What’s up guys?
Jared again.
Perhaps no word describes the humor of Rick and Morty more concisely/precisely than "cynical."
"What people call love is just a chemical reaction that compels animals to breed".
The show has a reputation for taking the piss out of anything one might consider “sacred,”
whether it’s religion, existence, individuality, or family.
In particular, the idea of marital love has been taken down a few pegs, primarily through
Beth and Jerry’s dysfunctional marriage.
But with them reuniting at the end of season 3, can we expect a shift in the way the show
depicts love?
Episode 2 of season 4 was released last weekend and although it’s full of the same Rick
and Morty snark we’ve come to eagerly expect, "Dad, I wanna say something.
I started today disgusted and embarrassed to be your son, and then later I though we
were gonna die because you're a loser."
"There's no more is there?"
"Nope, now quit f***ing up and let's go."
It also frames love in a way that makes the show seem a lot more wholesome and positive
than it possibly ever has.
So let’s find out if nihilism is getting old in this quicktake on Rick and Morty Season
4 Episode 2: The Old Man and
the Seat.
And
of course, spoilers ahead.
Okay, let’s dive into a quick recap: Rick is on the hunt for the man who used his secret
pastoral toilet, while his monogatron intern Glutey convinces Jerry to help him develop
an app called LoveFinderrz, which precisely connects people with soulmate after soulmate
after soulmate.
Beth tries to stop Summer from engaging in app-fueled serial monogamy while Jerry and
Morty travel to the monogatron mothership to try and shut the app down.
The toilet trespasser turns out to be a widower named Tony, who sees a kindred spirit in Rick,
as they both need to shy away from the world during poop time.
Tony tries to strike up a friendship, but Rick isn’t down.
Meanwhile, Beth finally corners Summer and tries to convince her to stop her dating bender.
Luckily, Jerry has convinced Glutey to sabotage the app by setting up an adwall, forcing Summer
to delete it.
After learning that Tony died, Rick returns to his toilet and solemnly reflects on his
loneliness.
The end.
For the purposes of this discussion on love, we’re going to be focusing on the B-plot:
Summer’s addiction to the dating app, and Beth’s mission to stop her.
The monogatrons are able to so thoroughly distract humans because, when faced with an
abundance of partners, they’ll obsessively blow through relationship after relationship.
“As a pre-app civilization, your love’s value is defined by scarcity.
You are highly trained to seek it and you have no idea how to maintain it.
Had you bothered to master love, you would have learned that its as abundant as water
you know what isn’t?
Water, that s*** runs out”
Because humanity views love as a finite resource, and our number of potential partners as limited,
earth is easily “disrupted” when the monogatrons introduce an app that connects each person
to a soulmate with terrifying efficiency.
People don’t just pair up, they leap from partner to partner like alien frogs on a lillypad.
Summer goes from Danny, to Jeff- to this devastatingly unhygienic girl- to this dude in no time.
“Stupid phones are destroying us!”
It’s a pretty clear condemnation of modern dating apps like tinder, OKCupid, Bumble,
Grindr, etc, which inundate users with so many choices that there’s little incentive
to invest in any one relationship.
By constantly offering another newer, shinier mate, these apps often either encourage promiscuity
or turn people into serial 3-hour monogamists.
Compare the modern day Tindr hunt for love with the way earlier generations found romantic
partners.
Back in agrarian times, you pretty much had the choice of people within your small town,
so if Annie or Timmy from the farm next door wasn’t your type you kind of just had to
deal.
Love literally WAS a scarce resource in a pre-industrial, and pre-internet world - your
pool of options was just smaller.
But people still found lifelong companionship.
Today, you could reject the population of a small agrarian community in the span of
60 seconds.
So if a “pre-app” society’s vision of love is defined by scarcity, we clearly see
that introducing an infinite number of options is NOT the answer.
But how could an abundance of choice negatively affect one’s ability to find love?
We all want to find the BEST partner, right?
To answer that, we’re looking to French philosopher Alain Badiou, and specifically
his book “In Praise of Love.”
