WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Rick and Morty Season 5, Episode 2, "Mortyplicity," which aired Sunday on Adult Swim.

Rick and Morty Season 5, Episode 2, "Mortyplicity," is pretty simple as far as cloning disasters go. Rick made decoys of his family to occupy some of the threats out in the universe that want him dead. The problem is that the decoys are almost exact copies of Rick and the family. They believe they are real, leading to the decoy Ricks making more decoys in an endless cycle. At one point, Rick explains the situation as an "Asimov Cascade," raising the question of if the decoys actually follow Isaac Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics.

Put simply, since the decoys are near-perfect replicas of the Smith family, the Ricks would eventually make their own decoys. Then those decoys would eventually make their own, snowballing into a situation where there is a literal cascade of Ricks, Mortys, Summers, Beths and Jerrys. When the "squids" at the beginning of the episode -- who are later revealed to be decoys -- kill the first decoy family, they trigger the other clones to check the status of their respective decoy families. They learn they are decoys and start killing other cloned families in a constant loop. When Beth asks how to stop the situation, Rick says the loop has already begun, and it's basically the last family remaining wins.

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The Three Laws of Robotics were created by Isaac Asimov, the famed sci-fi writer who Rick names his cascade after. The Three Laws state that robots may not harm a human or let a human come to harm; a robot must obey human's orders unless they conflict with the first rule; a robot must protect its existence as long as it doesn't break the first two laws.

Decoy family waiting Rick and Morty

In Rick and Morty's case, the decoys technically do not cause harm to any humans, even the decoys who believe they are killing the real Smith family, which preserves law number one. The decoy families follow the instructions of their creators when given a specific code. Although, their creators aren't human but other decoys, so the second law doesn't really apply. However, the decoys definitely obey the third law. Most of them realize they are decoys and proactively protect their existence in an attempt to be the last family standing. The decoys technically don't break the Three Laws, but that doesn't mean they wouldn't or couldn't.

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The decoys are nearly identical to the real deal, meaning the Ricks are pretty dangerous and can cause massive destruction. However, since they are in a loop, they aren't a threat to non-decoys. The president makes a brief appearance and, after his past run-ins with Rick, decides it's best if they just let the situation play out. That said, the grotesque decoy harvesting other decoys' skin hints that eventually -- if decoys keep getting created -- more monsters like him will be created. Therefore, it's plausible that someday the decoys could be a significant threat if not dealt with. Rick C-137 has to be smart enough to have some safety measures, though he has overlooked things in the past.

"Mortyplicity" is one of the best Rick and Morty episodes to date and continues the series' trend of taking well-known sci-fi concepts and having fun with them as it did with Season 4's snake time travel episode. As such, the Asimov Cascade was a unique way to pay homage to Isaac Asimov and the Three Laws of Robotics.

Rick and Morty stars the voices of Justin Roiland, Chris Parnell, Spencer Grammer and Sarah Chalke. The series airs Sundays at 11 p.m. ET/PT on Adult Swim.

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