The Smith-Sanchez family is celebrating Thanksgiving! After a brief detour to Blips and Chitz for a “Die Hard” parody last week, “Rick and Morty” Season 6, Episode 3 is all about love and family. It’s about loving your family in ways that make your children and your scientist father extremely uncomfortable. Let’s take a step back.
The episode, titled “Bethic Twinstinct,” begins with Morty (Justin Roiland) enjoying a new alien video game console when Rick (Justin Roiland) appears as a turkey (possibly a holdover effect from last season’s “Thanksploitation Spectacular”) and inquires as to where he obtained the new toy. Morty explains that Space Beth, Beth’s potential clone (both Sarah Chalke), is in town for Thanksgiving and gave it to him. Rick is eager to play, but Thanksgiving dinner comes first.
Space Beth’s return upends the currently ordered family dynamic, resulting in the season’s least science-fiction-y episode and by far the most hilariously awkward. Let us now break it down.
Nobody Loves You As Much As (Other Versions Of) Yourself.
Jerry (Chris Parnell) proposes a toast as the family sits down for Thanksgiving dinner. It begins sweetly enough, with Jerry telling Beth how grateful he is for her. But things quickly go off the rails when Jerry declares that if Beth abandons him or becomes unfaithful, he will commit suicide. Play the opening credits.
Both versions of Beth are extremely friendly with each other throughout dinner, having patched up their differences in the season premiere. To put it mildly, there are vibes in the air. Beth cracks Space Beth’s back, and Beth later massages her.
They are unable to keep their hands off each other. They are about to kiss when they are interrupted by a noise from inside the house. Summer (Spencer Grammer) is watching them. Unable to deal with the reality of the situation, she retreats to the couch to play video games.
The two Beths eventually excuse themselves to the planet Gloppydrop to get some ice cream. But, of course, what they end up licking is each other. They return home without ice cream because they can’t keep their tongues out of each other’s mouths. They’re so preoccupied with each other that they don’t notice Morty standing outside the car. Morty, too, withdraws into video games with his sister, unable to bear the thought of his mother cheating on his father with herself.
“You notice things a little before I do,” Morty says. “But you eventually notice,” Summer responds. The two agree that the most important thing is to keep Jerry from learning the truth. Notably, Morty’s video games advertise as realistic, but in reality, they’re too boring to reflect reality. It’s a touching parallel to the Beths, whose doubts about reality led them to this point.
A Full San Junipero
Beth walks into Rick’s garage, where he is dismembering a cybernetic space whale for parts to make another video game controller, and asks if he has any Gloppydrop ice cream. He informs her that he has discovered what she and Space are up to.
Beth is doing and reveals that he has previously slept with versions of himself. He does, however, leave her with a warning: “Lies accumulate like credit card debt. By remaining liquid, you maintain an advantage.” Beth responds that her relationship with Space Beth is a “cash transaction, fun and done.”
Beth expresses some reservations about their illicit relationship after more fooling around on the roof of the house with Space Beth. “Are we in love with ourselves?” she inquires. “Does that make us the healthiest or healthiest women in the universe?” Shortly after, she admits that she doesn’t need to label things, but she does want to know what their relationship’s “shelf life” is, so the two of them head to Rick’s Holodeck to run a program in which they live out a life together.
Meanwhile, Jerry, having completed a jigsaw puzzle, attempts to locate the two Beths, but Summer and Morty quickly persuade him to play a video game. Morty chooses a game at random, which happens to be about concealing an affair. With Jerry distracted, Rick, Summer, and Morty travel to the Holodeck, where they discover the Beths at the end of their lives.
“Did you go all ‘San Junipero’ in here?” Rick exclaims, referring to the well-known “Black Mirror” episode in which two lovers live forever in a computer simulation. “Oh my goodness, Beth. There’s masturbation and then there’s masturbation.” Rick informs the Beths that they must inform Jerry of their affair, but Space Beth becomes defensive.
Roly-Poly Jerry
Tensions are high over ice cream (secretly obtained from Rick’s garage) until Space Beth appears and addresses the elephant in the room. “I had sex with your wife, Jerry. Alternatively, I’m your wife and had sex with the clone you sleep with.
Take your pick.” Hearing this, Jerry is transported back to high school, before he met Beth when a friend warned him that she would be “too much woman” for him. “She’d tear you apart sooner or later,” the friend predicts. Back in the present, Jerry gets up and… rolls himself into a huge roly-poly.
Rick explains that he installed the ability to roll up into a shell as a defense mechanism when he and Jerry were both drunk. Jerry has crawled back into his shell. Space Beth wants to force him out, but Rick says it’s impossible, even for him, and that if she touches a nerve, he’ll turn into Shrek. “He’s taken control in his own sad way.”
In an attempt to salvage the situation, the Beths request that Rick erase all romantic thoughts of each other from both of their minds. Rick warns them that it’s a bad idea, but he’s about to carry it out when Jerry emerges from his shell, apologizing for threatening to kill himself and heading upstairs to pack his belongings.
Beth, trailed by Space Beth, follows Jerry upstairs to speak with Jerry, who remains enraged. Space Beth notices, “You’re not upset because it was about you. You’re upset because it wasn’t.” “He wanted to permit our love,” she continues, turning to Beth. “It’s not ‘Handmaid’s Tale’ to loop in your husband,” Jerry retorts. (“Rick and Morty” are always full of pop culture references, but this episode is particularly dense with them.)
Rick Learns Something Else
Space “Pretty please, Jerry, can I make out with myself?” Beth jokes. Jerry’s response is, “You certainly can. Yeah, homewreckers, not so hot when it’s above board.” The scene then takes a turn as the situation quickly becomes sexual, with the Beths degrading Jerry, who allows them to continue. “I’m scared of how hot it is,” Beth says.
Morty, Summer, and Rick can hear everything in the dining room, and they are all very uncomfortable. Summer and Morty eventually burst into tears, and Rick tries to distract them by asking what they’re thankful for.
Jerry says they’ve all learned a lesson as Space Beth departs the next morning. Rick agrees and goes into the kitchen, where he hides the alien wine that the Beths drank at the start of the episode in a secret safe and disposes of the remote control for it in the garbage disposal.
Does this imply that they developed feelings for each other as a result of the wine? Was Rick planning this all along, or were his plans thwarted by Jerry’s participation? We may never know for certain, but Rick appears to be unhappy.
FAQ:
When Will Rick And Morty Season 6 Episode 4 Air?
On September 25, at 11 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, Adult Swim will broadcast the 4th episode of Season 6 of “Rick and Morty.”
How many episodes are there in the new Rick and Morty season?
This sixth season of Rick and Morty contains ten episodes.
