Recap / Rick And Morty S 6 E 1 Solaricks

Time for a good old family reunion!

Original air date: 9/4/2022

In an attempt to restore portal travel, Rick ends up sending himself, Morty, and Jerry back to their original realities.

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Tropes:

• After the End: Earth in Main Morty's dimension (Cronenberg Dimension/Prime Dimension) has since been taken over by nature, and its Cronenberg inhabitants are far more sparse, either from Jerry thinning their numbers or simply dying off. Hermit Jerry is the sole human left on Earth, until Morty and then later Rick Prime are shunted back there by Rick's portal reset.
• And I Must Scream:
  • Rick froze time in his original dimension, presumably in hopes of getting revenge, finding a new Diane and young Beth and resuming his family life. Unfortunately, he forgot or was unable to stop the people of his universe from aging, meaning they are reliving the same day, while still aging. Given how old everyone appears, Rick has been gone for a while.
  • While eating the brain of a mutant, Hermit Jerry nonchalantly wonders if the person they used to be is still there but just trapped in a horrible existence.
• Apocalypse How: By the end of his screentime, Mr. Frundles has assimilated earth itself, swallowing its oceans with its gigantic mouth and reducing it to a lifeless husk, thus being an example of Class 6 of Apocalypse How.
• Armor-Piercing Response:
  • When Morty tries to explain to Hermit Jerry that Batman doesn't abandon allies, he gets hit with the clear fact that he abandoned his original family (even if it wasn't originally by his own choice).
  • After Rick tells AI Diane (the voice of his dead wife Diane who serves as the robot for his house and spaceship) that their granddaughter Summer reminds him of her, AI Diane asks if it's because Summer's dead too, prompting Rick to instantly shut down the conversation.
  • This is how Morty gets Rick to stop his Revenge Before Reason-fueled futile effort to try to kill Rick Prime and leave with him to go save the Beths and Summer. Rick makes a crack about Morty being Rick Prime's real grandson, only for Morty to respond that he's never met Rick Prime, and he (Main Rick) is Morty's actual grandpa where it counts, reminding him of their "Rick and Morty for a hundred years" motto.
• Asshole Victim: It's easy to forget, but the original Jerry, Beth and Summer from the Cronenberg dimension didn't care that Rick and Morty went missing from their world, even expressing happiness that they were gone, and when Morty and Main Summer came there later, the Original Smiths shattered their portal gun, planned to force Morty to stay with them against his will, and were about to likely attack Summer. In that respect, knowing that they died, and that Jerry was left all alone (before his death in the hands of Rick Prime in The Stinger), hits a little differently.
• Back for the Dead:
  • Season 2 Jerry, who served as the Main Jerry from the end of "Rick Potion #9" to the end of "Mortynight Run", returns, having been sent back to his original reality as a result of Rick's failed attempt to reset the portal travel system. Not long after his return, he carelessly releases Mr. Frundles, immediately gets infected, and the rest of the planet quickly follows suit, forcing Rick and Morty to once again abscond to another reality, this time with the rest of the Smith-Sanchez family (including Space Beth) in tow.
  • When Morty is sent back to his original reality, he once again reunites with Hermit Jerry, who reveals that Hermit Beth and Hermit Summer were both Killed Offscreen sometime between "The Rickshank Redemption" and this episode. Hermit Jerry himself also ends up dying, getting killed by Rick Prime during The Stinger.
• Batman Can Breathe in Space: Both Rick and Morty can now breathe in space without issue. Morty is surprised, so Rick hand waves he "child-proofed" him just in case.
• Big Damn Heroes:
  • Rick and Morty are starving in the remains of the ship from the Citadel and prepare to quietly die, but Space Beth shows up and saves them.
  • Summer rescues both of the Beths from the stomach of the hydra-like space creature looting the Citadel remains. The three of them then regroup for another shot at fighting it...only for Rick and Morty to arrive and land their ship on top of it, and Rick easily dissolves and kills it.
• Black-and-Grey Morality: Rick has never been a standup guy, but he did care about his original Diane and Beth and still cares about Morty and the rest of his current versions of the Smiths. His enemy Rick Prime cares for no one and killed Rick's family for fun.
• Blatant Lies: Rick tells Beth that the family's counterparts in the new replacement dimension all died of natural causes. As we can see, their corpses are all maimed and mutilated and the living room has been damaged by an obvious explosion, indicating that the natural-causes explanation is total BS.
• Boom, Headshot!: How Rick Prime finishes off Hermit Jerry, after shooting him in the stomach.
