Rick and Morty can sometimes go really dark. Even when Rick is turning himself into a pickle (PICKLE RICK!), the silly conceit results in the death of several rats and people as Rick goes to great lengths to avoid the boring but difficult work of family therapy. And fans of the show love to dig deep with their fan theories. Combine the two, and you get one of the darkest fan theories yet.

A new Rick and Morty fan theory posits a dark purpose for Rick’s helmet, seen in the picture above and on Rick’s workbench in the second episode and then in several episodes since then. Redditor cdinzmcc makes a very long, somewhat labored case for this helmet being a suicide machine Rick can’t decide yet whether or not he’s going to use. Pictures of a similar real-life helmet have made the rounds along with a probable urban legend that it was used in a suicide involving a helmet and eight shotgun shells and detonators.

The Redditor acknowledges it could just be a Back To The Future reference before laying out a very long case for why it could be a suicide helmet. Here’s just one example:

The helmet features prominently in the first episode of season two. 201 is spent primarily in the garage, so this makes sense, but it also points to Rick’s growing desire “not to be.” Here’s where it gets really cool though. After Rick admits his uncertainty and time begins fracturing, each fracture alternates between the suicide helmet being in and out of view. This clearly symbolizes Rick’s uncertainty about whether or not he wants to kill himself. The creators go out of their way to make this happen — notice how the frame widens dramatically to include the suicide helmet every other fracture, showing us that Rick is really the uncertain one.

Mind. Blown. (Literally?)

Okay, it’s a reach, but Rick is exactly the type of guy to make a self-destruction helmet, just in case. After all, he never wears his seatbelt, told a robot having an existential crisis “Welcome to the club, pal,” and did this:

Or maybe we should stop digging for hidden layers and just be impressed.

(Via Dorkly and Reddit)