Rick & Morty S01E04 Review: The One In Which You Are A Simulation

Rick and Morty, Season 1, Episode 4: M. Night Shaym-aliens!

I am not familiar enough with M. Night Shyamalan's work to know what part of this episode is trying to lampoon, but "M. Night Shaym-Aliens" is another one of those season one Rick and Morty episodes that is based on a certain common sci-fi trope and sort of takes its own spin on it. In this case, aliens and holographic simulations, specifically Matrix-style "are you in a very convincing simulation or the real world" mind-fuckery. 

And it's another neat little stand-alone episode of Rick and Morty, even without understanding what it's lampooning, which is something I really do appreciate. There are definitely a bunch of 'twists' going on in this episode, which feeds into the whole "we're in a simulation inside a simulation" as a bunch of pink, large-headed aliens called Zigerians (a riff on those Nigerian Prince scams) attempt to extract the recipe to "concentrated dark matter" from Rick and (what seems to be) Morty. From the typical class scene where Morty is praised by his teacher and is met with the affections of a suddenly-impressed Jessica, both asking for the recipe of the plot device, Rick ends up dragging "Morty" into a bathroom and strip naked becuase apparently the Zigerians are huge prudes. Which is just such a random little detail, but also helps Rick to basically give some exposition about the whole simulation thing. 

And as usual, we get a "Jerry, what a loser" sub-plot, which I thought was handled slightly better than the previous episode's. In this episode, Jerry is brought into the simulated world as an accidental side-effect, and while Rick is quickly able to figure out the simulation and explain it to Morty (from the not-so-obvious changes to the very obvious changes like car-toasters living in a giant microwave), Jerry's... Jerry's essentially living in what's an autopilot world, where every single NPC just nod, shrug, and "my man!"s everything Jerry says, leading to Jerry's presentation for an advertisement slogan being basically shrugged-off with a nonchalant "Yes. That is good." acceptance... and even holographic!Beth's robotic replies and eventual sex ends up not making Jerry realize it's a holographic world. 

And... and I guess the critique here is that Jerry's such a loser that he swallows up any sort of compliment or acknowledgment, even if they're one-word "yes"-es and a static sex? Jerry himself turns out to be so insecure that even after this "victory", he ends up going through a whole bit where he thinks he's a fraud, confesses to his boss, gets fired, then stands up for himself, and wins an award... all by simply interacting with NPC's. It's neat, and probably one of the first times that I really do feel sorry for Jerry, particularly when his world ends up being destroyed all around him and falls apart and he's just dragged away by Rick and Morty later on in the episode. 

Meanwhile, Rick and Morty manage to 'break' the hologram by essentially overloading their processing capacity by opening a rock concert and demanding the random crowd do weird-ass shit, before running off the edge of the hologram. Because of course the Zigerians don't have like a mental landscape, their holograms are rendered upon what's essentially an omni-directional treadmill. 

Perhaps the biggest clue that something's not quite right (other than the episode being barely at its halfway mark) is the random bit where Rick and Morty are horsing around and ha-ha-ha-ing when they find themselves in the Zigerians' crystal chamber. Which is when it's revealed that they're in a simulation inside a simulation, because when Rick returns to his laboratory and punches in the code to his safe, the simulation de-rezzes and the Zigerians mock Rick, noting that it was never about dark matter (they claim to already know the formula) but rather the code to Rick's safe. 

Rick and Morty escape the hologram room and with the aid of some gravitational control abuse, breaks the hologram machine of the ship, and drag poor, poor Jerry with them to escape on a ship... and then Rick decides to use concentrated dark matter to combat the Zigerians... and after Rick rattles off the formula (for ingredients that are conveniently present), everything, including Morty, is revealed to be another simulation, so it was a three-layered simulation, and the Zigerians are actually after the dark matter in the first place. It's a neat enough twist...

Except, of course, Rick has been playing the Zigerians all along, he knew Morty was a hologram copy all along, and acts all smug as he and Jerry are ejected on an escape pod. He tells Jerry that he's not a loser like him, because he had fed the Zigerians a completely bogus recipe for something that ends up blowing up their entire ship. And it's... it's a bit of dark, for sure, since the Zigerians, while not nice people, have been pretty likable villains, particularly that one nerdy intern (who apparently 'rendered' Morty's genitalia to fool Rick) and the Prince's secretary who keeps reminding him of his discoloured butt-flaps. 

Overall, a pretty fun, solid episode, even if it's probably not the best episode of Rick and Morty out there. The plot twists are fun, and the standalone episodic plot is neat. While some of the more memorable work from this series is going to be when we actually get solid continuity between episodes, I do appreciate these early standalone episodes. 

Random Notes: 

• The post-credits scene for this one is Jerry getting instantly fired for the "Hungry For Apples?" advertisement in real life, as well as Rick freaking out and holding a knife to Morty's throat and demanding to know if he's a simulation. Preeeetty scary bit at the end.
• Perhaps the earliest hint that Morty is a simulation is the very first scene, where he did bump into the garage wall. Actually, I'm a huge, huge fan of how the simulation breaking down is shown as something similar to a video game glitching out, with the rendered assets basically moving in unnatural ways or 'merging' with the environment. 
• Caesium is actually a very volatile material and is pyrophoric, meaning that it will explode when it comes in contact with water. Not to the scale of blowing up a gigantic spaceship, though the Zigerians did mix it with whatever the hell "plutonic quartz" is. 
• That Westworld-style bit of the pop-tarts and fake humans being actually created as quasi-solid objects in a factory baffled me a bit since everything else seemed to just be a hologram that can be turned on and off, but I guess that's just part of the simulation-in-a-simulation stuff?