History Recap / RickAndMortyS3E10TheRickchurianMortydate

* BittersweatEnding: The family is happy except for Rick. During the ending, Jerry and Beth reunite, and Morty now has enough confidence not to be bullied into taking part of Rick's adventures anymore. Now, Rick is forced to live a more normal life with his family, or at least one where he has less control over them than he wants to.

* FullFrontalAssault: The President's shrinking pills don't shrink his clothes with him, leaving him completely naked when he meets with the Presidentress of the Mega-Gargantuans.

* ExistentialHorror: Following last episode, Beth suffers this when she is unsure whether she is a clone, and Rick is unable to give her a straight answer. Near the end of the episode, she stops caring as she gets back together with Jerry.

** They also say that the President, among other things, orders drone strikes because he's insecure, though it's not clear which, if any, real-world president this is supposed to be.

* FateWorseThanDeath: For Rick at least. During the ending, Jerry and Beth reunite, and Morty now has enough confidence not to be bullied into taking part of Rick's adventures anymore. Now, Rick is forced to live a more normal life with his family, or at least one where he has less control over them than he wants to.

* ConvenientReplacementCharacter: In order to smooth out the events of the episode with the President, Rick pretends to be one by dressing up in fishing gear and posing as a different Rick who just moved in and was friends with his reality's POTUS.

* DoppelgangerSpin: One of Rick's gadgets is a device that creates a couple dozen illusions of himself. For bonus points, they cartwheel while the President ineffectually blasts at them.

** Summer's first appearance in this episode is her dressed in a scantily clad farmer girl outfit.

* ShutUpHannibal: When the family gets back together, Rick tries to tell them that nothing they think matters and that there are infinite versions of themselves playing out this very scenario. Summer responds by letting out a fart.

-->'''Rick:''' Oh crap, Morty! That part was true!

* PrinciplesZealot: The President is reminded by both Rick and Morty, and by his own advisers, that the titular pair have been helpful to him and helped him score high approval ratings (such as fixing the UsefulNotes/ArabIsraeliConflict overnight). However, he still wants war against them because both of them undermine his authority and sense of superiority as the "leader of the Free World", with Rick and Morty dismissing the POTUS and his complaints as minor stuff compared to their real adventures and Rick's anarchist sentiments not likely to make him kowtow to patriotism.

* ShutUpHannibal: When the family gets back together, Rick tries to tell them that nothing they think matters matters and that there are infinite versions of themselves playing out this very scenario. Summer responds by letting out a fart.

* TookALevelInJerkass: ...The President is far more stubborn and arrogant here than he was in his debut, going so far as to declare war on Rick and Morty because they hurt his pride.

* StatusQuoIsGod: The entire finale is about the show returning to the status-quo of Season 1 as Beth {{Lampshades}}, with Beth and Jerry reuniting and remarrying, the kids under one roof, and Rick once again becoming the oddball in a family where Jerry is ThePatriarch. The main differences are that:

* FateWorseThanDeath: The ending; Jerry and Beth reunite, and Morty now has enough confidence not to be bullied into taking part of Rick's adventures anymore. Now, Rick is forced to live a more normal life with his family, or at least one where he has less control over them than he wants to.

* EvilCannotComprehendGood: When Rick learns that Beth is getting back together with Jerry, his immediately assumes it's because she still thinks she's a clone, rather than because she actually loves him.

* FreakOut: Beth has one when Rick accidentally exacerbates her that she might be a clone.

->''" Ooh-wee! What a season! Sorry I never showed up, but I got married. I had a baby. I went back to school and got my G-E-E-E-D. What did you do while you were waiting? [[TakeThatAudience Hopefully you didn't just fuck around and waste your life.]] Ooh-wee! See you for Season 4 in, like, a really long time! I might even have a big white Santa Claus beard and and and a And a couple of grandkids and all that kind of stuff. See you-see you then!"''

* OvershadowedByAwesome: The President displays quite a bit of advanced technology in this episode, all of which would be cutting edge TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture technology by modern standards. It just doesn't measure up to Rick's PhysicalGod level technology.
* PaperThinDisguise: Rick as fly-fishing Rick. It still works.

