| “ | Wo-ho-ho, you found me! |
| — Rick Prime (via pre-recorded holographic video) |
"Solaricks" is the first episode of the sixth season of Rick and Morty. It is the 52nd episode of the series overall. It premiered on September 4, 2022. It was written by Albro Lundy and directed by Jacob Hair. The episode is rated TV-14-LV.
Synopsis[]
They're back... and right where we left 'em. Without a portal gun, Rick and Morty are stranded as they float through space in the ruins of the Citadel.
Plot[]
After getting stranded in the remains of the Citadel after the events of the previous episode, Rick and Morty are rescued by Space Beth and brought home. Rick tries to fix his portal gun from Evil Morty's sabotage by resetting the portal fluid, but accidentally causes a glitch that causes all people who have used portals to be sent back to their original dimensions – this includes Jerry, due to the events of "Mortynight Run". He gives Summer instructions on how to get them back before the portal travelers are zapped away: Jerry to Dimension 5126 after the mix-up at the Jerryboree, Morty to the Prime Dimension, and Rick to Dimension C-137.
Rick gathers materials he needs from his old house while conversing with an AI of Diane Sanchez he once created to "haunt" him. He decides that he has held on to her death and his plan for revenge for too long and resolves to move on and really settle in with the Smith Family he has come to care for. As he is departing the dimension through a wormhole created by Summer, however, the AI suggests that the Rick who killed her and Beth (Rick Prime) would also have been sent back to his original dimension by Rick's mistake with the portal fluid. In the Prime dimension, Morty encounters his dad, who travels by himself after the deaths of his Beth and Summer and has adapted a Rick-like nihilistic philosophy: he rejects Morty's attempts to reconnect, reminding him that he abandoned the dimension and his family twice. Rick arrives to pick up Morty and reveals that the Prime dimension is, in fact, Rick Prime's home dimension, and that Rick had originally settled here in hopes that he would one day catch him if he returned. They break into Rick Prime's lair, finding either him or a clone of him in a tube while pre-recordings of Rick Prime mock him. Rick goes on the offensive, once again wanting revenge for what Rick Prime did to his family, but Morty convinces him to stand down by reminding him he has a family back in a different dimension to worry about.
Space Beth finds herself caught up in a dispute between Beth and Summer, with Summer trying to bond with Space Beth as her cool "space mom." The pair of Beths argue over this while raiding the Citadel and fighting off five-dimensional monsters that came from the wormhole, though Summer is able to convince them to back down. After Rick and Morty return and save them from some aliens, they retrieve Jerry from Dimension 5126, which turns out to be a dimension where the divorce between Jerry and Beth in Season 3 never happened and the Smith family relationship is pretty much where it was in Season 2, making Jerry appreciative of the brief period where he and Beth divorced. Before leaving, Jerry scolds his original family for their behavior and proclaims himself an interdimensional traveler.
The family returns to Dimension C-131, where they encounter the original Jerry from this dimension who was brought back to the house and has been taking a shower upstairs while waiting for them to sort everything out. However, he accidentally unleashes a cute but deadly parasitic Boogens named Mr. Frundles that takes over the world in mere seconds, forcing the entire family plus Space Beth to move to yet another replacement dimension, where they coincidentally died at the exact moment of "natural" causes – the only major difference is that residents of this dimension pronounce "parmesan" strangely. In the new dimension, Beth and Space Beth make peace with each other, while Morty asks Rick if he's being used as bait for Rick Prime. Rick affirms that Rick Prime simply does not care about his family, remarking that in some ways, Rick Prime is the "real deal".
In the Prime Dimension, Jerry encounters none other than Rick Prime himself (it was really him at the lair), who inquires about the whereabouts of Rick and Morty. Jerry feigns interest in an alliance to defeat the two before slashing Rick Prime's throat. Rick Prime reveals he can regenerate quickly and promptly shoots Jerry, expressing some admiration for Jerry's unusual ruthlessness before finishing him off and wondering how he got back home into the Prime dimension.
