Hidden Depths / Rick and Morty

Rick and Morty

Hidden Depths in this series.

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The Smith-Sanchez Family

The Smith-Sanchez Family were show to have a lot of depth.

Rick Sanchez

• Rick Sanchez occasionally makes remarks that hint at wanting to be seen as a good person, at least by his family. Season 2 also shows that he is incredibly aware of his own flaws and that he acts like a jerk to hide his troubles from others because he doesn't know how to cope with them on his own.
• "Auto Erotic Assimilation" has Rick horrified when a town gets destroyed For the Lulz.
• "A Rickle In Time" has him (technically 1 of 64 instantiations of him) pray to God to have mercy on him when it looks like he's going to die, only to go back to mocking his existence when he is saved.
• In addition, it is implied that Rick is insecure about his alcoholism; earlier in the episode, Rick claims that he is still in sync with his alternate reality self because he's never unsure, but when Morty makes an offhanded comment about his drunkenness, it causes Rick's certainty to falter just long enough to desynch.
• "The Whirly Dirly Conspiracy" has him reveal the true nature of his disdain for Jerry is that his son-in-law chooses to be spineless and pathetic as a manipulation tactic, with the not-so-subtle suggestion that Rick would gladly respect Jerry if he'd just make the effort to live up to his real potential. Later it's revealed Jerry isn't his son-in-law at all, and is extremely frustrated that the Citadel of Ricks chose him to be manipulated into being with Beth despite being thoroughly incompatible with each other.
• From the same episode, it's also implied that his relationship with Morty is in part to lacking a son and possibly a result of his own dad issues. It's telling that Jerry is the one who realizes this and gives perhaps a bit more depth into his and Rick's relationship.
• Rick dabbles in music and can play keys, bass, and guitar. His vocals and lyrics, which qualify as So Bad, It's Good in real life, were catchy enough In-Universe to save the planet Earth TWICE in "Get Schwifty".
• Rick is also slated to be a Nintendo and Minecraft fan.

Morty Smith

• One could be forgiven for thinking of Morty Smith as dumb if they only saw the first few episodes. But later ones show this is not true. Morty has been able to adapt to the insanity of Rick's adventures shockingly easy, though not perfectly all the time. By season three, Morty has been shown to know how to use several of Rick's devices, such as his portal gun, the Morphizer-Xe, and neutron bombs. Plus, he knows his grandfather well enough to easily figure out how to solve most of the traps the genius drunkenly creates for the Vindicators.
• Lampshade by Rick of all people at the end of "Close Encounters Of the Rick Kind".
  Rick: Just don't get too big for your loafers, Buster Brown. A cocky Morty can lead to some big problems. It could be a real bad thing for everybody.
  Morty: Oh yeah? How's that?
  Rick: Oh, uh, I'll explain when you're older.
• Cue the Twist Ending that Evil Morty was the Big Bad of the episode and was controlling Evil Rick like a puppet the entire time.
• Mortys in general can be a lot more manipulative and remorseless than even a Rick expects. Our Morty has gone on a murderous rampage and even gotten C-137 Rick killed and shown little distress about it. And as of "The Ricklantis Mixup," it transpires that he's not the only Morty to demonstrate this...
• Morty is also depicted as being friendless and hopeless with girls thanks to being a Socially Awkward Hero with low confidence and self-esteem. More and more as the series goes on, however, it's established that he actually has quite a bit of game once he's able to get past his nervousness and confidence issues, and attracts more and more girls as the series continues. Even in early Season 1, he's able to win over Annie; he hooks up with mermaids offscreen in Season 3; and he gets two actual girlfriends in Seasons 4 (No Name Given) and 5 (Planetina). He's also managed to impress and/or score several dates with Jessica, his dream girl, at various times across every season.
• Dan Harmon has stated that Morty has the potential to be smarter than Rick, hence he's learned how to take apart Rick's multiple neutron bombs without causing premature detonation, while surviving Rick's shenanigans at the age of fourteen.

Beth Smith

• Beth is a horse (?) surgeon, and an early episode showed she could have been a successful person surgeon if she hadn't married Jerry. However, like her father, pursuing her dreams and not having a family would have left her miserable. When Beth gets cloned and goes to space, she's just as badass and smart and pansexual as her dad. On Earth and in space, though, she's also the Broken Ace like Rick, what with him abandoning her as a child.

