Total Rickall

Parasites implant false memories, blurring reality for the Smith family.

In this second season episode of Rick and Morty, the Smith family and Mr. Poopybutthole are overrun by memory-implanting parasites that blur the line between real and fake. A clip show format showcases these false memories. Critics and fans alike consider it among the series' strongest episodes.

Quick Facts

Series: Rick and Morty
Season: 2
Episode: 4
Runtime: 22 minutes
Air date: 16 August 2015
Writer: Mike McMahan
Director: Juan Meza-León

Facts from the source article.

Plot

At dinner, Jerry's brother Uncle Steve gives him plane tickets as thanks for staying with them. Rick arrives and shoots Steve, whose form as a parasite is exposed as he dies. Rick explains that the creatures multiply by implanting false memories, and Jerry never had a brother. He states that only six people should be in the household: himself, Morty, Summer, Beth, Jerry, and Mr. Poopybutthole, a small yellow creature. Rick seals the house with a blast shield. Mr. Poopybutthole reminds the family of a memory with Cousin Nicky, who appears; Rick shoots him after checking a sign of the six true members. The family continues having collective flashbacks to false memories with new parasites, including Sleepy Gary, whom the family believes is Beth's husband. The room fills with parasites, who try to convince Rick to lower the defenses and then argue that Rick is a parasite. They attack Rick and steal his watch to lower the shield. Morty takes Rick to the garage and is about to shoot him, but realizes that parasites only implant happy memories; he has many unpleasant memories with Rick. Using this method, Rick and Morty eliminate parasites one by one. Negative memories involving Summer and Beth prove their honesty. Beth kills Sleepy Gary, leaving Jerry suicidal, but Beth realizes he is real. With the last parasites gone, the six sit for dinner. Beth, suspicious of having no negative memories of Mr. Poopybutthole, shoots him. He is real and severely injured. In a post-credits scene, the family watches him in physical therapy; he tells a nurse to pass to a guilt-stricken Beth that he is sorry she had no negative memories of him.

Production

The episode is named after the 1990 film Total Recall, which features false memory implantation. It was conceived by Mike McMahan with reference to the fifth season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, where character Dawn Summers is introduced and treated as if she had always been present. Another writer suggested this format for a clip show spoof, where flashbacks would be essential to the plot. Mr. Poopybutthole was originally called Bullet Boy, a character resembling a bullet, and was informed by creator Justin Roiland's earlier design sketch of a character named Titty Longballs. Roiland said the parasite infestation originates from rocks Rick collected two episodes earlier, in "Mortynight Run"; a pink parasite pod can be seen on a rock in that episode, and Rick bins the rocks at the start of "Total Rickall". One flashback shows Rick about to bulk purchase limited edition The Legend of Zelda-themed Nintendo 3DS consoles to resell at a higher price, based on Roiland doing this several years earlier, shortly before the December 2013 premiere of the pilot episode; he still had unsold consoles. In 2018, he sold one online with a handdrawn picture of Rick and Morty. A clay animation special from 2017 depicts Mr. Poopybutthole traumatized after being shot, worried about resuming pommel horse practice. A web special at the end of season three shows him looking through a scrapbook of his life. On April Fools' Day 2021, Adult Swim rebranded as Adult Swim Junior and debuted a redubbed version with child voice actors, a new opening credits sequence showing the characters as babies, and Mr. Poopybutthole renamed to Mr. Poopybuttbutt. A third version debuted for the next year's April Fools' Day as part of altered shows with glitches related to Learning with Pibby.

Analysis

The story of this episode shares a lot with the movie The Thing, where a parasitic creature makes everyone question who is real. Dan Harmon also used a similar trick in a Community episode, "Paradigms of Human Memory," which showed flashbacks to events the audience had never seen. The same idea shows up in an episode of Clerks: The Animated Series and in the Torchwood episode "Adam." According to Corey Plante of Inverse, the improvisational feel is like "Rixty Minutes" and "Interdimensional Cable 2: Tempting Fate," but it's most like "Morty's Mind Blowers" because it works as a clip show built from fake memories. Plante also pointed out that this is one of the first times Morty is the one who figures out how to fix the mess. The episode keeps things small, with just one main plot and the action limited to the Smith house. In the opening credits, Mr. Poopybutthole appears in every title card. After this episode, he keeps showing up in post-credits scenes. Dan Harmon has suggested that Mr. Poopybutthole might be a super-advanced creature that lives off the gaps in people's memories left by the parasites, which would explain why he can break the fourth wall. On his YouTube channel The Film Theorists, MatPat argued that Mr. Poopybutthole is actually a Morty from another universe, pointing to clues in the character's scrapbook from a web special. Jerry's strong attachment to Sleepy Gary made fans wonder about his sexuality, and in the season five episode "Mort Dinner Rick Andre," Jerry again shows sexual interest in a man, getting excited about the idea of a threesome with his wife and Mr. Nimbus.

Reception

The August 16, 2015, broadcast of "Total Rickall" on Adult Swim drew 1.96 million viewers. Corey Plante of Inverse noted the episode combines the finest elements of Rick and Morty, singling out the cold open and Sleepy Gary as funny, and Beth shooting Mr. Poopybutthole as unforgettable. Plante found Morty's insight that a character is real if he shares negative memories with them to be "universally relatable" commentary on family and life's messiness. IGN's Jesse Schedeen gave it an 8.3 out of 10, applauding how each flashback served the plot and the humor in the Smith family's attempts to identify real members. Schedeen liked the many guest voices, especially Keith David as Reverse Giraffe, but faulted the ending for not exploring the emotional weight of discovering cherished memories were false. Zack Handlen of The A.V. Club awarded an A, praising the premise, brisk pacing, and absence of a distracting subplot. David Sims of The Atlantic, Alec Bojalad of Den of Geek, and Steve Greene of IndieWire were among critics who ranked it among 2015's strongest TV episodes.