Conspiracy
While flying through space, Rick and Morty collide with an interstellar insect that smears on the windshield; when Rick tries to clean it, the windshield becomes even more dirty, and Rick decides to look for washer fluid on a nearby planet. Upon arrival, Rick discovers that the planet’s inhabitants maintain their peaceful way of life by engaging in open warfare one night each year; after Rick discovers that the aforementioned night (which the citizens call “The Festival”) is that very evening, he pleasantly suggests to Morty that they stay and observe the murderous ritual.
They manage to find wiper fluid and fly off as the sun sets, flying low over the surface of the planet as the Festival begins. Rick’s enthusiasm for the Festival is quickly crushed by a particularly gruesome death that splatters his windshield with copious amounts of blood. As he vomits out of the window, utterly disgusted by the sight, Morty sees a damsel in distress and demands that Rick rescue her; when Rick objects, Morty blackmails him into complying. After landing (on top of one of the girl’s attackers), Rick excitedly starts shooting at anyone who comes near them. Morty suggests that the girl, Arthricia, wait out the Festival on their ship, and Rick sarcastically agrees.
At the Smiths’ house, Jerry and Summer get into an argument over Jerry’s nonsensical conversation, and Jerry leaves the room as Summer heckles him.
Arthricia asks Morty to stop asking her about the Festival, which leads to an awkward silence. The girl suddenly exclaims that she has forgotten her grandmother; the group travels to a dilapidated farmhouse, where Rick follows Arthricia inside despite his misgivings. He then crosses them: he overpowers Rick, steals his gun, and shoots him with it, eventually forcing Morty to surrender the ship. After apologizing to him, she flies off into the night, struggling with the controls. Moving inside the cabin, now on fire, Morty finds an injured Rick on the floor and helps him out of the shack. A group of people advances on them; when Rick disintegrates one of them, they surrender and give him their weapons.
Summer and Jerry start arguing again, but before they can, Rick’s “space phone” rings, and Summer fishes it out from a somewhat forgotten spot among the couch cushions. Hiding in a shack with Morty and in the process of creating a chemical solution to heal his injuries, Rick gives them the details of their situation between sending people to storm the cabin and asking Jerry if he’s Taddy Mason on the phone. , Summer dictates the number. After killing the last intruder with a spoon (the only thing Morty threw at Rick when he asked for help) and berating Morty for throwing him “the one thing that can never kill anything”, Rick tells Summer to find the red box above his desk. , take it out and enter the above number in the box.
To build a beacon for what Rick only identifies as a “package”, Rick and Morty head to the lighthouse with the intention of assembling the beacon on the observation deck. However, the owner of the lighthouse agrees only on the condition that one of them listens to his story. As Rick heads to the top of the lighthouse, Morty agrees to listen to the story, which he discovers is not just a movie script, but absolutely horrifying. To pass the time, he decides to eat one of the two candy bars given to them by whoever gave them the windshield wiper fluid.
Summer and Jerry go to the garage, where Summer picks up a red box and places it on the floor, scolding Jerry for insisting on solving the problem as he enters numbers into the box. After the sequence is complete, the box opens to create a launch pad for a large silver sphere with a smaller red dot on its side. As Jerry continues to try to regain his dignity, the orb shoots through the ceiling into the sky, leading Summer to think, “Oh…maybe he said to take it out.”
On the observation deck, Rick finishes assembling the receiver, while down in the main room, the owner finishes reading to Morty, whose patience is running out. After repeatedly asking Morty for his honest opinion, Morty says he has a problem with the way the story begins with the trailer, and the owner, suddenly offended, responds by ordering them to leave. Morty is confused and the owner claims that he shared something personal with him and he “freaked out”. Morty takes offense at the attacks against his character and tells the owner that they just asked for a beacon to be set up. The owner tells Morty that they can’t do this anymore because Morty is a “shitty and insecure person” and takes the stairs. After reaching the top, he tells Rick to leave, saying that Morty is a “shithole person”. Morty quickly defends himself by claiming that he “sat through” the entire game on the screen, further infuriating the owner. Fed up with the owners’ insecurity, Morty reveals that he hated the whole story. Rick reminds Morty that they are guests, Morty retorts that he was trying to be polite, but the owner takes out his anger. When the owner tries to turn off the receiver himself, Morty stops him, claiming that he is not a bad person just because the owner is insecure about his writing, and in a fit of rage pushes him down the stairs, killing him and leaving Rick. amazed.
