The Weird Detail You Likely Missed In The Rick And Morty Season 4 Finale
"Rick and Morty" may be a cartoon for adults, but it's still a complex, intelligent show that rewards multiple viewings. The show is so intricate that it's not always possible to catch all the small, compelling details through a single viewing. Sometimes, subtle details in "Rick and Morty" can provide huge clues. Other times, the small details are not meant so much to help viewers figure mysteries out, but rather to entertain viewers on an additional level to what is going on in the foreground of the show. This could be anything from a recurring inside joke to references to other books, films, or current events, including Stephen King references, horror references, and "Back to the Future" references. Details like this help viewers feel like the show rewards study or multiple serious viewings.
There are many strange details in the Season 4 finale, but one of them occurs after Summer (Spencer Grammar) has used Rick's (Justin Roiland) invisibility belt to sneak into her crush's house while he is outside mowing the lawn. After Morty (Justin Roiland) appears and takes the belt, Summer tries to sneak out of the house, but her crush finds her and asks what she's doing there. While Summer attempts to explain herself, there's something very strange hanging on the wall behind her crush's head.
What does this bizarre picture from the Rick and Morty Season 4 finale mean?
A puzzling photograph hangs on the wall behind Summer's crush. It appears to depict a mother sitting on a living room couch with her teenage son, whose shirt says "Meth Gator," on her lap. In the background, a man (presumably the father and husband) stands in his underwear, holding an empty beer bottle.
The teenager does not resemble Summer's crush, nor do any of the people in the photo clearly depict "Rick and Morty" characters. Therefore, fans on Reddit speculated about what the photograph means. Many thought it could be a reference to a different show, film, or video, including "American History X" (u/tyler_time), "Stranger Things" (u/Key-Nefariousness257), "Too Many Cooks" (u/thesaga), or "Natural Born Killers" (u/absolutedesignz).
In "Natural Born Killers," Mallory's (Juliette Lewis) childhood flashbacks take the form of fake sitcom scenes. Her father strongly resembles the shirtless man with the beer bottle, and Mallory is just as angsty as the teenager on his mother's lap. The picture could be a sign that there is a dark backstory to Summer's crush's family, similar to Mallory's in "Natural Born Killers."
Redditor u/Itsdawsontime had a completely different theory: The words "Meth Gator" on the teenager's shirt could be referencing an NBC News article where police warned against flushing meth down toilets because alligators could consume it and become hyperaggressive.
Although the show's creators do not appear to have commented on this strange photograph, fans certainly got a laugh out of it and continue to appreciate small details like this on the show.