Rick and Morty season 6 review: A refreshing resumption

‘Rick and Morty’ season 6 deviates from the norm fans of the animated sitcom have come to expect from it, with characters getting more time for growth and a definitive intent being applied for the progression of the Smith family’s dynamic with Rick.

Story

‘Rick and Morty’ season 6 picks up after the grand spectacle that was the climax of the preceding season. Having been ejected out of the citadel that Evil Morty destroyed, the titular duo is stuck in a spaceship for a long time until Space Beth rescues them.

Following that fiasco, another one happens when Rick tries to reset the portal gun and ends up transporting everyone to their original universes. As a consequence, Rick finally comes across Rick Prime — the variant who killed his wife and daughter.

However, the crafty devil manages to escape again, leaving Rick and Morty to embark on a series of new adventures while Rick continues to hunt for him and his spirit of vengeance keeps burning.

Episode 2 sees Summer, someone who’s never watched ‘Die Hard’, having to employ the film’s plot to save Morty and Rick at an arcade while Rick tries to save Morty from the virtual reality game he’s got stuck inside.

Episode 3 sees Beth and Space Beth come closer until they come a bit too close, to the rest of the family’s horrors and Jerry’s heartbreak. However, the two Beths realise that Jerry is actually into their growing intimacy and is only upset because he wasn’t made a part of it.

As the three learn a thing or three about themselves and their kinks, the rest of the family has to suffer another period of discomfort, hearing the parents revel in their sexual pleasures.

Episode 4 sees Rick pull out another one of his interdimensional gadgets and unleash the night variants of the family to do all the tasks that they don’t want to do in their daytime.

When it dawns and they hit the bed, the night family wakes up but these are, as it turns out, their own persons with their own consciousness and identities.

The night family revolts and eventually emerges a victor too. However, when worldly affairs bog them down, they take the easy way out and commit suicide, making way for the real family to come out and resume their lives.

Episode 5 sees Rick helping Jerry avoid his terrible fate when he receives a fortune cookie telling him he’s going to have sex with his mom.

His horrors are justified as the fortunes of these cookies do come true, but with the help of Rick, he manages to avert that misfortune and the two unlikeliest guys to ever become friends do end up improving their dynamic by a lot.

Episode 6 sees an offshoot of the dinosaur populace from prehistoric Earth, returning to the planet after having roamed the universe. It turns out they’re an extremely advanced species and have returned to the planet to make it into a utopia.

Rick’s ego can’t take it and he begins his efforts to expose these self-righteous, self-aggrandising, and sacrificial giants. He does end up sending them back but during the whole spiel, starts working on himself through therapy too, even in small, reluctant doses.

Episode 7 sees Rick and Morty fight a villain from the past while breaking the fourth wall, literally, and contending with the embodiment of literary devices.

In episode 8, Jerry stands up to one of the latest villains vying for Rick’s enmity and attention when he crosses the line and objectifies Summer. While Jerry becomes a galactical hero, the villain ends his life out of embarrassment and all the hatred he receives.

To keep the villain’s daughter from falling into despair and a life of self-blaming following her father’s suicide, Rick keeps his death a secret and Don’s his suit himself. He then does many heroic acts to change the villain’s image and ends his fake legacy by staging a huge sacrificial act.

In episode 9, Morty is inadvertently thrown into a solar war after he refuses to lead the Knights of the Sun and their kingdom as a ruler, following which it all goes to hell. With the help of Rick, he manages to stage a grand sacrifice and bring all the planetary kingdoms together once again.

‘Rick and Morty’ season 6 finale sees Morty and the rest of the family learning that the Rick staying with them and exhibiting all that growth for quite some time is just a robot, while the real Rick is busy tracking down Rick Prime, and failing to do it.

After Morty and the Robot Rick save Earth’s core from being destroyed by a lightsaber, the real Rick realises his mistake and invites Morty on his quest for vengeance against Rick Prime, teasing a chaotic quest ahead for the two they’ll now have to embark on together.

Review

• ‘Rick and Morty’ season 6 is a clear and tacit change in pace from the recent seasons, with more focus being levied on the characters and their developments rather than the wacky adventures that don’t end up saying anything other than commenting on some piece of pop-culture media.
• While that kind of lazy and easy writing is still there, with a dash of self-referential, self-aware gags that can’t not be obnoxious, they’re attenuated to a minimum when compared to the sitcom’s previous instalments.
• One of the best things this in season 6 has been the growth that Rick’s character has witnessed, and the genuine strengthening of his bond with Summer, Morty, and most surprising of all, Jerry.

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Also Read: Who is Rick Prime (Weird Rick) and what is his goal?