• Breaking the Fourth Wall: First Rick mentions how Morty is trying to do something he already did "last season"; later, he mentions he's getting "Season 2" vibes from Jerry's original family that he was sent back to, and likewise calling the Jerry who's been living with said family "Season 2 Jerry"; and finally, after Mr. Frundles has assimilated Earth, Rick notes that, without portal travel, they'll have to do "the whole fucking episode" all over again to find a new reality to inhabit.
• Brick Joke: When Rick and Morty find Rick Prime's hideout with a dancing naked clone of him, Rick Prime states on the monitor that that could be a clone or it could be the real him. When Rick Prime appears in The Stinger, he puts his pants back on and tells Hermit Jerry that he was naked "to fuck with a guy", revealing that it really was him there.
• Bullying a Dragon: It's not certain whether Rick Prime would have killed Hermit Jerry anyway even if the latter hadn't attacked him; one of Rick's lines to Morty earlier in the episode ("If you had [seen Rick Prime], you'd be dead") implies that Rick Prime is Ax-Crazy enough to kill anyone he doesn't need, like Hermit Jerry, on sight, but this could just be Rick's (understandable) perception of him. Regardless, once Hermit Jerry tries and fails to kill Rick Prime thanks to the latter's Healing Factor, he quickly pays for it with his life.
• Call-Back: One all the way back to "Pilot": Morty repeats the "Rick and Morty for a hundred years" line from Rick's tirade at the end of that episode to get through to Rick and convince him to leave Rick Prime's lair with him.
• Calling the Young Man Out: After Morty reunites with his prime Jerry, after abandoning him during the Cronenberg-event and causing the deaths of his mother and sister, his father rightfully calls his son out on his selfish behavior, leaving him in tears over what he has done.
• Casual Danger Dialogue: When Summer and her two moms fight the aliens guarding the beacon, they trash talk each other while killing off their attackers with ease.
• Cerebus Syndrome: Parodied with the Season 2 universe. While everyone from the mainline show has become a better person, including Rick and Jerry, the family from the Season 2 universe has mostly stayed the same as a bunch of unhappy, cynical pricks. It's so bad that now all they do is sit around the table and bring up each other's failures. Morty even casually brings up that he was expelled, and all the family does is bitch him out and call him worthless.
• Character Death:
  • Hermit Summer and Hermit Beth, the show's original Summer and Beth for the first six episodes who were abandoned in "Rick Potion #9" and briefly seen again in "The Rickshank Redemption", died offscreen between then and now after being frozen by the SWAT Team Ricks.
  • Hermit Jerry — who is likewise the series's original Jerry — is shot dead in The Stinger by Rick Prime.
  • What's more, "Season 2 Jerry"—who was the show's "main Jerry" from the end of "Rick Potion #9" until the end of "Mortynight Run" (at which point he was accidentally swapped with the third and current "main" Jerry at the Jerryboree)—is killed when he's bitten, infected, and overtaken by Mr. Frundles, who then proceeds to take over the entire planet Earth.
• Character Development: This episode neatly highlights the development that the various members of the Smith-Sanchez family have received over the seasons, some more than others:
  • Rick is a lot more willing to admit to his flaws and issues and, even if he still certainly backslides quite a bit, is at least more willing to try to fix them and open up to others than he used to be. Probably the best examples are when AI Diane asks if Rick's leaving because he wants to move on from what happened to his original family, and he counters that he doesn't want to, but knows he has to; and when, ultimately, he listens to Morty and prioritizes saving his Family of Choice over getting revenge on his original family's killer.
  • Morty's higher cynicism and Seen It All attitude are shown once again at the end when burying his alternate self without so much as changing expression, and that he doesn't panic or get scared anywhere near as much here as he used to. The fact that he Grew a Spine and developed a greater understanding of Rick over time is highlighted when he picks up on several of Rick's explanations very quickly, tries to persuade him not to fight with Rick Prime because "it's an obvious trap", and knows exactly what to say and do to reach Rick and get him to leave with him.
  • Summer once again gets to show off her Action Girl chops and her status as The Reliable One for Rick, neither of which she started out with but have grown more and more over the series.
  • Beth's evolution from being a shrewish wife and unsupportive mom into a caring family woman is shown several times through her concern for her kids, but especially when the family comes to pick up Jerry from his original dimension. Jerry is shown being chewed out and demeaned by the alternate, shrill, resentful version of Beth who never divorced him, who then proceeds to yell at her version of Morty and call him "so fucking dumb" when he reveals he got expelled from school. Jerry gets up and answers the door to find the Beth he knows, who greets him with a smile and warmly hugs him.
  • On a related note, Jerry is shown to also be a lot happier, more confident, and less petty than he used to be, as seen in the brief interaction with Season 2 Jerry, who has been living with the alternates and stagnated in development since then, expecting the rest of the family to "bust [his] ass" and taking a hostile verbal potshot at Beth completely unprovoked. As for Main Jerry, briefly seeing his original family having likewise not developed causes him to realize that spending time divorced from Beth was good for them in the end, insight he probably would never have had in the beginning.
