Morty Smith has been through a lot in nine seasons of adventure with his grandfather Rick Sanchez. Rick and Morty. His consciousness fragmented into video game NPCs, he left his dimension, buried himself, and met his shiny evil counterpart. Season eight ended with Morty facing his greatest fears, and the season nine finale was another brutal episode that forced Morty to face some dark truths.
“If we stop having him go through these situations, I think there’s a concern that the show will become unrecognizable,” showrunner Dan Harmon told Polygon in a virtual interview. “Morty has been a 14-year-old boy for over a decade, and that decade has subjected him to the hourly trauma of life and a relationship with one of the most cruel people in the universe.”
(Ed. note: This article contains spoilers for Rick and Morty season 9 finale)
“Field of Dreams” opens with multiple versions of Rick (Ian Cardoni) and Morty (Harry Belden) attending an estate sale at the home of the Smith family, who died from eating a chili pepper so hot it caused their intestines to explode. Morty meets a version of himself who likes to “bury” while listening to versions of his family say nice things about him and decides to give it a try. He ends up finding a version of his family who has never met another Morty before.
They seem like the perfect family, showering him with love and offering him the opportunity to visit them whenever he wants, and they are shocked by the stories of what he went through during his adventures with Rick. But Morty eventually sees their dark side when Jerry (Chris Parnell) breaks the portal gun to prevent him from returning to his world.
The reason this version of the Smith family is so different is because they cut off all contact with Rick because he refused to deal with his alcoholism. Morty tracks down Rick and discovers one of the healthiest versions of Rick we’ve ever seen. He’s been sober for 17 years, happily married, and teaches at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Rick admits that his quest to invent the portal gun nearly ruined his life, but Morty pushes him to do it anyway. The obsession destroys his marriage and sends him back to drunkenness and nihilism, turning him into the Rick Morty always knew.
By the end of the episode, Morty is back on adventures with the drunk and irresponsible Rick. Co-showrunner Scott Marder told Polygon that the dysfunctional dynamic between the two characters is “kind of the heart of the show.”
“The finale actually explores in a really cool way that Morty was corrupted by this relationship in many ways, but he was essentially forced to corrupt Rick to get what he wants, which was a cool full circle for him at the end of Season 9.”
Although Morty hasn’t aged in the show’s nine seasons, his brutal adventures have changed him.
“I think we grew Morty organically while maintaining the essence of his personality,” Harmon said. “He’s an idealist. He believes in truth. He believes there’s a right way to do things. Basically, Rick has grown up too, but he doesn’t really believe it. Their growth happens while keeping the characters real.”