* PrinciplesZealot: The President is reminded by both Rick and Morty, and by his own advisers, that the titular pair have been helpful to him, and have helped him score high approval ratings (such as fixing the UsefulNotes/ArabIsraeliConflict overnight) but he still wants war against them because both of them undermine his authority and sense of superiority as the "leader of the Free World", with Rick and Morty dismissing the POTUS and his complaints as minor stuff compared to their real adventures, with Rick's anarchist sentiments not likely to make him kowtow to patriotism.
* PyrrhicVictory: Rick does manage to win his fight with the President and get him to submit to a selfie with Morty; however, by this time, Morty (who has long since stopped wanting the selfie) has taken Rick's portal gun and left him there, and the entire family is hiding from him due to the belief that he plans to kill (possibly clone-)Beth. This results in Rick giving up on his fight with the POTUS to go find them, so not only does he not get the selfie he was apparently fighting for all along, he's alienated his family enough that they're hiding from him, and he's branded a terrorist by the President and excommunicated from the country as a result of attacking him and killing at least a dozen of his men. Though he does manage to make it look like to the President that he left the universe and another Rick will be taking his place.
* RefusalOfTheCall: After injuring the alien, Rick and Morty decide the adventure is lame and ignore the problem to play ''Minecraft''.
* SelectiveObliviousness: According to DVDCommentary on The Rickchurian Mortydate The President guess that he was dealing with the same Rick but decide to play dumb for the sake of his ego.
* SentimentalMusicCue: In-universe. The president turns on sad music in his oval office after declaring his relationship with Rick and Morty finished.

** D) and Morty has become fully willing to stand-up to Rick which can mean a lot for the duo's future adventures.
* TheStinger: Mr. Poopy Butthole shows up like he did in last finale's stinger. Now, he's married and has a kid, promising another long hiatus.

** They also say that the president, among other things, orders drone strikes because he's insecure, though it's not clear which, if any, real-world president this is supposed to be.
** The family celebrates their reunion with Panda Express, and it's said that pretty much everything they serve can be described as "sugar chicken".
** Rick's StrawNihilist attitude, which is something that the show makes alot of fun of finally comes to a head in this episode. After all the crap that the family has been through, they find their own meaning in life while Rick continues to think of it all as meaningless. This culminates in the family ultimately ignoring Rick's attitude and not caring if he actually stays or goes. Which is one of the central premises in the show. "the knowledge that nothing matters—while accurate—gets you nowhere".

* TookALevelInBadass: The POTUS in ''Get Schwifty'' was a weakling who came inches from being fragged by his own general. Here he's a ScienceHero who is physically adept, and manages to score a draw with Rick Sanchez, becoming the only authority and government that Rick has opposed to still remain standing after getting in conflict with him. But...
* TookALevelInJerkass: ...The President here is far more stubborn and arrogant than he was in his debut, going so far as to declare war on Rick and Morty because they hurt his pride.

* ConvenientReplacementCharacter: In order to smooth out the events of the episode with the President, Rick dresses up in fishing gear and poses as a different Rick who just moved in and was friends with his reality's POTUS.

** His constant nihilism and ContemplateOurNavels attitude to the multiverse, and expecting his family to share his attitude and get with his program and crazy schemes, get turned back on him by the rest of his family. Rick tries to insist that the multiverse and everyone in it is meaningless and disposable, but Beth simply asks [[ArmorPiercingQuestion why Rick doesn't go find an alternate version of them that shares his attitude]], while Summer responds to his usual StrawNihilist spiel by farting, similar to how Rick usually reacts to other people's serious concerns with snide toilet humor. Rick does depend on the family for some kind of connection since he can't do without them, and decides not to leave, leading the status-quo coming back.

* GrewBeyondTheirProgramming: Beth theorizes that this may have been happening to her, given that she was a clone, and Rick may now be attempting on her life.

* HisOwnWorstEnemy: Rick's incredible self-destructive behaviour ruins the very setup and situation that he had built for himself through Season 3:
** He gets into a completely avoidable feud with the President of the United States and the American government for no reason at all, and ends up with Morty finally reaching his limit with Rick, right when his own sense of humor and anti-authoritarian streak was rubbing off his grandson (much to his happiness).
** Despite stating that there wouldn't be any ''Film/BladeRunner'' stuff that could happen at the end of the last episode, he rubs in and taunts Beth about CloningBlues. Now if she's a clone, he's more or less admitting that he lied to the original Beth, and if she isn't a clone, he's psychologically abusing his own daughter and attacking her self-esteem, leading her to go to Jerry.
** After Rick once again decides to rebel and taunt a government risking the loss of his citizenship, and making himself and his family {{Outlaws}} without any chance of normal life, Morty wanting to avoid a repeat of Rick's run-in with the Galactic Government, takes his portal gun deciding to maroon Rick in his own mess.

* IdiotBall: Rick, of all people, didn't realize that The President was monitoring him?

