Warning: Contains SPOILERS for Rick and Morty season 6, part 1
Early on, Rick and Morty season 6 seemed to promise a major change to the show’s status quo, but this looks less and less likely as the series continues. Rick and Morty’s season 5 finale seemed designed to facilitate some major changes for the anarchic Adult Swim series. While each season of the series ended with some character growth, Rick and Morty’s season 5 finale ended with Rick losing access to interdimensional travel, Morty learning the extent of his grandfather’s deception and exploitation, and both characters almost dying. It seemed like an ideal setup to change Rick and Morty’s status quo.
However, as proven by Morty reversing his season 5 character growth in Rick and Morty season 6, a genuine change to the show’s status quo looks increasingly unlikely in season 6 part 2. Rick and Morty season 6, episode 6, "Juricksic Mort," firmly reset the status quo immediately before the show's mid-season hiatus. While it is possible that Rick and Morty season 6 part 2 could still commit to upending the show’s comfortable formula (again), the series can only go from promising genuine developments to returning to its normal formula so many times in one season before audiences get tired. As such, anything short of another big season finale likely won't change anything this late in season 6.
How Season 5 (Seemingly) Changed Rick and Morty
In Rick and Morty season 5, episode 9, “Forgetting Sarick Mortshall,” Rick itted to Morty that their relationship was based on a toxic power imbalance. Rick has manipulated everyone around him since the series began, but this outing saw him come closer to changing that system than ever before. Rick even said “what we had was abusive” and conceded that he never made Morty a true partner of his, an ission that seemingly guaranteed further reflection and substantial alterations to their existing dynamic. However, in Rick and Morty season 6, part 1, not only has Rick backtracked, but the series hasn’t really highlighted this failure to change.
In the first 6 episodes of Rick and Morty season 6, Rick’s bad behavior was treated as business as usual, meaning there is no reason to think that part 2 will be different. While Cthulhu-esque monsters kept Rick and Morty from traveling between dimensions in season 6, part 1, this inconvenience didn’t lead Rick to reflect on his way of life and swear off his usual antics. Instead, as soon as portal travel was reinstated at the climax of “Juricksic Mort,” Rick and Morty alike saw this as a reason to celebrate as they rejoiced over the return to their normal routine.
Has Rick Gotten Worse In Season 6 Part 1?
While it is not entirely clear whether Rick meant what he said in “Forgetting Sarick Mortshall,” what is clear is that his actions in Rick and Morty season 6, part 1 don’t reflect the shift he seemed to go through in that outing. In season 6, C-137 Rick was often the main villain of entire episodes. Whether it was his refusal to treat the Night Family as real people or his decision to leave Marta, the most independent part of Morty’s personality, behind in an arcade game, Rick was not only no better than his season 5 self in Rick and Morty season 6, part 1 but, if anything, he was often even worse.
Season 6 Episode 6 Made Rick’s Redemption Less Likely
Rick’s failure to grow and change as a character has a ripple effect on the formula of Rick and Morty, since he is by far the most powerful character in the series. While Rick and Morty season 6 reduced Rick’s central role and focused on other of the Smith family more often, Rick remained the character with the most control over each episode’s outcome. As such, his refusal to grow or change implicitly guaranteed that the rest of his family also wouldn’t be able to redefine themselves even if they tried to. As such, when Rick got his portal gun back and assured Morty that they were back to ‘normal’ at the end of "Juricksic Mort," this served as a meta-textual guarantee that Rick and Morty itself would remain the same (an episodic show focused on standalone comedic episodes) going forward.
Is Rick and Morty Season 6 Part 2 Interested In Redeeming Rick?
It is hard to tell whether Rick and Morty season 6, part 2 is invested in Rick’s potential redemption. Season 6's villainous Rick Prime was set up as a villain in contrast with C-137 Rick in Rick and Morty season 6, episode 1 “Solaricks,” but that plot hasn’t been mentioned since, and "Juricksic Mort" saw Rick get everything he wanted without any self-improvement. Not only that but, even though Summer, Beth, and even Jerry have gotten bigger storylines in season 6, part 1, the fact that Rick and Morty didn’t show viewers any of the solo high-school adventures that Morty boasts about in the episode proves that the show is interested in the duo’s dynamic more than Morty’s independence.
This means that maintaining Rick and Morty’s status quo could trump redeeming Rick in order of importance. While Morty maintains that he enjoyed his break from interdimensional travel (and the break from his grandfather’s control over his life), Rick and Morty season 6 didn’t reflect this. Even “Night Family,” the plot that made Rick his most comparatively powerless out of the episodes in season 6, part 1, ended with him saving the day by resetting Rick and Morty’s status quo. The first six episodes of Rick and Morty season 6 have shown that the series isn’t necessarily interested in the changes promised by season 5, and it might be too late to put them into effect now.
Rick & Morty Season 6 Could Still Change The Show (But Would Need To Wait)
For all its problems, Rick and Morty season 6, part 2 could still upend the show’s status quo. Like the season 5 finale, Rick and Morty’s new episodes could see a villain (like Rick Prime) outsmart Rick and, like “Forgetting Sarick Mortshall,” the show could force Rick to confront his failings. However, this can't happen immediately, since Rick and Morty season 6 has promised viewers another set of standalone, episodic stories like those featured throughout part 1 of the season. These goofy Rick and Jerry adventures and John Carpenter homages are what fans have come to expect from season 6, meaning a sudden shift into serialized, dramatic storytelling would not necessarily work unless it comes in the form of Rick and Morty’s two-part season 6 finale, thus replicating season 5's formula of focusing on goofy standalone antics until the end of each season requires a more self-serious tone.
New episodes of Rick and Morty will return on Sunday, November 20 on Adult Swim.