Question
Towards the end of the third episode in season 2 of Rick and Morty we see Rick returning home in a state of severe depression over being dumped by Unity.
He goes to the garage, and begins assembling a device. While doing so, he removes some kind of alien creature from inside of a cabinet and reanimates it by pouring some liquid on it. He pets/comforts it a bit, and then places it inside of the now-completed device, where it's promptly vaporized. Rick then attempts to kill himself by putting his head in the device, but passes out (into the ashes of the vaporized alien) just before it fires.
Here are some pictures:
Is there any information about what the alien creature was, or its significance to Rick? It's shown a bit earlier in the episode, when Jerry and Beth are searching through the garage in Rick's absence:
Apart from that, does it make any other appearances in the show? Is it Rick's beloved pet? Some memento from his original relationship with Unity? Something else entirely?
Answer
A quick review of episodes shows that we haven't seen this creature before. From the fact that it begins the episode in stasis, it can be inferred that
- this creature has been in stasis for some time
- the creature appears to be in distress when unfrozen
We can assume that
- the creature was placed in stasis to pause the pain
- this may have been Rick's fault (possibly a failed experiment)
- Rick may have planned to unfreeze the creature at some future point when he could solve the creature's pain
Due to his huge ego, we can assume Rick believes himself to be the only one who could stop the creature's distress. As Rick obviously plans to commit suicide, instead of leaving the creature in perpetual stasis, which one can theorize might wear off at some future time, Rick puts it out of its misery. Killing the creature demonstrates to the audience that he has given up; backed up by his own failed attempt at suicide.
In pop culture, this concept of preserving a problem to solve at a later date is reminiscent of both Superman's "bottle city of Kandor" (a miniaturized Kryptonian city he has vowed to save) and Mr. Freeze's wife, Nora (who is frozen until a cure for her fatal disease can be found).
Answered By - JoshDM
