"Raising Gazorpazorp" is the seventh episode of the first season of Rick and Morty. It is the seventh episode of the series overall. It premiered on March 10, 2014. It was written by Eric Acosta & Wade Randolph and directed by Jeff Myers.
Synopsis
After Morty fathers a child with a sex robot, Rick and Summer visit the robot's planet, where the kid grows into an adult within days.
Plot
While Rick haggles with the owner of an intergalactic pawn shop, Morty spots a sex robot at the back of the shop and asks if he can have it, saying that it "looks cool" and claiming that he needs a souvenir from his adventures with Rick in case his grandfather ever passes away. Dismissively, Rick concedes.
Back on Earth, the rest of Morty's family is perturbed with his newly sexually active lifestyle with the robot, with Jerry particularly vocal against it since all Morty does is stay in his room with the robot. Beth points out that Morty is undergoing puberty and insists that Jerry not intervene, though remains cautiously open to the idea when Morty calls for Rick's help and her father goes upstairs.
Morty reveals a floating metal ball which he claims is "Gwendolyn" the robot. The rest of the family, alerted by the commotion from Rick trying to secure the ball, witness the metal ball give birth to a baby and turn back into the robot. Inspecting the robot's insides, Rick confirms that the robot was given the ability to give birth and the baby contains half of Morty's DNA. Before he can put down the alien baby, he is stopped by the rest of the family who ask him to let it live despite his protests. Rick decides to take the robot to the garage and inspect it further while Morty is determined to raise "Morty Jr." as his own.
As Summer visits the garage, Rick identifies the robot's origin as the planet Gazorpazorp in the Andromeda system, and explains that he intends to send Morty Jr. back to his home planet and find suitable parents for him. Summer hints that she wishes to go an adventure with her grandfather like Morty does, but Rick dismisses her, claiming that he doesn't take "chicks" on adventures, which offends Summer. Summer is suddenly seized through the portal Rick opens by male Gazorpians, forcing Rick to follow. Meanwhile, Jerry and Beth both attempt to give Morty parenting advice, but end up disagreeing with their different parenting styles, alluding to their own disappointments with their children. Morty snaps, demanding his parents to back off, instead turning on the television to show Morty Jr. a children's show; both Jerry and Beth agree that Morty will inevitably fail with his parenting.
On Gazorpazorp, Summer is nearly raped by the male Gazorpians until Rick rescues her in time, but the resulting fight destroys his portal gun. Rick attempts repairs on the gun with parts from broken sex robots littered on the planet while Summer is forced to conceal herself in a burqa, disgusted at the backwards, patriarchal state of the planet. She is offended by Rick's suggestion that the male Gazorpians removed their females for efficiency due to their advancement and eventually caused a fallout that knocked them back to their "Stone Age". Just then, a gigantic floating stone head arrives above the male Gazorpians to drop more sex robots, which the males copulate with. Rick and Summer grapple onto one of the robots and enter the stone head, which is revealed to be run by refined female Gazorpians who profess severe distaste for males, forcing Summer and Rick to fake a master-slave relationship.
The female Gazorpians bring Rick and Summer to their underground matriachal utopia, bringing them before their leader Ma-Sha. Ma-Sha reveals that the female Gazorpians chose to separate themselves from the males. To continue their species they created the sex robots and separate the resulting babies by gender; the girls are educated into their society while the males are evicted onto the planet's surface. When Summer exclaims about the males being just children, Ma-Sha tells her that Gazorpian males mature within a day and become one of the most violent, aggressive species in the universe. Rick realizes that Morty is in big trouble, as is Earth. Indeed, as Morty Jr. matures from infancy to childhood, Morty is horrified as Morty Jr. expresses desire to cause destruction, murder and mayhem, and insists on keeping Morty Jr. indoors, claiming that the atmosphere outside is poisonous to Morty Jr. However, this causes Morty Jr's relationship with Morty to become strained as when Morty tries to divert Morty Jr's attention to a dance on a kids show, he ends up yelling at Morty Jr, causing Morty Jr to cry,
Summer explains to Ma-Sha that a male Gazorpian was born on her planet, causing Ma-Sha to question her on the state of gender equality on Earth. This prompting an argument between Rick and Summer about gender roles on Earth, culminating in Rick popping a massive, resounding fart in protest, to the disgust of the female Gazorpians. Upon hearing Summer refer to Rick as "grandfather", Ma-Sha orders their arrest. At the same time, Morty Jr. has grown into adolescence, picked up smoking and demands to be allowed to his warlike tendencies after watching documentaries on the History channel. Following an argument with Morty, Morty Jr. runs out of the house; discovering that the air is not poisonous to him, he runs away.
