It is no secret that Rick and Morty and Gravity Falls share a number of hidden connections that stem through both respective franchises–and one of those connections potentially redefines the Rick and Morty episode “Morty’s Mind Blowers” forever.
Gravity Falls is an animated series following the adventures of Dipper and Mabel as they spend the summer with their great uncle Stan in his tourist trap known as the Mystery Shack. Within the first episode, Dipper finds a journal with the number three written on the cover over an image of a six-fingered hand–a journal containing hidden mysteries, codes, and ciphers all relating to the overall weirdness of the Town of Gravity Falls, Oregon. On the surface, it doesn’t seem like this show–which was allegedly geared towards a younger audience–has any connection to a much more mature series like Rick and Morty in the slightest, until one starts looking at every entry in both franchises’ lore a bit more closely.
Gravity Falls: Lost Legends–written by series creator Alex Hirsch with art by Joe Pitt, Ian Worrel, Asaf Hanuka, Dana Terrace, Jacob Chabot, Jim Campbell, Kyle Smeallie, Meredith Gran, Mike Holmes, Priscilla Tang, Serina Hernandez, Stephanie Ramirez, and Valerie Halla–is a collection of Gravity Falls stories that weren’t told in the show. In one of those stories, titled “Face It”, Dipper and Pacifica follow an otherworldly entity into a paranormal black market where they see a member of the Society of the Blind Eye selling memories that were erased from people’s minds–and one of those memories was labeled “Rick S.”, which could be a reference to Rick and Morty’s Rick Sanchez.
Gravity Falls May Have Inspired Morty’s Mind Blowers
While it is possible that the memory labeled “Rick S.” is just some random Gravity Falls resident, it is incredibly unlikely given the two series’ penchant for crossing over into each other’s universes. This implies that Rick had his mind wiped by the Blind Eye Society–which was originally established by Old Man McGucket, who was the former partner of Ford Pines, the author of the journals and potential friend of Rick Sanchez himself. Obviously, the theories and lore behind Rick and Morty and Gravity Falls run deep, but what’s important here is that Rick apparently had his mind wiped by McGucket’s mind eraser, and that most likely happened before the events of Rick and Morty–so, what if Gravity Falls’ McGucket unwittingly inspired “Morty’s Mind Blowers”?
In the Rick and Morty season 3 episode titled “Morty’s Mind Blowers”, Rick reveals a device of his own creation that erases people’s memories–primarily Morty’s. If Rick had a similar device used on him during a hypothetical trip to Gravity Falls some time in the past, he could have had a lingering memory of that device, which could have then inspired him to build one himself. If this theory is true (which stems from one of Rick’s memories being spotted in a canonical continuation of the Gravity Falls universe) then that means Gravity Falls could have inspired one of Rick’s gadgets, and by extension, an entire Rick and Morty episode–adding yet another link to these two franchises that undoubtedly share a multiverse (and will hopefully cross over in a much bigger way soon).