Jerry Smith

• In timelines where Summer wasn't born, Jerry has a tendency to make it big in Hollywood as an actor or a writer/director.
• It turns out that he's actually a very skilled camper, his skill being enough to sustain a small population and himself for a week. The lack of any injuries or signs of sickness implies that he was even living relatively well.
• He sometimes demonstrates a level of social savviness that even Rick can't always muster to get people to act how he wishes, bordering on being The Social Expert. He's usually too roadblocked by his generally timid demeanor to make effective use of it but even in less than ideal circumstances he can easily gauge people's motives and insecurities to use to his advantage.

Summer Smith

• Although Summer Smith is not as scientifically-minded as Rick, she does possess superior intelligence. Summer is shown to be very whip-smart and nimble-witted, at least compared to rest of her family.
• Summer seems to communicate with Rick better than Morty does, at least as long as neither party is being belligerent. Near the end of "Ricksy Business", Summer understands Rick's vague descriptions of a device much faster than Morty does even though the latter had spent much more time with Rick by that point.
• She demonstrates an impressive knowledge of vehicles in "Rickmancing The Stone", using Rick's flask as an impromptu nitro booster and causing an enemy dune buggy to flip over and explode with one well-placed shot.
• She suggests that the dead flies on Rick's desk will reveal a secret lab if rearranged in a certain way. The Stinger of the episode proves she was right, even though Morty thought she was growing unhinged.

Supporting Characters

Jessica

• Jessica reveals herself to be far from shallow in "Ricksy Business," where she expresses her exasperation with her Jerk Jock of a boyfriend and says she only wants to date someone who is nice and sweet, though it doesn't stop her from leaving the party happily with him at the end.
• "Edge of Tomorty: Rick Die Rickpeat" also reveals that her career goal is to be a hospice care worker who comforts dying old people who have no one else to be there for them, indicating once again that she's very much a Nice Girl.
• In "Mort Dinner Rick Andre", she shows a Violently Protective Girlfriend side towards Morty (whom she's not dating, but is interested in) when an alien from another dimension is trying to kill him, attacking the alien to protect him.

Rick J19ζ7/Doofus Rick

• As much as the other Ricks bully Rick J19ζ7/Doofus Rick for being the dumbest Rick, he's still a genius in his own right. He is able to make ovenless brownies simply by mixing together chemicals. In the comics, he also cured cancer in his dimension though he doesn't seem to think it's that big of a deal.

Rick Prime

• Rick Prime shows a look of regret after he kills Slowmobius. He also seems to have a bit of a soft spot for his own Morty, though it's not clear if this was a ruse or not.

The Vindicators

Vindicators 2

This miniseries showed that the entire team had depth.

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• Lady Katana, Diablo Verde and Calypso knew they were there for the optics, and refused to allow Supernova to use them as Cannon Fodder. Girls Night revealed the three were the best of friends within the Vindicators.
• Crocubot actually had a passion for dancing, a secret he went great lengths for no one to find out.
• Noob-Noob is often the smartest one on the ship, as "First Love" reveals that he has a PHD in biochemistry, and he stated he could defeat Doom-Nomitron without anyone dying by resequencing the latter's DNA. He also greatly resents the team for not taking him seriously, sticking him with grunt work, and for general mistreatment.
• Million Ants had Identity Issues, unsure if they are the female queen, or the million male drones that make their body. They also at least try to forget about Supernova and attempt online dating, before giving up from being overwhelmed.
• Vance Maximus revealed that he's been abused as a child, and after realizing Supernova is a Villain with Good Publicity, comes to the conclusion that murder and genocide is just part of the job.
• Alan Rails had an interest in meditation and Japanese culture, really wanted to have a family with Supernova, and showed levels of passion, sensitivity, and later, exhaustion, as the series went on. Tragically, his memories got rewritten that he's indirectly the cause for Dorian 5's destruction, making him far angrier and defensive as shown in Vindicators 3.
• Supernova has always been a self centered sociopath, but Vindicators 2 truly shows how awful she is, and how correct Rick truly was about how the Vindicators are the writers of their own press releases; Supernova spins and manipulates any situation to make the Vindicators look like heroes, even at the cost of their teammates' sanity, memory, and lives.