Warning: The following contains spoilers for Rick and Morty Season 5, Episode 6, "Rick & Morty's Thanksploitation Spectacular," which aired Sunday on Adult Swim.
In the latest episode of Rick and Morty, the duo find themselves entrenched in a new global war, with turkeys being used as super-soldiers to conquer the planet. Thanks to a turkey-hybrid version of the U.S. President, this sinister legion's being seeded out with Congress' backing, with the tyrant then planning to mutate the entire world into an empire of gobblers. But while it seems like the mad scientist and his goofy grandkid would be outsmarted, the entire world ends up being saved by America's darkest secret.
This episode riffs off of patriotism, with the opening finding Morty destroying the Constitution and unleashing a killer-bot from inside the Statue of Liberty. It ties into Thanksgiving and how America has let politics and nationalism become warped symbols that people revere, with even Rick angry that Morty disrespected such objects in a twist on National Treasure.
But it comes full-circle at the end when it's revealed that Rick, Morty, the President and the resistance are vastly outnumbered. The Head of State then takes them into a secret chamber in Washington, revealing that he's been storing the real people who founded America. It's two warring alien factions, dressed like pilgrims, who landed centuries ago but entered a frozen hibernation, poking fun at conspiracy theories.
Rick's shocked as he thought white people really founded America but the President educates him, admitting that these aliens killed the Native Americans way before. Thus, Rick's left wondering if at some point the aliens killed off white colonizers too, or if the explorers came after and actually didn't enact a genocide.
That said, after the President awakens them from cryostasis in the temple, he brokers a deal and gets both species to fight on their side. Surprisingly, they want to protect America from the turkey-people too, and using their advanced tech, the coalition murders the villains.
Rick's stunned, because after the war ends, they go back to sleep knowing their home's safe and sound. He can't believe America never belonged to humans, and the fact that it was their tech that was left behind and used to advance civilizations over the years means Rick owes them his career.
The President doesn't pull punches in this bit of revisionist history, because while the tech was used for great things, it was also used for terrible things by the Founding Fathers, including slavery and terrorism as years went by. But to him, that's the price of progress. It's a macabre secret he has to protect more than the Declaration of Independence, leaving Rick wondering what other lies they've been fed about his country's so-called evolution.
Watch new episodes of Rick and Morty on Sundays at 11 p.m. ET on Adult Swim.