We’re talking love vs. infatuation and just how terrible love potions really are for episode 6 of Rick and Morty, Rick Potion #9!

SHOW NOTES – Rick Potion #9
Semi Pertinent News

* Run Jewels Video

* Animated by RaM team
* Adult Swim Festival

* Dan Harmon not tweet minute

* Season 4 not happening??!
* Justin Roiland – For everyone telling me to get back to work on Rick and Morty (season four) turn your attention to Turner. I’m waiting around just like you. Making some cool video games in the meantime though! @squanchgames

* Dan Harmon tweet minute

* I just saw Chuck Woolery’s twitter timeline and I will be back in oof and oof
* Now people are just responding with animated gifs of people from 20 year old TV shows “not getting” my reference to a 30 year old TV show

MAIN THANG – Rick Potion #9
S1E6 – “Rick Potion #9”

* Originally aired: January 27, 2014
* Written by Justin Roiland
* Directed by Stephen Sandoval

* Synopsis

* A dance at Morty’s high school prompts him to ask Rick if he can create a Rick potion that will make his pretty classmate Jessica find Morty attractive. However, because Jessica has the flu, the potion goes haywire and becomes airborne and causes nearly the whole population of Earth to fall for Morty save for blood relatives. Rick fixes up an antidote which does not produce its hoped results. Meanwhile, Jerry becomes concerned about Beth’s fidelity. Eventually both plots cross paths. This results in Rick and Morty migrating to another reality where that reality’s Rick successfully cures all of Earth, but he and that reality’s Morty die in an experiment allowing Rick and Morty to assume their roles.

* Production Notes

* Production title was “Love Pandemic” and second episode in production order after “Lawnmower Dog”
* This episode changes the show’s identity
* All the cronenberg animations had to be done frame by frame where the rest of the show is done using Harmony puppets
* The goggles that Rick pulls out to search for a new dimension are the same interdimensional goggles that become a focal point in “Rixty Minutes”
* You can spot Tammy in the background during the flu dance. Since this was #2 in production order, she was still an incidental design without a name.
* Since this episode was so early in the production timeline, the stuttering is more pronounced than the episodes before and after.

* Reddit Discussion Points:

* The whole “love potion gone wrong” device is a pretty standard story trope, but this episode really emphasizes the how creepy and violating the concept really is (Rick’s line about the roofie serum). How do you feel about Morty being the central instigator in this violation?
* Between the events of this episode and his encounter with Mr. Jellybean in “Meeseeks”, Morty has stared down some some deeply traumatic experiences. How do you feel his character has or hasn’t grown/developed from these experiences?
* (Sometimes I feel like this show’s ethos comes down to “It’s all fun and games until… And then it’s still fun and games”)
* Followup: Do you feel like Morty’s character development since these events has been adequately addressed?
* Rick seems to have experience with bailing on one reality for another one. Do you think he’s done this before? What could have happened to cause him to do this?
* What do you think happened to Davin? Since the planet never went through the love pandemic, Davin would still be alive and Beth & Jerry’s relationship wouldn’t hav...