  • Even Space Beth gets a bit of development here after her argument with Earth Beth earlier; by the end, she states that, while setting boundaries is a good thing, she feels that she's set too many, and asks if she can come visit more often, which Earth Beth agrees to with a smile.
• Clone by Conversion: Mr. Frundles is a triangle-shaped creature that causes whatever it bites to adopt his face, both organic and inorganic. Simply biting things around the Smith house quickly assimilates the entire planet.
• Close-Enough Timeline: Or dimension in this case. The family has to flee to another dimension and bury their now-dead original inhabitants the same way that Rick and Morty did in Season 1. Rick assures them that everything is pretty much the same, except that the word "parmesan" is pronounced "Par-mee-zee-an".
• Conditioned to Accept Horror:
  • Hermit Jerry has managed move on from the ruination of his world and the deaths of his wife and daughter by cutting himself off emotionally. He himself bitterly admits to Morty that, aside from having to talk to him, he considered his life to be perfect.
  • Demonstrated with most of the family over the course of the episode, with the exception of Main Jerry. Morty, both versions of Beth, and Summer have all been shown to be comparatively level-headed when dealing with post-apocalyptic worlds, extradimensional horrors, and the prospect of burying the bodies of their alternate selves. (Though this last point is downplayed for Summer and Earth Beth, who still look disturbed and unhappy when dealing with their alternates' corpses.)
• Continuity Nod:
  • When Beth wonders aloud where the original Rick and Morty from their dimension are, Summer rather casually responds, "Buried in the backyard," which Morty revealed to her in "Rixty Minutes" and she directly saw for herself and took advantage of in "The Rickshank Redemption".
  • This episode confirms that two Jerrys were swapped at the Jerryboree back in "Mortynight Run", which was heavily implied at the time, and they all realize it here.
  • Hermit Jerry references how he, Hermit Beth, and Hermit Summer were frozen by the SWAT Team Ricks in "The Rickshank Redemption", and mentions that Summer and Beth actually died as a result of this because the Ricks never bothered to unfreeze them (a monster thawed them by licking them, but only Jerry survived).
  • After the Earth has been overtaken by Mr. Frundles, the family moves to another dimension where their counterparts all died at the same time and end up being buried by their replacements, like in "Rick Potion #9".
  • Rick uses a cybernetic implant in his spine to inject drugs directly into his bloodstream, an ability introduced in "Claw and Hoarder: Special Ricktim's Morty".
  • The frozen corpse of Fat Morty from "The Ricklantis Mixup" can briefly be seen floating in space alongside other dead Ricks and Mortys.
• Crazy-Prepared:
  • Hermit Jerry pre-emptively wrote a note to leave to Morty to explain how he's going to take all his stuff and run and the note is to stall him while he runs away. Then when Morty tries to leave the house to chase him, he's caught in a snare and hoisted to another note on the wall taped up-side-down, which Jerry scrawled in a hurry as he set the trap and was left just to mock Morty.
  • Rick Prime's lair is rigged with several minutes of video to talk to whoever finds it, a clone in a tank to mock them, kill bots to attack them, and an implicit Self-Destruct Mechanism. He prepared it so well that his pre-recorded videos are practically talking to the main Rick in realtime and even seem to be following Rick's movements with their eyes. (Because the clone isn't a clone; it's actually Rick Prime and he's there screwing with Rick in person.)
• Cute Little Fangs: Mr. Frundles sports some. But he's not so nice.
• Cuteness Proximity: After Mr. Frundles assimilates Earth into becoming like it, Beth finds out why Rick brought it:

  Beth: What the fuck, Dad?! Why would you bring that thing into our house?!

  Rick: It was cute! Fuck!

• Death Seeker:
  • The aging population of Rick's original dimension, forced to re-live the same day while getting older, wish to end the agony. When the neighbor who comes to Rick's door starts to die after their conversation, he celebrates.
  • Rick tells AI Diane that he considers risking his life flying into a dimensional rift a "win-win", as in, even if Summer and the Beths have failed to set up the signal and he dies trying to reach them, he's still fine with it. Later, Morty tells Rick that going deeper into Rick Prime's lair will lead to his death, and Rick replies with a blunt "Good." It takes Morty reminding him what family really is for him to relent.
• Desperately Looking for a Purpose in Life: The Stinger implies this for Rick Prime, though he may simply be wondering why he's been returned to his own universe.
  Hermit Jerry: (slowly dying from being shot in the stomach by Rick Prime) Why... are you here?
