[copying and pasting this since I already wrote it up elsewhere :p]
Question: What did Summer think "the Hole Club" was?
TLDR: she thought it meant they both had sex on an adventure, but that wasn't really Summer. BUT it was in that scene for an important reason anyway. Much longer answer under the cut 👇
She didn't think it was anything because that wasn't actually Summer, just another thing the Fear Hole was showing Morty in an effort to help him recognise his fear of the fact that Rick frequently puts Morty in inappropriate sexual situations, and nobody around him will step in to make it stop - that he relies on Rick alone to not cross the line, and Rick isn't reliable. You can tell from Mortys body language in that scene that Ricks behaviour and the Smiths reactions make him very uncomfortable, but it's obviously not til the end of the episode that he's ready to confront what he's being faced with - and even then he only actually loses his fear of it AFTER he's double checked it was only him in the Fear Hole, and so concludes (correctly or not) that being freaked out about all of the boundary crossing that happens between them is just him having some "fucked up psychological shit" to deal with, rather than an actual problem in reality.
The implication of the phrase "the Hole Club" is that Rick and Morty both had sex with someone(s?) on an adventure together, and deliberately leaves open the possibility that it might even have been with each other (or at least while they were both present) and NONE of the Smiths take real issue with how messed up that is. Or with the fact that they both apparently shit themselves. Both of which are (at this point in the episode, still fairly subtle) callbacks to two deeply inappropriate things that already actually happened in the show, and were ignored or minimised. Summer calling them "sluts" recalls them all "soul bonding" with the "slut dragons" together in ep 4x4, which Morty was horrified by but Summer didn't care about (she was actually more bothered that Rick "stealing" Balthromaw was a betrayal of Rick and Mortys close relationship), and the Fear Hole having Beth be the one that's mad they shit themselves is a callback to the end of Promortyus (4x7) when they thought they were gonna die in front of her from shitting an egg, but just shit themselves instead. i.e. the episode where Summer told them that their facehuggers (Steve and Bruce) made out and wanted to run away together - which may not have actually happened, in fairness, but, importantly, Morty has no way to know if it did or didn't - he just has to live with not knowing (which is true for a lot of things in his life, given that the mindblowers exist!).
It's very interesting too that the Fear Hole doesn't show us any reaction from Jerry in this scene, considering that he's the ONE character throughout the series that will point out when things are fucked up, despite ultimately never being able to do anything about it. We actually don't see anything from him at all apart from generic deference to Rick until after the Fear Hole's "Say you meet the love of your life" molonogue draws the clear comparison between Morty and Diane, which Morty internalises and blames himself for (because despite all of this, he very much does love Rick!), after which Jerry ALSO responds very badly to Morty being "not normal", at which point Morty starts to address his fears of being shunned for being a "freak" if he was open with people.
All three reactions taken together (Summer being congratulatory, Beth not paying attention, and Jerry being hysterical and disgusted) show just how profoundly isolated Morty believes he is irt his very worrying relationship with Rick. And what's worse, they do all draw from reality to a degree. Beth does ignore problems and frequently decides to interpret things in Ricks favour when she shouldn't, Summer is jealous of their relationship and assigns Morty an unrealistic level of agency within it, and Jerry does freak out about stuff in very unhelpful ways sometimes. And this episode shows us how Morty has noticed all these things and they have significantly added to his fear about his situation, and to his extreme reluctance to acknowledge it, even just to himself.
Funnily enough though, the audience already knows that if Morty were to actually ask for help from any of them... their real reactions may well be very different than he imagines (and so what the Fear Hole showed him).
Beth proves in 5x3 with Planetina that she is very capable of seeing when Mortys in danger from an older person taking advantage of him, and she doesn't blame him for any of it at all (even when he blames himself for loving her and running away with her!). When it comes down to it Beth just offers him comfort, and takes care of him. And while Summer is often jealous, she's also INCREDIBLY protective of Morty once she's recognised he's in danger, as we see especially clearly in 7x7 (among others). And although Jerry freaked out in 6x5 about the fortune cookie thing with his own mom, in 5x7 we see that although he's shaken, hes very supportive of Summer after everything she went through with Naruto when she finally talks to them about it, and in addition, unknown to Morty, he's also probably experienced sexual abuse himself (implied in 1x11, and also another time but I can't remember which ep), which gives him even more ground to be supportive if Morty ever told him about his fears.
