As part of its annual April Fool’s prank, Adult Swim released “The Rickshank Rickdemption” – the first episode of season 3 of its animated TV series “Rick and Morty” – on April 1 this year.
Unsuspecting ‘fools of April’ were pleasantly surprised with the unannounced airing of the episode not once but every half hour from 8 pm to 12 midnight (ET).
Rick reveals in the episode, to a visibly shocked Morty, that his main mission is to make sure that he resurrects the ‘Szechuan Chicken McNugget Sauce’ which McDonald’s released for the promotion of Disney’s Mulan back in 1998, only to discontinue it the same year.
Understandably, “Rick and Morty” fans unleashed a campaign of pleas and petitions to get the fast-food giant to reintroduce the sauce. Some even went to the extent of buying a bottle of the suddenly-in-demand sauce for $15,000 on eBay.
“I’ll see what I can do” is how McDonalds’ corporate chef Mike Haracz responded to the frantic appeals at the time.
It is understood that the show’s co-creator Justin Roiland had voiced his own love for the sauce through Rick’s character and yesterday it was his turn to be surprised, not unpleasantly, when he received a 64oz jug of the celebrity sauce – courtesy, guess who!
Yes, you’re right! Who else, but McDonald’s! A marketing masterstroke from the creators of Big Mac – sending the sauce on the day the 2nd episode was due to air – brilliant!
SOS 073017 2130EST TWTR 3x.5GAL pic.twitter.com/pHvDzKVYMv
— McDonald’s (@McDonalds) July 30, 2017
The sauce was sent with a message from Chef Haracz which read:
“We wish we could have brought more sauce through, but we couldn’t risk keeping a portal like that open. Think about it, if you knew in 1998 that McDonald’s would have All Day Breakfast in 2017, would you want to stay in 1998? Of course not. If we left the portal open, we’d have puka shells, bucket hats, and boy bands as far as the eye could see. It’s too risky, even for a sauce as delicious as this.”
And here’s a look at the recipient’s reaction!
McDonalds literally sent us a bottle of the Mulan sauce with a Rick & Morty label. This is insane. https://t.co/7kee9VJ5ux
— Rick (((and Morty))) (@RickandMorty) July 30, 2017
Holy shit. pic.twitter.com/vNEIfHTmNU
— Justin Roiland (@JustinRoiland) July 30, 2017
Amidst all this, the second episode, “Rickmancing the Stone” aired last night, as was scheduled. Here’s a quick look at what transpired on the long awaited 2nd release of the season.
Considering what the audiences have been fed with, in the past episodes of R & M, the plot of this particular installment was rather mellow with Jerry and Beth’s divorce holding center stage.
It’s not long before the effect of the breakup is evident; Rick, Morty, and Summer are seen traversing the cosmos to escape their disintegrated family ending up in a Mad Maxish kind of situation where most of this week’s drama unfolds.
Meanwhile, Deathstalkers are on a rampage on the planet destroying everything in their path in search of gasoline. After Summer manages to kill the group’s leader, Haemorrhage (voiceover by Joel McHale) takes over as the new leader.
Morty declines Rick’s offer of opting out and both brother and sister stay back as Rick wants to get his hands on Isotope-22, a glowing green source of energy which the cretins have in their possession.
From here on it’s mean machine Summer who dons the leader’s mantle getting dragged into the Deathstalkers’ way of life. She even gets to dress like them.
At the Thunderdome – Blooddome to the Deathstalkers – Morty’s arm gets pumped up and huge by the DNA of another arm killing many of the Deathstalkers in the amphitheater – helping Morty to somewhat ease the pain of the divorce in the process.
Summer and Morty refuse to return with Rick, their bloodlust as wasteland warriors winning over their need to deal with the issues back home. Rick comes back home alone and soon replaces the kids with robots.
However, Rick goes back to the real Summer and Morty to sort out their issues.
Summer finds her love, Morty vanquishes a king with his mighty arm, and Rick manages to set everything on course for civilization.
Having achieved all that, the trio returns home and Beth is rid of the robots and everything is hunky dory – well, kind of!
Summer visits dad Jerry who is now surviving on unemployment cheques while an eerie sounding voice keeps calling him “loser.”