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"Mortyplicity" is the second episode of the fifth season of Rick and Morty. It is the 43rd episode of the series overall. It premiered on June 27, 2021. [2] It was written by Albro Lundy and directed by Lucas Gray. The episode is rated TV-14-DLV.

Synopsis[]

Killer squids are after the Smiths, but luckily Rick created a decoy family. Or are they real? Can the decoys make decoys? Who's real? Are you real?

Plot[]

Rick and the family are eating when Rick tells the family God is real and has been sleeping for thousands of years, and he and Morty are going to sneak up into the clouds and kill him. Beth tells everyone Jerry is getting a job. Rick points this out as something wrong, then squid-like creatures break into the house and shoot everyone one by one. Somewhere else, Mr. Always Wants To Be Hunted is asking to be hunted, and the family tries to grab him until Rick's watch activates an alarm, showing that someone just killed a decoy family.

In the car, Rick explains that squid people are trying to hunt him down, and since the Space Beth incident, he has created various decoy families in various places around the country to protect themselves from any possible killers attempting to murder the family. However, the Smiths begin to argue, and as they do, the squids attack them from above and proceed to shoot their car to bits. However, they are quickly revealed as a decoy family. Another family is in Italy on vacation, and are ambushed and killed. In yet another house, a Rick and Morty notice that their decoy family has been destroyed and lock the house shut and proceed to watch a show about a time-travelling werewolf called 'When Wolf' on interdimensional cable. However, their commentary on the show is interrupted when more squid people attack them, bombarding their house regardless of the security.

In yet another version of the Smith Residence, another Smith family takes notice. The five of them talk about it, and Summer asks if they are decoys themselves. This scares Rick as he tells Morty to check for a number on his butt. Morty looks and Rick farts. Jerry comes out with gluten-free, sugar-free, and lemon-free lemon squares, and Rick flies them in his Space Cruiser to one of the decoy houses. He enters and says the password, freezing them in place. Morty finds that the decoys are making decoys. Rick goes to his decoy and re-activates his head to ask questions before deactivating the being entirely. They drive around the countryside, and spot another Smith Residence created by another Rick, except Rick does not remember building them. They go to investigate, and another Rick says his password, freezing the other decoys. Seeing this, the first family hides as a second family comes into the scene. The second family unfreezes their decoy to ask questions, but realize that others are among them. Both sides accuse the other of being a decoy family, and they proceed to brawl, only to be destroyed by a fourth Rick and his family.

After Rick briefly explains what is happening, they disguise themselves as their mysterious squid opponents and shoot one of the ships down. They proceed to loot their ship, only to realize that the squids were actually a decoy family in disguise. A decoy Jerry throws a bomb, incinerating them. The commotion caused by the various decoy families has made various versions of themselves worried if they are decoys or real, leading to various deaths and families checking to see if they are real or not. One family is in the woods, fleeing the commotion when they are tranquilized by another decoy who takes them to his version of the Smith Residence. The decoy reveals himself to be a scarecrow-like version that was so poorly-made that he knew he was fake from the moment he was created; he harvests the skin of decoys to look more like them, and provides skin for his own version of the Smith family.

However, before he can skin them alive, a Glockenspiel version of the Smith family intervenes, saving the other Smith family from the scarecrow versions. They do not care for killing other decoys, instead saving as many as they can. They take their counterparts into a canyon, where a community of various decoys hides underground. The squids attack them, causing Glockenspiel Jerry to lock himself in the escape route with a can of varnish, effectively leaving the decoys to die. As another family kills a few decoys, their Rick ultimately decides to end the cycle by creating an Andross-styled beacon to attract the various decoys towards his version of the Smith Residence, all of which proceed to engage in an all-out battle royale, killing each other one by one until only one remains standing.

Yet another version of the Smith family, disguised as lazily made decoys, take off their disguises and go into their Space Cruiser to investigate. However, one of the remaining versions shoots them from above, forcing them to fight. Ultimately, the ones that crashed win, but they are all killed by Mister Always Wants To Be Hunted, who was angered by the fact that he wasn't being hunted.

Up in space, what is presumably the real Smith family is wrapping up on an adventure with Space Beth when Rick's watch goes off, revealing the decoys were killed off once more, raising questions from his family.

Meanwhile, Glockenspiel Jerry escapes into the wilderness, takes off his clothes, puts the whole can of varnish onto himself and goes down the river. However, he is soon spotted by a group of beavers who use him as a crib for baby beavers. The water floods, putting him to sleep and he wakes to see he is stranded in a wasteland. The descendants of a dolphin and a woodpecker, who speak of him as a relic from a kinder past, take him to their place. Then, he wakes up as part of the ornament of a saloon mirror and sees green, reptilian cowboys who are surprised at him and burn him alive. Finally, he awakens a third time to see yellow humanoids living in their version of the Roman Empire and reenacting the origin of Christianity. Glockenspiel Jerry awakens embedded on the cross of the yellow humanoid Jesus, laments his inability to die and says that this the worst thing that ever happened to anyone.

