Unity is a hivemind and Rick Sanchez's former lover. It takes the forms of multiple races, genders, and likely species, and uses both male and female avatars around Rick. Unity first appeared in "Auto Erotic Assimilation," where it briefly gets back together with Rick, only for them to separate again at the end of the episode.
Contents
Biography
After Rick, Morty and Summer follow a distress signal coming from a seemingly 'abandoned' ship, a group of normal aliens asks for Rick's help to defeat the evil entity that's taking over their minds. Using the assimilated members of the crew, Unity takes control of the group's minds, and it recognizes Rick. Rick introduces it to his grandchildren, and explains that he and Unity used to date.
The four of them return to Unity's planet. Unity speaks with Rick through its alien citizens, occasionally switching between male or female avatars mid-conversation. It tells Rick its plans to manage an organization efficient enough to merge with the Galactic Federation, where it will have access to countless other worlds for it to assimilate until it becomes "what the single-minded once called a god". Rick is impressed by this, and the two quickly resume their relationship as lovers.
While Rick and Unity rekindle their relationship, it also takes care of Summer and Morty. Unity has so much fun reconnecting with Rick and performing crazy stunts to impress him (especially making and ingesting fractal dust, a powerful drug) that it gradually loses control of its citizens.
Rick embraces two of Unity's avatars.
After regaining their free will, the citizens of the planet start a race war, chasing after Morty and Summer until a Unity-led SWAT team rescues them. Summer and Morty, traumatized, insist that Rick takes them all home. When Rick opens a portal for them and insists on staying behind, Summer explains that Rick has an unhealthy impact on Unity, and expresses her disapproval toward their relationship.
Rick stays with Unity for a while longer, but after leaving to use the bathroom, emerges to find that Unity has deserted the city (and possibly the planet) and written breakup letters across every surface. It confesses its love for Rick, but ultimately concedes that they cannot be together.
Rick returns home and attempts suicide, but narrowly fails.
Abilities
Unity assimilates others into the hivemind by using one of its hosts to vomit into another individual's mouth. Unity's hosts have been seen acting animalistic while spreading (screeching and pointing at unassimilated individuals), although Unity can imitate natural 'humanoid' behavior as well while in a passive, controlled state. It has individual control of every body it assimilates.
All of Unity's avatars seem to possess the same brain while controlled by it, and Unity is able to move and speak transitionally through an entire civilization of people. However, consuming drugs (specifically the dust made by Rick) seems to limit its control, leaving Unity able to direct less and less bodies at once and making them dizzy.
Appearances
Season 2
Trivia
- Though it uses a number of forms around Rick, including multiple genders, Unity mainly uses the purple-haired president of the planet (voiced by actress Christina Hendricks and partially modeled after her). This form also may have been the leader of the planet before Unity took over because it was surrounded by bodyguards while speaking to Rick in the beginning of Auto Erotic Assimilation.
- The form mentioned above also appeared in the Rickstaverse game, on a screen inside an abandoned spaceship, with a delete history tab next to it.
- It was revealed in the commentary for the episode, "Auto Erotic Assimilation", that Unity's primary form has flat concentric nipple rings.
- Unity was originally going to appear in Season 1, during an alien comic-con, but the idea was scrapped and reused for the Season 2 episode "Auto Erotic Assimilation".
- A lot of the people Unity assimilated on the alien planet highly resemble background characters from Earth.
- Unity is only referred to as 'it', omitting the use of gender-specific pronouns. In the commentary of "Auto Erotic Assimilation", Dan Harmon and Justin Roiland describe Unity as a genderless character. In languages other than English, however, Unity is usually referred to as "she", given that its "main" body is female and Rick generally treats it as such.
- "I want to talk to Unity, Beta Seven. I know it's in there." -- Rick
- "Actually, no. I think Unity's great and you're a horrible influence on it." -- Summer
- Unity is the name of a similar Alien parasite in Superman: The Animated Series that also aims to mind control entire worlds by entering through their mouths.
- Unity stated that it was the population of a small town when it met Rick.
- Unity's origins are completely unknown.
- Unity's original plans were for the planet it assimilated to join the Galactic Federation and assimilate the entire Federation, but its current plans are unknown due to the destruction of the Federation in "The Rickshank Rickdemption".
- It calls any non-hive minds "single-minded".
