Recap / Rick And Morty S 2 E 3 Auto Erotic Assimilation

Original air date: 8/9/2015

Rick rekindles with an old flame. Summer experiences her first race war. Beth and Jerry get into a fight over Beth's relationship with Rick.

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Tropes:

• Assimilation Plot: A point is made about the pros and cons of conformity versus individualism.
• Badass Bandolier: Rick wears a bandolier at one point.
• Both Sides Have a Point: Blim Blam deconstructs a lot of Beth's and Jerry's fight. He says they're both right about Rick's actions, but really the points they make about what kind of man he is are mostly about their feelings for one another than about Rick.
• Break the Haughty: Even a shameless egotist like Rick can't handle getting his heartbroken.
• Bungled Suicide: Rick tries to commit suicide by being shot in the head with lasers but ends up passing out before he can.
• Calling the Old Man Out: After Summer and Morty witness Unity loses its control, they demand Rick come home with them and tell him that Unity is great but he's a terrible influence on it. Unity at first calls them buzzkills but eventually, it realizes they were right.
• Chekhov's Gun: When Jerry is first in the garage looking for the weed-whacker, the various components of the laser Rick will attempt to kill himself with, plus the small creature he tests it on, can all be seen sitting on the counter and in the cabinet, Jerry briefly rummages through.
• "Dear John" Letter: Unity writes a collection of letters after it leaves Rick, saying that while it loves him and wants to be with him, it knows he's a bad influence and will never change.
• Depraved Bisexual: Though Rick first asks for a stadium full of redheads, he's also shown dressed like a Mexican stereotype with one arm around a masculine hunk and the other a woman.
• Despair Event Horizon: Rick is devastated after Unity leaves him, to the point where he attempts suicide.
• Double Standard: Rape, Sci-Fi: Rick has sex with hundreds of people controlled by Unity, none of whom can give consent. He is never called on it, though Summer correctly points out the entire situation is this trope, not just the sex.
• Dirty Old Man: Rick makes some rather outrageous sexual demands, including having a giraffe.
• Distress Call: Rick picks one up at the beginning of the episode. Turns out it was a faked call by Unity to find Rick.
• Driven to Suicide: Rick tries to commit suicide after Unity dumps him. He ends up passing out before the lasers can kill him though.
• Eats Babies: Blim Blam, by his own admission.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Blim Blam, an alien who admits he is a murderer who eats babies, can’t stand listening to Beth and Jerry arguing, and breaks out of his chains just to tell them off and say they are the reason he’s never coming back to Earth.
• Everyone Has Standards: Even Rick is shocked that Unity's response to him telling it to cut loose is to carpet bomb a town. After being shown it evacuated the town beforehand, he nervously asks where his grandchildren are.
• The Evils of Free Will: A rare case where this view seems to be accurate, since Unity's slaves apparently can't go a full minute without starting a race war when not under Unity's control, to say nothing of their individual crimes and self-destructive behaviours.
• Extreme Omnisexual: This episode reveals that Rick is an open pansexual.
• Fantastic Racism:
  • When Rick loots a ship under distress, he spray-paints the symbol of an alien race so police think they did it.
    Summer: That's horrible.
    Rick: I know. Cops are racist.
  • There's also a race war after Unity loses control of some of the inhabitants between groups with different nipples.
• Flipping the Bird: Blim Blam does this to Morty and Summer on his way out the garage door.
• A Form You Are Comfortable With: We never see Unity in its true form. It may not even have one.
• Freudian Excuse:
  • This episode establishes that the only reason Beth puts up with Rick and his antics is that she's afraid he'll leave her again.
  • One of Rick's sexual demands is to have a football stadium packed with men who remotely resemble his father to cheer him on as he has sex with Unity.
• Has a Type: Rick tells Unity to gather a bunch of redheads in a football stadium. Later, when he's drunkenly yelling at Beta-7 he says that after Unity breaks up with Beta he and Rick will end up having sex while the latter wears a bunch of red wigs.
• "I Know You Are in There Somewhere" Fight: Summer tries this on one of Unity's assimilation victims.
• Intoxicated Superpower Snag: As a result of doing drugs with Rick, Unity loses control of a few thousand host bodies. Worse still, it turns out that the planet's population was in the middle of a race war when Unity took control of them, and the conflict starts up again within minutes of the hosts being freed. Plus, one of the sex offenders that Unity had reformed goes after Summer, though Unity is able to rescue her and Morty before things get any worse.
• Irony: After the race Unity was controlling breaks free and immediately resumes a race war, Summer drops this gem.
  Summer: Why are you fighting? Can't you see you're all the same?!
  • For bonus points, this is after spending most of the episode objecting to Unity's control of the planet, when they literally were all the same.
• Jive Turkey: Jerry is talking in made-up slang.
• Love Cannot Overcome: Despite its feelings for Rick, Unity cannot ignore the fact that Rick is a bad influence and he would never change.
• Love Triangle: A subtle one involving Rick, Unity and Beta-7. It's heavily implied that Beta-7 is jealous when it sees that Unity and Rick are an item, which the latter even takes note of. Unity goes to Beta-7 after breaking up with Rick, and The Stinger is Rick demanding Beta-7 access to its fortress so he can talk to Unity. It's possible that Unity isn't with Beta-7 romantically at this point, since it didn't seem to be interested in it and Rick outright states that Unity isn't into other hive minds, but Rick is clearly still jealous about this.
