What if Rick & Morty's Scary Terry is actually a Morty? The show has inspired some wild fan theories in its time, but one of the strangest and arguably most interesting is the idea that the Freddy Krueger parody is secretly another Morty.
Debuting in 2013, Justin Roiland and Dan Harmon’s Adult Swim series Rick & Morty is a ribald sci-fi satire with surprising depth and lore as complicated as any serious genre series. Now entering its fifth season, Rick & Morty has evolved a lot since its origins as a Back To The Future spoof, but the show has continued to subject iconic pieces of pop culture to parody ever since it began, including their early Freddy Krueger homage Scary Terry. The show’s mile-a-minute plotting and constant subversions of audience expectations have earned it both a huge cult following and countless fan theories. Some may seem far-fetched, but others are shockingly convincing.
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It may seem unlikely, but one convincing fan theory posits that the show's Freddy Krueger parody is a lawyer-friendly knock-off of the Springwood slasher. According to this theory, Scary Terry may actually be a Morty. Rick & Morty has introduced many versions of its title characters during its four-season run thanks to the multiverse. However, Scary Terry arrived on the scene back when the show was a comparatively simple sci-fi spoof with no multiverse in sight during the Inception-parodying season one effort ‘Lawnmower Dog’. Although the character doesn’t look much like Morty, the revelation that there are numerous different versions of Morty out there prompted some fan speculation nonetheless, and there is some convincing evidence.
Scary Terry Struggles In School
The primary similarity that marks Scary Terry out as a potential Morty is the fact that viewers get to see him as an insecure teen who struggles in school and lives in fear of a bombastic, loudmouth teacher, much like the show’s titular teen antihero. When the audience and the show’s title characters first encounter him, Scary Terry is a terrifying dream demon. But a glance into his home life reveals he’s just another working stiff, and soon an insight into his own nightmare proves that Scary Terry is still an anxious teen at heart much like Morty (although without Morty's problematic voiceless crush, Jessica).
Struggling in school and afraid of embarrassing himself in front of his peers, Scary Terry suffers nightmares about a teacher embarrassing him in front of his peers by pointing out his academic insecurities, which is exactly the fate Rick is trying to help Morty avoid by entering Mr. Goldenfold’s dreams and trying to convince him to inflate his grades. In fact, one scene which sees Morty disastrously fumble a Maths test is an almost perfect match for Scary Terry's nightmare (save that Scary Terry is more worried and Morty is more distracted by fantasizing about his classmate Jessica).
Further reinforcing this theory is the fact that Scary Terry is clutching a Scary Math book when he’s late for class, and the episode reveals that Math is the very subject that Mr. Goldenfold awakens, Inception-style, with a sudden desire to give Morty an A in (as well as the subject Morty daydreams through a test in). Moreover, the last line of Scary Terry’s appearance sees him demand Mr. Goldenfold give Morty better grades, underlining the fact that both characters share the same basic need to get back at their intimidating teachers before they’re able to move on with their lives (and in Morty’s case, get into more life-endangering misadventures with his grandad).
Scary Terry Moving Between Dreams Teased The Multiverse
The detail of Terry’s character that prompted Rick’s anguished “we’re so screwed” also supports this theory, namely that Scary Terry can travel between dreams unlike the rest of the characters (Mr. Goldenfold, Ms. Pancakes, the sexually liberated centaur) whose subconsciouses the characters invade during this episode. This idea of moving between different realities can be seen as a precursor to the show’s introduction of inter-dimensional travel (with or without portal guns) a few episodes later, and Scary Terry’s ability to follow the eponymous duo through various dream worlds as both ally and foe at different points of the episode mirrors how Rick and Morty will later jump between dimensions and encounter different versions of themselves. The show has featured many versions of Rick & Morty over the years, and the reason Scary Terry shares the same fears as Morty could be because he’s one of many alternative multiverse Mortys.
Why The Theory May Be Wrong
While this is a convincing theory, it does have its flaws. For one thing, Scary Terry doesn’t resemble Morty the way most Mortys do, and although his younger self looks a little more like Morty thanks to his t-shirt the character’s distinctively-chinned appearance does mean he’s far from the ‘carbon copy with some superficial changes’ image shared by Doofus Rick, Evil Morty, and most of the show’s different iterations of Rick & Morty. Another reason fans might question this theory is that the show had not yet revealed the existence of multiple different Ricks and Mortys by this point (as 'Lawnmower Dog' was only the second episode).
The dream-hopping can be viewed as a hint toward the eventual revelation of a multiverse, but it may also be a mere coincidence or part of the episode’s Inception parody. It’s hard to say for certain as this Rick & Morty fan theory doesn’t come with the stamp of approval from the show’s creators, so it’s not as certain as the origins of Mr. Poopybutthole.
What This Means For Scary Terry
If it is true, the theory has interesting implications for the character of Scary Terry. But much like Rick & Morty’s Simulation theory, whether or not this theory is true isn’t actually its most important detail as the show's anarchic plotting means almost any twist can be pulled off without compromising the show's tone. It would be interesting to know whether Scary Terry is a Morty, but the real reason that this Rick & Morty theory is interesting is that it could pave the way for the character’s eventual return.
The possibility of this catchphrase-spouting Freddy Krueger spoof being a secret Morty makes the short-lived antagonist far more likely to return to the screen than if he were merely a one-off villain from the show’s earliest outings. Though Rick & Morty is full of Easter eggs, the show doesn’t do too many callbacks to its first season since the show’s lore has been filled out with such a large recurring cast since those early days. Scary Terry, though, is a fan favorite, so the reveal that he’s a Morty could be a perfect excuse for Rick & Morty to bring him back.