| “ | We both know that if there’s any truth in the universe, it’s that Ricks don’t care about Mortys. |
"Close Rick-Counters of the Rick Kind" is the tenth episode of the first season of Rick and Morty. It is the tenth episode of the series overall. It premiered on April 7, 2014. It was written by Ryan Ridley and directed by Stephen Sandoval. The episode is rated TV-14-DLSV, and has 9.3 stars on IMDB. It is in #6 in IMDB's Top 10 Rick and Morty Episodes and is considered one of the best Rick and Morty Episodes of all time.
Synopsis[]
Rick's just trying to enjoy a nice breakfast, but he's kidnapped by a group of alternate Ricks and taken to stand trial for crimes against Ricks.
Plot[]
When 27 Ricks from alternate dimensions end up murdered and their respective Mortys are kidnapped, the Trans-Dimensional Council of Ricks orders the arrest of Rick C-137 (the show's original Rick) and accuses him of the crimes due to his refusal to participate in their affairs. Angry that he was framed, Rick escapes the Council with Morty to go after the real culprit who set him up and finds that another Rick is supposedly responsible for murdering their counterparts while stealing their Mortys to conceal his presence.
Meanwhile, as Morty begins to believe that he's nothing but a tool to protect Rick, Jerry begins to bond with Rick J19ζ7, the kindest Rick in all of the realities. After Morty leads a rebellion of alternate Mortys against the "evil" Rick, three Ricks from the Council of Ricks discover that the "evil" Rick was being mind-controlled. It is revealed to the audience that he was being controlled by "his" Morty, who destroyed his eyepatch to avoid being recognized.
In the Post Credit Scene, Jerry is in Rick's room missing Doofus Rick, a version of Rick that he made friends with before assuring Rick, who just came in, that nothing's wrong. Upon going to the dining room, he sees Doofus Rick and waves at him before Rick laughs at him for being friends with him and decides to call his other variants about it.
Characters[]
Major Characters[]
- Riq IV
- Rick Prime (Council of Ricks)
- Quantum Rick
- Maximums Rickimus
- Zeta Alpha Rick
- Ricktiminus Sancheziminius
Minor Characters[]
- Target Dimension Rick
- Target Dimension Morty
- Target Dimension Jerry
- Target Dimension Beth
- Target Dimension Summer
- Cyclops Rick
- Cyclops Morty
- Cronenberg Rick
- Cronenberg Morty
- Long Sleeved Morty
- Yellow Shirt Rick
- Blue Shirt Morty
- Cowboy Rick
- Cowboy Morty
- Fish Rick
- Fish Morty
- Artist Morty
- Solicitor Rick
- Robot Rick
- Robot Morty
- Antenna Rick
- Toy Morty
- The Scientist Formerly Known as Rick
- Alien Rick
- Alien Morty
- Tortured Mortys
- Eric Stoltz Mask Morty
- Cult Leader Morty
- Antenna Morty
- Hammerhead Morty
- Snowball (Flashback)
Pictured Only[]
Deaths[]
- 27 Ricks from different timelines (including Target Dimension Rick and The Scientist Formerly Known as Rick)
- At least 3 Ricks at the Citadel
- At least 7 Crab Spiders
- Evil Rick
Locations[]
Transcript[]
View a full transcript of this episode here.
Trivia[]
- Summer only has a single line for the entire episode. She is heard saying "Dad!" when Jerry got frozen by a Council of Ricks member.
- It is revealed that Rick returned to the family on the date of January 15th. This episode also takes place exactly one year after that day.
- The Blu-Ray release features special guest commentary from Simpsons Crew Pendleton Ward and Kent Osborne.
- This episode features the first mention of the Central Finite Curve.
Cultural References[]
- The Council of Ricks is a parody of the Council of Reeds.
- The song that plays during the end credits is "For The Damaged Coda" by Blonde Redhead.
- The song after the credits is called "Jerry's Rick".
- The pamphlet about the one true Morty is a parody of a Chick tract.
- The dome covered with perpetually-tortured instances of Morty is possibly a reference to the Tree of Pain from the Dan Simmons novel Hyperion.
