"Big Trouble in Little Sanchez" is the seventh episode of the second season of Rick and Morty. It is the eighteenth episode of the series overall. It premiered on September 13, 2015. It was written by Alex Rubens and directed by Bryan Newton. The episode is rated TV-14-LV.
Synopsis[]
Summer asks Rick to transport his mind into a teenager to shield her from vampires at school. Beth and Jerry go to "off-planet" marriage counseling.
Plot[]
While eating breakfast, Jerry asks his children Summer and Morty if anything interesting is happening at school. Morty responds, after thinking for a moment, that one of the lunch ladies was found dead, her body drained of blood and marked by two holes in her neck. Beth's horror, as she has no idea how such a horrible thing could happen, is quickly quenched by a nonchalant Rick, who reveals that vampires are real; the revelation horrifies Summer, but Rick casually tells her that humanity has known of their existence for hundreds of years. Terrified of the possibility of being killed by a vampire, Summer desperately asks to grandpa Rick if he could go to their school by transferring his consciousness into the body of a teenager, which Rick considers a stupid idea and insults Summer for it. Beth tries to get Jerry to support Summer, but Jerry is too distracted by his tablet to pay attention, leading to a conflict. Rick grows tired of their fights and declares that he will take them to off-planet therapy to fix their relationship.
At school Morty and Summer discuss how best to deal with the vampire issue when they are greeted by "Tiny Rick": Rick decided to help them out by putting himself into high-school aged clone of himself temporarily. After killing the vampire (who as it turns out was Coach Feratu), Tiny Rick heads home to transfer his mind into the older Rick's body, which is stored in a vat in the garage. However, Summer gets a text from Toby Matthews asking if they could have a party at the Smith house, but wants to have Tiny Rick there as well. Tiny Rick decides to stay in his younger body to let Morty and Summer have a party. At the party Tiny Rick performs a song on his guitar, the lyrics of which sound like desperate pleas from the older Rick to get him out of Tiny Rick's body, but nobody notices except Summer, who realizes something odd is happening. Tiny Rick quickly becomes popular with the rest of the school, in turn increasing Morty and Summer's social standing, but Summer becomes increasingly worried that Rick has become trapped in his young body. Morty initially ignores her as Jessica has begun talking to him as a direct result of Tiny Rick, but his suspicions are raised when Rick's dance solo at the school dance includes lyrics practically begging someone to help him return to his old body. Unwilling to let this continue, Summer hides the wooden stakes they used to kill Coach Feratu in Tiny Rick's locker, resulting in his expulsion. Tiny Rick turns the entire school (including Toby Matthews) on Summer. Morty finally has enough, and he and Summer sneak up on Tiny Rick just as he is trying to destroy Rick's original body and they force him to listen to Elliot Smith music. Rick's emotional reaction to the music allows him to break free of his younger self's control, and he gets his grandkids to transfer his mind back to his older body. Once this is finished, he heads down to his underground lair and brutally destroys his other younger clones, with a newfound respect for his current age.
After Rick drops off (or rather abandons) Beth and Jerry at therapy, they are greeted by Glexo Slim Slom. Glexo puts Jerry into a helmet attached to a machine that creates Jerry's perception of Beth, a monstrous creature. Beth is immediately offended by this, telling Jerry to take it back. Beth then puts on the helmet, creating a weak, worm version of Jerry. Jerry is also upset by Beth's perception of him. Glexo then leads the couple and other visitors on a tour of the facility, where all the couples' perceptions are kept in cages. The idea behind the therapy is that the perceptions are not the real marriages and that they are all safe from the perceptions. However, in a major disaster, Beth's mytholog manipulates Jerry's mytholog into helping her escape, and she rampages through the facility, killing staff and visitors alike. Glexo angrily informs Jerry and Beth that this is a sign that their relationship has become co-dependent, and the truth is neither of them should ever have gotten married (to which Jerry and Beth declare this is just bad couple's therapy). When the evacuation results in Jerry and Beth being left behind in the facility, Beth gets kidnapped by her own mytholog and attached to one of the machines to make more of her pathetic Jerrys. Beth questions why not just have Jerry make more Beths, but her mytholog replies that in Jerry's mind there can only be one true Beth. Jerry, encountering his own mytholog, grows frustrated that this is Beth's perception of who he really is and heroically comes to rescue her, causing Beth to create heroic Jerry mythologs who help Jerry in his fight (only to start making narcissistic Jerrys when she gets annoyed with his self-indulgent monologue). Just when it looks like they are losing the battle with the Beth mytholog Jerry has the idea to attach the helmet to one of his strong selves, creating Goddess Beth who destroys the monster, ending the fight. As the Jerry mythologs bow down to their goddess, the real Beth and Jerry reconcile.