  Rick Prime: Buddy, I've been asking myself that exact (shoots Hermit Jerry again – this time in the head, killing him) same question.
• Devoured by the Horde: The surviving Morties in the opening scene tear apart and eat one of their own.
• Diabolus ex Nihilo: The entire Smith-Sanchez family returns home at the end, laughing and chatting about their awesome adventure and the Aesop of the episode, only to find Season 2 Jerry there, who found a never-before-seen alien creature in Rick's possessions called "Mr. Frundles", which he releases from its cage. It promptly begins infecting everything within reach, including Season 2 Jerry, and soon afterwards, the entire Earth, which forces the family to change dimensions once again.
• Distracted by the Sexy: Morty follows the footprints he finds (which are Hermit Jerry's) to a convenience store, only to quickly get distracted by the magazine rack and the issue of Sex Vogue he finds there, with a hot, scantily-dressed model on the front. It's downplayed, though, since Morty is quick to turn around and strike when he hears someone (Hermit Jerry) behind him.
• Don't Sneak Up on Me Like That!: Morty accidentally wounds Hermit Jerry with a spear throw after the latter sneaked up on him from behind.
• Dramatic Space Drifting: We see dead Ricks and Morties floating in space in the opening scene.
• Dropped a Bridge on Him: Hermit Beth and Hermit Summer (Main Morty's original Beth and Summer) are revealed by Hermit Jerry to have been Killed Offscreen (see below).
• "Eureka!" Moment: Rick has this when he realizes, thanks to AI Diane, that the Rick he's been hunting for must have also been pulled back to his original reality and is likewise trapped there, giving Rick a far better chance of finding him since he knows which one it is (Cronenberg dimension).
• Failed Dramatic Exit:
  • As Rick, Morty, and Jerry are about to disappear and be returned to their native dimensions, Rick tries to build up to it with a big, "Here we GOOOOOO!", complete with Milking the Giant Cow...only for it to take almost 30 more seconds, giving Jerry enough time to point out that Rick actually had a lot of time to explain what was going on while Rick can only sigh in exasperation.
  • Jerry tells off the versions of Beth, Summer, Morty, and Rick from his original dimension by announcing that he's now a multi-dimensional traveler, and tries to make a Mic Drop-style exit by Flipping the Bird at them with both hands...but bumps into the closed front door and has to awkwardly reach over with one of his hands to open it (though he still continues to flip them off with the other one).
• Family of Choice:
  • At Rick Prime's lair, Rick makes a comment about Earth Beth and Space Beth being one universe's version of Morty's moms, and also alludes to Rick Prime being Morty's real grandfather. Morty immediately replies that he doesn't even know the guy; Main Rick is the one he considers his grandpa.
  • Ultimately, this is the case for the whole Smith-Sanchez family. Between the six of them, they originate from four different dimensions (the one where we've spent the show from the ending of "Rick Potion #9" is where Summer and the Beths come from, while Rick, Morty, and Jerry are each from a different one), but all affirm by the end that they consider each other their true family.
• Flipping the Bird: Jerry (using both hands) to his original versions of the rest of his family, who have not undergone any of the same Character Development as the ones he's been living with since "Mortynight Run", and are still just as dysfunctional and unhappy now as they were when he left them.
• Generation Xerox: Beth worries that Summer's starting to idolize Space Beth, who admits she has no interest in being a part of their family, the same way she spent the first three seasons idolizing and making excuses for Rick. Summer later dismisses this notion by making it clear she's aware Space Beth isn't a good mother or role model and doesn't favor her over the Beth that stayed. In the end Space Beth defies this by noting that she's been acting too aloof, and asks for permission to spend more time with the family.
• Gilligan Cut: After the family is forced to flee from Mr. Frundles and Earth, Rick tells them how they're going to have to switch realities, and since that's so much more difficult without portal tech, they'll pretty much have to "do the episode all over again". Space Beth tries to offer up a different solution:
  Space Beth: Can't we just...go back and fix it?
  Mr. Frundles: (as it literally assimilates the entire Earth and turns into one large uninhabitable rock) MMMM, I'M MR. FRUNDLES!!!
  (Long Beat as everyone stares at it)
  (Cut to the family in the living room in an alternate reality with dead versions of themselves.)
• "Groundhog Day" Loop: Turns out Rick set up an imperfect one back in his home dimension. Imperfect, because while the same day ostensibly repeats from the perspective of the people trapped in the loop, things they did in previous iterations of the loop leave behind permanent changes (Rick's neighbor was able to leave behind written notes for himself, though this didn't help him very much because he would forget the context each time the loop reset), they are at least subconsciously aware that something is wrong with the way time behaves, and they physically age too, but are also not able to die even if their bodies have deteriorated way past the breaking point (it's uncertain how long that they have been trapped, but it is implied that it is at the very least a couple of decades). Rick somewhat ashamedly admits to himself that he did a sloppy job with setting up the loop, chalking it up to the fact that he did it at a time in his life where his alcoholism was even worse than it is now. Before he leaves, he flips a switch that implies the loop is finally turned off, granting everyone affected a much-needed death.