Jerry tries to connect with Summer again by reminiscing about the past, but the conversation devolves into Jerry asking for money. Summer leaves him alone in the garage and a piece of the broken roof falls on his head, just after he says “…Guess that’s how it is at the bottom”.
As they leave the lighthouse, they are confronted by a horde of rioters, including a man who gave them windshield wiper fluid and a stick. However, before a fight can break out, a sphere-like probe lands between Rick and Morty and assembles suits of armed flying armor over their bodies. Rick immediately begins murdering the crowd. Morty hesitates at first, but soon finds his “inner rage” and slaughters the entire crowd (as his suit plays “Feels Good” by Tony! Toni! Toné!). Rick congratulates Morty on finding the purge ability and they search for their ship. Rick manages to find him, crashing into the side of a building, but turns to find Morty once again defeating everyone in sight, even those in hiding; even though they are all killed, Morty continues to fire round after round into the long-dead bodies, even as Rick gently guides him back to the ship. When they reached the ship, they found Arthricia crawling on the ground nearby. As he trains his weapons on her, he explains his true intentions: to use the ship to assassinate the arrogant rich who force the peasants to fight to the death. Morty, drunk with rage, insists on killing Arthricia on the spot, but Rick tells Morty to calm down. Morty then threatens to kill Rick, at which point Rick tasers Morty to bring him under control and asks Arthricia where the rich people are.
In a villa outside the city, the rich planets toast to another successful year of the Festival, which has been going on for thousands of years. Moments later, the sound of “Feels Good” wafts through the air and Arthricia, now wearing Morty’s spacesuit, and Rick, with Morty strapped to his back, break down the door. Rick tells the rich people that he has nothing against them, but that Arthricia is deeply offended by forcing the peasants to kill each other without suffering any consequences themselves. He further explains that Arthricia’s armor is a way to divide the power between them fairly. Arthricia then begins to exact her revenge, killing rich people and inviting Rick to join in the bloodbath. Rick initially refuses, saying that the killing has become “gratuitous”, but eventually joins after being asked a second time. After killing all the rich people, Rick and Arthricia dance ecstatically to “Feels Good”.
As the sun rises in the morning, Morty finally wakes up on the ship. After being encouraged by Rick, Morty goes to talk to Arthricia, who dismisses him by saying she has a boyfriend.
As Rick and Morty prepare to leave, the townspeople discuss building a new society from the ground up, and Rick suggests using food in exchange. After Rick and Morty leave, a discussion about food escalates into a bloody brawl. One of the townspeople stops the brawl and explains a plan to stop the violence, which stabilizes the core concept of the Festival in society.
On the way back to Earth, Morty reflects on his rage-filled rampage with shame. Rick assures him that none of his actions were his fault and that his violent rage was caused by eating a bar that contained Purgenol, a chemical that enhances a person’s violent tendencies. Rick convinces Morty that despite what happened last night, nothing about who he was has changed. When Rick tosses his candy bar into the backseat, the candy bar’s wrapper faces up to reveal a “Now Purgenol Free” sticker.
In a post-credits scene, Beth asks Jerry why their phone bill is $700 and asks what “Taddy Mason, L.L.C.” means Soon, a Taddy Mason ad plays on TV, explaining that it’s a paid call-back friend service. Beth absorbs this information while Jerry desperately tries to turn off their TV. After finally unplugging the TV, Beth bluntly tells Jerry to “get a job.”
