When Morty gave up on his romance with Planetinam the twist was tragic, but the duo’s love story became a whole lot sadder after the revelations of Rick & Morty’s season 5 finale. The season 5 finale of Rick & Morty shook the show for numerous reasons, rewriting the canon of the Adult Swim hit and ensuring that its reliable formula will never be the same again. However, one under-addressed element of the finale was how its barnstorming string of twists made Morty’s season 5 Planetina romance much sadder in retrospect.
The season 5 finale revealed that endless Ricks had been cynically using endless Mortys in an abusive cycle throughout endless realities. This twist made Rick & Morty’s season 4 heist parody far darker, as the joke of Rick “stealing” Morty’s dreams turned out to be a more common occurrence than it first appeared. However, that was not the only earlier episode of the show to which Rick & Morty’s season 5 finale added a nasty aftertaste.
In “A Rickconvenient Mort” (season 5, episode 3), Morty leaves his new love interest Planetina after saving her from her captors because he is horrified to see that someone he loved could do something as callous as violently killing an entire mine’s worth of coal workers in service of her ideals. Thus, Morty's later realization that Rick has been killing that many more Mortys than that in service of nothing but his greed makes Rick & Morty's season 5 finale all the more crushing. Morty gives up a chance at happiness because he is unable to make his morals align with those of Planetina, only for him to later learn that he (and countless versions of himself) has been a pawn in a much more amoral character’s plan all along.
The season 5 finale’s twist ending did also reveal the source of Rick’s overwhelming misanthropy, but this revelation only served to make the Planetina romance even sadder. It transpired that Rick lost all hope for himself and became an amoral monster as a result of another version of himself killing his wife and child, proving that Rick & Morty’s hero might once have been a decent person were it not for his tragic circumstances. However, this grim revelation only served to prove that Rick and Morty are not so different, as Morty’s many thwarted attempts at romantic happiness have also ended in disaster.
However, there is still more hope for Morty than his grandfather. Morty at least chose to leave Planetina despite the pain it caused him, prioritizing his values over his happiness. Not only that, but he also chose to forgive Rick and help him at the end of Rick & Morty’s season 5 finale, proving that he had it in him to be the bigger man and help his grandfather despite the character’s lies and inexcusable actions. Ultimately, Rick & Morty’s season 5 finale further reaffirmed the message found in Morty's break-up with Planetina — namely that, despite the high cost it has on his happiness, the show’s hero is proving more morally resilient as the series continues.