• Mic Drop: Blim Blam does this with the alien translation device after dressing down Beth and Jerry, only to return seconds later and tell them that he's taking it with him.
• Mood Whiplash: During The Stinger, Rick demands to see Unity and argues with Beta-7. This Love Triangle matter is suddenly interrupted by Morty, who's been sitting there the whole time and says Rick told him they were gonna go see a movie.
• Nipple and Dimed: When Morty shows his nipples to prove that he is neither race, Summer passes on her demonstration.
  Summer: Yeah, take my word for it.
• Noodle Incident: According to Unity's letter, Rick had sex with a group of coal miners (who weren't checked for STDs).
• Parental Sexuality Squick: Summer is grossed out by the image of Rick having sex with Unity.
• Power Perversion Potential: Unity's ability to assimilate anyone and anything. Rick takes full advantage of the fact that with its ability he can have endless orgies. His first request to Unity requires some preparation time.
  Rick: No, not like this. I need a hang glider and a crotchless Uncle Sam costume, and I want your largest stadium filled end to end with naked redheads, and I want the stands packed with every man who remotely resembles my father.
  Later in the episode...
  Rick: I'm not looking for judgement, just a yes or a no: Can you assimilate a giraffe?
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech:
  • After being Forced to Watch Beth and Jerry's screaming match, Blim Blam breaks free of his restraints and steals one of Rick's alien language translators just so he can yell at them about how awful they are to one another and that they never should have gotten together in the first place.
    You know the reason why I ripped my chains out of the wall? And do you know why I'm never coming back to this planet?! Because the two of you are the fucking worst! You both hate yourselves and each other! And the idea that it has anything to do with Rick is laughable. I'd laugh, but I'm biologically incapable. That's how alien I am! And even I'm sitting here listening to the two of you and being like, "what the fuck!?" So good luck with your shitty marriage, and tell Rick I'm sorry he has to deal with either of you. Blim Blam out! *Mic Drop*
  • Summer and Morty to Rick when they tell him he's a bad influence on Unity and try to insist he comes home with them, though this is undermined by Unity siding with Rick and calling them buzzkills (at least at the time).
  • Unity eventually agrees with them, and its note to Rick is a more subtle and gentle one and mixes it with a "The Reason I Suck" Speech:
    Rick, forgive me for doing this in notes. I'm not strong enough to do it in persons. I realize now that I'm attracted to you for the same reason I can't be with you. You can't change. And I have no problem with that, but it clearly means I have a problem with myself. I'm sure there's no perfect version of me. I'm sure I'll just unify species after species and never really be complete. But I know how it goes with us. I lose who I am and become part of you. Because in a strange way, you're better at what I do without even trying.
• Rushmore Refacement: Summer and Morty get their own Rushmore monument built.
• Secret-Keeper: Morty and Summer knew Rick had an alien locked up under the garage and threatened to tell their parents if he didn't come out.
• Secret Room: Rick is revealed to have one beneath the garage. It's packed with advanced scientific equipment.
  Jerry: So this explains the $6,000 electric bill.
• Security Cling: When cornered in the middle of the race war, Morty and Summer clutch each other while repeating, "There's no place like home."
• Seen It All: Summer is horrified by the race war going on but Morty just shrugs it off.
  Morty: Ah, Summer. First race war huh?
• Sentimental Music Cue: An emotional song kicks in when Rick is all down at the end.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Blim Blam breaks through his chains to leave earth and never come back just to get away from Jerry and Beth's petty arguing, but not before calling them out over it.
• Shout-Out:
  • Beta-7 is an obvious takeoff of the Borg.
  • The show that Rick and Unity watch is an alien version of Community, co-creator Dan Harmon's other show.
• Silly Reason for War: The species Unity has taken over are in their natural state split into two sides fighting each other, based on... the shape of their nipples.
• Soundtrack Dissonance: The song "Do You Feel It?" by Chaos Chaos taken by itself is a very sweet song about a relationship where two people are made vulnerable but also stronger by each other. Playing over an absolute Tear Jerker of an ending.
• Space Isolation Horror: The plot starts as one of these when Rick, Morty and Summer follow a Distress Call to find a ghost spaceship. The arc is quickly abandoned when it turns out that Unity staged the whole incident to meet Rick again.
• Stepford Suburbia: Unity's cities give off this vibe as a result of it making all citizens conform.
• The Stinger: Rick shows up at Beta-7's headquarters demanding to see Unity, only for Beta-7 to tell him that Unity considers him a hostile species and won't see him. Rick is eventually forced to give up when Morty tiredly reminds him they're supposed to be going to see a movie.
• Time-Passes Montage: The last scene of Rick having passed out in the garage while the sky goes through day and night phases.
• Toxic Friend Influence: Rick is this to Unity, which everyone gradually starts to realize and call Rick out on, starting with Morty and Summer, then Unity itself, all of which causes Rick to finally realize it too.
• Voiceover Letter: Unity's "Dear John" Letter to Rick is voiced by its female and another male voice.
• Vomit Indiscretion Shot: Lots of them starting with the face-vomiting in the Fake Action Prologue.
• "Well Done, Son" Guy: Rick wanted a stadium of men that look like his dad cheering him on while having sex with Unity.
  "Go son Go! Go son Go!"
• Wild Teen Party: Rick manages to throw a party that wrecks an entire planet.

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