* IronicName: The people of the miniature civilization in the Brazilian rainforest call themselves "Mega Gargantuans". Their Presidentress says that they named themselves that before they discovered they were actually tiny.
* IWarnedYou: While unlike most episodes where Rick causing the deaths of others and disregarding the damage he's done is PlayedForLaughs, It's played chillingly straight when he warns a federal agent that if he touches him(Rick) he will die and then the agent promptly dies after touching him. While everyone is horrified [[ConditionedToAcceptHorror (even Morty)]], Rick did in fact warn them and given [[SociopathicHero Rick's personality]], was surprisingly insistent with his warning.
-->'''Rick:''' Son, you have a right to refuse his order and I guarantee you're going to die if you touch me and there's no afterlife, everything just goes black. Don't do it. (cue the agent touching him and then falling down dead)

* KissOfDistraction: In Jerry's flashback he reveals that his first kiss with Beth was to avoid her noticing the Snickers wrapper that stuck to his palm.
* MaleFrontalNudity: Averted with the president's wiener being pixeled out.

** At the start of the episode, Rick irritates the US Government for really no reason, acting like a smartass when he really should keep his mouth shut. This leads to SerialEscalation because the POTUS is not an ArchEnemy, but a HeroAntagonist who is closer to SitcomArchnemesis, and Rick's behaviour comes across as DisproportionateRetribution precisely because as Dr. Wong notes, he can't handle mundane everyday life, and pretends he's in an adventure when he ''isn't''.
*** Throughout the series, Rick has killed plenty of people with his inventions with casual indifference. When he has a secret service agent killed by his TouchOfDeath during the standoff, it sours the situation immediately, a cabinet member chides him for not just knocking him out, and the POTUS angrily calls him out for committing murder in the Oval Office.
** His constant nihilism and ContemplateOurNavels attitude to the multiverse and expecting his family to share his attitude and get with his program and crazy schemes get turned back, when they decide to restore the status-quo, and when Rick insists about how meaningless and disposable the multiverse is, Beth simply asks [[ArmorPiercingQuestion why Rick doesn't go find an alternate version of them that shares his attitude]], while Summer in response to his usual StrawNihilist spiel reacts by farting, similar to how Rick usually reacts to other people's serious concerns by snide toilet humor. Rick's crazy adventures could only break apart the family, while at the same time, Rick does depend on the same family for some kind of connection since he can't do without them. This leads to the status-quo coming back.

* DontExplainTheJoke: Rick feels the need to explain his "casualties in the Brazilian" joke.

* {{Eagleland}}: America's entitlement about being the leader of the free world and its casual imperialism, is parodied in this episode. The POTUS assumes that he is more or less the Lord of the World, he disregards the sovereignty of Brazil, and is known to order drone strikes to hide its insecurity.
* EverybodyLaughsEnding: Well, everybody except Rick and the President.
* {{Fanservice}}: Summer's first appearance in this episode is her dressed in a scantily clad farmer girl outfit.
** Also, the reptilian stripper in the lounge Rick takes some Arab officals to.
* FateWorseThanDeath: The ending; Jerry and Beth reunite, and Morty now has enough confidence not to be bullied into taking part of Rick's adventures anymore. Now, Rick is forced to live a normal life with his family.
* ForWantOfANail: Had Rick had a ''little'' more tact in settling Beth's worries over (probably) being a clone, she wouldn't have gone back to Jerry.
* FreakOut: Beth has one when Rick accidentally convince her that she might be a clone.

* AllForNothing: Rick’s efforts since the season 3 premiere to become ThePatriarch are basically undone due to some misplaced words on Rick's part that have him cause Beth to doubt herself. This sets off the events that have her go back to Jerry and they reconcile while Beth feels at ease that regardless of whether or not she is a clone, she's at peace. (Although it would be pretty dumb to have the clone aware of the bargain in the first place.) Furthermore, Rick's shenanigans have driven Morty to a limit where he led the family to keep away from Rick (out of fear that Rick may go after Beth since she thinks she's a clone.) This leads to an AntiClimax where the family reunites to embrace their mundane family dynamic from season 1, much to Rick's dismay.

** When Rick shows up to the Smiths' hiding place with a gun, Beth assumes that she is a clone after all and Rick is there to terminate her. However, after she gives a long rant that ends with her telling Rick to leave and not kill her, Rick reveals that he was never planning to kill her and still sees her as his daughter; the gun was to kill Jerry with (though he doesn't even try to use it to do so).

%% BlackSite: See GovernmentConspiracy below.

