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Rick and Morty
Season 1, Episode 4
"M. Knight Shaym-Aliens!"

Rick and Morty (S1, E4) Plot Summary

Aliens hold Rick and Jerry captive in a virtual reality, in an attempt to steal Rick's recipe for a fuel called Concentrated Dark Matter.

As Rick attempts escape, he discovers that there are multiple virtual reality layers on top of each other. Jerr[...]

Getting Started

2 ~ 4 minutes

Welcome your students to the lesson and ask them what they thought of today's episode.

  1. What did you think of this episode of Rick and Morty?
  2. Can you give Rick and Morty season 1, ep. 4 a star-rating between 1 and 5 stars?
  3. What factors did you consider when giving your rating?
  4. Are there any particular scenes, characters, or details you're looking forward to discussing?

Sections

Warm-Up

5 ~ 20 minutes

Warm up by asking your students to consider some open-ended general questions:

Q 1
Is it possible that your life is actually a simulation?
Q 2
How much can little things change in your life before you start to notice? What big changes would you still be unlikely to notice?
Q 3
Have you ever won a professional award? What award would you like to win?
Q 4
Have you ever received a scam email or a scam phone call? How did you know it was a scam?
Q 5
Do you think you could be happy even if you knew you were living in a simulation?

Key Expressions

Approx 15 ~ 30 minutes

Review these 15 key expressions from the transcript:

How to use this section

Level 1:For each expression, review the meaning and example with your student, then ask your student to listen/repeat the example sentence after you.

Level 2:You can ask your student to create their own example sentences, using the same expression.

Image Prompt

5 minutes

Tell your students that you will show them an image and ask them a question. They will have a limited amount of time to respond.

Countdown
Why is Rick gesturing like that with his fingers when he says "school"?

Check Understanding

15 ~ 25 minutes

Let's make sure your students watched the episode and understood what was going on.

How to use this section

As the teacher, you can press the "SEE ANSWER" button to check our suggested answers. Students do not see this button.

  1. Why are most of the characters behaving strangely at the start of this episode?
  2. Who created the simulation? What is the purpose of the simulation?
  3. Why does Rick force Morty to take a shower with him?
  4. Why is Jerry's simulated environment so strange?
  5. What was Jerry's big idea for marketing apples? Why was it a fraud?
  6. Why does Rick want to perform a concert?
  7. How do the Zigerians try to trick Rick again and again? Did they succeed?

Discussion

30 ~ 50 minutes

Lead students in an open-ended discussion of the scenes, themes, plot and characters in the episode

Q 1
What are some facts, events, or even people that make you think our “real life” might not actually be real?
Q 2
When characters go through good times and hard times and learn something, we call that a “character arc”. What is Jerry's arc in this episode? How does his life change?
Q 3
Why do you think scammers often use incorrect spelling/grammar or have strong accents? Don't they realize this reveals their scam?
Q 4
During this episode, how many times were you surprised, thinking that something was real when it wasn't? Did you think that was really the recipe for concentrated dark matter?
Q 5
What did you think of the 'Human Music' that Jerry was listening to in the car?
Q 6
We learned that Rick's last name is Sanchez. What is your last name? Does it have any special meaning in your family?
Q 7
If you studied chemistry, it's no surprise that Cesium mixed with water will blow up. Were you good at chemistry as a student? What are some facts about chemistry that you can remember?

Shadowing Practice

10 ~ 15 minutes

Shadowing is a repetition technique for more natural pronunciation.

How to use this section

Ask your students to memorize this passage from the transcript and repeat it back to you, being careful to match the pronunciation, inflection, and emotion they heard in the show.

This can be assigned as homework or practiced together during class time.

Start playback at time: 02:38

Where there are yellow-highlighted gaps in the passage, press on the gap to see the correct text.
1
Rick, I have to go back! I think I was about to get married!
2
Take a shower with me, Morty.
3
What?!
4
Listen to me, Morty. Get your clothes off and get in the shower right now.
5
Y-y-y-you got to trust me, Morty.
6
Ugh! I'm gonna get an F in class, Rick.
7
Morty, that's not class. T-t-t-that wasn't your teacher. This isn't your school. This entire world is not the world. We're inside a huge simulation chamber on an alien spaceship.
8
Wait a minute. W-what are you talking about?
9
It's all fake Morty, all of it. Nanobotic renderings, a bunch of… crazy, fake nonsense, Morty. I couldn't say so until we got in the shower. They won't monitor us in here.
10
Monitor us?! W-who?!
11
Zigerion scammers, Morty. The galaxy's most ambitious, least successful con artists. You know, it's lucky for us they're also really uncomfortable with nudity.

Role Play

10 ~ 20 minutes

Students take the roles of characters and act out the scenes by creating their own version of events

Option
1
One student is Rick and the other is (real) Morty. Rick has just returned home and he is not sure Morty is real. Morty must try to convince him.
Option
2
One student is Jerry and the other student is Jerry's (real) boss. Jerry has just pitched “hungry for apples” and his boss wants to fire him.

Articles (a/an/the) Practice

5 ~ 30 minutes

Ask your student to click on any incorrect articles, or to click in the space before a word that needs an article.

Some articles may be correct already, but clicking on them will show an alternate option.

Aliens
hold
Rick
and
Jerry
captive
in
an
virtual
reality,
in
a
attempt
to
steal
Rick's
recipe
for
a
fuel
called
Concentrated
Dark
Matter.
Restart articles practice?
You have found 0 out of 3 issues

Guessing Game

5 ~ 10 minutes

Ask your student to type letters and try to guess the expression

Some expresssions might have punctuation, like question marks (?), exclamation marks (!), hyphens (-), or single quotation marks (').

“To trick someone and steal something from them”
????
Guess 4 more letters

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