Highlights
- Season 6 of Rick and Morty sets the stage for a more serialized storyline, while still maintaining the show's signature single-episode adventures.
- The season explores Rick's character development and his vulnerability, revealing his care and love for his family.
- The finale hints at Rick and Morty's upcoming mission to find and defeat Rick Prime, Rick's nemesis, setting the stage for an exciting seventh season.
The highly anticipated seventh season of Rick and Morty is getting closer. With that, it's the perfect time for a recap of the most important events that happened in season 6, as well as a reminder and analysis of how its final episode ended and what it means for the future of the characters and the series. The finale teased a very interesting plotline for next season: Rick and Morty’s search for Rick’s nemesis, Rick Prime.
The last few seasons of Rick and Morty have gotten mixed reviews from both fans and critics. However, season 6 seems to have put the series on a right track, giving the next one the opportunity to continue doing single-episode adventures while also continuing the plot of Rick’s mission throughout multiple episodes. The season also featured some major character development for Rick, the Smiths, and their dynamic as a family, with Rick even admitting how much he really cares about them.
What Happens In Rick and Morty Season 6?
For some context about the show’s sixth season, it is important to know where the previous season left off. The climactic finale of season 5 ends with Evil Morty, who served as President of the Citadel, escaping through a yellow portal after the success of his plan to break the Central Finite Curve, an interdimensional barrier created by Rick to block all the realities where he isn’t the smartest person in the universe. In order to complete his plan, Evil Morty destroys the Citadel, killing many Ricks and Mortys in the process.
Season 6 kicks off with one of the show's most memorable episodes, “Solaricks.” Starting right after the end of season 5, the episode begins with Rick and Morty stranded in space on the verge of death after the destruction of the Citadel. As Rick himself describes, the scene closely resembles the beginning of Avengers: Endgame. The destruction of the Central Finite Curve also messed with the Ricks’ portal guns’ coordinates, making them essentially useless. They are rescued by Space Beth and taken back to their Earth.
Back home, Rick tries to reset the coordinates to make his portal gun work again. However, he instead resets the travelers, sending everyone back to their original universe. Rick, Morty, and Jerry are teleported to their realities of origin. This also serves as a callback for season 2’s episode “Mortynight Run,” confirming that Rick and Morty took home the wrong Jerry from the Jerryboree. Summer, Beth, and Space Beth travel to the Citadel to find a way to bring them back to their reality.
Rick is transported to the universe where his wife and daughter were brutally murdered by Rick Prime. In this reality, Rick, as a way to torture himself, put the entire world in a time loop of the day of the attack, forcing everyone to relieve the same day over and over again. He is haunted by the voice of his dead wife, who constantly reminds him of his failure. This gives fans a new look into Rick. In that brief moment, helets his guard down and allows himself to be vulnerable, admitting to himself that he cares about his new family.
“Solaricks” reveals that Rick Prime, the one who killed Rick’s wife and daughter, is actually the Rick from Morty’s original timeline, his biological grandfather. The Rick that viewers know took his place after the death of his family as a way to try to find him. Rick’s lack of access to his portal gun gives this season a more grounded feeling, with a majority of the episodes taking place within the same timeline. After the first episode, most of the season follows the self-contained story format the show is mostly known for. However, it also adds some elements of serialization that unfold in the later episodes.
In episode 6, “JuRicksick Mort,” dinosaurs come back to Earth and create a utopia. Rick makes a deal with the President: if Rick gets rid of the dinosaurs, he can host the Oscars. Rick discovers that the planet is facing the threat of a giant killer meteor headed for the dinosaurs, which causes the dinosaurs to leave in order to save the Earth. To Rick’s disappointment, they close the rift in the Central Finite Curve.
How Does Rick And Morty Season 6 End?
The final episode of the season, “Ricktional Mortpoon’s Rickmas Mortcation,” a Star Wars themed holiday episode, begins with the Smith family exchanging presents on Christmas morning. Rick is acting nice, and the whole family seems to be in a good place for a change. Rick gives everyone gifts, including a real lightsaber for Morty. Of course, in true Rick and Morty fashion, Morty drops his Jedi weapon vertically, and it sinks into the floor, heading to the center of the Earth, which will destroy the planet.
He and Rick go to the scientist’s underground lab, where they find the real Rick. He reveals to his grandson that he had replaced himself with a robot, programmed to be nicer, after Morty called him boring at the beginning of the previous episode. Meanwhile, the real Rick had been focusing on his mission to search for Rick Prime.
After this reveal, the plot of the episode is pretty straightforward. One plotline follows robot Rick as he tries to reveal to the rest of the Smith family that he is a robot, which he is programmed to be unable to do. The other follows Morty, who understandably feels betrayed by his grandpa, and the President on a mission to prevent the lightsaber from reaching the center of the Earth. Meanwhile, Rick analyzes the clues left by Rick Prime in their last encounter, and manages to find his nemesis’ location.
After a short hopeful moment for Rick, multiple locations in his map start to light up, seemingly meaning that Rick Prime is in countless places in the universe at once. This may be because Prime Rick has cloned himself, which wouldn’t be anything new. It is also made clear that Rick loves and cares about Morty, and Morty calling him boring and ignoring his advice really hurt him.
After the President steals the lightsaber and drops it while playing with it, he places the blame on Morty and launches the White House into space to save himself. Morty and robot Rick are forced to retrieve it. They confront the President, and the three of them are sucked into space, but Rick saves them with a portal. Robot Rick tells Morty that Rick only created his robot copy to show his love and care for the family. Morty and the real Rick make up, and Rick admits he was wrong for not including his grandson in his revenge mission, inviting him to join him on his hunt for Rick Prime. The season ends with Rick breaking the fourth wall, saying that this mission will be the central theme next season, although maybe not in every episode.
While the season 6 finale may not have felt as powerful or emotionally impactful on a story level as some previous season finales, Rick’s final monologue teasing of the search for Rick Prime makes it clear that he is more ready than ever to complete his life’s mission of destroying his nemesis. Season 7 has fans excited about seeing how the titular duo deals with Rick Prime’s plans, and how Rick deals with Morty being part of the dangerous mission. As fans have come to learn, anything can happen in Rick and Morty.