The highly successful and groundbreaking animated science-fiction sitcom Rick and Morty, created by Dan Harmon (Community), returned last night as Adult Swim aired the first episode of the new sixth season: “Solaricks.” After some momentous happenings at the end of the fifth season, Rick and Morty returned to where it so emphatically left off.
“Solaricks” opens with a hilarious parody of the opening to Avengers: Endgame where Rick and Morty, both voiced by the show’s co-creator Justin Roiland (Solar Opposites) are saved by ‘Space Beth’, voiced by Sarah Chalke (Scrubs). She is referred to as ‘Space Beth’ in the episode and this is an easy way to distinguish between her and ‘Domestic Beth’, while nobody knows which one of them is a clone. Once Rick and Morty are returned home, Rick attempts to reset the capabilities of his portal fluid so that they can travel between different realities. Instead of resetting the fluid, he accidentally resets portal travelers to be sent back to their original reality. Consequently, there is a lot of information for the viewer to take in for the next minute or so. The highlight of this is when Rick explains the portal fluid mistake quite simply and Morty repeats what he said in even simpler, slower terms. Rick breaks the fourth wall, as he frequently does, and berates him for making it too obvious. Jerry is about to be returned to his original reality which amusingly is attributed to Jerryboree, the daycare center for versions of Jerry, and Summer is tasked with returning all of them to the reality that they currently think of as home. After Summer and both Beths are left, she reveals to them that their original Rick and Morty are buried in the garden. This was a very complex scene with numerous reminders and answers for the most devout followers, filled with quality jokes throughout. Wonderful.
Rick C-137 is returned to his original reality and home, which remains marked by the explosion that killed his wife Diane and his Beth. Unnervingly, Rick installed a voice version of Diane in the house and all the technology he uses to readily remind himself of his failure to save his loved ones. Morty returns to an apocalyptic world with a self-reliant Jerry who has been hardened by the loss of Beth and Summer. Meanwhile, Summer and the two Beths work together to retrieve C-137 and our Morty, while also rescuing Jerry from a ‘season two’ family that treats him awfully. Diane, or Rick’s AI version of her, reminds him that the Rick who killed C-137’s family will also have been struggling to escape his original reality now that portal fluid is ineffective. This is where we learn that the Morty we have been following was actually the Morty of this family-killing Rick. Yet again, Morty repeats this simply for the audience to follow and Rick criticizes this. These moments are truly necessary for any audience who is hazy on the details or exact happenings of previous episodes and using Morty to relay the information plainly while Rick characteristically appeals to the more clued-in viewer is an intelligent way to satisfy all audience members. It is also notable that the killer Rick, who Rick C-137 is currently hunting down, has surpassed “Evil Morty” as the primary antagonist and villain of the show. This transition was rather seamless but is perhaps a little disappointing considering the effort spent building up Evil Morty over the past few years.
Rick C-137 and Morty hunt down the killer Rick and do find him (as revealed in the post-credit scene by the shattered tank and naked joke), but Morty convinces Rick to avoid his trap. In a heartwarming moment, Morty prevents Rick C-137 from killing himself, or at least willingly putting himself in a situation where death is probable, by reminding him of their relationship and how much Morty’s learned from him. Rick C-137, Morty, Summer, Jerry, and both Beths are united as an unorthodox family. Regardless of what realities they are from, they share a bond. Finally, each of these characters from an infinite number of possible timelines has a known background and origin. There is a lot of satisfaction in this brief moment. Then, season two Jerry, who Rick and Morty left at Jerryboree mistakenly releases the adorable “Mr. Frundels”, who despite his appearance, is deadly enough to consume the entire world, including our season two Jerry. They find a new reality that is as close to theirs as possible. The disposal of this previous Jerry seemed slightly makeshift as the use of Rick’s unpredictable spin-off possession character came out of nowhere. However, not having multiple Jerrys to care about is a positive and avoids repetitive situations surrounding the identity crises of the two Beths.
“Solaricks” was fantastic in tying up loose ends from previous episodes and developing the main storyline so that the audience has a temporary tangible idea of who they are watching and where they came from. Perhaps this episode wasn’t as humorous as the others, but that felt appropriate to a sequence of essential events. More of the same, please.
Rating 8.0/10