• Hand Wave: Done in-universe and Played for Laughs with Morty surviving in the vacuum of space without a spacesuit with no problems. He outright lampshades this, only for Rick to tell him that he "childproofed" Morty while the latter was sleeping.
• Healing Factor: Hermit Jerry slashes Rick Prime's throat, but the wound closes up after a few seconds.
• Heal It With Fire: Hermit Jerry burns out the spear wound in his shoulder with a fire-heated knife.
• History Repeats: After Mr. Frundles infects the entire world, Rick lampshades that the family has to repeat the whole process to find a new home. And, in a repeat of "Rick Potion #9", they hop to an alternate universe where their counterparts recently died, and bury them in the backyard, except that this time, instead of just Rick and Morty doing it, Summer, Jerry, and both Beths have counterparts to bury as well.
• I Have No Son!: Hermit Jerry makes it clear that he blames Morty for the deaths of Hermit Beth and Hermit Summer and that having to interact with him is the only part of his life he doesn't consider "perfect".
• I Need a Freaking Drink: When Rick is returned to his home universe and encounters AI Diane in his old house there, the first thing he does after she starts "haunting" him is open up a secret compartment with alcohol in it and pour himself a drink. And then when he finishes that, heads to the fridge for a beer.
• Inertial Impalement: Morty kills an attacking Cronenberg monster by holding up a knife while the beast jumps onto him. Results in an Instant Death Stab.
• Internal Reveal: Beth learns from Summer that their reality's original Rick and Morty died, which happened at the end of "Rick Potion #9" and which Summer learned from Morty in "Rixty Minutes".
• Innocent Innuendo: When Rick Prime appears in The Stinger, he puts his pants back on and tells Hermit Jerry that he was naked "to fuck with a guy".
• Irony: Morty finally meets an "improved" version of his father whose opinion he actually values only to be dismissed and insulted in a manner not too dissimilar to how he treats his current Jerry.
• Jerkass Has a Point: Hermit Jerry is 100% justified in calling out Morty for abandoning his family. Morty left his versions of Jerry, Beth, and Summer behind on Cronenberg world and never looked back. When he finally returned, it was only to use them as props to demonstrate Rick's callousness to his current Summer, and he had no intention of staying. Jerry destroyed the portal gun to force him to stay, then the Citadel of Ricks kidnapped him and Summer, leaving the others frozen solid.
• Killed Offscreen: Hermit Beth and Hermit Summer both died sometime after they were frozen in "The Rickshank Rickdemption". According to Jerry, Beth contracted a fatal disease and Summer "didn't thaw right."
• Killer Rabbit: Mr. Frundles, a small triangular alien creature with an adorable-looking face, which is actually a deadly parasite that turns anything it bites into a clone of itself, while its clones can also assimilate other people/objects around them. This causes the end of the replacement dimension that had been a setting for almost every episode since Season 1's "Rick Potion #9" when Mr. Frundles assimilates the whole planet, and the Smith-Sanchez family are subsequently forced to find a new replacement dimension.
• Laughably Evil: Rick Prime is a fun-loving sociopath with a sense of humour.
• Let Me Get This Straight...: Rick tells Morty that they're going to "kill your grandpa". Morty responds in confusion that he doesn't understand, and asks if this means that his original Rick is the one who killed Main Rick's family, and the latter came to Morty's dimension in the first place with the hope that the former would come back someday. Rick just replies that, clearly, Morty actually understands the situation perfectly.
• Luke, I Am Your Father: Rick Prime, who killed Main Rick's family, is the true Rick from the Cronenberg dimension, the biological grandfather of Main Morty. Though it's Main Rick instead of Rick Prime who tells Morty this, as he's never even met the latter.
• Meet Your Early-Installment Weirdness: The Jerry that has been a part of the Smith-Sanchez Family for the majority of the series is not the one native to the dimension, having been accidentally swapped out with the second main Jerry at Jerryboree. Upon being returned to his true universe, he experiences how very little has changed in his original family, who are still constantly at each others' throats and bitter at one another. And after being reunited with his real family and returning home, they all meet "Season 2 Jerry": the aforementioned second main Jerry who was brought to Current Jerry's home reality accidentally, and as such, didn't undergo any of his Character Development.
• Mike Nelson, Destroyer of Worlds: Season 2 Jerry is this after he accidentally releases Mr. Frundles.
