Rick & Morty’s Parasite Secret Makes Jerry & Sleepy Gary Even More Tragic

In Rick and Morty season 2 episode 4 “Total Rickall,” the Smith family is bombarded by a horde of psychic parasites, and one of them becomes Jerry’s dream partner, Sleepy Gary. The made-up life the parasite created for Jerry and Gary had the two falling in love, even though Jerry believed Sleepy Gary was married to Beth. Throughout the episode, Jerry falls more and more in love with Sleepy Gary and even wants to die after it’s revealed that Gary was a parasite all along. While the whole situation is played up for laughs, one tie-in Rick and Morty comic proves that their love was genuine, making their story all the more tragic.

In Rick and Morty Presents: Sleepy Gary #1 by Magdalene Visaggio and CJ Cannon, Rick brings Sleepy Gary back to life to study the parasite’s biology and brain function in an effort to never be impacted by them again. When Gary wakes up, all of the fake memories he used to embed himself in the minds of the Smith family come rushing back to him and he is convinced that he is Beth’s husband, but Jerry’s lover, so he breaks out of Rick’s lab to find Jerry. Once he does, the two run away together after the parasite uses its psychic powers to trick people into believing he had been a part of their lives all along.

After Sleepy Gary goes to Jerry’s office and convinces him to run away with him to an established alien settlement on Mars, the two form a life together on the Red Planet. That is, until Rick and Morty blast through a wall to their new house. The two are able to escape again, but this time Morty wonders why the parasite, being free to roam the world and even the universe, chooses to continue to run away with his dad rather than infecting people and creating more parasites. Rick answers, “He told the rest of the world he was in love with your dad, Morty. You do the math.” Basically, the more a parasite spreads a single idea, the more they themselves start to believe the feelings they’re fabricating, until that feeling that was once fake becomes truly genuine.

Sleepy Gary proves his true love for Jerry after Rick finally stops him for good. Before Gary and Jerry got too far from their house on Mars, Rick and Morty catch up with them and Rick beats Sleepy Gary nearly to death. With his dying breath, Sleepy Gary implants one last memory in Jerry’s mind, one that makes it seem like Gary kidnapped him and brought him to Mars against his will. The parasite does this to free Jerry of the guilt he may feel for his death and as a way for Jerry to more easily go back to his normal life.

By making Jerry forget that the two of them were ever in love, a feeling that the parasite completely fabricated in the first place, Sleepy Gary proved he actually did love Jerry and it wasn’t just a ruse to create more parasites. In fact, the events of this comic prove that if Sleepy Gary survived the parasite purge that took place at the end of Rick and Morty: “Total Rickall,” he and Jerry could have just gone off and lived a happy life together without fear of the parasites spreading across the world. Sleepy Gary convinced himself he loved Jerry while convincing Jerry the two had always been in love, a secret side effect of the parasite’s psychic powers that make their story even more tragic than it already was in Sleepy Gary’s debut Rick and Morty episode.

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