So... that's what "the Hole Club" means. It's not an actual club, and it's not "proof" of anything, or some kind of confession, it's ambiguous, intentionally. Because Fear No Mort was the episode that brought the audience up to speed with Morty's side of the story. Because Morty doesn't know if he's "just crazy", or if things might really be that bad. And, as far as he knows... he has nobody to ask. So he ultimately decides that he's just nuts, that he must have been afraid of something he made up out of nowhere, and there's actually nothing to worry about. Which is a very interesting place for them to leave the audience at the end of a season that was all about how and why Rick and Morty so often end up ignoring things that do actually matter.
Is it just me or does the fandom seem kinda dead now that season 7 is finished? I saw lots of theory posts flying around after season 6 finished but you're the only one I've seen anything from so far
Honestly I'm the wrong person to ask cos I only follow like 5 r&m blogs these days, but yeah, it's still strangely dead even just in the tags, and tbh it's been quieter than I woulda expected all season :/
Best guess as to why: people are worried that acknowledging the deeply fucked up nature of Rick and Mortys relationship is somehow bad now, post-Roiland firing, especially the shows deliberate and recurring nods to incest and sexual abuse (that are very much there for a reason). But unfortunately for them this season was clearly lining the characters up to finally confront that going forwards, because that's an incredibly worthwhile story to tell on its own merit, regardless of the other actions of it's creators, always has been. So... I guess people are taking the easy route for now, til they get their nerve back, and pretending they don't see it, and that the story will have a happy ending (or else), that type of thing. Or they've just mostly dipped like me lol.
It's a shame though. This season was fucking excellent, and who gives a shit about happy endings, that's not necessary for a great story (in fact they're often a huge disservice to them - especially in tragedies, which Rick and Morty very much is to a large degree).
Honestly this fandom made a huge mistake treating the rickorties like pariahs and trying to push them out if you ask me. Across the board they always have a much better handle on how the show actually functions, the concepts it's working with, and how to approach works that cover difficult subjects than a hundred hysterical "pr0ship dni" type blogs combined, and I've been truly sad to see so many of them missing or inactive.
Especially cos that attitude seemingly winning out (at least til people collectively get a grip) makes it extremely unpleasant to try to write about the show no matter how fun the hyperfixation is tbh, cos how are we supposed to address Mortys fears without genuinely acknowledging the known and potential scope of Ricks abuse? How are we gonna talk about what these characters are going through without giving the fact Rick and Morty know they both have a bunch of missing memories it's due? How can we discuss how and why the show utilises ambiguity as a storytelling tool when there's an expectation of paranoid disclaimers on every post? How are we gonna approach where "Diane" (who is still conspicuously missing!) fits in, or Prime, or any plot-type thing without pointing out that an entirely fabricated origin story that was deliberately satirising the Lost Lenore trope turning out to be real is suspicious as fuck, if people are desperately clinging to it as proof Rick can "heal" and it's actually not a tragedy at all? How do we write meta about a show for adults, that revolves around a lot of very emotive concepts, when so many people seem determined to treat it like a morally instructive show for kids that just ~accidentally~ happens to have some "tasteless" moments?
Well. I suppose we just gotta do it, and not worry about people being pissy or whatever. But honestly anon, personally I'm not up for it right now. I just literally can't be bothered posting about the show when the vast majority of the fandom on here is jumping at shadows whenever anyone even mentions the actual on screen, canon, "darker" aspects of the show. I can't stockpile the effort it takes to babysit these discussions for any of the 30+ theory posts in my drafts, or the 50+ theory asks I've half-answered and haven't posted. I just chat with my buddies about it instead tbh. And I assume that's what everyone else is doing too.
I'll be back properly at some point most likely, and I'm sure other people will too, but for now it's just not a fun fandom to be in. Fingers crossed it gets better I guess! Cos Rick and Morty is an excellent show, with an excellent story, and we could all be having a great time with the absolute feast s7 served us. Oh well.
btw here's a screenshot from the comic "rick's new hat" (2021) which will surely give anyone who's watched the show psychic damage
this particular section of the comic is riddled with traced frames mostly from seasons 1-3 but this takes the fucking cake. they literally traced diane and recoloured her to give morty a girlfriend😭
Rick and Morty has got to be one of the best representations of therapy because we don't see most of Rick's appointments, but we see how much they're helping him. He's not just ignoring Dr. Wong or talking in circles. Every episode shows how much he's learned.
He's gentler with his grandkids, handles the Unity confrontation with more maturity, tells Summer that she reminds him of Diane, gets protective over Dr. Wong, tries to keep Morty out of his crazier adventures, backs down when he's about to go off on somebody, and, in the end, chooses Morty over dwelling on the past.
He also shows regular signs of depression, such as drinking, sleeping a lot and not leaving the house--which isn't healthy either, but it's better than dragging his grandson on lowkey-suicidal adventures across the universe.
And all this because he finally decided to get help.
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