends claim is proof they are back together. Just as Rick drags Morty into another adventure, Jessica stops him and lets him know she's glad to have him back.
In the after-credits scene, a tour visits the Moon Tower and discovers the tank. Upon turning it on, Stacy is teleported back into the real world, screaming the safe word from earlier in the episode.
Cast and characters[]
Main Cast
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Starring
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Deaths[]
- Body of Detox Rick (who was subsequently cloned inside Toxic Rick)
- Body of Toxic Rick (who was subsequently cloned inside the grenade creature)
- Toxic Rick (reabsorbed)
- Toxic Morty (reabsorbed)
- 1 unnamed creature from a grenade
- 1 unnamed entertainer
- 1 unnamed Tour Guide
Episode notes[]
Trivia[]
- In celebration of Season 3, Pocket Mortys' weekly updates will coincide with new episodes, including new avatars for players to collect.[2] With the release of this episode came: Gunk Beth, Federation Prison Rick, Gromflamite Soldier, Gunk Jerry, Gunk Summer and Gunk Rick as avatars, and Snot Morty, Slime Morty, Gunk Morty and Detox Morty to catch.
- Interestingly, whilst acknowledged as "Toxic Morty" by the Toxic version of Rick, the official name of that Morty is "Gunk Morty".
- The title is a pun on the phrase "Rest and Relaxation".
- During the post-credit scene, there is a character which bares a striking facial resemblance to Dan Harmon.
- "MATH IS LIFE!" is written on the chalkboard of Mr. Goldenfold's classroom.
- Despite there being a giant hole in the glass window at the top of a New York skyscraper, there appears to be no wind or external forces which can be seen.
- Toxic Rick mentions that he has been "trapped in Rick's brain" for around 70 years.
- This would suggest Rick is or in his early 70's
- It is mentioned that Morty is from the Midwest, despite Justin Roiland stating on Twitter that the Smith residence is located in Washington state, which is in the Northwest.[3]
- However, Beth does mention being from Muskegon, Michigan. So possibly, Morty was born in Michigan too and then his family moved to Washington later on.
- Upon detoxification, Detox Rick's skintone is a much healthier colour than Normal Rick's signature ashy complexion. The process of Detox Rick obtaining this much livelier colour is not shown, but his skin can be observed rapidly returning to its usual grey upon his re-merging with Toxic Rick.
- The device Toxic Rick uses to toxify the planet appears to be powered by two miniverse batteries, having four connectors on the side rather than Ricks microverse battery which was more compact and had only three contacts. Perhaps Toxic Rick was left with a willingness use someone else's design? [4]
- Since Jacqueline dated Morty, a 14 y. o. boy, she can be considered a pedophile or a child sex offender/predator.
Series continuity[]
- Jerry does not make an appearance this episode, due to him leaving the family in "The Rickshank Rickdemption".
- During the fight between Rick and Toxic Rick, the wedding photo of Beth and Jerry had the latter's face covered with a photo of a horse.
- Tricia Lange from "The Whirly Dirly Conspiracy" returns as one of Jessica's friends.
- Jessica breaks up with Brad once and for all, after finally getting sick of his arrogant behavior, that she tolerated in "Ricksy Business".
- Yet the ending is kind of ambiguous suggesting they might be getting back together or Jessica might have started to feel something to Morty.
- Another of Rick's augmentations mentioned in "The Whirly Dirly Conspiracy" appears.
- Summer is seen watching The Days and Nights of Mrs. Pancakes series, a series which was first shown in the episode "Lawnmower Dog". Interestingly enough it appears to be the same scene from the episode, where Mrs Pancakes appears to be making out with a man.
- 'Healthy' Rick is shown to have some moral values, saying that "it's not our place, you know, to pick and choose which world gets saved from what apocalypse", which is a callback to Rick's past actions of destroying universes, such as the Cronenberg World from the episode "Rick Potion 9".
- During the episode, the Interdimensional Cable Box can still be seen in the background, following the episode "Rixty Minutes."
- Rick's growth dart is shown to have a similar transformation sequence as that of the human syringe from "Pickle Rick".
- The cracks in the ground surrounding the house are still visible, after the events from the episode "Ricksy Business".
- The patched-up hole in the roof, which used to exist from the events of the episode "Look Who's Purging Now", can no longer be seen. This may be due to the reconstruction of the garage following its destruction during the episode "The Whirly Dirly Conspiracy".
- Some people believe "This is the only episode where Rick is shown to use a seatbelt, only happening after he has been detoxified." In reality he also wore a seatbelt in Pickle Rick. First as a Pickle, but still wearing it after turning back into a human.
- The stone Rick uses to power the beam that destroyed the giant ship at the beginning of the episode is the same rock he stole in "Rickmancing the Stone".
Cultural references[]
- Rick and Morty's six-day adventure alludes to the plot of Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope and Episode VI: Return of the Jedi. This includes a parody of the Death Star being destroyed and the awards ceremony at the end of A New Hope.
- During the six-day adventure before the Rick and Morty theme plays, a group of ships are chasing Rick and Morty as they approach a ship's power core. This is a sexual reference that visually references sperm travelling to the egg during sex.
- Towards the end of the episode, Morty becoming a young stockbroker and great business salesman is a reference to the movie The Wolf of Wall Street, which also follows a young man who becomes inherently wealthy as a result of his high-quality salesman skills. This isn't the first time Wall Street has been referenced in the Rick and Morty series as Rick comments on it during "Mortynight Run".
- Morty answers a phone call saying "Go for Morty," a reference to the way Barney Stinson answers calls in How I Met Your Mother.
- Saladworks and Sbarros, two popular restaurant chains, make an appearance within the episode.
- During the episode, Rick's drones are shown capable of transforming into a small Voltron robot, a reference to the animated television series Voltron: Defender of the Universe.
- This episode prominently features a moonlight tower, or moontower, a now-rare but an important part of public infrastructure history. Moonlight towers are tall structures with a collection of powerful lights that could shine over large areas, designed to save money in areas where the construction of standard street lighting was impractically expensive. The only city in the world that still uses moonlight towers is Austin, Texas.
- The song which is played on the trombone is a solo-trombone rendition of the famous song When the Saints Go Marching In.
- Rick's dart-gun with the ability to parasitically impregnate and kill another organism is very similar to the Facehugger and Chestburster from Ridley Scott's Alien.
- When Jessica left Morty after their date, Morty starts singing Life is a Highway, by Tom Cochrane.
- When Morty and Stacy arrive at Rick's Garage Morty asks if Rick is familiar with "Ben Wa technology". Ben Wa Balls are a kind of sex toy.
- Upon arriving at Morty's apartment, Rick sarcastically calls him a "tiny American Psycho," a reference to the movie of the same name.
- The monster Toxic Rick summons during his fight with Rick slightly resembles one of the aliens from Attack the Block.
- During his sales pitch to Dwayne over the phone, Morty references the Matrix trilogy when offering him the "blue pill or red pill".
- A dead toxic alien resembling 8 Ball from Gravity Falls briefly appears in the toxic world.
- Removing the "toxic" part of oneself is similar to the Dexter's Laboratory episode "Rude Removal" where Dexter and Dee Dee remove their "rudeness" and create "rude" clones of themselves. A similar plot was used in the Johnny Test episode "The Good, the Bad & the Johnny".
Transcript[]
View a full transcript of this episode here.
Gallery
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References
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