Pickle Rick

As Beth, Morty, and Summer prepare for family counseling, Rick informs Morty that he cannot go, having turned himself into a pickle. He denies that he timed the experiment to avoid the counseling session, but the family notices a telltale mechanism rigged to drop a syringe in him soon after they leave. Beth takes the syringe, leaving Rick alone on his workbench. Rick is knocked off the bench by a cat and then washed into the sewer during a rain shower. Lacking any means of mobility, he bites the head of a cockroach and walks upon its back by stimulating its brain with his tongue. After assembling more cockroaches into a crude exoskeleton, he sets up a lab and upgrades to a powered exoskeleton made from a rat corpse. He escapes the sewer via jetpack into a secure compound, where he kills several guards. The compound's administrator Pavel Bartek sends a prisoner named Jaguar to fight Rick, but Rick persuades Jaguar to join him, and they escape together in the administrator's helicopter after rigging the compound to explode. Meanwhile, the therapist Dr. Wong is curious about Rick's absence despite Beth's attempts to shift attention to the children. Wong suggests Beth and Rick's shared aversion to emotion and vulnerability is at the root of the family's problems. As the group is saying I-messages to communicate their feelings, Rick enters to get the syringe. He admits lying to get out of therapy because he prefers to improve the world through science rather than feel better about it. Wong responds that he uses his scientific intelligence to avoid the necessary work of self-improvement. Rick stares at her silently, thinking. On the way home, Rick apologizes to Beth for lying, then uses the syringe to turn back into a human. Morty and Summer express interest in further therapy but Rick and Beth ignore them by mocking Wong and planning to go out drinking. In a post-credits scene, the villain Concerto is preparing to kill a restrained Rick and Morty in his gigantic piano, but Jaguar saves them. Rick tells Morty, "that is why you don't go to therapy." ==Production==

The episode was written by Jessica Gao. He also said that the Pickle Rick design is phallic and "emblematic of self-torture", as Rick is his "own worst enemy" and does this transformation to himself. "Pickle Rick" was one of Harmon's favorite episodes of the season. During the writing process, Harmon was undergoing a divorce and had entered therapy, which influenced the episode: he said of the speech Dr. Wong gives to Rick, "I don't know if I could've written that two years ago [...] I would've made sure Rick got the final word". The character Dr. Wong was named by Gao, a Chinese writer who had found that unless a character is given a name with racial connotations, the part will be cast as a white person. Gao intended Wong to be played by an Asian actor. Guest star Susan Sarandon was then discovered to be available and given the role of the therapist, whose name was left unchanged. Gao and Harmon discussed this topic in their podcast Whiting Wongs, which is about diversity representation in television; it took its name from this incident. Character designer Kendra Melton estimated that Pickle Rick's rat suit underwent 100 different design versions. Maximus Pauson, also a character designer, stated that the one used was chosen so it "emphasized the pickle-ness". Harmon commented that initial designs for the rats were "too adorable" considering that Rick murders many of them: Melton said that fur was removed, boils were added and their backs became more arched. According to Harmon, the writers gave more detailed instructions to animators than for most episodes, in particular "about the process of hacking the cockroach to give Rick mobility". Three weeks prior to the episode's airing, free Pickle Rick T-shirts and other merchandise were given away at the 2017 San Diego Comic-Con. The episode first aired on Adult Swim at 11:30 p.m. on August 6, 2017. The episode commentary on the Blu-ray DVD was recorded by Game of Thrones creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, and Peter Dinklage, who played Tyrion Lannister in the series. The comic Rick and Morty Presents: The Vindicators #1 features an alternate Pickle Rick as a member of the titular team; Rick and Morty Presents: Pickle Rick #1 depicts an alternate version of the events of the episode as a long commercial for "Thunderous Squirt Xtreme" starring the character Mr. Poopybutthole. Rick and Morty Presents: Jaguar #1 follows the character Jaguar as he reunites with his family. ==Analysis==

Unlike the previous two episodes in the season, "Pickle Rick" is set entirely on Earth, but like those episodes, it explores Beth and Jerry's divorce. This marks a change for the show, which previously had little storyline continuity. Characterization Critics commented that Summer and Morty were interested in therapy, while Beth and Rick were not. Jaffe wrote that Beth's children "seem much more affected" by the therapist's concerns than Beth and Rick. ==Reception==

The episode's premiere on Adult Swim was watched by 2.31 million viewers. Several critics commented on the fan enthusiasm, such as Blumenfeld, who said it was "arguably the most eagerly anticipated Rick and Morty episode ever" due to the large amount of teaser content released. In 2021, a United States Air Force aircraft used a call sign in reference to the episode. The episode was critically acclaimed, receiving ratings of five out of five in Vulture, 4.5 out of five in Den of Geek, 8.7 out of 10 in IGN, and 8.2 out of 10 in Paste. Milan Agrawal of Frame by Frame called the episode "twenty minutes of absurd, ultra-violent chaos that still manages to serve the story". The A.V. Club rated it an A and IndieWire gave it a B+. Matar found it "super-engaging", lauding the "charmingly stupid concept that develops into an absurdly overblown, kinetic action movie plot". Shepherd found a pickle to be "the ideal food that's both hilarious and very, very Rick". Xavier Hume-Ashman commented that the episode "carries a creative aura, blending its outrageous premise with sharp storytelling." Handlen praised the pacing, saying that the episode "doesn't belabor the point". However, Blumenfeld said that the program is better when characters describe their feelings in "short bursts", and criticized Rick's speech to Jaguar as something the show would earlier have "mercilessly mocked". Blumenfeld approved of the "strong emotional punch" of the ending and Matar enjoyed the slow pace of the ending scenes, as "a nice breather after all the madcap nonsense that came before". Schedeen praised Sarandon for making "a strong impression as the surprisingly perceptive Dr. Wong". Greene said that a "certain thread of magic" is removed from separating Rick from Morty, but that the episode's "genre riffing and intense commitment to detail nearly make up for it". Accolades In September 2018, Rick and Morty received its first Emmy, with a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Animated Program for "Pickle Rick". The episode also won an Annie Award and was nominated for a Golden Reel Award. ==References==