Badiou claims that online dating leads to a risk free version of love that erases the
possibility of encountering difference.
Basically, when you have the ability to algorithmically pick a potential mate by their political preferences,
favorite movies, height, hair color, socioeconomic background, etc, you filter out the possibility
of organically encountering something you don’t know you want- it doesn’t leave
room for that potential meetcute.
We see this with the hyper-efficiency of LoveFinderzz.
The app scans your face and immediately pairs you with a partner that fits your every desire.
But as we see, this love doesn’t last.
People don’t have just one compatible partner, and desire, like most things, changes, and
people move on to chase the next desire.
So if not personal fulfillment, what is love?
"Baby don't hurt me, don't hurt me, no more" For Badiou love is more than anything else,
a dedication to an idea.
As he says: “love is above all a construction that lasts.
Real love is one that triumphs lastingly, sometimes painfully, over the hurdles erected
by time, space, and the world.”
Sure, Cinderella can get swept off her feet by her romantic encounter with Prince Charming,
but what happens next?
We assume they live happily ever after, but in real life, such ephemeral moments rarely
last “Now what?”
“Happily ever after."
"And after that?"
For Badiou, love is about tenacity.
It’s about making the encounter endure.
Consider the encounter that started Beth and Jerry’s relationship- Beth accidentally
getting pregnant in high school.
"All this time you've been thinking 'what if that loser Jerry hadn't talked me out of
the abortion?'
Well now you know" In Badiouian terms, this would be the “event.”
And yes, this “event” probably could have been prevented by proper sexual health education,
rendering it nowhere near as romantic as your average Disney fair, but that’s of little
consequence to love.
What matters is continued fidelity to that event- no matter how banal it may be; to continue
to say yes in developing the connection, to perpetuate the relationship in the face of
pain and hardship- that’s where true love is forged.
For Beth this means ignoring the fact that Jerry can’t hold down a job, or that he’s
a total coward, or that he’s pretty much the most superfluous man in the universe,
and continue to work through it, to affirm the thing that brought them together and build
off the initial event.
Per Badiou: “an apparently insignificant act, but one that is a really radical event
in life at a micro level, bears universal meaning in the way it persists and endures.”
This is the perspective Beth is coming from when trying to get Summer off the app.
All of Summer’s encounters evoke your stereotypical fairytale connection "You had me at my own
name."
“You had me at hello.”
But in the end, Beth asserts the supremacy of Badiou-ian love over the monogatron version
when she checks Lovefinderz to see that it’s paired her with Boomer dreamboat Ted Danson.
However, instead of pursuing him in all his silver foxiness, she deletes the app and deepens
her embrace of Jerry.
Love isn’t about picking the most viable candidate out of a dating pool of millions.
It’s about making the choice to endure.
To quote Badiou again: “Strictly speaking, love isn’t a possibility, but rather the
overcoming of something that might appear to be impossible."
Over the last three seasons we’ve seen Beth and Jerry struggle through a marriage that
at many times has seemed impossible "You both hate yourselves, and each other!" and yet,
somehow they’ve overcome their challenges and stayed together.
And after their separation during season 3, Beth now knows, more than ever, that real
love is born out of tenacity.
At the episode’s close, the supposed “superior intimacy” of the monogatrons is proven false.
Earlier, the leader and his partner seemed like true soul mates, even enjoying the same
podcast "I found a new podcast we can listen to tonight.
"Love it".
But, as it turns out, that’s not quite enough "-and I want a divorce!"
"You can have one for a glass of goddamn water!"
But what do you guys think?
Is love a matter of finding the hottest needle in the haystack?
Is it about passion and mutual self fulfillment?
Or is it about dedication and hard work in the face of seemingly insurmountable challenges.
And is this any indication that the show may be getting more hopeful?
Oh- and if you want to hear us muse about the existential implications of being a shy
pooper, be sure to check out our Rick and Morty podcast The Squanch.
We’re breaking down every episode of the season, so be sure to subscribe on google
play, stitcher, apple podcasts, and our youtube channel wisecasts.
And
as always, thanks for watching guys.
Peace.