- For the song of the same name, see Night Family (song).
| “ | Jerry (as Night Jerry): That seems fair. We can end all of this right now if you agree to rinse your dishes. What'da'ya say, Rick?
[hard cut to Rick possessed by Somnambulator.] |
"Night Family" is the fourth episode of the sixth season of Rick and Morty. It is the 55th episode of the series overall. It premiered on September 25, 2022. It was written by Rob Schrab and directed by Jacob Hair. The episode is rated TV-14-DLSV.
Synopsis[]
When Beth sees Rick doing crunches late at night, the family learns he has a device that programs his sleeping body to get stuff done — and they want in.
Plot[]
Beth has trouble falling asleep due to Jerry's snoring, and tries to sleep on the couch. However, she is startled by Rick, who is doing crunches on the floor in the living room. Rick then leaves the room without saying a thing. At breakfast, Rick explains to Beth that what she saw was his "night person." Rick had purchased a machine called a "Somnambulator" from the Goobie-Joob System, which allows him to program his unconscious body to do things while he sleeps that he doesn't have time to while awake. As a result, he now has washboard abs thanks to Night Rick working out so much. Naturally, the rest of the family want a piece of the action and request to have night versions of themselves. Rick initially refuses, but eventually gives in.
At first, the family is quite pleased with their night selves doing their chores and boring routines, and training their bodies for the waking family to use. Beth learns how to play the trumpet, Summer learns Spanish, Morty joins Rick in his squats and gets his own impressive abs (with the two starting a podcast on the subject) while Jerry becomes pen pals with Night Jerry. However, one day, Jerry tells Rick that he had a request from Night Summer that the day family start rinsing their dishes after using them, so that they are easier to wash. Rick is enraged at this request, telling the rest of the family that he has no intention of doing that, because the whole point of having night people is to do the shit that the day people don't want to do. The next morning, the Smith family wakes up to find all their dishes have been broken by their night selves in defiance. Rick responds by calling in a favor from a devil-like alien on another planet to make unbreakable plates.
That evening, the Night Family retaliates. Led by Night Summer, they strap Rick down and force him to eat the leftover residue on the plates, making him vomit. They also get rid of all the house's furnishings and hide the Somnambulator to prevent Rick from destroying it (as that would destroy the Night Family). Taking this as a declaration of war, Rick creates a suit to keep Summer awake and has her go undercover that evening to find the Somnambulator and destroy it. Unfortunately, this fails, as Night Summer takes control just before Summer can do this. Night Rick cuts Day Rick off from all his technology and builds robots to enslave the Day Family.
After days of working as slaves, the family is able to escape with the help of Night Jerry (through his friendship with Day Jerry) and try to escape the range of the Somnambulator; however, each time one of them is knocked out or tranquilized by the robots, their night versions take over, leaving the others to try and wake them up. This leads to a car chase as each member of the family is knocked out and awakened several times, adding more chaos and confusion to the situation. Eventually, Night Summer offers Day Rick a truce; they'll let the Day Family go if they promise to rinse their dishes. Day Rick still refuses, so the Night Family takes complete control.
Months later, after going on several expensive vacations and living lives of luxury, the Night Family are completely destitute, realizing that the Day Family were the ones who properly handled the finances. Deciding that being in control isn't worth it anymore, the Night Family destroy the Somnambulator themselves and release the Smith family. Everyone wakes up disoriented, and Rick checks to see what has been going on and discovers the terrible news that the Choco Taco has been discontinued, to everyone's devastation.
Characters[]
Major characters[]
Minor characters[]
- Gene
- Giant orc alien
Pictured Only[]
Deaths[]
- At least three car drivers
- Two truck drivers
- Three drones
- A rooster
Locations[]
Episode notes[]
Trivia[]
- In celebration of Season 6, Pocket Mortys' weekly updates coincided with new episodes, including new avatars for players to collect. With the release of this episode came Day Summer as an avatar, plus Washboard Morty and Night Person Morty to catch.
- This is the first episode with a different closing sequence, parodying sitcom shows.
- This episode was nominated for the 2023 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Animated Program, but lost to The Simpsons episode “Treehouse of Horror XXXIII”.
Series continuity[]
- This is one of four episodes to feature Rick's Room, the other three being Close Rick-counters of the Rick Kind, The Old Man and the Seat, and Rickmurai Jack (in a flashback).
- Rick's new space cruiser (the one that was obtained in Solaricks) is destroyed in this episode.
- When Night Summer takes over Summer’s body, she says “Sorry, Rick but your opinion means very little to me”, referencing Rick saying the same comment in “Rick Potion No. 9”.
- When speaking over the monitor, Night Summer states that "Night time takes up half of all time." which is a direct reference to Rick saying the same thing in Pilot after Beth derides him for keeping Morty up late.
- Night Summer mentions how she is interested in seizing the day, referencing how Summer wanted to “carpe all them diems” in “Rickmancing the Stone”.
- The blast shields of the Smith Residence house appear as they were previously featured in “Total Rickall”.
- Rick's distressed exclamation that "they killed the Choco Taco" is the second time a Rick and Morty episode has ended on a punchline referencing a recent (to the episode's airdate) event: previously, "Never Ricking Morty" ended with Rick making a reference to the COVID-19 pandemic and the associated lockdown that began only a few months before the episode aired.
Cultural references[]
- The episode's title is a reference to the television series Night Gallery.
- The episode starts with a quote from a poem by T.S. Elliot, Fragment of an Agon (1927).
- During their first confrontation with Rick, the Night Family resemble the revenants from the 1980 horror film The Fog.
- When being enslaved by Night Summer, Beth burns DVDs of the films, Independence Day, Groundhog Day, and Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. However, she spares a DVD of the film, Talladega Nights.
- On the TV when Night Summer enslaves the Day Family, the film Night at the Museum is shown playing.
- The Night Family’s behavior and mannerisms are very similar to the doppelgängers in the film, Us.
- Summer notes that her sleep deprivation suit looks like a creation of filmmaker, Terry Gilliam.
- The name of Rick and Morty’s podcast “Fabsolutely Abulous” references the television series, Absolutely Fabulous.
- Night Summer’s drones bear a resemblance to the Daleks from the television series, Doctor Who.
- The man the officer is arresting bears a resemblance to Trevor from the game, Grand Theft Auto V
Transcript[]
View a full transcript of this episode here.
References
http://https--comicbook--com.proxy.hbcoal.com/anime/news/rick-and-morty-season-six-episode-titles/
Gallery
Click here to view this page's gallery.