Rick and Morty forces its main characters to wage a war between episodic and serialized storytelling, mirroring the push and pull in the writers' room. Rick, presumably with series creator Dan Harmon, wants the show to remain a series of one-off adventures bound together only by the characters experiencing them. Morty, with several other characters and possibly Dan Harmon again, wants to tell a story across episodes and seasons. The Central Finite Curve is the physical manifestation of the conflict and its most fascinating element.
It's hard to graph the ongoing quality of Rick and Morty. Few franchises have suffered as much under their fanbase. Any Rick and Morty devotee would likely give anything to return to the days before they'd heard the words "Szechuan sauce" spoken aloud. Like it or not, Rick and Morty is a cultural icon, and it's not going anywhere. There's still fun to be had, but the show can't recapture its early days.
What is the Central Finite Curve?
The Central Finite Curve, often called the Curve, is a walled garden around reality. When Rick uses his portal gun, he can ostensibly travel to any dimension, but he willingly limits his travel with the Curve. Rick is the most intelligent, capable, and powerful being in every universe on the Curve. Since portal guns only travel within the Curve, every Rick is guaranteed to be the smartest being in every reality he enters. The main functions are psychological. Rick is generally the only person who can invent a portal gun. Subsequently, his Mortys, Jerrys, Beths, and Summers only know the realities he shows them. Thanks to the Curve, no one can ever reach a reality wherein his supremacy is unsure. Evil Morty summed it up better than anyone else ever could:
They built a wall around infinity, separated all the infinite universes from all the infinite universes where he's the smartest man in the universe. Every version of us has spent every version of all of our lives in one infinite crib, built around an infinite f*cking baby.
Rick C-137, the Rick who stars in the series, caused the Curve's creation. He led a campaign of bloody violence, eliminating Ricks by the millions while seeking revenge. After countless murders, C-137 agreed to a peace treaty with a mass congregation of his alternate selves. The arrangement necessitated the construction of the Council of Ricks. They built the Curve, locking all Ricks into the guarantee of eternal supremacy.
The destruction and rebuilding of the Central Finite Curve
Evil Morty, one of the most enticing mysteries in the franchise, discovered the Curve. He learned that he and every other Morty were artificially trapped in Rick's god complex. Through a prolonged strategy and ruthless determination, Evil Morty rises to the highest ranks of the rebuilt Citadel. He sought to escape the Curve, which enforced the very premise of the show Rick and Morty. He's sick of the central conceit and willing to do anything to get out. He succeeds, destroying the Central Finite Curve and leaving for new realities. The Curve is broken, seemingly setting the stage for a critical new serialized arc. It doesn't last long.
Evil Morty escapes the Curve in the final episode of season 5. It is restored in the sixth episode of season 6. "JuRicksic Mort" sees Rick enter an argument with a race of hyper-intelligent dinosaurs. The dinosaurs use technology to solve all problems, causing utopian societies that prompt the universe to respond violently. Sentient meteors attack every planet the dinosaurs settle on. The President promises Rick the chance to host the Academy Awards if he scares off the dinosaurs. He tells humanity that a meteor is approaching, causing them to revolt. The dinosaurs travel to Mars, submitting to suicide by meteor, but Rick puts himself in danger because of pettiness. They can't stand the thought of hurting a human, so they destroy the encroaching rock. The dinosaurs claim revenge by fixing the Curve, undoing Rick's purpose. He's outraged, proclaiming they've cost him a season or at least a three-episode arc.
The Central Finite Curve in Rick and Morty comics
The Curve was first mentioned in a throwaway line in "Close Rick-Counters of the Rick Kind." It took 41 episodes and seven years to deliver the canonical explanation. The comics developed different details. They explain the Curve as a portion of a circle. The round shape represents the multiverse, which can be organized into four chambers. Those sections are separated by Rick's intelligence within them. A Rick refers to the Curve as "dimensions with working ecosystems along with their own functional Rick entity." The comic iteration of the Curve isolates the universes with hyper-intelligent Ricks while safeguarding against a mythical devil-like figure called Feral Hedonism Rick.
The Central Finite Curve is a fascinating piece of lore that changes the impact of Rick and Morty. Though the show didn't pay off the promise, choosing to treat it as a gag at the audience's expense, the grand reveal of the Curve's purpose is a high point. Rick and Morty should be celebrated for taking a brilliant sci-fi premise, delivering it as a joke, and still making it compelling.
