"Undiscovered" (?) Easter Egg in Rick and Morty

In the TV show Rick and Morty S04E06, "Never Ricking Morty" about 7 minutes in, the following image is shown:

that seems to be a visual metaphor for Dan Harmon's simplified version of the Hero's Journey where each segment of the circle represents one of the stages through the story's progression:

  1. A character is in a zone of comfort,
  2. But they want something,
  3. They enter an unfamiliar situation,
  4. Adapt to it,
  5. Get what they wanted,
  6. Pay a heavy price for it,
  7. Then return to the familiar situation,
  8. Having changed.

The panel also spells out the word "anthology" on the bottom right which is mentioned by Rick about 4m17s into the episode whilst comparing the train to a story device:

  • "Rick: it is not a real train, it's a story device, literally, a literal literary device quite literally metaphorically containing us…"
  • "Morty: a simulation…"
  • "Rick: Worse. An anthology."

Fun fact, right after Rick finishes the line, the real conductor shows up in the immediate scene thereafter showing a ship helm just above he doorway divided into 8 segments as ship helms traditionally are.

There is even a sequence to the panel scene that explains pretty much how the narrative was, is and will be constructed. Namely, Rick explains "the plan" to Morty by pointing down at the control panel circle, sequentially:

  • Rick points at the second segment ("but they want something") and mentions the "stupid vignettes" (TBA??) saying "God, imagine if that would have been the whole thing…",

  • Rick points at the third segment ("they enter an unfamiliar situation") stating "so, now we're here",
    • immediately after the segment that Rick claims "we're here", the fourth segment follows ("adapt to it") and Rick will come up with a plan as the rest of the analysis follows…

  • adapting, Rick points at the eight segment ("having changed"), hypothesizing "the engine must be here"

  • Rick continues, "I will have to rig us a couple of space-suits that start failing around here" and points at approximately $225^{\circ}$ at the border between the fifth and sixth segment of the circle (in Harmon terms, between "get what they wanted" and "pay a heavy price for it").
    • Failing space suits matches with "pay a heavy price for it",

  • Rick continues, "so we can pay a heavy price for re-entering, here, at this threshold" and points at approximately $270^{\circ}$, between the sixth and seventh segment (in Harmon terms, between "pay a heavy price for it" and "then return to the familiar situation").
    • "pay a heavy price for re-entering" can be transliterated almost seamlessly into Harmon terms, "pay a heavy price [at the threshold] for re-entering [the familiar situation] (going home)".

The entire story arc exposed in one fell swoop! :)

Using a reverse-image search on variations of screenshots of the circle in Rick and Morty reveals an interpretation by inverse.com yet it seems far more complex and mixes some elements that are not local to the scene. Another website where a similar screenshot can be found is www.zoomg.ir but, when translated, the commentary talks more broadly about the episode than a local analysis. The final website picturing a similar screenshot is popculturemaniacs.com offers no explanation on the scene whatsoever.


literature/ricks_and_morty_never_ending_story_loop.txt · Last modified: 2022/04/19 08:28 by 127.0.0.1

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