Meeseeks and Destroy

"Meeseeks and Destroy"

"Meeseeks and Destroy" is the fifth episode of Rick and Morty. It premiered on Adult Swim on January 20, 2014, was written by Ryan Ridley, and directed by Bryan Newton. In the episode, Rick provides the family with a solution to their problems, freeing him up to go on an adventure led by Morty. The episode has been well received, and was seen by about 1.6 million viewers when airing.

Plot

After a particularly traumatic adventure, Morty tries to quit all future adventures. Rick pleads for him to continue being his sidekick, but allows him to lead his own adventure. The two strike a bet with each other to see whether Morty's own adventure fails or not, with Morty agreeing to no longer complain if he loses. The rest of the Smith family bugs Rick for a solution to several mundane problems. Rick gives the family the Meeseeks Box, a gadget capable of instantaneously summoning helpers named Mr. Meeseeks. These blue creatures exist only to solve the task at hand. Once their task is solved, the creatures instantly disappear from existence. Rick assures the family that the creatures are happy to die, and warns them to keep their tasks simple. When Rick and Morty leave, Beth asks her Meeseeks to help her become a more complete woman while Summer wants hers to make her more popular at school. Jerry, convinced that Beth and Summer's requests are too challenging, asks his Meeseeks to do something comparatively simple sounding and help knock two strokes off his golf game.

Morty leads Rick on an adventure through a fantasy world. They stop at a poor village that requests the help of two heroes to help raise money for them. The villagers point towards the sky, where a world of Giants awaits. Morty and Rick climb up a giant plant stalk to the Giant's world, but a freak accident sees them wrongly arrested for murder of the giant Dale.

Summer's Meeseeks quickly makes her more popular at school by giving an inspiring speech which wins her a lot of friends, while Beth's takes her on a date and gives her some encouraging advice. However, Jerry struggles to improve at golf despite the coaching from his Meeseeks. Jerry is ready to give up, but his Meeseeks can't stop existing until it completes its task and decides to summon another Meeseeks to help. It isn't long before Jerry is surrounded by several Meeseeks all desperate to get Jerry to improve, since many of them haven't had to exist that long, which leads to the Meeseeks slowly losing sanity as their task fails to be completed. Soon, there are dozens of Meeseeks created but Jerry still isn't improving, making everyone involved frustrated. An exasperated Beth heads to dinner and Jerry goes along, telling the complaining Meeseeks that his golf game is more their concern than his. After they've gone, all the Meeseeks blame each other for their predicament and argue over the correct solution soon descending into a massive brawl, tearing each other apart (which still doesn't kill them) while creating more and more Meeseeks to join in the fight. Eventually the original Meeseeks, having been alive for over two days (an eternity in Meeseeks time), tells his fellows that he has a solution to permanently take all strokes off Jerry's game, by killing him.

Rick and Morty are tried in a Giant's Court, but are let go thanks to a technicality. Rick tries to convince Morty to throw in the towel, but he refuses. As the duo climb down several of the courthouse's giant stairs, they find a tavern called the Thirsty Step. Morty, still bounding with confidence about the success of his adventure, confronts Rick about his constant negative attitude before going to the bathroom. There, he runs into Mr. Jellybean. Mr. Jellybean asks Morty about his adventure before attempting to rape him. Morty fends him off but is visibly shaken afterwards. Rick decides to take part in karaoke and wins several hands of cards, giving him a sizable amount of money. Morty emerges from the bathroom and begs Rick to go home, and admits to losing the bet. Rick pieces together what happened when he notices the bruised Mr. Jellybean leave the bathroom.

Beth and Jerry go out to dinner, and the horde of Mr. Meeseeks descend on the restaurant wielding various weapons. Jerry and Beth escape into the restaurant's freezer, and the Mr. Meeseeks begin taking hostages to coerce Jerry to come out. Jerry almost gives in, but Beth encourages him to try his golf swing one last time. Jerry emerges from the freezer and uses a severed pipe and tomato to prove that his swing has improved. The Mr. Meeseeks celebrate and disappear, all except for one "stickler" Mr. Meeseeks who takes a hostage and asks to see Jerry's short game. Jerry hits an onion into a coffee cup, which finally dispatches all of the Mr. Meeseeks.

Rick helps keep Morty's spirits up by offering to give his card winnings to the poor villagers. Morty smiles at the idea and the two finally complete the task and Rick congratulates on a successful adventure. The villagers then ask Rick and Morty to meet their king, who turns out to be Mr. Jellybean. Morty quickly convinces Rick to open a portal to leave. The duo are gone briefly before Rick's hand re-emerges from the portal with a laser gun, shooting and killing Mr. Jellybean.

The trauma of the restaurant incident helps patch together Jerry and Beth's relationship for the time being.

In an after credits scene, the villagers find a box of photographs showing the true nature of Mr. Jellybean, but they burn it to keep the king's legacy untainted.

Development

Dan Harmon claimed the idea for the episode occurred when he started screaming "I'm Mister Meeseeks" and the concept evolved from there.

Reception

AV Club's Zach Handlen rated the episode A, quoting that it "[may have had] the most weirdly upbeat ending of the show so far". David Roa from Dead Screen gave the episode 9.1 out of 10, noting its great story and re-watchability. Junkie Monkey's gave it a mixed review, stating that although it wasn't the best episode of the season, it was far from the worst. Den of Geek gave the episode a 5/5 rating, reviewer Joe Matar said that the episode was a good challenge of the concept of adventure. The average user rating on IMDb was 9.3 out of 10.

External Links

• Meeseeks and Destroy at IMDb