Okay, so Rick and Morty season 6 episode 4 has been released, and it feels like a Halloween Horror episode that will have a big impact. We’ll be recapping everything in this article, including the movie references, and several hidden details.
I think this Season is shaping out to be one of the best seasons so far for me. This episode was kind of like the “Us” movie where we see doppelgangers of people, who live underground, and try to replace themselves with the people who are living above and better than them. Although episode 4 wasn’t entirely similar to the movie, but you get the sense of similarly if you have watched them both. Either way, I’ll be talking about the similarities in some parts of the article because why not.
So basically what happens in this episode is that Rick has some kind of device which take your DNA and programs you to do any particular task while you are sleeping at night. So it basically creates another personality called Night Person which will do the work for you that you don’t want to do. And throughout the episode we see these Night Smith family going up against our normal Day Smith family.
Rick And Morty Season 6 Episode 4 Recap
The opening line of the episode is a line from the poet T.S. Eliot, which has been used as a plot device in a variety of TV episodes and movies. If you’ve ever seen The Stand from 1994, you’ll recall that it also opened with a line from The Hollow Men. However, not all networks adopted this; some added a verse from the Bible’s book of Revelations in its place. Even the statement about receiving the who has is actually derived from a portion of Aegon. It immediately establishes the mood of this spooky opener, which has jump scares and references to zombie movies like Night of the Living Dead.
In Rick and Morty Season 6 Episode 4, which is titled “Night Family”, we watch alternative consciousness formed for them, that carry out simple chores in the middle of the night. Reminded me a lot of Severance, which, in case you haven’t seen it, essentially featured people who worked at a firm that was so secretive that it separated its employees’ consciousness into two halves.
The first half of this had folks who were always at work while everyone else went about their daily lives clueless to what had recently happened. If you were the unlucky half who was classed as working, you would feel as though you were always there, never taking a break or living anywhere other than your office.
The opening, of course, draws inspiration from more recent horror films like Paranormal Activity, Insidious, and also Sinister. It’s a fairly scary idea. These adapted classic horror cliches for the American home, which encouraged the development of more films in the same style.
Create Your Own Night Person
The poem describes a nightmare, and we see that Jerry’s snoring is keeping Beth awake. She starts to count the sheep but ultimately just goes downstairs and sees Rick doing crunches. The rest of the family joins in and becomes a Night Family after discovering he has a technique to complete duties in the middle of the night.
The title itself is based on the American tv show Night Gallery, which was similar to the Twilight Zone in style. We received a variety of horror-themed episodes from the anthology series hosted by Rod Sterling. Great detail in the intro is that Jerry asks for them to catch him if he faints and he ends up doing this, only Rick notices it but he still doesn’t help and that takes us to the title sequence.
Most episodes of The Twilight Zone start off with everything being bright and Breezy, but we slowly watched his old descent into chaos. This is definitely the case here in Rick and Morty Season 6 Episode 4 and we see from the calendar that the family ha had 11 days of Nothing But the good stuff. Beth can play the trumpet, Summer is an honors student and Morty has them rock hard ABS you can bounce a bowling ball off of.
Similarity To Us Movie
There are also lots of nods to Jordan Peele’s movie ‘US’ in this episode, without the film centering around shadow doppelgangers that came from tunnels beneath the surface. 11 was a number that constantly appeared in that film, with 11-11 tying to a Bible verse in Revelations as well as the way the family was set out. There’s also the fact that it’s a palindrome aka something that’s the same forward as it is backward. I kind of feel like 11 was chosen for this specific reason. The night people all talk with croaky voices just like how Red and the rest of the family did in the ‘US’ movie.
Summer sort of becomes this version’s Red with her revealing that she’s been lying beneath the surface waiting to come out. Rick and Morty also started a podcast called ‘Fabsolutely Abbulous’ which is a play on the British sitcom ‘Absolutely Fabulous. They have mics that look like Shvre SM7Bs which is pretty much the model that most people do on the internet these days, including your boy Joe Rogan.
They do a play on the phrase “As Above So Below” by saying “Abs Above So Below” and this saying was also used in “US”. The phrase originates from the Emerald Tablet and has had many interpretations over the years, with most believing it talks about the darker side of things that Lies Beneath the surface. In the US movie, it was talking about the doppelgangers and here it’s the reverse of the family with a Night one that come out when the Sun goes down.
Rick Prefers War Than Rinsing The Dishes
Rick and Morty are doing ads, another guy has sold out like we all eventually do, Rick refuses to say Wubba lubba dub dub. We see that Night Jerry and Day Jerry have become pen pals with each other. With addresses all being sleep-related puns, only a door like bloody Jerry only would say that. Now the pair talk about Tori Amos and Night Jerry also asks questions about the sun.
