Morty Smith has been by loads over the course of 9 seasons of adventuring along with his grandpa Rick Sanchez in Rick and Morty. He’s had his consciousness fragmented right into a online game’s NPCs, fled his personal dimension, buried himself, and met his good, evil doppelgänger. Season 8 ended with Morty going through his biggest fears, and the season 9 finale was one other brutal episode that pressured Morty to face some darkish truths.
“If we stop putting him through [these situations], I guess there is a concern that the show becomes unrecognizable,” showrunner Dan Harmon informed Polygon in a digital interview. “Morty has been a 14-year-old boy for over a decade, and that decade has subjected him to hourly life trauma and a relationship with one of the most abusive people in the universe.”
[Ed. note: This article contains spoilers for the Rick and Morty season 9 finale]
“Field of Dreams” opens with a bunch of variations of Rick (Ian Cardoni) and Morty (Harry Belden) visiting an property sale on the dwelling of a Smith household who died from consuming chili so spicy it made their intestines explode. Morty meets a model of himself that likes to “funeral hop” to hear variations of his household say good issues about him and decides to give it a attempt. He ultimately finds a model of his household that has by no means met one other Morty earlier than.
They appear to be the perfect household, showering him with love and providing him the possibility to go to them every time he desires, and they’re shocked by the tales of what he’s been by on his adventures with Rick. But ultimately Morty sees their darkish aspect as Jerry (Chris Parnell) breaks the portal gun to maintain him from going again to his personal world.
The cause this model of the Smith household is so totally different is that they broke off all contact with Rick as a result of he refused to deal with his alcoholism. Morty tracks down Rick and discovers one of many healthiest variations of Rick we’ve ever seen. He’s been sober for 17 years, is fortunately married, and teaches at MIT. Rick acknowledges that the hunt to invent a portal gun almost ruined his life, however Morty pushes him to do it anyway. The obsession ruins his marriage and drives him again to consuming and nihilism, turning him into the Rick that Morty has at all times identified.
By the top of the episode, Morty’s again to adventuring with a drunk, irresponsible Rick. Co-showrunner Scott Marder informed Polygon that the dysfunctional dynamic between the 2 characters is “kind of the heart of the show.”
“The finale actually examines it in a really cool way that Morty’s been corrupted by this relationship in a lot of ways, but he’s basically forced to corrupt Rick to get what he wants, which was a cool full circle thing for him at the end of season 9.”
While Morty hasn’t aged in the course of the present’s 9 seasons, he has been modified by his brutal adventures.
“I think we have organically grown Morty while still keeping the core of his identity,” Harmon stated. “He’s an idealist. He believes in truth. He believes that there is a right way to do things. At the core, Rick has grown too, but he doesn’t really believe that. Their growth occurs while keeping the characters real.”
