Warning: Contains spoilers for the Rick and Morty season 5 finale.
Rick and Morty season 5 ends with a major cliffhanger, leaving a bunch of questions unresolved going into season 6. Though season 5 has been received more lukewarmly than previous chapters of the Adult Swim show, the finale has been widely praised for its long-awaited explanation of Rick’s backstory and its culmination of the Evil Morty storyline. But for every new piece of lore the Rick and Morty season 5 finale doles out, it leaves a big unanswered question for season 6.
After five full seasons of buildup, Evil Morty’s plan finally comes full circle in the Rick and Morty season 5 finale. After confronting the main Rick and Morty, he explains that all the universes previously seen in the show – the universes accessible via Rick’s portal gun – exist within the Central Finite Curve – a subset of realities in which Rick is always the smartest person. He also reveals that the Citadel has been mass-producing Mortys in reprehensible ways. To break and escape that vicious cycle, Evil Morty hatches a plot to destroy the Citadel, killing countless Ricks and Mortys in the process, in order to open a portal through the Central Finite Curve and leave it all behind him.
The episode also sheds new light on Rick’s actually origin story, revealing that his wife and daughter, Diane and Beth, were killed when he was a young man by another evil Rick. That sent the main Rick on a violent vengeance quest across the universe, which ultimately failed to find the specific Rick responsible. The fans have been asking for backstory clarification on Rick for years, and it’s great to finally get it. But while the Rick and Morty season 5 finale answers a lot of old questions, it also poses some new ones for season 6.
Who Created The Central Finite Curve?
To find out how to break the Central Finite Curve, Evil Morty has to complete a scan of Rick C-137’s brain. Since no other Ricks on the Citadel could apparently do the job, the implication is that the main Rick may have been the one who created the Curve in the first place. The flashback montage that exposes his past shows that he was instrumental in the creation of the Citadel, and the Citadel operates largely via the existence of the Central Finite Curve. However, the Rick and Morty season 5 finale doesn’t fully confirm this. It’s possible that Rick only devised the Curve as a way to narrow down where his wife and daughter’s killer might be hiding. Or it’s possible that other Ricks created the Curve, and C-137 simply figured out how to break it. Now that Evil Morty has escaped the Central Finite Curve for other realities, season 6 can shed more light on how the system originally came to be.
Why Were Rick’s Wife And Daughter Killed?
In Rick and Morty season 3, episode 1, a flashback scene is shown of Rick C-137’s wife and daughter being killed by another Rick after C-137 refuses to leave his family and join him in travelling the multiverse. At the time, Rick played the memory off as being false, but the montage in the season 5 finale proves that it was actually true – at least, mostly. There’s a very similar scene of a very similar Rick propositioning C-137, leaving in a huff, and later dropping a bomb on Rick’s house, killing Diane and Beth. But why? Why did the evil Rick seek C-137 out, and why did he take his refusal so personally? One possibility is that the evil Rick was an agent of some larger cause that wanted to push C-137 into creating the Central Finite Curve, or some other invention only he was capable of. But that’s assuming a lot. Since the murderer is still at large, future seasons of Rick and Morty may be able to better explain Beth and Diane’s deaths.
Where Is The Rick Who Killed Diane And Beth?
For years, Rick C-137 hunted the multiverse for the Rick who took his family from him. Time and again he killed Rick’s he believed might be the culprit, and time and again he discovered that they weren’t the right Rick. Eventually, C-137 lost hope, gave up, and made peace with the Council of Ricks. Now that his backstory has been revealed, however, it seems highly probable that the Rick who killed Beth and Diane will return in Rick and Morty season 6 or one of the later planned season. His death or capture could give the series a proper conclusion, should the show’s writers decide to go in that direction, and the fact that he was able to evade Rick for so long begs more questions. Was he hiding outside the Central Finite Curve? Was he serving some greater, darker purpose? For now, the answers are unclear.
Where Did Evil Morty Go?
At the end of the Rick and Morty season 5 finale, Evil Morty boards a specially designed trans-dimensional shuttle and blasts himself through a hole he makes in the Central Finite Curve. He emerges on the other side to see a stunning cosmic landscape, then he takes out his own new, yellow portal gun, fires a golden portal before himself, and steps through. Where exactly Evil Morty goes is a mystery, and now that he’s broken free of the Curve, it could be literally anywhere. He’s no longer bound to universes with Ricks and Mortys; universes where Rick is the dominant force. Since Rick and Morty has never shown any dimensions outside the Curve before, that opens up a ton of possibilities for season 6.
Will Evil Morty Come Back In Rick And Morty Season 6?
Evil Morty claims that he wants to break the Central Finite Curve simply so that he can escape the Ricks’ vicious cycle, but that doesn’t mean he couldn’t still return in future Rick and Morty seasons. The promise of universes outside the Curve is exciting, and it could be just what the show needs to stay fresh. Maybe there are repercussions from Evil Morty’s giant wormhole, or maybe the main Rick and Morty create their own yellow portal gun to travel outside the Central Finite Curve. Now that Morty knows about the nature of the Curve, it’s possible that he’ll pressure Rick to break it in order to even the playing field between them. If that happens, it could lead to all new kinds of adventures in Rick and Morty season 6 and beyond.
Is The Citadel Destroyed For Good?
By the end of Rick and Morty season 5, the Citadel has been completely demolished by Evil Morty’s master plan. But of course, the Citadel has been destroyed before in the series, and it’s always come back sooner or later. This time feels different though. Evil Morty didn’t just go after the station itself, but after the whole operation of Morty breeding and multiverse cultivation that allowed the Ricks to become so powerful. With infinite Ricks still alive in the cosmos, the Citadel could be restored once again, but it might be more interesting if Rick and Morty season 6 instead shows a universe where the Rick power structure is dismantled.
Have Rick And Morty Fixed Their Relationship?
Both parts of Rick and Morty season ‘s two-part finale deal with the abusive, toxic nature of Rick and Morty’s relationship. By the end of the season, they seem to reach more equal footing, even working together to save the Mortys of the Citadel. But will that equity last? The show is famous for flaunting its focus on episodic storytelling, and that focus is largely dependent on the relationship between the two main characters staying the same. It’s possible that Rick and Morty season 6 will actually showcase a healthier, more balanced relationship, but that remains to be seen.