'Rick and Morty' Did a Live-Action Callback to the Purge Episode
Did you even realize that they were Cat People?
Ever wonder what life might really be like on a planet of Cat People that relish in an annual Purge event of wanton murder and destruction? Well, Rick and Morty has once before, and now Adult Swim has released a live-action teaser that’s basically a news report one might see on the planet Rick and Morty visit in Season 2, Episode 9, “Look Who’s Purging Now.” You know, the one with its own Purge.
The video popped up on Adult Swim’s Facebook page on Wednesday. Two Cat People anchors remind viewers that “spring is Festival season!” They offer up helpful decorating suggestions, along with another essential tip: “Get your shopping done early before the best weapons are sold out!” Meanwhile, a promo code for Mordecai and Sons Sickle Sharpening scrolls on the bottom of the screen.
The whole thing is unnerving and weird, mainly because the people from the animated episode look so varied and odd that it’s hard to imagine them as actual cats. The Adult Swim news report literally just has three poorly photoshopped pictures of cat and kitten heads placed on human bodies:
In “Look Who’s Purging Now,” Rick and Morty happen to arrive on the very day that the annual Festival begins at sundown. During the Purge, the planet full of humanoid Cat People living an amish-like lifestyle erupts into gruesome murder for one night only. It’s how they keep the peace.
Rick and Morty initially watch from a distance until they’re tricked by a supposed damsel in distress and are then forced to fight for their lives. By the end, Rick somehow summons a pair of power armor that lets them both Purge. In a glorious fight scene, it’s basically two Iron Mans versus an army of farmer.
Morty gets really into it, which is pretty unsettling. The episode is easily the most gruesome and violent Rick and Morty has ever gotten, but, somehow, the show has still managed to do much more fucked-up stuff.
Considering the Amish lifestyle the people on the Purge Planet lead, it seems strange that they’d wind up with a modern-looking news report — or rather, “Mews Report” — on TV. So it seems that despite Rick and Morty’s intervention in “Look Who’s Purging Now,” the planet remained unchanged for a long enough time that they developed TV.
Remember: “During the Festival, killing aristocrats is prohibited by law!”
Rick and Morty Season 3 continues on Sunday, July 30 at 11:30 p.m. Eastern.
