Hello, Internet! Welcome to film theory the show officially tolerated by Dan Harmon sure Rick and Morty season 3's finale may have
Just aired, but today my sights are set on the episode that came before - the ABCs of Beth.
Which had one of the most ambiguous endings in the history of the series
And had the potential to forever change
Everything we thought we knew about a member of the show's main cast
now at this point you all know that where there's ambiguity in
A show there are theories to be had and I think that I have this one pretty well
Solved you can pull the wool over everyone else's eyes there Dan
But not this guy after last week's collab were like totally soul bonded now
Or at least I like to think so
you
Understand how serious Krutabulon soul bonding is? The character in question is Beth the unfulfilled mother of the Smith family who gets a chance
To revisit Fruppy Land, her imaginary childhood world with the single dumbest name possible
You know if you're so great at naming things
Why don't you do it from now on?
Well there Beth is horrified to learn that Froopyland is now ruled over her childhood friend Tommy
who she may or may not have tried to kill out of jealousy as a kid
"You wanna see the honey swamp?" "Yes!" "Well I wanna see you dead."
"Huh well that's interesting fake news." in order to survive in this fantasy world Tommy has had to resort to an endless cycle of incest and
Cannibalism it's basically the most disturbing version of Jumanji ever. "I'm an overweight middle-aged man. Wait a second where's my phone?"
Okay second most disturbing version of Jumanji ever. fast-forward to the end of the episode Beth tries to bring Tommy back to reality in order
To reunite him with his family and save his father's life his father who happens to be on death row
was supposedly guilty for Tommy's disappearance Tommy though refuses to leave his incest Kingdom and Beth has no choice
but to gruesomely finish the job that she started back when she was like seven Rick suggests that they solve the dead Tommy problem by
Creating a clone of Tommy with the finger that he's so happily donated to Beth during her murderous
Rampage thereby acquitting Tommy's father of the child murder charges. They do so in with an innocent man
Freed a family reunited and the day saved Beth spirals into some existential angst "Dad
I'm out of excuses to not be Who I am so Who am I what do I do?" Rick then drops a bombshell?
Saying that the same process that they used to create the clone of Tommy it could also be used to create a clone of Beth
Allowing Beth to go off on whatever
Soul-searching journeys that she wants while the clone takes care of the kids back at home after
Staring at some photos of her family Beth comes to a decision
And then the show immediately cuts away without us ever knowing what that decision is the next time that we see her and Rick though
They're behaving very differently very affectionate even dropping the dreaded L word. "I love you dad"
"Love you, too, sweetie" the episode ends and leaves us with one question are three boobs truly better than two sorry
That's the B storyline leaves us with one question
Did Beth choose to stay or did she replace herself with a clone it may seem like the creators of the show have made it
Impossible for us to know for sure if the show actually gives us all the information that we need to figure it out definitively
throughout this episode clocks and references to exact units of time are
Everywhere first we get a glimpse of the clock in the execution chamber when Beth and Rick prevent Tommy's father from being lethally injected
It reads
1:56 and this gives us our starting point we can assume that shortly after that Rick and Beth start to head home
We know that they drive home and don't use the portal gun because we see them actually walk through the front door this also makes
Sense since they were transporting Tommy who needed to stay unaware of Rick's crazy
Scientific schemes so we know for a fact that they were at the execution chamber around 2:00 p.m.
And it would take some time for them to return from the execution site back to their home where Rick eventually makes his cloning
But how long would that take well we can calculate the distance between the two locations we know for a fact
Thanks to Justin roiland Twitter account that the Smith residence is canonically located in the suburbs outside of Seattle, Washington
This is a weird factoid that I never really thought about but makes a lot of sense now that I'm researching it
It's not like every city has their own execution chamber just waiting to be used in fact
There is only one execution chamber in the entire state of
Washington and it's located at the State Penitentiary in Walla, Walla, Washington
A four and a half hour drive away from the Seattle area that means that even if Beth were in a rush to get home
After the 2:00 p.m.. Execution these soonest that she would be arriving back at the Smith residence would be around 6:30 p.m.
