Rick And Morty Fans Think Lance Reddick's Character Deserved Better
Lance Reddick had many memorable voiceover roles over the course of his career, including that of Alan Rails on "Rick and Morty." He was featured in the Season 3 episode, "Vindicators 3: The Return of Worldender." He's part of an Avengers-like line-up of superheroes who meet untimely and horrific ends by the end of the episode, but some fans may not realize the character received much more depth in the web series "Vindicators 2."
Each episode is only a few minutes long, but they make the grisly ends of the heroes in "Vindicators 3" all the more depressing, especially when it comes to Alan. We know from "Vindicators 3" that he's Supernova's ex-husband and that she had an affair with Million Ants. "Vindicators 2" shows Alan after acquiring this knowledge and how he's grown disillusioned with the idea of being a hero. In one of the more poignant episodes of the web series, titled "Kintsugi," many fans believe his death in "Rick and Morty" is the most tragic.
There's beauty in the broken with Alan Rails
In the mainstay "Rick and Morty" series, Alan Rails is the "ghost train" guy. But audiences get to dive deeper into the one-note character in the "Vindicators 2" series. In "Kintsugi," Alan drinks wine while practicing the art of kintsugi, which is the Japanese art of repairing pottery by putting the pieces back together with gold. The idea is that something that is broken can still be put back together into something beautiful. Once the vase is complete, Alan destroys it only to start the process all over again.
On the episode's YouTube page, many comments pour in from fans who genuinely feel bad for Alan, with the kintsugi obviously serving as a metaphor for his own mental state. One user wrote, "The only vindicater who actually tried being a good hero and suffered for it, he deserved better than what he got." User General Codsworth, knowing everything Alan had been through, could understand why the character took up kintsugi: "How many times can he be betrayed by himself or others before he can no longer be put back together? How much can he fail before he can't fix anything or move on?"
The web episode is particularly prescient when looking at the way Alan ultimately died. Million Ants went inside him, exploding him into many pieces, unable to be put back together. "Rick and Morty" may be known for silly jokes and sci-fi shenanigans, but it can become downright depressing at times.