Characters[]
Major characters[]
Minor characters[]
- Rick Prime
- Evil Morty (mentioned)
- Diane Sanchez (voiceover, mentioned)
- Beth Sanchez (C-137) (mentioned)
- Jerry Smith Prime
- Mr. Frundles (debut)
- Jerry Smith (C-131)
- Beth Smith Prime (mentioned)
- Summer Smith Prime (mentioned)
- Rick Sanchez (C-131) (mentioned)
- Morty Smith (C-131) (mentioned)
- Mr. Goldmanbachmajorian
- Left-Handed Morty (corpse)
- Rick Sanchez (Parmesan Dimension)
- Morty Smith (Parmesan Dimension)
- Summer Smith (Parmesan Dimension)
- Beth Smith (Parmesan Dimension)
- Jerry Smith (Parmesan Dimension)
- Space Beth (Parmesan Dimension)
- Extraterrestial monsters
Deaths[]
- Multiple versions of Morty
- Several extraterrestrials
- Mr. Goldmanbachmajorian
- Jerry Smith (C-131)
- Everyone in Dimension C-131's earth
- Jerry Smith Prime
- Rick Sanchez (Parmesan Dimension)
- Morty Smith (Parmesan Dimension)
- Summer Smith (Parmesan Dimension)
- Beth Smith (Parmesan Dimension)
- Jerry Smith (Parmesan Dimension)
- Space Beth (Parmesan Dimension)
Locations[]
- Dimension C-131
- Earth
- The Citadel
- Interdimensional Rift
- Dimension C-137
- Rick and Diane's House
- Prime Dimension
- Parmesan Dimension
- Dimension 5126
- Furp Rock (mentioned)
- Jerryboree (mentioned)
Episode notes[]
Trivia[]
- The phenomenon Rick refers to when he forces Morty to eat a smoother version of Beth's sandwich in case the solids kill him is a real syndrome called "Refeeding Syndrome," where people suffering from malnutrition/starvation are too weak to eat solid foods and need smaller nutrients to function.
- Mr. Frundles is a nod to the "Gray goo" cataclysmic scenario, in which a nanomachine transforms objects around it to nanomachines that transform other objects around them to nanomachines, rinsing and repeating.
- The writers consider Morty's return to the Prime dimension as punishment for his and Rick's callousness about jumping dimensions, and note that Jerry is now "perfect" without the presence of the rest of the family.[1]
- This episode is the first season premiere in the series to not end at the Smith family's garage.
- Summer 5126 telling Jerry that it's been a decade since he's become jobless is possibly referencing the fact that the show turns 10 years old in 2023.
- 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 Hermit Jerry as an avatar, plus Bloodthirsty Morty and Helmet Morty to catch.
- The tribute card to the late J. Michael "Mike" Mendel, first seen at the end of "Edge of Tomorty: Rick Die Rickpeat", plays again at the end of this episode. Season 6 is the first season for which Mendel did not have any involvement, having passed away in September 2019.
- Cassie Steele is credited in this episode's end credits, but her named characters of Tammy Guterman and Tricia Lange do not appear. It seems likely that she provided some minor voice work for the episode.
- The full episode was temporarily released on YouTube by Adult Swim from September 13 to September 27, 2022.
Themes[]
- In calling-back to multiple aspects of the series' lore as well as placing Rick, Morty, and Jerry in their "original" dimensions, this episode looks at the development of the characters over the past five seasons of the show. It also reiterates the idea from "Rixty Minutes" that familial ties have less to do with whether characters come from the same dimension and more their shared experiences: of the Smith Family, only Summer and Beth (and, to a degree, Space Beth) come from the same dimension, and the entire family has to be displaced to a new one by the end of the episode. Yet they all still consider each other family. Even Rick, despite what he might insist.
- Likewise, Morty does not consider Rick Prime to be his grandfather even if they are from the same dimension, because to him his grandfather Rick is the one he has been going on adventures with this entire time.
- Rick has frequently espoused a nihilistic philosophy, free of attachments to friends or family, which has earned him the self-assigned title of the "Rickest Rick" from "Close Rick-Counters of the Rick Kind". However, this has been called into question over the years with his attachment to Morty that was shown in the same episode, and more or less disproven in "Rickmurai Jack" and this episode in his quest for vengeance and decision to remain with the Smith Family. As it turns out, Rick thinks of Rick Prime as the "real deal" when it comes to no emotional attachments, the one Rick who actually embodies the nihilistic philosophy, as opposed to Rick C-137 adapting it out of necessity due to his tragic past.
Series continuity[]
- Rick and Morty refer to Evil Morty and state his actions were just an evil monologue.
- Rick is shown giving his spinal cord commands, telling it "Robitussin as a base, then surprise me." He is first shown attempting to do this in Claw and Hoarder: Special Ricktim's Morty, when he tells his spinal cord to activate morphine.
- As it turns out, Jerry did in fact go home with the wrong Rick and Morty when he was picked up at the Jerryboree, as seen at the end of "Mortynight Run." Rick remarks "deep cut", referencing how long it has been since that episode.
- Beth finally learns about what happened to her original Rick and Morty at the end of "Rick Potion No. 9". Apparently she had already noticed that some possums were sniffing around where they were buried.
- Summer is the one who informs her: Summer learned what happened during the events of "Rixty Minutes".
- It appears that Summer's "chore server", below the Garage, is the same room that was once used in "Morty's Mind Blowers".
