Rick and Morty's serialized and stand-alone episode format may seem as if it suggests that every episode follows the exact same versions of its characters, but there's plenty of speculation to the contrary. The meta-referential and cynical animated comedy follows the exploits of mad scientist Rick Sanchez and the adventures he drags his family on, most frequently his grandson Morty Smith. Aside from traipses through the multiverse, Rick and Morty also find themselves combating supernatural beings, a council made up entirely of alternate universe Ricks, and even the very structure of episodic storytelling itself. As a result, viewers may be left wondering how much of the show's onscreen action is, and is not, canon.

Rick and Morty's convoluted nature is in service of a mysterious, overarching story plot that series creators Dan Harmon and Justin Roiland have hinted at but never revealed. Despite the show's "adventure-of-the-week" format, there have been instances when events were serialized and carried major repercussions for the show. For example, an episode from the first season actually mutates the original dimension that Rick and Morty starts in, Dimension C-137. This turns the Rick and Morty of that dimension, the ones that viewers assume are the show's main characters, into multiverse refugees who kill and replace their counterparts in another undesignated universe.

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With all the show's talk of multidimensional theory and infinite alternate universes, it's very much possible to fall into a rabbit hole of questioning and speculating who is who and where is where. And that rabbit hole only grows deeper when fans consider the possibility that audiences may not be following the same Rick and Morty in each episode, reducing yet expanding the show's entire concept of canon.

Rick and Morty Portal

There have been several times when the Rick and Morty explicitly addresses the identity of the mainstream Rick and Morty as being from Dimension C-137. Throughout the first season, the universe that viewers follow is sporadically identified as C-137, including the pilot episode as well as the very episode in which it's destroyed, "Rick Potion #9." This carries a precedent throughout the series, as the main characters are sometimes identified as survivors from that world, and even make reference to and carry memories of it.

However, aside from these very specific episodes in which the C-137 dimension are expressly mentioned, there's no evidence that the same characters are featured in each episode. Adding credence to this idea is the frequent cutaways provided by the show in which Rick tests seemingly life-altering experiments on Morty, cutting away before audiences see the aftermath. These could simply be joking cutaways that aren't meant to be looked at in a deeper context, or evidence that the show switches universal perspectives at a higher rate than Rick disposes of Mortys. Even the 6th episode of season 4, "Never Ricking Morty" plays around with this concept, revealing that the entire bizarre anthology takes place in a literal toy Story Train that Morty bought at the Citadel of Ricks, raising the question of whether or not the Story Train is its own pocket universe.

This theory creates a two-fold paradox regarding the show's narrative. First, this would mean that nothing in the show is canon. If each episode (except the ones that expressly name C-137 Rick and Morty) follows an alternate version of the characters, then that would mean there's no overarching connection between the non-C-137 stories. This brings the entire timeline of the series into question, and raises suspicions that any recurring plot points or characters are simply alternate universes that strongly resemble other universes from other episodes.

On the flip side of this, this idea would also mean that everything in the show is canon. Even if the timeline of the series is fragmented as a result of following different universes, this doesn't mean that nothing matters, but instead that everything matters, just to different versions of the characters. Those stand-alone adventures carry very real repercussions for the characters from that universe; the show simply never returns to those universes to see those consequences. While the show may never outright confirm this, it's merely one in a myriad of ways that Rick and Morty continues to subvert the expectations and assumptions of its legions of fans.

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