In the epilogue, a vampire reports to the Vampire Master that Coach Feratu was destroyed. The master is flabbergasted that he named his alias after a famous vampire movie and makes a new rule: no more "clever name bullshit".
Characters[]
Major Characters[]
- Rick Sanchez
- Morty Smith
- Summer Smith
- Beth Smith
- Jerry Smith
- Tiny Rick
- Glaxo Slimslom
- Beth's Mytholog
- Jerry's Mytholog
Minor Characters[]
- Jessica
- Toby Matthews
- Mr. Goldenfold
- Gene Vagina
- MC Haps (Non-Speaking)
- Grace Smith (Non-Speaking)
- Gar
- Zarbadar
- Ideal Jerry
- Self-Congratulatory Jerry
- Goddess Beth
- Gar's Mytholog (Cameo)
- Zarbadar's Mytholog (Cameo)
- Bill Cipher (Pictured, Cameo)
- Coach Feratu (Mentioned)
Deaths[]
- 1 lunch lady
- Gar's Mytholog
- Zarbadar's Mytholog
- Coach Feratu
- 1 unnamed Mytholog
- Many unnamed Nuptia 4 residents
- Many unnamed Aliens
- Gar
- Zarbadar
- All Jerry Mythologs
- All Ideal Jerrys
- All Self-Congratulatory Jerrys
- Beth's Mytholog
- All of Rick C-137's clones from Operation Phoenix
- Tiny Rick
- 1 unnamed woman
Songs[]
Trivia[]
- A box of Strawberry Smiggles appears on the breakfast table, a reference to "Rixty Minutes."
- The character on Tiny Rick's drawing is actually Doc from Rick and Morty's original unaired pilot (which can be found on YouTube), "The Real Animated Adventures of Doc and Mharti", a parody of Back to the Future.
- Principal Vagina describes Tiny Rick as an 80-year-old man in a teenager's body. However, Season 3 reveals that he is about 70 years old. It is possible, though, that Principal Vagina's description was not a literal one.
- Beth looks directly at a map of Nuptia 4 on the wall by the elevator, which clearly has a Safe Room labeled on it. This means a situation like rogue codependent mythologues has probably happened before.
- This episode along with the following episode Interdimensional Cable 2: Tempting Fate has the fewest amount of burps for an episode with only one burp. This is likely because Tiny Rick is never seen drinking.
- The ankh on the vampire monks on the post-credits scene look similar to the ankh from the tabletop game Vampire: The Masquerade.
- The Party opening song has been made by a friend of Justin Roiland, Nick Haas. Song is available on SoundCloud by the name "Like a Boss - Nick Haas".
Cultural references[]
- The title of this episode is a reference to the movie Big Trouble in Little China (1986) .
- When first introduced, Tiny Rick greets his grandchildren with "What up my helsings!" This is a reference to Abraham Van Helsing, the vampire hunter from Bram Stoker's novel Dracula.
- The song that Summer plays to Tiny Rick is called "Between the Bars" by Elliott Smith.
- One of the recurring background extras looks like Jane Lane from Daria, wearing a square pair of glasses.
- Bill Cipher, a character from Gravity Falls, appears on the scanner, when Jerry's perception of Beth manifests itself.
- Jerry's perception of Beth greatly resembles the Xenomorph queen from the Alien franchise.
- It also played a strong similar role to that of the Indominus Rex from the film Jurassic World from its escape and rampage of the resort.
- The name "Coach Feratu" is a reference to the vampire movie Nosferatu.
- The helmets worn by the patients at the marriage counseling, including Beth and Jerry, greatly resemble the "energy dome" helmets worn by the band DEVO.
- The tanks with Rick's bodies are probably a reference to the film The Prestige.
- The concept of a team fighting vampires in a high school reference to the plot of the series, Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The head vampire's look and rising from a pool of blood are directly from the character of the Master from the series.
Transcript[]
View a full transcript of this episode here.
Gallery
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References
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