Rick and Morty S9 Ep 7 Review
Have you ever heard of the concept of Saṃsāra? It’s the Hindu/Buddhist belief that all life is part of a cycle of death and either reincarnation or rebirth, and thus is filled with pain and suffering. The only way to break the cycle is by achieving enlightenment and understanding. But what if you did that and found out that whoever’s controlling the cycle is a jerk who uses the suffering to sustain themselves? Replace Saṃsāra with the cycle of life and the food chain, and the one in charge with a sentient tree, that sums up Rick and Morty’s latest adventure. It’s a bizarre look at the circle of life, death, rebirth, and how it ultimately benefits those at the top. It’s bizarre, but also oddly entertaining to watch. Break the circle!
Jerk Tree Enforces Circle of Life
It all starts when Rick and Morty go to this planet orbiting a black hole. Their goal is to get this tree sap that Rick claims gives this crazy high, because why not? Unfortunately, the tree turns out to be sentient and doesn’t take kindly to intruders ruining nature. It traps the two in an ecosystem underneath its roots as single-celled organisms alongside countless other victims in a cycle of death and evolution. They can evolve into more advanced forms of life, but they have to start at the beginning every time they die.
Death is not a new concept to the likes of Rick and Morty. They’ve seen countless beings die and get reborn throughout their adventures, themselves and other versions of themselves included. And considering what the duo have done throughout the show, you could argue that is the perfect punishment for their antics. Well, mostly Rick, but Morty has done some crazy stuff, too. Going back to the concepts of reincarnation and rebirth, it’s like the idea of Saṃsāra masked as the circle of life. You would think that the whole point of this experience would be to teach them, and us, a lesson about respecting life. But this isn’t some eco-friendly program or Ferngully: The Last Rainforest. This is Rick and Morty. They’ll either refuse to learn their lesson, or, as I bet on, it would turn out the Tree was just being a jerk. To my amusement, I ended up being right.
After trying to make it through evolution together for a while, Rick and Morty try their own methods of escaping the cycle of death and reincarnation. Rick, naturally, refuses to bend to the rules and tries to escape using the other prisoners as fodder for experiments. Meanwhile, Morty opts for the nonviolent route by evolving into a tree that eventually makes it to the surface. However, the Tree reveals that there was never a lesson it wanted everyone to learn. It was just capturing them and using the circle of life to feed himself! That’s like making it to Nirvana or Heaven and then finding out that God is gatekeeping everyone for their own amusement!
Screw the Circle of Life!
After the big reveal, it doesn’t take a genius to figure out how things are going to pan out. Rick and Morty rally the other prisoners to break the cycle of pseudo-Saṃsāra by refusing to kill each other. They lay low for the Tree to grow weak, and when it investigates, they jump it. What follows is a pretty satisifying moment where the captives manage to kill their tormentor, ending the cycle. Unfortunately, no one turns back into their orignal forms right away, and Rick and Morty just bail with the sap like they wanted.
This was honestly a good episode, if you ask me. I know that some people care more about the overarching lore, but in my experience, it’s the one-off adventures in a show that I’m most likely to go back and rewatch. If there was any lesson to be learned, it’s that either nature is cruel and comes at someone’s expense, or not to mess with Rick and Morty. Break the circle!
