WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Rick and Morty Season 5, Episode 3, “A Rickconvenient Mort,” which aired Sunday on Adult Swim.
When Rick and Morty began, it was a comedy of opposites, the destructive genius nihilist Rick counterbalanced by his slow and naive but generally well-meaning grandson Morty. As the series has progressed, Morty has grown more confident and independent but also more violent and mean-spirited to the point it’s a common fan theory (supported by one of the anime shorts) that Rick and Morty will end with Morty becoming Rick. After “A Rickconvenient Mort,” Morty is closer than ever to becoming Rick — and how the show follows this up could make or break its future.
Morty has killed people before, both unintentionally and intentionally, but it’s still shocking to see him flatout massacre the four “kids” who control the Captain Planet parody Planetina. It makes sense he’d do this for the sake of a girl, as most of his previous darkest moments have been in pursuit of romance. However, this time, he can’t blame peer pressure on a Purge planet or following the orders of a power crystal. He can’t even directly blame Rick, whom he barely interacts with at all the episode. This is Morty taking his own violent initiative without remorse.
Despite Morty’s willingness to kill for the sake of getting together with Planetina, he’s still rather uncomfortable when she kills 300 coal miners in her efforts to save the Earth. “A Rickconvenient Mort” seems to be attempting to challenge both Morty and the audience on how desensitized we’ve become to Rick and Morty‘s violence and where we draw the line at what’s acceptable or not. There’s an obvious irony that Planetina’s violence to save a planet is the thing that makes Morty feel discomfort, while Rick’s sightseeing tour of watching entire planets die doesn’t register any objection.
“A Rickconvenient Mort” has escalated the character arc of Morty becoming increasingly Rick-like. Still, there’s reason to worry the show is going too far too soon in this direction. If this were Rick and Morty‘s final season, this would make sense as the build-up to an ending. However, the series has been renewed for at least five more seasons, and the idea of spending time with an increasingly unlikable Morty doesn’t sound like a good time at all.
Without the contrast of personalities and perspectives that made the early seasons work, Rick and Morty runs the risk of going too far down a road of self-satisfied nihilism. At this point, Jerry might be the only member of the Smith family who isn’t becoming a copy of Rick. In theory, the writers could take the easy way out of this predicament and replace the current Morty with another Morty, but that would just be cheap. Whether the show can handle Morty’s current Rick-like development in a way that’s both entertaining and satisfying will be a challenge.
Rick and Morty stars the voices of Justin Roiland, Chris Parnell, Spencer Grammer and Sarah Chalke. The series airs Sundays at 11 p.m. ET/PT on Adult Swim.
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