Rick And Morty Season 6 Finally Brings Back The Multiverse, And It's Hilarious
It's not uncharacteristic for a sitcom to introduce things that upset the status quo every season or so, like a new baby, a marital dispute, some relative or friend staying over for a while, or a kid going to college. More often than not, these things solve themselves and the formula is reset after a little while — the relative moves away, the kid comes back from school, the parents reunite, or the baby gets quietly relegated to a background character.
In the case of "Rick and Morty," we've seen Jerry struggle to find a job and separate from Beth, we've seen Rick go to jail, and Space Beth shows up. Each situation has brought some big change, but before long, things reverted back to normal with little newness sticking around. Season 6, however, added a huge shock to the system by taking away Rick's portal gun and his get-out-of-jail-free multiverse card.
This gave the show a chance to develop the characters in a way we hadn't seen before, and allow a "bottle episode" to stretch across a whole season. Without a portal gun, the stories were contained to Earth and nearby planets, rather than absurdly over-the-top worlds. Rather than a series of high-concept episodes with extravagant premises and characters, the season brought some inner conflict and growth to the Smith family. We saw Morty grow more assertive, more demanding of Rick, and get closer to the rest of his family. We even saw Jerry get some respect from his family, and Rick learns to do something selfless for once.
It has been a season of great change, but of course, the multiverse and the portal gun had to come back by the finale. Thankfully, they did so in the best way possible.
It's a multiversal miracle
After finally fixing up the portal gun, we saw Rick use it again in the second to last episode to save Morty from a cult that lives on the sun and wanted him to cut off his penis. It wasn't until the finale, titled "Ricktional Mortpoon's Rickmas Mortcation," that Rick traveled across the multiverse, and when he finally did ... it was to give his family Christmas presents.
Yes, Christmas presents. More specifically, Rick gives Beth (and Space Beth) a picture of the two of them from a universe where Beth neither died nor was she abandoned by her father. To Summer, he brings cash, and to Morty, he gives a real lightsaber (which he immediately drops to the ground and causes a global crisis). He even gives Jerry a gift, specifically a copy of "Miracle on 34th Street" from a universe with a cut of the film that is 2 hours longer than the original — and most of those two hours is just a character naming every single street and avenue in New York City and saying there is a miracle on that street.
Season 6 of "Rick and Morty" felt different in a non-gimmicky way. This isn't Rick starting season 4 forced to take Morty's feelings into consideration and ask him permission to go on adventures but then forgetting about that after a couple of episodes. Instead, we get 9 out of 10 episodes following the repercussions of the portal gun getting destroyed, with Rick getting closer to his family and actually realizing that just acknowledging he is a terrible person isn't enough — he genuinely has to try and change.
A multiversal holiday
Granted, it wasn't really Rick who was 22% nicer to his family, but a robot he created to help them out while he obsessed over his archenemy, but still. Going into season 7, the finale made it clear that these changes are not small or temporary, but something that will carry over to the next season. Rick will continue to use his portal gun and travel the multiverse — this time with a clear purpose — and with Morty not getting dragged along, but helping him out willingly.
Of all the ways the show could bring back the multiverse and the portal gun, using them as an avenue for Rick to do something nice for his family during the holidays was the most surprising, and meaningful one. All the change and the growth he went through during the season cultivated in arguably the most touching moment involving Rick in the whole show, a moment not strictly involving Rick, but still caused by him. Let's just hope this tweak to the status quo continues to evolve and bring along other changes.