The status of the timeline in Rick and Morty has always been a major mystery, but the show's permanent timeline was finally confirmed in season 6. Rick and Morty is full of dimension hopping, retcons, and meta jokes, making it impossible to pin down the exact order of events and how much time has passed between episodes. However, the Rick and Morty season 6 finale has finally given some kind of answer to this long-standing mystery in a pretty weird way.
Although Rick and Morty season 6 started with a reasonably focused story revolving around Rick hunting down Rick Prime and Evil Morty, the season's later episodes returned to self-contained episodic adventures, similar to previous seasons. The season 6 finale was a mix of these, though, with Rick continuing his search for Rick Prime while Morty focused on helping the President recover a lightsaber that was falling to the Earth's core. In a surprising twist, though, the official state of Rick and Morty's timeline was confirmed in the goofier Morty segment rather than the serialized Rick story.
Rick & Morty Season 6 Establishes Its Timeline Through Morty's Age
In the Rick and Morty season 6 finale, the President says that Morty is still 14 years old, confirming that the timeline for Rick and Morty is unmoving, which viewers have suspected for a while now. Morty has been 14 since the beginning of the series. With no in-universe explanation for why Morty hasn't aged over the show's six seasons, the only explanation is that Rick and Morty's timeline is static.
Similarly, the season 6 finale also confirms that Summer is 17, her age since the show's start. No episode of Rick and Morty has addressed the unchanging ages of its characters so far, and this most recent confirmation means that the character's ages are a conscious choice. This further proves that the timeline for Rick and Morty doesn't move.
Why Rick & Morty Is Better Off Having An Unmoving Timeline
An unmoving timeline seems like the best choice for a show as complex as Rick and Morty. Rick and Morty is known for its meticulous attention to detail, making little references to past events that sometimes happened seasons earlier. Forcing the writers to also pay attention to things like characters' ages and the time of year would only be a burden, making the timeline less streamlined while not adding much to the story.
On top of that, having a moving timeline would prevent Rick and Morty from having its canonical mix of serialized stories and one-off adventures. Since time doesn't move forward, the series can press pause on storylines like the hunt for Rick Prime to tell more comedic stories and simpler adventures. Then, whenever the show wants to have an episode that moves the story forward, it can simply go back to whatever storyline it is trying to tell.