The 9th episode of Rick And Morty season 3 “The ABCs of Beth” took us on our first real Beth-centric adventure and delved into her past to reveal she’s more like Rick than she’d like to admit. That news hit especially hard considering she also finally realized that he’s not the loving father she’s built him up to be in her head. It was a great episode for her character’s growth, topped with a huge unanswered question at the end: did Beth accept Rick’s offer to “take off” and enjoy the multiverse, leaving her kids under the watchful eye of a clone? Or did she stick around to ‘luxuriate in a life she finally knows she’s chosen?’
The episode was clearly written to leave Beth’s decision up for debate. But is it a situation where there’s no definitive answer? Or is it akin to Total Recall where the truth is there for those who look closely enough? With just a few minutes worth of episode remaining after Beth made her decision to try to decode an answer, we don’t have much to work with. But let’s break things down.
“Oh my God, I’m my father.”
During her slaughter of the Froopylanders, Beth realizes with horror and then excitement that she’s her father’s daughter. After she gets back, she tells Rick, “I’m out of excuses to not be who I am. So who am I? What do I do?”
Rick replies, “My advice? Take off.”
Beth is finally realizing that she doesn’t really know who she is outside the prisms of wife and mother. If there’s ever a time she’d take off to reconnect with the real Beth, it’s now.
Score 1 point to Beth leaving.
“I know what I want to do.”
But then there was that heartfelt moment where Beth looks at photos of her family. Jerry. Morty. Snuffles. Summer. Rick. Mr. Poopybutthole. It’s right after this that she declares she knows what she wants to do. And while it’s pretty tinfoil, Reddit user LoLviking points out there may be a subliminal message hidden in that moment:
Score 1 point to Beth staying.
“Love you too, sweetie.”
But then we get to the first scene after Beth makes her decision. Summer and Morty are back and an unusually chipper Beth asks, “How was Jerry’s?” Not only does she seem suspiciously happy, she’s asking about Jerry’s, which just doesn’t seem like Beth.
Speaking of people being happy and chipper, Rick is in a similarly good mood. He hops through a portal without even being asked so he can provide his family with Arnaldo’s pizza from a sane dimension where Daylight Savings isn’t a thing. That’s a pretty big swing in attitude compared to the Rick from the rest of the episode, making us wonder if Rick left too and is a clone as well. Maybe it’s all on account of them being satisfied with the choice Beth has made to stay, but I don’t buy it.
Score 1 point to Beth (and Rick) leaving.
“Lookin’ out for you, buddy!”
Then there’s the post-credits scene where Rick leaves a message on Jerry’s answering machine saying he’s killed the Krutabulon that was about to hunt Jerry. “Lookin’ out for you, buddy,” he says, which doesn’t seem like something real Rick would do. Then he calls back to admit he’s sleeping with Jerry’s ex, which is a Rick thing to do. But a Rick clone wouldn’t be programmed to act like Rick… it’d just also be programmed to take good care of Beth’s family. The moment has a definite “Keep Summer Safe” vibe to it.
Score 1 point to Rick (and therefore Beth) leaving.
So that’s three indications that Beth may have left to one that she stayed. But the show left a simple backdoor built into this whole subplot that allows Beth to take off but have it not really matter in the grand scheme of things. “You could be gone a day, a week, for the rest of your life with zero consequences,” Rick said. “The moment you decide to come back, I flip a switch and the clone’s job is done. It feels no pain, regrets nothing, and has zero chances of going Blade Runner.”
Beth doesn’t have to take off forever. She could easily leave for just a brief period of time, adventuring with her father and learning more about what he (and through him, herself) is really like. That actually sounds healthier than sticking around, which seems to be tearing her up inside lately.
Either way, that “perfect instance of Beth with all her memories” would probably be so similar to the real Beth that her family and we viewers at home will never be able to tell the difference anyway. And if clone Beth is a biological duplicate in every way, there’s no practical difference between her and an original Beth that did hypothetically stay. Maybe that’s the real mind-blower living at the center of this particular scenario that Rick And Morty wanted us to dwell on.
