Chris Parnell And Sarah Chalke Share Their Biggest Surprises Of Rick And Morty Season 6 [Exclusive]
This article contains spoilers for season 6 of "Rick and Morty."
"Rick and Morty" has no shortage of twists and turns, but some moments have even caught the cast by surprise. Season 6 has been one of the most exciting and unpredictable yet. With the Citadel of Ricks finally thwarted by Evil Morty and the portal gun completely disabled, the Rick and Morty of C-137 are in rare form. They are unable to travel freely through the universe and most of their counterparts from alternate dimensions have been wiped from existence. Unable to hop from one timeline to another, the show had to create new forms of adventure for the dynamic duo and the rest of the Smith family.
One new addition in season 6 is Beth's edgy, space-exploring clone, who has become a regular member of the household. Space Beth's hard-headed and adventurous nature quickly wins the sought-after approval of her father Rick and daughter Summer, which makes Earth Beth (who could actually be the clone herself) feel threatened. In episode 3, "Bethic Twinstinct," the two Beths come to terms with their differences. This episode was full of surprises and incredibly revealing for Beth and her relationship with Jerry, shocking fans of the show. According to an interview with /Film's Michael Boyle, even Beth's voice actress, Sarah Chalke, found herself caught off guard.
"It really surprised me when I read that script [for 'Bethic Twinstinct']," she recalled. "And it always continues to surprise me how they figure out how to just play everything out. You're reading that script, and it's like, 'Oh my gosh, this is happening.'"
Space Beth and Earth Beth get friendly
Some moments in "Bethic Twinstinct" stood out to Chalke in particular. "[O]ne of my favorite scenes in that is her going to talk to Rick about, 'How do I deal with the fact that I forgot the ice cream from the Gloppy Drop System?'" the actress recalled. "This whole metaphor about forgetting the ice cream. And you find out that Rick has also forgotten the ice cream."
"Forgetting the ice cream" has a totally different meaning in this context. After setting out on an expedition to get ice cream from a distant planet, the two Beths take their friendship to the next level and start exploring more than just the universe, if you know what I mean. Rick, having encountered his own clones many times, comforts Beth by letting her know that he too has "forgotten the ice cream" before. They even return to the metaphor later in the episode. "Enjoy your ice cream however you want. Nothing good lasts forever," Earth Beth laments, mourning the end of her short-lived affair.
The twincest wasn't the only twist of the episode. Chris Parnell, who voices Beth's husband, Jerry, found his own character's reaction to be an even bigger shock than the affair itself. "As I was reading 'Bethic Twinstinct,' I was thinking, 'Oh yeah, Jerry's going to feel really threatened by this, and he's not going to be on board,'" Parnell said. "But then when he was, I was like, 'Oh, okay. That's great.'"
Cheating is never a good thing, but when your wife is cheating with her own clone, it certainly blurs the lines a little. In the end, Jerry ends up spinning their romantic tryst to his advantage, and everybody wins — well, everybody except Summer, Rick, and Morty, who are forced to overhear it all.
Jerry is full of surprises this season
"Bethic Twinstinct" wasn't the only episode in season 6 where Parnell's own character surprised him. In the season premiere, Morty is transported back to his original universe. For those who don't remember their "Rick and Morty" history, the hapless teenager accidentally turned his homeland into a world of Cronenbergian nightmare fuel. Rick got his grandson out of that world safely, but he had to abandon the rest of his family in the apocalyptic wasteland.
When Morty returns to the Cronenbergian reality, he is surprised to find that his subservient father Jerry is the only surviving member of his family. Jerry has been hardened by his years of scrappy survival, but in his self-sufficiency, he has finally found a serenity previously unknown to him. Seeing Jerry as such an Alpha male was totally unexpected, even for Parnell, who called it one of the "most surprising" episodes of the season.
Season 6 isn't over yet, and it promises to have even more revelations in store. With Rick's portal gun finally fixed, there's no telling what kind of whacky expeditions lie ahead. The second half of the season promises to return to the earliest days of the series while better-integrating characters like Beth and Jerry, who have since become regular space travelers themselves. Who knows, maybe we'll even see more of Beth's clone — I'm sure Beth and Jerry would both like that!