Rick and Morty’s latest episode, “Night Family,” lets viewers see a spookier side of the show. AlthoughRick and Mortyis known for its Lovecraftian moments of existential dread, this week, they did a more traditional horror parody that looked likeRick and Mortyportaled themselves into a John Carpenter movie. The inciting incident seemed somewhat similar toSeverance, shaving sections of somnolent consciousness that created suitable second selves to sterilize saucers. But then they rebelled and tried to take over the family. It was a hilarious story that,true to form inRick and Morty, started off small and grew completely out of control.
The plot seemedakin toSeverance, a psychological thriller on Apple TV in which employees of a mysterious corporation can completely separate their work memories from their personal memories. Inseason 6, episode 4, Rick uses a machine to make himself do a bunch of chores while he is asleep, thus creating a separate “night-self.” After the whole family joins him, they create a Night Family. And much likeSeverance, their desires, motivations, and character dynamics change while they’re asleep.Rick and Mortyalso takes on a silly horror film parody with jump scares, dark colors, and spooky music.
Welcome to the Night Family!
Episode 4 Is Rick-Tastic
Episode 4 sets itself up with a quote from T.S. Eliot’s poem “Fragment of an Agon,” poking fun at how you’ve got the “hoo-ha’s” when you woke up from a nightmare. Really the poem is about not knowing the difference between dreams and reality, but Rick and Morty don’t get that deep this time. It just reminds us all that no one, not even great modernist poets, is beyondRick and Morty’shilarity.
When you’re alone in the middle of the night and you wake in a sweat and a hell of a fright
When you’re alone in the middle of the bed and you wake like someone hit you on the head
You’ve had a cream of a nightmare dream and you’ve got the hoo-ha’s coming to you.
- T.S. Eliot
The episode opens with Beth unable to sleep, counting sheep with an app on her phone. Eventually she can’t take any more of Jerry’s snoring and goes downstairs to sleep on the couch. There she finds Rick, or night-Rick, doing sit-ups on the floor. When she questions him about it in the morning, Rick explains that he picked up a machine that can tell your sleeping self to do things for your waking mind. Then he shows off his hardcore 6-pack abs that his night-self got for him. So naturally, the whole family wants in on it.
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At first, it goes pretty great.Beth learns to playthe trumpet, Summer can speak Spanish, and Rick and Morty start a podcast about their abs. But one day, Jerry, who only uses his night-self as someone to talk to, gets a letter from the night family. It says that night-Summer would like it if the family rinsed their plates off when they were finished eating, so they would be easier to wash. Rick hears of this and immediately escalates the situation, demanding that the night family be subjugated as they should be. He commences to squirt ketchup all over the place, and that’s the end of that. Or so we think.
Night Family Has an Evil Summer
In “Night Family,“the dynamic between characters has changed. When Rick is held hostage by the Night Family, who explains their demands, he finds that Summer is the alpha at night, whereas Rick is during the day. It’s a horrifying scene as Summer scrapes old crusty food into Rick’s mouth while making clever night-related japes. And so the war between night and day began. The night family took all the stuff in the house, including Rick’s technology. This gave Jerry the hoo-ha’s.
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Rick sets up a shield around the house that only responds to his awake saliva and suits up Summer to sabotage the night family’s plans. But the next morning, he realizes he fell for the same trick when night-Summer impersonates day-Summer to get Rick to deactivate the shield. That’s when night-Summer takes control.
A group of security robots (voiced by Rob Schrab) appear from nowhere to enslave the day family and make them do all the work that the night family once did. When day-Jerry pleads to night-Jerry to save his family, they manage to escape, and a huge cinematic car chase ensues. Pursued by Summer and her robots, the day family either gets hit with sleep darts or gets knocked out to become their unconscious night selves. But then various things happen to wake them up. Jerry bites Morty. Summer and Rick inhale the dust of an overturned truck full of Adderall. You know, the usual stuff.
They keep switching back and forth between conscious and unconscious until the night family has Rick pinned to the ground, telling him that all this chaos can stop if he is just willing to scrape the food off his plate. Rick naturally refuses, and the night family goes on to live full, happy lives. Eventually, the night family gets bored of the minutiae of life and wakes themselves up, and everything solves itself. But we’re pretty sure the whole theme of this episode is to seize the day.
