Jul 20
I’m glad they addressed the Jerbeth^2 throuple but I’m sad that it canonically no longer exists
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I’m glad they addressed the Jerbeth^2 throuple but I’m sad that it canonically no longer exists
Each of the Smiths/Sanchezs relationships with their counterparts represent different types relationships specifically with their inner selves
Beth and Space Beth: Romantic relationship that succeeds. They both become more confident and self assured. Space Beth cares more about the family because of Beth whereas Beth learns that she isn’t defined by caring for them; she’s her own person.
Jerry and Mooch: Friendship that succeeds. Specifically a friendship that helped them to develop into better versions of themselves. Mooch faces up to the consequences of leaving. Jerry learns how good he has it.
Prime and Rick: Enemies. Self-hatred. Self destruction. They may have once been friends or lovers, but it turned dark. A dart board with an ex’s face on it.
Morty and Evil Morty: Acquaintances or a developing relationship. This one is complicated. Evil Morty helps Morty to become a more confident, reassured version of himself. Whereas, Morty helps EM to realize that he can still have his independence, but keep his empathy and close relationships with others. He doesn’t have to be alone. An introvert versus an extrovert.
Summer and Summers: She hasn’t had an established counterpart yet. There is a version in the comics, but I don’t know enough about her. There is Night Summer, but that was within herself and not a separate relationship like the others. Though, when we see different versions of Summer like Night Summer and Matrix Summer(even versions that only show up for a second), she’s always very confident and self sufficient. She takes on leader roles very well, but will become extremely manipulative and callous when needed. When she fights alternate versions, she very quickly dispatches them even pretending to be friendly before betraying them like the above photo.
Something I'm curious about...
Who do you subconsciously associate as being "The clone"..?
Earth Beth
Space Beth
Now I don't mean this as "who do you theorize is the clone". Only who do you just think of as the clone without thinking too much..?
Jer Bud cold open dropped!
Damn, Jerry, where are going dressed like that, a pimp interview? Also curious where Rick is dropping Morty off to. I would guess some sort of summer camp since he has a lot of luggage and we know there's an episode with camping. It shows a lot of progress if Rick is not only willing to let Morty go away for an extended period of time, but also to drop him off himself.
I’m glad that Summer of All Fears addressed the fact that Beth doesn’t have friends. The only characters we’ve really seen Beth have any sort of relationship with outside of the family are that one Meeseeks and Davin (who clearly has an unreciprocated crush on her), and Space Beth's fellow resistance fighters, who Valkyrick establishes as coworkers rather than friends. While this was initially probably more down to the show’s lack of exploration of her character outside of the family, it does make sense. Pre-clone Beth seems to take on most of the responsibilities for the family/household on top of her full-time job, and of course has a lot of her focus on keeping Rick happy. Home Beth continues with this trend, maybe with Jerry and Rick picking up some of the slack on household chores as time goes on. Space Beth seems to focus mostly on her resistance work, with Rick even reminding her to 'have fun'. The little we've seen of what Beth seems to enjoy outside of family or work (whether as a horse surgeon or a resistance fighter) don't seem to involve connection with other people - she makes a hoof collage in The Whirly Dirly Conspiracy, Space Beth references that pre-clone Beth used to do yoga in Star Mort Rickturn of the Jerri, and Space Beth brags about having a 'soaking tub' on her ship. The only friend we know she had was Tommy, who she tried to kill. Of course she was a child at the time, but she still seems to either struggle with or avoid friendships, even as an adult.
In fact, the whole family has a pretty bad track record when it comes to friendship. Rick and Summer both have friends but their relationships/the people they’re friends with are pretty toxic, while Morty and Jerry canonically have no friends outside of the family.
I actually wanted to make a post about Rick and his support system when the first few episodes of S7 aired but never got round to it. E1 shows Rick's issues with the people he considers his friends - they're all addicts who enable each other and struggle to have honest conversations. E2 shows the relationship between Rick and Jerry and even has Jerry admit that Rick is the closest thing he has to a friend, but the issues with their relationship and inability to really trust each other or be happy with it. E3 shows the people outside of the family who Rick interacts with on a regular basis, as well as his relationship issues.
Summer has a strong desire to be popular in S1, but the only friends she has at this point are Nancy (who she is clearly embarrassed by) and Tammy (who only befriended her as part of her Galactic Federation mission). Later, she does befriend Tricia, but the little we see of their relationship shows that it's mainly built on bullying Nancy (and possibly Tricia's crush on Jerry). In Amortycan Grickfitti, she's desperate to win the approval of Bruce Chutback, even though he's presumably Morty's age.
Morty and Jerry don't really have as much to analyse since they're more explicitly friendless throughout the show - Beth outright states that Rick is the first friend Morty has ever had in the pilot, and Jerry is shown to be lonely and bored to the point of using an expensive phone service just for someone to talk to in Look Who's Purging Now.
Overall, the family's problem is that none of them have any friends outside of the family lol. But genuinely, I think this contributes a lot to their dysfunction; none of them have a frame of reference for healthy relationships or anyone they can really go to for support who isn't also involved in the problem in some way.
I like the detail that all three of them were stunned by this collision. Normally, characters in Rick and Morty tend to either not react at all or just brush off these sorts of things.
I’ve spoken before about how it would be nice to see Beth and Morty’s relationship explored more, but I think that it could be really cool to see Home Beth and Morty talking about Evil Morty. While it’s not exactly the same, Beth has insecurities around her job in early seasons, and we have the C-plot of Home Beth feeling jealous of Summer’s admiration of Space Beth in Solaricks. Also, she seems to think that Rick would prefer Space Beth in The Rickchurian Mortydate (despite technically not knowing that she exists yet). I feel like they would probably relate a lot when it comes to comparing themselves to alternative versions of themselves and their mixed feelings towards Rick (wanting his approval/attention but also wanting to not need it). They could even potentially address the idea of Beth being jealous of Morty for getting the attention from Rick she never got as a child (and still doesn’t really get now).