Film Theory: What is the Cat HIDING? (Rick and Morty Season 4)

Episode 4 of Rick and Morty's 4th season was... interesting. I could make a theory about soul bonding with dragons and the cultural structure of dragon societies, but actually that wasn't the part of the episode that caught my interest. No, today I want to talk about that darn talking cat. Why does it talk and why does Rick react the way he does when he finds out? Why are we left in the dark, like the memory erased Jerry? Let me tell you, Theorists, this goes deeper than you would expect!

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Credits:
Writer: Matthew Patrick and Justin Kuiper  
Editor: Josh Langman  
Assistant Editor: AlyssaBeCrazy
Sound Editor: Yosi Berman

[chickencurry]

Whatever was in that scanner was so bad, it didn't just rattle Rick. It was so bad that Rick tried to protect Jerry (someone he actively, unapologetically hates) from seeing it.

[gusballenger]

The fact that the cats mouth doesn’t move makes me think it telepathically speaks to people and makes them perceive it as a cat, maybe jerry and rick saw it’s true form and what it can do.

[peppercornucopia_]

Matpat: What is the Cat HIDING?
Short answer: idk
Long answer: idk lol

[jonathanleuck]

My theory is that they literally found out why the cat can talk. Why is a cat able to talk? Because the writers wrote a talking cat. It's stupid meta and very self-aware but also fits really well with Rick as a character. The cat is coming to terms with his knowledge and tries to act like everything is normal because he too struggles with the burden of knowledge. But there's a part of him that wants to share that burden but knows that it would only bring pain to others. What Rick and Jerry see is our world and something that Rick cannot do or change. He is now further burdened with knowledge. It would tie into the theory that Rick knows its a show and does odd things to make the show entertaining because if it's canceled they cease to exist. This may very well be the point Rick finds out.

[bengt]

Imagine how horrific something has to be for Rick to contemplate suicide out of pure horror

[Lozwave]

that was probably jerry's most noble moment, "someone has to remember"

[ieroen]

What really struck me, is that the cat doesn't actually talk: his mouth never moves. It seems a kind of telepathic thing or a narration thing.

[callmetalonpls]

I find this "asking questions = bad" really interesting coming from the cat considering "curiosity kills the cat. But satisfaction brought it back"

[OmegaX]

Pretty sure wiping Jerry's mind was the nicest thing Rick did.

[bassman]

It’s suspicious that the cat talks about the “point of a talking cat”, as if it chose to take the form of a talking cat.

[threedicksonabench]

You know it’s bad when Rick try’s to protect Jerry from it.

[tigertoxins]

I like the Schrödinger's cat theory, because instead of immediately tossing the headset like Jerry, Rick really takes some time to try and grasp what he's looking at. You can see his expression of disbelief and horror as he slowly manages to process what he's looking at. Rick, the so called 'smartest man in the universe', has to take time to think about something he's never witnessed and when it finally hits him, he reels back in well earned disgust. This man has been to greasy grandma world, a world where chairs eat people, and apparently the "blender dimension", but what is a horror so out of left field that not even Rick knows what he's looking at?
Bam, Schrödinger's cat with an old people fetish. A world of pure horror, where everything you know is synesthetic and slowly melts into each other, a violently polarized reality of rabid old people going at it, guts spilled open from the fresh car accident that never happened, flesh rotting but not quite, an infinite amount of possibilities overlapping in a single material reality which is this cat's mind. It's like that episode with the machine of unspeakable doom, except with goatse mixed in.

[TheBurkissWay]

There's only one thing that can cause Rick that much distress:

The Cat
IS ON A COB

[MissBlueEyeliner]

Rick wiping Jerry’s memory was the kindest and most selfless act of his so far.

[DBVerseVA]

I think what they saw was the cat responsible for making the Cats 2019 movie.

[Turgineer]

4:32 As soon as I saw this scene, I wondered what could possibly have scared the cold-blooded Rick so much.

[justchilling]

I wish In the future the creators makes a Jerry mind blowers episode where they reveal the story behind this mystery

[fredlopez]

This episode is an embodiment of the phrase "curiosity killed the cat"

[connoravery]

I feel like this is just a joke by the writers to get fans to overthink the cat against overthinking

[ArthurMorgan]

I think that since Rick is aware of the fourth wall, he knows that he is a fictional character.However, that cat was from beyond the fourth wall, otherwise from reality.
From the sound that can be heard after Rick put goggles on, the scenes contains explosion, boots marching, chainsaw going through flesh and a baby crying. Maybe after Rick saw that the show he is on give the people in the cat's memory or real life entertainment, he was disgusted about it.And since Jerry is weak hearted in here and Rick doesn't want Jerry to be aware that he is in a show, Rick erases Jerry's memory.