Summary

• Rick and Morty's "Pickle Rick" episode is a standout because it combines violence, creativity, comedy, animation, artwork, and a resonant message and discussion.
• Deg the Pickle Rick rat suit was a challenging process. The artists went through 100 designs before settling on the right suit.
• The episode goes beyond mindless violence. It delves into the characters' personal and emotional struggles, with a thought-provoking conversation between Rick and the therapist.

The Pickle Rick rat suit is one of the more enduring designs in a TV series filled with creative, inventive, and fantastical creations. Every season of Rick and Morty sees the titular scientist Rick and his earnest but exploited grandson, Morty, travel the multiverse, sometimes to save the world, sometimes to save themselves some money, and sometimes to save their relationships.

In season 3, episode 3, "Pickle Rick", violence, creativity, comedy, animation, artwork, and a resonant message and discussion come together for one of the best Rick and Morty episodes ever. In this episode, which aired August 6, 2017, Rick transforms himself into "Pickle Rick", which is just that — the scientist's mind (and face) transplanted into (and onto) a garden variety pickle. If that is not a strange enough visual, Pickle Rick soon dons a rat suit. The artists' and showrunners' path to the development of the look and plot of this episode is an interesting and strange journey itself.

The Creators Based Part Of The Episode On Fievel Goes West

Early Action Sequences Mirror Each Other

In a behind-the-scenes featurette on the Pickle Rick rat suit, the animators and writers discuss how they came up with the idea for the episode. Writer Dan Guterman says that they all wanted to do a weird take on An American Tail: Fievel Goes West, an exemplary animated Western movie that is a sequel to the 1986 Don Bluth classic An American Tail. There is a specific scene in the film that Guterman is referring to.

Early on in the movie, Fievel and his mouse family are chased into a storm drain during a rainstorm and surf down the rapids and over waterfalls, clinging to a floating bowl. That scene is recreated in "Pickle Rick", and it's not quite shot for shot, but it's extremely close. Like the mice, Pickle Rick sloshes around through the water, sailing over large drops. Without any arms, he's unable to pilot himself, and like the mice in Fievel Goes West, Rick just has to hold on tight and pray he lands somewhere safe.

Oddly, this isn't the first time that Fievel or American Tail has been mentioned in a Dan Harmon-created TV show. In Community, Harmon's live-action sitcom situated in a community college, Troy (Donald Glover) and Abed (Danny Pudi) experiment on a mouse in season 1, episode 10, "Environmental Science". They lovingly name the mouse "Fievel" and when it escapes, their duet of "Somewhere Out There", a song from An American Tail, makes it come back to them.

There Were At Least 100 Designs Of The Pickle Rick Costume

The Artists Tried Out Many Different Looks For The Character

The animators and artists of Rick and Morty went through over 100 iterations before they finally settled on the right Pickle Rick rat suit. Just about everyone had a shot at deg a rat suit, and the ideas ranged from cool to abominations. There are some in which Rick sits atop the rat's rear end, others where the rat's genitalia is incorporated into the design, and others that look like they could have spawned from an H. P. Lovecraft story.

Eventually, they settled on the suit that would define one of Rick's best versions of himself in Rick and Morty. The designers decided they would rather emphasize the "pickle" part of "Pickle Rick" with a suit that also allowed for a greater range of movement, so Rick could be more athletic and dangerous in the episode.

The Design Of The Rats Changed From Cute To Frightening

The Rats Rick Kills Originally Looked Happier

Another design change that had to be made was regarding the look of the rats. Dan Harmon says in the behind-the-scenes that he and the other writers decided the first iteration rats looked too adorable, and looking at early sketches, they were not wrong. Rick brutally murders and dis the rats in every which way in the episode, so making his victims look like cuddly plush toys was never going to work. The original rats had large googly eyes and soft, round features, so when Rick attacks them, it's more horrifying than it should be.

Instead, the artists highlighted the gruesome aspects of the rats. They extended their spines, added bumps and boils to make them look sickly, added sharper and larger teeth to make them seem more fearsome, removed fur from some spots on their skin, and gave them a blank pupil-less stare. It was a good choice and the result is that the rats Pickle Rick turns into mince meat are all evil-looking. It makes his sewer massacre much more palatable.

The Pickle Rick Episode Is A Character Driven Episode Despite The Violence

There Is More To This Episode Than Mindless Violence

The plot of "Pickle Rick" begins almost as a joke. After Beth divorces Jerry at the end of season 2, Summer and Morty begin lashing out at school and home. Beth and Jerry are also not taking the separation well, but they both refuse to acknowledge it. Beth insists everyone (except Jerry) goes to a family therapist to work out some issues.

Instead of even giving a real reason for not going, Rick turns himself into a pickle. Rick says he forgot but can't go now, as he is a pickle, but Beth calls his bluff.

Now actually stuck as a pickle, Rick rolls himself into a sewer where he's taken to a rat-infested underground lair, which is where he uses his genius to craft a rat suit. From there, he finds his way into a secret lair, and, á la John Wick​​​​​​, and immediately dispatches all the thugs using a battery, pencils, a trophy, and more. The identity of this covert and well-equipped operation is never explained, and Rick doesn't seem to know them either. With the help of one of the best-ing characters in Rick and Morty, Jaguar, Rick defeats the villains and gets away.

While Pickle Rick is having an action movie experience, Beth, Summer, and Morty are spending the day in a therapist's office. Susan Sarandon voices the therapist, Dr. Helen Wong, a confident and unflappable woman. Harmon was happy to hire her, saying,

"It's a gritty episode it's super violent. It's very personal and Susan Sarandon is in it probably because her kid's a fan. I don't think she was like, 'What should my next project be?'"

It's here where the true meaning of "Pickle Rick" comes through. Rick finally arrives at the therapist's office and immediately gives one of his classic disrespectful and flippant takedowns, this time aimed at the idea of therapy. However, for the first time when Rick says something like this, the person he's mocking doesn't roll over. Dr. Wong comes back with a thoughtful, measured, and insightful comment about therapy, the Smiths, and Rick. She determines he refuses therapy not because it bores him, but because it's too much work.

She says brushing your teeth isn't fun, exciting, or clever; it's just important work, like therapy, and Rick simply can't abide that. Unable to even think of a comeback, the Smiths leave and drive silently away. The only retort they can think of is to mock Dr. Wong personally, rather than argue anything she said. For one of the rare few times in Rick and Morty, someone has told Rick that his actions are not because he's all-powerful, but because he's selfish and unwilling to work on himself unless it provides him some benefit — such as a modified rat suit.

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