Warning: Contains SPOILERS for Rick and Morty season 6, episode 6
Although Rick and Morty’s season 5 finale promised a more equitable relationship between Rick and Morty after the latter saved the former from Evil Morty, that is not how things have panned out in part 1 of season 6. Since the Adult Swim hit debuted in 2013, Rick and Morty’s relationship has been defined by a power imbalance. Although Morty has tried (usually in vain) to convince his grandfather to treat him better, the dimwitted, well-meaning character has mostly been a pawn in Rick’s plans.
However, when the season 5 finale took away Rick’s ability to travel between dimensions (without summoning Cthulu from Rick and Morty’s opening credits, that is), this promised to improve Morty and Rick’s dynamic. Now that Rick was less all-powerful, it seemed as though he would need to rely on Morty more and, as such, grow to appreciate his grandson and treat him more like an equal. However, Rick and Morty season 6 part 1 proved that this was not destined to be the case, as Morty maintained the independence that he gained since season 5, but Rick refused to recognize his grandson’s need to be appreciated and instead went to extremes to make Morty more reliant on his approval. This flips season 5's promised development, making Rick and Morty's future uncertain.
Rick and Morty’s Relationship Since Season 5
Throughout Rick and Morty season 5, Morty was gradually growing more independent and starting to resent Rick’s control over him. Rick manipulates everyone in Rick and Morty but Morty receives an oversized amount of exploitation from the show’s antihero since he is effectively Rick’s sidekick. However, in Rick and Morty’s season 5 finale, Morty finally learned the extent of Rick’s manipulations and had the chance to leave his grandfather behind as the Citadel crumbled around them. Instead, Morty chose to help save Rick despite all the mistreatment that Rick meted out on him over the years, leading his grandfather to promise a fairer, more equitable relationship between them going forward.
Rick and Morty Season 6 Has Focused On Rick
Judging by the events of Rick and Morty’s “Solaricks” (season 6, episode 1), it seems as if Rick was being sincere when he promised to treat Morty better in season 6. However, this has not stopped the character from slipping back into his borderline villainous old self. C-137 Rick’s attempts to be a less terrible person have dominated the events of Rick and Morty season 6, with the character repeatedly running into his own ego and hubris throughout the six episodes before outright embracing them in episode 6. However, this has left Morty on the sidelines, as Rick spent episode 1 trying to treat Morty as his equal, episode 2 struggling with this idea, and every subsequent episode treating Morty more and more like a sidekick to be manipulated.
Morty’s Role In Rick and Morty Season 6
So far, Morty hasn’t had a great time in Rick and Morty season 6. Since Rick and Morty’s “Final DeSmithation” (season 6, episode 5) was focused on Jerry and Rick’s misadventures, Morty spent most of it offscreen, trapped in a Twilight Zone parody about a human zoo. Morty played a similarly small role in Rick and Morty’s “Bethic Twinstinct” (season 6, episode 3) thanks to Beth/Space Beth/Jerry’s relationship dominating the action of that outing. However, before both of these episodes pushed Morty into the background, it was “Rick: A Mort Well Lived” (season 6, episode 2) that offered some insight into Morty’s growth, with a character change occurring that was later reflected in Morty’s actions throughout the rest of season 6, part 1.
“Rick: A Mort Well Lived” Changed Morty
In “Rick: A Mort Well Lived,” Rick’s decision to leave Marta behind in Blips and Chitz effectively deprived Morty of his ability to demand a better dynamic between him and his grandfather. This becomes obvious in Rick and Morty’s “Night Family” (season 6, episode 4), wherein he doesn’t question Rick’s views while awake and doesn’t question Night Summer’s leadership while he is asleep. Where viewers might reasonably have expected the more confident and self-actualized version of Morty seen at the end of season 5 and the start of season 6 to broker peace between the equally obstinate Rick and Night Summer, cutting out Marta left Morty without the ability to access his more confident and individualistic self. This is reaffirmed in “JuRicksic Mort” (season 6, episode 6), where Morty is excited by the prospect of resuming Rick and Morty’s inter-dimensional adventures despite claiming he had a perfectly fine time in high school when Rick’s portal travel was out of commission.
Why Rick and Morty Season 6 Part 1 Undid Morty’s Growth
It is hard to tell why Rick and Morty season 6 focused on canon less as the show immediately undid Morty’s season 5 growth in the second episode of the season. However, one reason could be that this facilitated the goofy, standalone adventures of Rick and Morty season 6, part 1. As Rick noted when he lectured the dinosaurs of “JuRicksic Mort” for acting holier than thou, a world without conflict isn’t as interesting for viewers as a more dramatic one. Similarly, a version of Morty who refuses to simply go along with his grandfather’s zany schemes could cause Rick and Morty’s action to ground to a halt and hamper the show’s anarchic humor in the process. This could also explain why Rick and Morty season 6 changed Rick’s role in the series, pairing him off with Summer and Jerry as well as Morty to keep the character dynamics from feeling overly familiar.
However, this is not the only reason that Rick and Morty season 6 could be undoing Morty’s growth from the season 5 finale. Rick noted near the end of “JuRicksic Mort” that he wished the dinosaurs had not closed the rift in space-time that he left open since Rick and Morty could have gotten a multiple-episode arc out of the occurrence. This throwaway, fourth-wall-breaking joke reminded viewers that the previous season's finale and the season 6 debuts set up two major Rick and Morty villains, Evil Morty and Rick Prime, who haven’t been back since. Much like how Rick and Morty season 6 complicated Beth and Jerry’s relationship, taking away some of Morty’s independence has made C-137 Rick a less defensible antihero and Morty a less independent and confident foil to him. This will make it harder for both characters to face either Rick Prime or Evil Morty, since Rick is once again secretly manipulating his grandson, making Rick and Morty season 6 part 2’s inevitable villainous showdown a high-stakes proposition.
New episodes of Rick and Morty will return on Sunday, November 20 on Adult Swim.