• Mooning: The naked possible-clone of Rick Prime (revealed in The Stinger to actually be the real one) in the capsule does this to Rick and Morty when they find his space station, rubbing his buttcheeks against the glass while jeering at them.
• Never My Fault: While he is at least somewhat in the right to call out Morty, it was Hermit Jerry who burned that last bridge by destroying the portal gun to force Morty to stay and trying to kill Summer on top of that. He and his family then tried to attack the Citadel of Rick officers that tracked the unlicensed portal gun, leading to them being frozen. Any motivation Morty might have had to help his original family was lost when Hermit Jerry proved he couldn't be reasoned with.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero:
  • Rick tries to reset the portal travel system, but ends up accidentally resetting portal travelers, sending himself, Morty, and Jerry back to their original realities and requiring a much more complicated system to reunite the whole family that takes the bulk of the episode to fix. By the end, the portal system still hasn't been rebooted yet.
  • Season 2 Jerry finds Mr. Frundles in Rick's stuff and releases it, only for it to quickly infect the entire planet Earth, forcing the Smith-Sanchez family to change realities again.
• No Party Like a Donner Party: After the Citadel runs out of food, the rescued Mortys go feral and start to eat each other.
• No-Sell: Hermit Jerry's throat slash attack on Rick Prime is this, due to the latter's previously unrevealed Healing Factor.
• Nothing Is the Same Anymore: Subverted. The universe (or, at least, its version of Earth) that the main cast has been living in since "Rick Potion #9"^note Or, in Jerry's case, since "Mortynight Run", which is Summer's and both Beths' native version of Earth, is completely taken over by Mr. Frundles and essentially destroyed, forcing them to hop realities again and replace dead versions of themselves, meaning that no one in the family is living in their original reality anymore. That being said, Rick claims that the new one they moved to is almost exactly the same as the previous one, except that the word "parmesan" is pronounced differently.^note It's "par-mee-see-ann"
• No Time to Explain: Rick to Jerry and everyone else when he, Morty, and Jerry are about to be teleported back to their original realities and Jerry asks what's going on. It's quickly subverted when it ends up taking them about another half a minute to actually disappear, prompting Jerry to lampshade in annoyance, twice, that there was actually plenty of time to explain.
• Oh, Crap!: When the original Mr. Frundles bites Season 2 Jerry's ankle and said ankle spawns a face and also calls itself Mr. Frundles, Jerry comments a nervous "Wait, but I thought he was Mr. Frundles." It's after this that Rick tells everyone that they need to leave and the family wisely flees, and not a moment too soon, as it promptly assimilates the whole house, and soon, the whole planet.
• Orphaned Punchline: Lampshaded when we cut to the family arriving home laughing and Morty remarks what an amazing joke he just told.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: The Jerry we know, who has been the "main Jerry" since the end of "Mortynight Run", is returned to his original reality (where "Season 2 Jerry" has been living) where the family, including his own alternate, has not undergone the Character Development of the main cast and is still unhappy, dysfunctional, and argumentative. Once his family comes to rescue him and take him back with them, he takes a moment to duck inside and give this to the other versions, telling them that even if he's originally from their dimension, he's traveled between universes, and they can "kiss my sci-fi ass", complete with Flipping the Bird with both hands.
• Reclaimed by Nature: The Cronenberg world has almost completely grown over with trees and other vegetation.
• Replacement Goldfish: Hermit Jerry calls out Morty for this mindset. Not only did Morty abandon his original family to find a world that wasn't ruined, but he only came back to prove a point to his current Summer, treating them more like curiosities rather than people. The only reparation Morty can come up with is offering to have Rick send Hermit Jerry to another dimension with a new Beth and Summer, and Jerry once again tells him he's not getting it.
• The Reveal: Rick Prime—the guy who murdered Rick C-137's original Beth and Diane—is the real native Rick of the Cronenberg dimension (the one where the show began and Main Morty is originally from), meaning that he is Main Morty's original Rick. The real reason Rick C-137 came to the Cronenberg dimension in the first place was to try to hunt Rick Prime down, only to end up staying there when that didn't pan out and essentially adopting them (or, at least, Morty) as his family.
• Revenge Before Reason: Rick falls into this when he and Morty find Rick Prime's trap-infested hideout, with Morty pointing out that, if Rick falls for Rick Prime's challenges, it's just gonna get him killed. Morty finally gets through to Rick by telling him he considers him to be his real grandpa, and they leave before Rick Prime destroys the whole place.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: The Smith-Sanchez family briefly consider going back and attempting to fix the mess caused by Season 2 Jerry releasing Mr. Frundles, only to be greeted by the sight of it having just finished assimilating literally the entire planet, and a planet-sized Mr. Frundles now staring at them. The next shot is of them in another reality in the middle of cleaning up the dead bodies of that universe's family.