mark it down because it's the crucial point in our timeline when they get back to the house Beth indicates that she's
Exhausted and ready to call it a day
It's only
After this point that Rick gives best the talk and reveals that he has the ability to replace her with a clone we know from
Earlier in the episode with Tommy that the process of growing a clone takes around three hours also worth pointing out
It's an oddly suspicious detail for the writers to include their rights almost like they wanted us to know this information
For some reason anyway regardless this means that the absolute
Soonest that Rick could possibly have a clone ready to replace her with would be around 9:30 p.m.
provided everything goes perfectly
But waits freeze frame the clip of the kids coming home at the end of the episode look out the window
It's broad daylight does that look like 9:30 p.m.
Anywhere in the world to you even at Seattle's northern latitude?
Which does give it longer days during the summer. The longest day of the year has it sunset at around nine o'clock p.m.
Even then the longest day of Seattle's year by 9:45, it would already be dark outside
Which means that the final scene we see of the Smith family has to happen at around 8:30 p.m.
At the latest it's certainly enough time for best to get back from the Washington State Penitentiary
But definitely not enough time for Rick to have created a clone to replace her in that final scene
Ergo the Beth that we see in this final scene must be the real deal
She is a hundred percent authentic
Beth Smith it turns out she decided to stay at home and be a mother to her children rather than head out on some whacky
Fantastical soul-searching adventure the adventure she chose for herself in that moment was motherhood
Okay, so now let's deal with some challenges that I'm sure I'm gonna hear in the comments first
Maybe all this is happening on a separate day
But we can prove for a fact that it's not at the beginning of the episode we hear that the kids are late for their
Custody weekend with Jerry aren't you guys supposed to be at your father's for custody weekend?
And we hear on the TV that the execution is happening quote tomorrow
So we know that the episode is starting on a Saturday and execution is happening on a Sunday
We see Saturday night midway through the episode so we know that everything around the clones is happening on Sunday the day of Tommy's father's
Execution we also know that the kids are headed back home Sunday evening and not Monday morning because the pizza place
Renaldo's is closed because it's too late
I think Renaldo's is closed and lastly we know that this show doesn't cheat time dimension-hopping yes
But messing around with time is a big no-no on Rick and Morty just take it from my buddy dan time travel is a real
Shark jumper Plus Rick even reminds us at the end of the episode that there are no
time-travel shenanigans to be had by the way that wasn't
Time-travel which means that all evidence considered we can definitively say that Beth is real
It was like the show's creators were drawing our attention to these details
To ask us to solve the mystery on our own
Just like I'm drawing your attention to the subscribe button right now so that you can solve the mystery of
Subscribing on your own that way you can be notified of more Rick and Morty theories in the future click it and while you're down
There next to the comments. Let me know in three seconds
Whether you think at the end of the episode was Beth real, or was she a clone just one worth real or clone
Here's how many of you I was able to convince now
I know that some fans have been picking apart that scene trying to figure out whether the Beth we see at the end is a
Clone based on her behavior debating about whether she's acting more affectionate than the real Beth would, but in this episode
We don't need to psychoanalyze anyone to come up with the truth the solution was right there waiting to come out
It was all just a matter of time, but hey
that's just a theory a film theory and
cut
and by the way special
Thanks to Reddit user deaths coming 23 who got me to look into this theory on the game theorist subreddit
You're a suggestion to look at the clocks was awesome and also just as a reminder
I don't talk about it all that much
But if you guys have a theory request or just a theory of your own the best way for me to see it is actually
On the game theorist or film theorist subreddit. Yes some loyal theorists actually created one for film theory too
I'm trolling around there pretty frequently to see what you guys are excited to see covered
And if you have any great theory starters of your own so check them out if you haven't and hey if you missed my collaboration
with Rick and Morty creator himself
Dan Harmon picking apart the science of pickle Rick well that video link is on your left to the right is something that YouTube has
Algorithmically determined that you'll want to watch next let's see how good of a job. It does. See you next week for something
That's a little bit more
emotive