* BookEnds: In regards to Season 3, the first episode ended with Rick becoming ThePatriarch of the family, manipulating Beth into divorcing Jerry, and getting away with all of it. This episode shows Beth and Jerry resolving their divorce, being a happier family and causing no one else in the family to look up to Rick as superior.
* BreakingTheFourthWall: Usually done by Rick, ''but'' this time by Beth when she states that "it'll be just like Season 1 again, but more streamlined."

** The B plot is Beth not being certain whether or not she took Rick's deal from the previous episode.

* CloningBlues: Beth undergoes this as a result of the end of last week's episode, contrary to Rick's claim that there would be "no chance of [her] going Film/BladeRunner", assuming of course if she is the clone. Rick flat-out tells her she isn't and reassures her, but then [[SayingTooMuch asks if she's worried he's only saying that because she knows he'd have to get rid of her otherwise.]]

** B) Jerry is now a respected member of the family,

-->'''Rick:''' Run, Morty! That part was true!

* AHandfulForAnEye: During combat the president throws a bowl of sand into Rick's face.

* HoistByHisOwnPetard: One of Rick's main goals (according to himself) in "The Rickshank Redemption" was to get Jerry kicked out of the family and become ThePatriarch in his place, and he appeared to have succeeded in that. However, when Beth comes to him for help about her existential crisis, his words not only completely fail to re-assure her, they actually make it ''worse''. This leads Beth to run to Jerry for reassurance instead, which in turn results in them getting back together, essentially reinstating Jerry to the family and undoing what Rick accomplished in the season premiere.

* OneHundredPercentAdorationRating: The US president gets this after Rick and Morty successfully negotiate peace between Palestine and Israel, but since it's a power-play by Rick, the president isn't happy about it.

** Rick also makes repeated references to the fact that he's moved to different realities 'like a hermit crab', seen in [[Recap/RickAndMortyS1E6RickPotionNumber9 "Rick Potion Number Nine"]] and [[Recap/RickAndMortyS3E8MortysMindBlowers "Morty's Mind Blowers"]].
** Rick is also branded a terrorist at the end of his fight with the President, a label he also had in dealing with the Galactic Federation.

* HistoricalVillainUpgrade: [=McKinley=] had a [[DisposableSexWorker hooker dump]], Truman had a [[HookersAndBlow cocaine lounge]], and Lincoln kept a slave colosseum.

* {{Tykebomb}}: The President has a pair of small children trained to be assassins who he can activate with a dog whistle. Rick manages to distract them with candy and they are later gunned down by the President in his MiniMecha.

* AllForNothing: Rick’s efforts since the season 3 premiere to become ThePatriarch are basically undone due to some misplaced words on Rick's part that have him cause Beth to doubt herself. This sets off the events that have her go back to Jerry and they reconcile while Beth feels at ease that regardless of whether or not she is a clone, she's at peace. (Although it would be pretty dumb to have the clone aware of the bargain in the first place.) Furthermore, Rick's shenanigans have driven Morty to a limit where he led the family to keep away from Rick (out of fear that Rick may go after Beth since she thinks she's a clone.) This leads to an AntiClimax where the family reunites to embrace their mundane family dynamic from season 1, much to Rick's dismay.

* IChooseToStay: When Rick decides to jump dimensions once again, Morty refuses to come with him, telling him that he’s staying with the rest of his family. Rick eventually decides to stay as well and tricks the President into thinking he’s a different Rick so they are on friendly terms again, but he’s clearly not happy about the whole situation.

* {{Gaslighting}}: It's accidental, but Rick's responses to Beth asking if she's a clone or the original Beth greatly undermine her identity and sense of self, making her paranoid and crazy, [[HoistByHisOwnPetard and finally leading her to return to Jerry]].

* IdiotBall: Rick, of all people, didn't realize that The President was monitoring him?

* SelectiveObliviousness: According to DVDCommentary on The Rickchurian Mortydate The President guess that he was dealing with the same Rick but decide to play dumb for the sake of his ego.

* ShutUpHannibal: When the family gets back together, Rick tries to tell them that nothing they think matters matters and that there are infinite versions of themselves playing out this very scenario. Summer responds by letting out a fart.

* SelectiveObliviousness: According to DVDCommentary on The Rickchurian Mortydate The President guess that he was dealing with the same Rick but decide to play dumb for the sack of his ego.

* IDoNotLikeGreenEggsAndHam: Rick is dismissive of {{Minecraft}} at first, but later admits that the game has grown on him.

* TakeThatUs: After Rick and Morty abandon their VR Minecraft session, Rick points out that they were slow to reference it as ''Series/SouthPark'' already did episodes on both [[Recap/SouthParkS17E2InformativeMurderPorn Minecraft]] and [[Recap/SouthParkS18E7GroundedVindaloop VR]] four years ago.