• Seen It All:
  • After Beth learns from Summer that the original Rick and Morty of their dimension are dead and their corpses buried in the backyard, her only comment is a nonchalant, "That's what the possums are after."
  • As the Smith-Sanchez family prepares to bury their dead alternate counterparts after hopping universes, Morty just wearily advises his mom on a way to move the corpse more easily (prompting her to incredulously ask how many times he's done this), and has the same resigned look on his face as Rick while burying his own corpse, while the others look more traumatized by it.
  • Rick tries to pull another "I don't actually care about any of you" on the rest of his family at the end, only for Summer, Jerry, and the Beths to respond with bored indifference at this point.
• Self-Serving Memory: Jerry from the Cronenberg dimension guilt trips Morty when the two are reunited for abandoning their family after the events of Rick Potion #9. He conveniently ignores the fact that he didn't care that Morty vanished, and was perfectly content with it being just him, Beth and Summer.
• Sequel Hook: Rick Prime is revealed to still be active, as he's teleported back to the Cronenberg dimension. He kills Hermit Jerry, and prepares to figure out how he was brought back there.
• Shoot the Shaggy Dog: Thanks to the ship having lost power and food supply running out, the surviving Mortys that Rick and Morty saved from the imploding Citadel in "Rickmurai Jack" have, by the time of this episode, either gone feral or been torn apart and eaten by the feral ones.
• Shout-Out:
  • The title is clearly a play on the science fiction novel Solaris.
  • The cold open with the protagonists stranded in the void of space and waiting for death is similar to how almost every episode of Final Space began.
  • Rick's opening monologue has him referencing Tony Stark's log in the opening of Avengers: Endgame. Space Beth even shows up to save them just like how Captain Marvel did.
  • Summer notes she gets paid by Rick in gadgets. Here she chooses "Wolverine Claws", though they are only two to a fist, like Wolverine's clone daughter X-23.
  • Cronenberg dimension Jerry read a lot of books after his Beth and Summer died, in particular The Dark Knight Returns.
  • Rick Prime compares his naked, maybe-clone self to Keyser Söze, the criminal mastermind of The Usual Suspects. He also states that the ambiguity of if the real him or a clone is in the tube is a Saw thing.
  • Earth Beth apologizes for "going all Dance Moms" on Space Beth about Summer.
  • Hermit Jerry calls his attack on Alternate Rick as "Fatality. Jerry Wins".
• Slashed Throat: Hermit Jerry does this to Rick Prime, but Rick Prime heals from the injury and shoots Hermit Jerry dead.
• Something We Forgot:
  • Rick was hoping Jerry would become this once the rest of the family is reunited, and is disappointed when Beth brings up that it's time to rescue him too.
  • Played straight, however, with Season 2 Jerry. The whole family arrives home at the end, only to find him there (since this is his original reality—before he got swapped into Main Jerry's original reality in "Mortynight Run"—that he's been returned to) and realize they forgot to take him back to the "Season 2 reality". Things quickly go downhill from there once Season 2 Jerry releases Mr. Frundles.
• Space Is Noisy:
  • Averted and lampshaded by Rick in the opening scene when Space Beth tries to talk to him and Morty but can't because of the vacuum (and also the glass dome of the Citadel) being in the way.
  • Strangely Played Straight later on when Mr. Frundles assimilates Earth and introduces himself to the Smith family in their spaceship.
• The Stinger: Rick Prime (who was indeed the supposed "clone" of himself that appeared at his space hideout) arrives back on Cronenberg Earth and meets its native Jerry, asking if he's seen Rick or Morty around. Hermit Jerry offers a Villain Team-Up with him to take them down, which Rick Prime casually turns down, and then the former tries to kill the latter by slashing his throat...only for Rick Prime to instantly heal from it with some kind of technology, and then shoot Hermit Jerry twice, killing him.
• Stress Vomit: Jerry pukes on-screen when he has to bury the corpse of his own alternate counterpart.
• The Tape Knew You Would Say That: Prime Rick pre-recorded messages for any Rick coming after him. In them, he correctly predicted Rick would shoot the first monitor the video is being played on.
• This Is Gonna Suck: When Rick realizes he's been sent back to his original universe, he lets out an irriated "Fuck!"
• Took a Level in Badass: The original Jerry took several, to the point where he can survive the ruined world on his own and was even able to (briefly) get the drop on Rick Prime. It doesn't take, but it's a lot closer than anyone else has gotten, to the point where even Rick Prime acknowledges him as badass before killing him.