Characters[]

Major characters[]

Minor characters[]

Deaths[]

  • Various decoy families
    • Multiple Rick decoys
    • Multiple Morty decoys
    • Multiple Summer decoys
    • Multiple Beth decoys
    • Nipple creature
    • Multiple Jerry decoys
    • Glockenspiel Rick, Beth, Summer and Morty
    • Scarecrow Rick, Jerry, Summer, Morty and Beth

Locations[]

Episode notes[]

Trivia[]

  • In celebration of Season 5, Pocket Mortys' weekly updates will coincide with new episodes, including new avatars for players to collect. With the release of this episode came Mr. Always Wants To Be Hunted as an avatar, plus Squid Morty and Glockenspiel Morty to catch.
  • "Jerry" mentions that Mr. Always Wants To Be Hunted was stored in a cryopod.
  • This is the second episode of Season 5 in which Rick and Morty do not use the portal gun. The first was "Mort Dinner Rick Andre".
  • The analysis mode passwords both reference sexual organs, "80085" spells out "BOOBS" on a calculator and "8==D" is the ASCII representation of a penis.
  • The word "decoy" was said approximately 77 times.
  • Justin Roiland wanted to switch the place of this episode with "Mort Dinner Rick Andre" and make it the premiere of Season 5, but it was too late to change it.[3]
  • Other than through their decoys, the real Summer, Morty, and Jerry have no lines.
  • None of the decoy Ricks ever use a portal gun or mention one, implying that only the real Rick possesses one.

Series continuity[]

  • The crack around the Smith house from "Ricksy Business" and "A Rickle in Time" is visible on the decoy houses.
  • Several Rick decoys mention the events surrounding Space Beth that occurred in "Star Mort Rickturn of the Jerri", and she even makes an appearance at the end of the episode.
  • While distributing weapons to the family, one of the Ricks tosses a laser whip to his Morty. Morty previously asked if he could have a laser whip instead of a sword in "Promortyus".
  • When the two Mortys are seen fighting by Summer, one is trying to kill the other with a spoon. Morty previously threw a spoon to Rick for self-defense in "Look Who's Purging Now".
  • Rick asks the house to whip up a "Star Fox Boss" Season Four callback, making a hologram of himself that looks like the final boss of most Star Fox games, Andross. The season four callback is referencing the Hologram Rick in "Edge of Tomorty: Rick Die Rickpeat".

Cultural references[]

  • The episode's title is a reference to the film Multiplicity.
  • Two different passwords that Ricks used were 80085 (which is L337 speak for "Boobs") and 8==D (which is supposed to resemble male genitals.) The former is typically used by kids or teenagers on a calculator whilst the latter was the standard prior to the use of the eggplant emoji.
  • Morty notes that the situation with the decoys is similar to Westworld and Ex Machina. One of the decoy Summers tries proving she's real by cutting her arm in the bathroom mirror, relieved at the sight of her bleeding, referencing a scene from the latter movie.
  • The Scarecrow decoy family are a homage to Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Scarecrow Rick’s plan to create skin suits for him and his family is a nod to Leatherface.
  • One of the decoy Ricks later states that "It's Rule 34 of an Asimov Cascade." This is likely a reference to internet rule 34.
  • A double-bladed lightsaber from Star Wars, the energy sword from Halo, and an energy whip from Star Trek can be seen in this episode.
  • Rick asks the house to whip up a "Star Fox Boss" Season Four callback, making a hologram of himself that looks like the final boss of most Star Fox games, Andross.
  • During his explanation of the origin of the decoys, Rick mentions Sean Connery's role as the immortal Juan Sánchez-Villalobos Ramírez in the 1986 British fantasy film Highlander. One of the songs from the Highlander soundtrack, "Who Wants to Live Forever" by Queen, is used during the post-credits scene, which shows the comeuppance of Glockenspiel Jerry, who is punished to suffer eternally as a nearly immortal being (for having allowed his own "family" to die so he could have their supply of varnish all to himself).
  • The space cruiser for the Glockenspiel puppet Smith family is based on Leonardo da Vinci's design of a turtle-shaped fighting vehicle, which is often cited to be the precursor of modern tanks.
  • When talking about the situation with Space Beth, Rick compares the decoys going rogue to the plot of Blade Runner.
  • One of the decoy Ricks rips all the flesh off a decoy Summer's forearm, revealing a mechanical endoskeleton, referencing the titular character from The Terminator film series.
  • The decoy control chip that a decoy Rick found in his brain is a reference to the inhibitor chips used in the Clones in the Star Wars franchise.
  • With one of the decoy families in Italy, the Morty is seen tossing a peach back and forth with an older man while more are hanging in the foreground which references the movie, Call Me By Your Name.

Transcript[]

View a full transcript of this episode here.

Gallery

Click here to view the image gallery for Mortyplicity.
Click here to view this page's gallery.

References

  1. Episode Airdate on TV Passport. [1]
  2. Episode Airdate on TV Passport. [2]
  3. https://collider.com/justin-roiland-rick-and-morty-season-5-interview-solar-opposites/

https://twitter.com/RickandMorty/status/1396888811083345924

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