Though it seems like it’s all going to be fun and games, we see how horrifying it is for the Night family who is all forced to endure these tasks endlessly like slaves. Morty and Rick are worked at exhaustion and Summer’s hands are destroyed from all the constant dishwashing. The next day she requests that they rinse the dishes so that they’re easier to clean, but Rick being Rick sees this as a declaration of war and goes all out to make the job even harder.
Rick definitely has no empathy for others and this is even seen in his alarm clock which includes birthing a chicken, aging it up so I can wake him up, and then killing it all within a matter of seconds. I think this might be the first time we’ve actually been inside of this room before or at least that I can remember (very messy with a simple bed and wall full of connecting diagrams and pictures that have things like his gun and Mr Meeseeks on it).
The 110% Indestructible Plates
So as Rick wakes up, Morty calls him to show him that the Night family has destroyed all the dishes. Realizing the dishes have been destroyed, in protest, Rick travels out of the forbidden zone which could be a nod to the Absurdist Musical Comedy. You also hear these synth notes when Rick travels to another planet. These scores reminded me of the scores that John Carpenter would drop in his movies.
And in the outer rim, we see as a beast that owes him a favor and creates 110 indestructible plates. This means you could take 10 off and it’d still be 100 indestructible. In the end, Rick has ended up putting way more effort into this than he was just running them under attack for two seconds, but it shows how stubborn he is.
Now that night the Night Family held Rick down in a sort of sleep paralysis manner and they appear almost like demons over his bed in order to draw the battle lines. This begins a war between Day and Night with a lot of family stripping out all the furniture. Summer is made to stay up all night, also I love how her suit has forks in the back of it so she can’t lie down.
In the basement, she finds that building, a giant emulator, to extend its range beyond the house. This reveal came in a way to me that was similar to The Thing in which we discover the black duplicate is building a ship below the bunker.
Night Jerry To The Rescue
Then we go to the calendar which is now replaced the X with Z’s and Counting them up this has been going on for 23 Days. Night Summer has destroyed their idea of the day being something fun and she even gets Beth to burn several day-themed DVDs. This includes Independence Day, Groundhog Day and Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, however, she keeps Talladega Nights showing how the night must be kept. All the others are made to do the jobs that the Night people did and Morty does non-stop crunches whilst Rick and Jerry clean the dishes.
When they’re put to sleep Jerry leaves a note for his Nightself and he ends up bringing the others. Outside the ship is destroyed and we see their neighbor Gene, the original one who got Cronenberg in the Cronenberg Dimension but the parmesan one is looking back to normal. Beth says this line; “Hold on to your tits”. This calls back to this moment from Jurassic Park; “Hold on to your butts”. As they chase through the streets, we see some weird things like kids playing in the park (but I don’t know what kids do these days).
Now we also get this hilarious line by the cop too; “stop or I’ll shoot everyone”. Slowly the night people are woken up and there’s a moment where Rick takes the wheel from Summer so she can fire a shotgun. I’m sure this is odd to a terminated movie but I’ll look through them all and couldn’t find the clip either.
Either way, the whole chase scene reminded me a lot of those movies with trucks spilling over and them constantly fighting to wake the others up. Had me dying as well when Bets started choking Jerry and we pan down to see that he had a boner. They also are the crap out of Night Jerry even though he’s on their side which I co-signed doing that.
Rick And Morty Season 6 Episode 4 Ending Explained
In the end, though they go to call the truce but Rick still refuses to wash the dishes and thus the entire night family ends up becoming the main versions. They now exist in the day and ride up into the sunset which is definitely a Terminator Easter egg this one (isn’t it, yeah come on now). The credits they show them going to Bed, Bath and Beyond. Having a Hawaiian Holiday and watching the Night Museum.
If you look at the boxes on the floor you can see they’ve burned through the franchise and have watched two and three as well. They celebrate Chinese New Year, go to Paris, Beth plays trumpet on stage and Summer gives Rick a world’s greatest Grandpa mug. They live too fast though and not only does Morty lose his abs but they also run out of money. Realizing that the day people handle all this sort of stuff they decide to end it all and destroy this some emulator (I don’t remember the name people) which returns them back to normal.
However the true horror sets in when they realize that the Klondike Choco Taco has been discontinued and this might even end up becoming the next Szechuan Source. Either way that ends the episode and this was another great one that’s led to this being a really strong season so far. I’m having a complete blast with it at the moment and even the more standalone episodes like this have been something I’ve really enjoyed, so yeah great episode.
