As Rick's spaceship drifted aimlessly through the cosmos, Summer complained about the "pointless" trip while staring out the porthole, and Morty was lost in his game, clutching the controller tightly. Suddenly, the ship's distress signal receiver let out a shrill beep, with a flashing distress signal from a nearby planet on the screen. A cunning glint flashed in Rick's eyes as he slammed his hand on the console and announced: "Looks like luck’s on our side. Behind this kind of distress signal, there’s either abandoned high-tech gear or trouble we can profit from—either way, it’s way more fun than zoning out with you two."
The spaceship landed beside the ruins of the signal’s source planet, and several ragged blue-skinned aliens swarmed over immediately. Their voices trembling, they described the disaster: a mysterious creature had occupied the planet, capable of devouring individual consciousness and assimilating it. The controlled clan members seemed normal on the surface, but in reality, they had become puppets of a collective consciousness. Rick suddenly cut them off and pointed behind him: "When you say ‘puppets,’ do you mean those two coming this way?" Everyone turned around to see two expressionless aliens approaching mechanically before suddenly pinning down the clansmen beside them and forcing a viscous fluid into their mouths.
While Morty and Summer scrambled backward, Rick put away his weapon and whistled at the two "puppets": "Long time no see, Collective." In the next second, a familiar smirk tugged at the corner of one alien’s mouth, and a voice echoed through the collective consciousness: "Rick, I thought you’d forgotten about me a long time ago." The collective life form that had seized the consciousness of all creatures on the planet was actually Rick’s ex-girlfriend. At the Collective’s command, the assimilated aliens around them lowered their guard one after another, and the originally tense atmosphere suddenly turned eerily peaceful.
Following the Collective to the planet’s core area, Morty and Summer were stunned by what they saw: the streets were clean and orderly, with no disputes or crimes. Every resident cooperated with each other tacitly, and even traffic lights had lost their purpose. The Collective explained that as a collective consciousness, she could make all individuals share perceptions and thoughts. This "assimilation" had ended wars and chaos on the planet—former rapists now took the initiative to maintain order, drug-addicted sex workers had become marine biologists, and things like alcohol, tobacco, and drugs that "trigger desire conflicts" had long been completely abandoned. Summer scoffed at first, believing it was a deprivation of "individual freedom," but as she watched residents voluntarily helping the elderly carry supplies by the roadside, her doubts gradually turned to hesitation.
Using "catching up" as an excuse, Rick sent Morty and Summer away and followed the Collective alone into a floating building. Along the way, the Collective revealed her ambition: soon, her consciousness network would meet the standards of a "Type I Civilization," and she would be invited to join the Galactic Federation. With the Federation’s resources, she would reach more planets and ultimately achieve the consciousness assimilation of the entire universe. "Ruling the universe is such a cliché," she whispered in Rick’s ear. "I just want all life to be free from loneliness and strife." These words ignited Rick’s enthusiasm completely, and he suddenly proposed a "grand carnival" on the condition that all red-haired women be gathered—this was the "individual physical trait" he remembered the Collective loving most.
As Rick flew a glider into a stadium filled with red-haired women, Morty and Summer were arguing about the right and wrong of the "assimilated society." Morty insisted that "boring peace is worse than real chaos," but Summer retorted: "At least no one here is homeless." Their argument was interrupted by a burst of violent retching—residents in the distance suddenly bent over collectively, spitting out the viscous substance that maintained their consciousness connection, and the originally orderly streets descended into chaos in an instant. It turned out that to make the carnival more enjoyable, Rick had provided the Collective with a "consciousness indulgence serum," causing her collective control to malfunction and some individuals to break free from the consciousness constraint.
Summer thought this was the start of "liberation" and rushed excitedly into the crowd, only to find that the residents who had broken free from assimilation had not returned to "civilization"—people of different races immediately drew their weapons against each other because of past grievances, and the once peaceful neighborhood turned into a battlefield in the blink of an eye. An alien who had just regained consciousness immediately started racial warfare upon seeing members of a different race.
Meanwhile, the carnival in the stadium had also spiraled out of control. Rick slouched on the glider, gasping for breath, with piles of empty energy drink cans beside him, while the Collective’s consciousness was on the verge of collapse—she was both addicted to the indulgent pleasure Rick had brought and unable to control the scattered individual consciousness. Rick went to the bathroom, and when he came back, he found that the Collective had left, leaving a large number of letters around the city to bid him farewell.
Back home, Rick was expressionless. Beth apologized for letting Rick’s patient get away, and Summer asked Rick what had happened to the Collective, but Rick only muttered a casual "Fine," "Whatever," and turned toward the garage.