- Since losing Beth and Diane from C-137 (as shown in "The Rickshank Rickdemption" and "Rickmurai Jack"), Rick has kept that dimension in a time loop of the day they died, thus trapping all of its inhabitants in a personal hell. As part of his broader effort to move on, Rick gets rid of the time loop in this episode.
- Rick created an AI with Diane's voice to "haunt" him in his old house in Dimension C-137. Diane is voiced by Kari Wahlgren, who also provides the voice of the Space Cruiser and Garage AI, suggesting some potential connection with the AI depicted in this episode.
- The house has apparently been rebuilt and cleaned of multiple Rick corpses as seen in a flashback from "Rickmurai Jack."
- Rick Prime is from the Prime Dimension, revealing why Rick settled with his family there as depicted in "Rickmurai Jack."
- Summer informs Beth that the Citadel of Ricks is usually filled with "Cowboy Rick and Mortys and stuff." This is a callback to the Cowboy Morty that Morty spotted in "Close Rick-Counters of the Rick Kind."
- Jerry Prime reveals that Beth Prime and Summer Prime died after they were frozen in "The Rickshank Rickdemption," Beth from an unnamed illness and Summer due to complications from thawing out.
- While Morty didn't mean to leave his original family in "Rick Potion No. 9", Morty did not try to save them after that. Morty tries to apologize to his Jerry, but Jerry points out he did in fact abandon them by leaving them again in "The Rickshank Rickdemption" three seasons ago: also, because of Morty's actions in that episode, both his original mother and sister died, hence justifying Jerry's feelings about Morty.
- Morty suggests to his father that they play Downbeat, a game first shown in Rickmancing the Stone and later in Rattlestar Ricklactica.
- Due to Rick's carelessness, yet another dimension is completely damaged beyond all repair and forces a move to a replacement dimension, much like in "Rick Potion No. 9." This time, the entire family plus Space Beth have to move. Space Beth suggests they just try to fix the issue, only for her and the rest of the family to change their minds after seeing the scale of destruction, lampshading Morty's prior incredulousness at Rick so callously leaving the Prime dimension behind.
- Rick also tried to get Morty to leave Dimension C-131 in "Morty's Mind Blowers", though later episodes prior to the ending to this episode show that Rick and Morty still live in Dimension C-131 implying that they solved the problem.
- Rick refers to Rick Prime as "the real deal", essentially confessing that his own supposed lack of attachment to his family is a front (as shown in his quest for revenge in "Rickmurai Jack") since unlike him, Rick Prime actively decided to abandon his family for 20 years. In turn, Morty and the rest of the family have come to recognize that Rick really cares about them, to the point that Jerry mockingly mutters "I'm Denial Rick!" when he tries to bring up his usual excuse that he can always find a new family.
- Left-Handed Morty’s corpse can be seen who previously appeared in “The Ricklantis Mixup”.
- The previous Jerrys (Prime and C-131) die in same episode.
- Ironically, their deaths along with the destruction of their universes, were caused by actions of a Rick.
Cultural references[]
- The episode's title is a reference to the novel Solaris (and its 1972 and 2002 film adaptations), the plot of which involves a scientist trapped on a space station haunted by a recreation of his long-dead wife: the episode's plot element of an AI of Diane Sanchez "haunting" Rick is a reference to the film.
- Rick and Morty's rescue by Space Beth mirrors the opening of Avengers: Endgame, as noted by Rick himself.
- Summer access a vending machine with items from Marvel characters, including Thor's hammer, Cyclops' visor, Magneto's helmet on color green and Summer chose Wolverine claws.
- However, the claws look more like X-23's claws. Who, in turn, also goes by "Wolverine".
- Jerry Prime frequently mentions reading The Four Agreements, Eat Prey Love and The Dark Knight Returns, even paraphrasing from them in one scene.
- Jerry C-131 refers to Mr. Frundles as a “boogen”. This may be a reference to the 1981 monster horror film, The Boogens.
- Jerry Prime saying "Fatality, Jerry wins!" is a reference to Mortal Kombat.
- Rick Prime refers to his “clone” to Keyer Soze, a character from the film, The Usual Suspects.
- Rick Prime refers to the ambiguity of his “clone” to the film franchise, Saw.
- Beth apologizes to Space Beth and mentions the television series, Dance Moms, in how she was acting to her.
Goof[]
- Rick and Morty could not hear Space Beth when in space, but the whole Smith-Sanchez family could hear Mr. Frundles while in space. This may be explained by Mr. Frundles ejecting the Earth's atmosphere onto their ship, thus providing a medium for sound to travel through.
Transcript[]
View a full transcript of this episode here.
Gallery
Click here to view this page's gallery.
References
http://https--comicbook--com.proxy.hbcoal.com/anime/news/rick-and-morty-season-six-episode-titles/