Highlights
- Pickle Rick, one of Rick Sanchez's iconic alter egos, was originally just meant to spend the day in his garage but ended up going on a murderous rampage.
- Rick turns himself into a pickle to avoid going to therapy with his family after they decide to spend time apart.
- In the episode, Pickle Rick goes on a wild adventure killing security guards, teaming up with a Russian prisoner named Jaguar, and eventually turning back into human form before going to therapy with Beth.
Throughout the many adventures of Rick and Morty, there have been so many different bodies that the duo inhabited that wasn't their own. There was Tiny Rick, Wasp Rick, Cronenberg Rick and Morty, Toxic Rick and Morty, the list goes on and on. Rick definitely is the one to leave his own body more often, whether on purpose or by accident.
One of the more iconic alter egos of Rick Sanchez, though, has to be the murderous tiny warrior, Pickle Rick. It's been over six years since he first premiered on Adult Swim, and he's still talked about, referenced, and seen on t-shirts everywhere. What's funny is Pickle Rick didn't even start out as a killing machine. In fact, he was just meant to spend the day in his garage, minding his own business. But fans of Rick and Morty know that none of Rick's plans ever go accordingly. There's always something that throws a wrench in what's supposed to go down in their cooky adventures. Some might say that Rick found himself in quite the pickle.
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When Is Pickle Rick Introduced?
Pickle Rick is first introduced in season 3, episode 3, fittingly titled "Pickle Rick". The episode comes just a few episodes after Beth and Jerry decide to spend some time apart. While the whole family is processing their new lifestyle as a potentially co-parented family, Rick is unfazed, continuing on his whacky experiments and interstellar adventures.
One of his experiments happens to be turning himself into a pickle, totally random to everyone else, but Rick is more than ecstatic about his success. He has no arms, no legs, his blood is pickle juice, and he's just chilling on his workbench when Morty discovers that the crunchy green snack isn't just a pickle. It's Pickle Rick! Boom! Big reveal!
But turning himself into a pickle was just meant to be what it was, him being a pickle. No one, not even Rick, could have seen what the future held for the tiny sandwich complimentary snack.
Why Does Rick Turn Himself Into a Pickle?
What at first appears to be a random mad scientist experiment from Rick is soon revealed to be a hilariously lazy attempt at Rick wanting to avoid family plans. The day he turned himself into a pickle was the same day that the family -- excluding Jerry -- was supposed to attend therapy. Beth and Jerry had just separated and both Morty and Summer were seemingly acting up in school -- Summer was huffing enamel (which she claims was unrelated to their family drama), and Morty wet his pants in class.
Rick, as open as he is to discussing his emotions and confronting his personal issues, did not want to go to therapy, nor does he really acknowledge is institution as a whole as being a healthy resource. So, instead of faking being sick, or disappearing to another galaxy to get out of going to therapy, he does what any sensible mad scientist would do in a similar circumstance: he turns himself into a pickle.
He tries to convince his daughter and grandchildren that he forgot about therapy, and decided that morning that he wanted to test his scientific intelligence in trying to turn himself back to normal after being a pickle, but his real plan isn't very hard for the family to figure out. They notice a timer connected to a pair of scissors that is set to cut a string, which is holding a mysterious syringe. The Smiths suspect that the needle contains anti-pickle serum. But Rick insists that it is something totally unrelated. Beth outsmarts him and takes the syringe before leaving for therapy, saying that he wouldn't want to have that unrelated serum stab him while he is trying to conduct his experiments. But as they pull out of the driveway, the real adventure begins.
What Happens in the "Pickle Rick" Episode?
The episode jumps back and forth between Rick's pickle adventure and the Smiths at therapy. After the family leaves, Rick is left in the garage without anything to do. The neighbor's cat, however, is infatuated with the pickle on the workbench and does what cats do best, knocks it onto the floor. Rick rolls out of the garage into a sudden rainstorm and is thrown into the sewer.
Once underground, he kills a roach and uses its body as transportation. He then builds an array of machines that resembles Tony Stark's contraption that dresses him into his Iron Man suit. Rick goes on to kill a rat, and taking its arms, legs, and brain, is able to attach them to his pickle body and become a tiny murderous pickle. After escaping the sewers, he finds himself in an unfamiliar bathroom of someone with many security guards. All he wants is to go back home, but because of a cultural superstition, they believe he is this evil deity come to punish them, and so they try to kill him. Big mistake.
Rick goes on a rampage, killing nearly every security guard that crosses his path. Their leader then sends a Russian prisoner by the name of Jaguar to assassinate the evil pickle, who they call, "solenya". But his plan backfires, as Rick convinces Jaguar to team up and take down whatever weird crime business they found themselves trapped by. Pickle Rick and Jaguar escape after blowing the facility sky-high. They part ways and Rick has no option but to go to therapy, because that's where the unrelated syringe is that he needs. Okay fine, it's anti-pickle serum. He takes the serum and turns back to human before him and Beth go to Shoney's to get a drink after a long, stressful day. And that's how this Rick and Morty (or perhaps just Rick) adventure concludes.