• Trash the Set: Or rather the Dimensional Earth that has been the main dimension since "Rick Potion #9". Season 2 Jerry, after being brought back there (as it's his native dimension), releases Mr. Frundles from his cage as he begins to infect the Earth with his personality and transforms it into a barren, lifeless rock, prompting the Smith-Sanchez Family (including Space Beth) to hop realities to another timeline.
• Unobtainium: Without the Citadel, or a source for the portal gun fuel, Rick needs a new method of hopping dimensions, leading to this episode's plot.
• Unusually Uninteresting Sight: Season 2 Jerry, when the rest of the family arrives back home after their adventure, just starts complaining and doesn't react at all to the presence of two different versions of his wife and an alternate version of himself.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: "Season 2" Jerry has no idea how dangerous Mr. Frundles is. The moment he releases the alien, it bites and infects him, along with everything else on Earth.
• Villain Respect: Rick Prime towards Hermit Jerry after the latter slits his throat (only failing to actually kill him because of his Healing Factor), laughing and genuinely calling Jerry a badass... before pulling out his gun and shooting him in the stomach and then the head.
• Virtual Ghost: Almost literally. Rick, in a fit of self-hatred, created an AI based on Diane who is explicitly designed to "haunt" him. When he walks through his old house, her voice moves so it always comes from one room away, forever just out of his reach. He also designed it so he can never mute it.
• The Voice: In-universe, rather than the robotic female voice of Ship/Garage that we've come to know throughout the past five seasons, in Rick's original reality, he used the voice of his deceased wife, Diane, for his home and ship, making this the first time since "The Rickshank Redemption" that we've heard her voice. She even talks to him with affectionate pet names just like the real deal did. Rick notes that he made her during a time where his self-loathing was particularly bad and he wanted to torture himself.
• Wham Episode: This episode reveals that Morty is the actual grandson of Rick Prime, the Rick originating from the Cronenberg dimension. He's the one who killed Rick's original family and sent him down the entire path to create the Citadel of Ricks and everything that transpired from it. Thanks to Rick resetting the portal technology and accidentally sending everyone back to their original dimensions, he's now back on Cronenberg Earth. What's more, the dimension that the main Smith-Sanchez family has been living in since Season 1 has its version of Earth destroyed/taken over by an alien virus by the end of the episode, requiring them to once again change universes and replace Dead Alternate Counterparts of themselves.
• Wham Line:
  • "My original Rick killed your family?!"
  • "Rick, is that you?" "Yeah... Diane."
• What the Hell, Hero?: Hermit Jerry has every right to be angry at Morty for leaving him and his family, not once, but twice. The latter was the worst because Morty only returned to prove a point to Summer about why Rick isn't a good person, and they were left frozen in ice during "The Rickshank Redemption", which led to Hermit Beth and Summer dying. After ranting to his son about it, he leaves Morty in tears.
  Hermit Jerry: Don't take it personal, Morty. It's one of the four agreements. I don't know the other three, but I know Commissioner Gordon was cool with Batman moving on.
  Morty: Batman doesn't abandon people!
  Hermit Jerry: You abandoned us.
  Morty: I deserve that, but you know it... it improved you!
  Hermit Jerry: Ooooooh... am I cool enough for you now? (scoffs) It was easy... It only cost me fucking everything.
  Morty: Woah! Hey! I-I-I—!
  Hermit Jerry: You came back and talked about us like we weren't people, Morty! And you bailed! And left us to freeze!
  Morty: I-I was apologizing for that earlier!
  Hermit Jerry: Your mom and sister died, Morty! (sighs) And I moved on... from caring... and that is the best deal you'll ever get. So take it!
• What Were You Thinking?: Beth berates Rick for bringing "Mr. Frundles" to Earth, leading to "Season 2 Jerry" to unwittingly release it and doom the world. Rick excuses it as being cute.
  "What the fuck, Dad?! Why would you bring that thing into our house?!"
• Where It All Began: Rick, Morty, and Jerry, find themselves in their respective original dimensions. Rick's was revealed in a flashback in "Rickmurai Jack" last season, Morty's was abandoned in "Rick Potion #9" back in the very first season when almost everyone was turned into Cronenbergs, and Jerry's hasn't changed since early Season 2 when he was taken from it in "Mortynight Run".
• You Just Had to Say It: Rick tells Morty that he's done some "childproofing" on him while the latter was asleep, and Morty comments that he should've childproofed Jerry as well. Beth then basically says, "Speaking of which, time to go get Jerry back", and Rick groans in chagrin, clearly having hoped that Jerry would just become Something We Forgot.
• You Remind Me of X: A variation in that it's said to the "X" in question. Rick tells the AI Diane in his original reality that their granddaughter Summer reminds him of her, though he quickly winces and drops the subject when AI Diane asks if that means Summer's dead too.

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