Ma-Sha sentences Summer and Rick to death, revealing after some bickering with Rick that they are to be crushed under a falling boulder. However, Summer protests by pointing out her top which Ma-Sha earlier complimented, which she explains was designed by a male Earthling fashion designer. Saying that a fraction of male Earthlings are born gay, Summer explains that on Earth the genders are still somewhat equal even though they aren't separated like on Gazorpazorp, and since the female Gazorpians acknowledge that she is better dressed than them, Ma-Sha should release them. Ma-Sha concedes, giving them a spaceship so Summer and Rick can return to their "weird" planet where "genders are equal but not really".
On Earth, Morty Jr. has begun a rampage following an epiphany backed by music. Driven on Jerry's car, Morty tries to calm Morty Jr. down, which he eventually succeeds in. Morty admits to Morty Jr. that he is an alien and he wasn't a good father, but explains that he really wanted Morty Jr. to channel his destructive nature to creative outlets. Brad Anderson, the creator of the comic strip Marmaduke, agrees as he walks by, revealing that Marmaduke is his creative outlet through which he channels his violent and sexual thoughts. Morty and Morty Jr. share a farewell hug just as Rick and Summer return to Earth, with Rick giving ownership of the Gazorpian spaceship to Summer. Beth asks where Rick has been, and Rick answers her by popping another fart which the whole family laughs at.
Following the credits, Morty Jr. is seen on a television show (watched by everyone in the Smith household) with a talk show host, having matured into a middle-aged man and now the best-selling author of a book titled "My Horrible Father" about his childhood experience. As Morty cringes, Beth assures him that parenting is a thankless task and in the end he did the best he could.
Characters
Deaths
- At least 5 male Gazorpians
Locations
Songs
Trivia
- This episode reveals more information about Beth's and Jerry's parenting styles.
- This is the first episode where Rick and Summer go on an adventure together.
- Summer gets an alien car from the Gazorpazorpian females. It has yet to appear in another episode.
- This is the first episode to take place in the replacement dimension, after Rick and Morty had abandoned their original dimension in the previous episode.
Cultural References
- This episode is a reference to the TV sitcom "Raising Hope", which focuses on a teenage boy who raises a child of his own as a single father, while he's still living with his own parents, who are heavily critical of his parenting skills.
- The title could also be a reference to the movie "Raising Arizona" starring Nicolas Cage.
- The side-plot of the episode is full of references to the movie Zardoz. The red color, the floating head, the higher society ruling the lower society, the really weird crime sentences, etc. are examples.
- When the floating head ship arrives to drop off another group of sex robots, the phrase "Dropping Loads" is broadcast from the head, referencing the catch phrase of porn star Nick Manning.
- Ma-Sha and another female Gazorpian were voiced by Claudia Black and Virginia Hey, respectively, who previously played aliens together in the cult classic TV series Farscape.
- The female Gazorpazorpian guards are holding bladed weapons similar to the Vulcan Lirpa from Star Trek.
- Summer's line "If you think my top is cute, you can not execute." Is a reference to the 1994-1995 OJ Simpson Murder Trial and the quote "If it doesn't fit, you must acquit."
- Morty Jr. being confined to the house on the lie of the atmosphere being poisonous and subsequent escape is a reference to the movie Bad Boy Bubby which features the same plotline.
- The episode explores gender roles and the question of Nature vs. Nurture.
Transcript
View the full transcript of this episode here.
Gallery
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References
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