- When Rick calls Rick after defeating Evil Rick, he says "What do me and O.J. not have in common? I found the real killer bitch!" This is a reference to the trial of O.J. Simpson where he was accused of murdering his family, and eventually announced not guilty even though it was widely believed that he obviously did it, leading to a very large outrage among the community.
- Rick was sentenced to "The Machine of Unspeakable Doom", whose mind-altering effects and name bear an uncanny resemblance to the weapon from Isaac Asimov's short story The Weapon Too Dreadful to Use.
- The episode title is a reference to the movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
- A pen, a notebook, and a coffee cup with a question mark on it can be briefly seen emerging from one of Rick's portals. In the Gravity Falls episode "Society of the Blind Eye", the episode's ending credits gag reveals that Grunkle Stan is the one who loses these three exact same items to his interdimensional portal. Society of the Blind Eye aired October 27th, 2014, significantly after this episode aired. Notably, Justin Roiland is good friends with Gravity Falls creator Alex Hirsch, and also provides the voice of an eccentric time traveler, Blendin Blandin, in that show.
- The line said by Toy Morty: "Show me the Morty!" is a reference to the film Jerry Maguire, where the line "Show me the money!" is said.
- The scene where Jerry picks up the phone and the quote from one of the Ricks "The call is coming from inside the house" is a reference to the 1979 film When a Stranger Calls.
- The plot twist in which a Morty is revealed to have been the mastermind controlling Evil Rick may be a reference to Farewell to the Master by Harry Bates .
- When Morty says "You're lucky I'm not a Rick", Rick replies "Point taken, but this is no time for arcs!" This could be a reference to The Superior Spider-Man story line where Doc Ock placed his consciousness into Spider-Man's body. It also doubles as a reference to the show's non-use of story arcs and multi-parter episodes.
- The "hut! hut! hut!" noise that soldier Ricks make is a reference to the policemen and soldiers raiding the tax office in The Blues Brothers.
- One of the Mortys accompanied by the Guard Ricks is a direct reference to Eric Stolz from the film, Mask. This references the fact that Morty is based on Marty McFly from Back to the Future and Marty was briefly played by Eric Stolz before he was replaced by Michael J. Fox.
- The apperance of some of the cult Mortys may be a reference to Aang, the main protagonist of the series, Avatar: The Last Airbender.
- The Citadel of Ricks looks like the buildings in the Mass Effect franchise.
- Doofus Rick's hairstyle resembles the character, Simple Jack, from the film, Tropic Thunder.
Series continuity[]
- When Rick and Morty enter the dimension of the Council of Ricks, Cronenberg Rick and Morty from the end of "Rick Potion #9" can be seen in the background.
- When Evil Rick was playing Rick's memories of Morty, there were six happy memories, that Rick remembered fondly. In the episode "Total Rickall", Rick said to Morty, "I have about a thousand memories of you and only six of them are pleasant." Those were the six memories.
- Two of Rick's memories were Rick putting a helmet on Snuffles and giving Morty a love potion. These two memories came from the episodes "Lawnmower Dog" and "Rick Potion #9", respectively.
- After the credits, when Rick's bedroom is shown for the first time, there are pictures of a Meeseeks, Abradolf Lincler, Dr. Xenon Bloom, a Zigerion and Rick's flying machine and death ray on the wall, which are references to the episodes "Meeseeks and Destroy", "Ricksy Business", "Anatomy Park", and "M. Night Shaym-Aliens!".
Errors[]
- When Evil Rick showed Rick the list of all the Ricks from all the dimensions, he was heard saying "You see this M...Rick?" Apparently, he was about to say "Morty" because Justin Roiland is so used to saying Morty's name in Rick's dialogue blocks that he almost did it again there but stopped himself. It's possible, however, that this was an ad-libbed dialogue block and they left the mistake in just for fun. It may also have been deliberate since the Evil Rick was being controlled by "his" Morty, who could have slipped up for a moment.
- At minute 6:23 in this episode, where the phones are ordering chairs, you can see one or two frames where a portal opened prematurely, followed by the actual portal opening a few seconds after. This was most likely an editing goof that was never fixed.
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References
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