SPOILER WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for the finale of Rick And Morty Season 7. If you have not yet watched the episode, continue at your own risk!
While it has nothing to do with Evil Morty (who will eventually return) or Rick's complicated backstory, the end of Rick And Morty Season 7 offers a major development for the beloved Adult Swim show. By entering The Fear Hole, Morty is (albeit in circuitous fashion) forced to confront his greatest anxiety: that his existence means nothing to his grandfather and that should he die, he'll just be replaced by another Morty from another universe. Because of this terrifying therapy session, the dynamic between Morty and Rick has been altered, and series co-creator Dan Harmon says that it will impact stories going forward.
Variety recently spoke with Harmon about "Fear No Mort," the latest Rick And Morty season finale. Discussing where the episode leaves the titular characters at the end of the story, he explained,
"I think the biggest fetish for me was making sure that it felt like a symmetrical inversion of Morty becoming indoctrinated into absolute nihilism by burying his body. That’s why we wanted to do the same needle drop, because this Rick is now just as lost in an emotional sense as Morty was in a philosophical sense at that moment."
For those who are a bit rusty on their Rick And Morty history, Dan Harmon is referring back to the consequential sixth episode of the show: "Rick Potion #9." Fans will remember that as the episode where the "heroes" managed to turn everyone in the world into "Cronenberg" monsters, they and had to leave their universe and take up residence in another. The only way to accomplish this switch was to replace a multiverse variant of the duo that had died, and Morty has long been traumatized from his experience burying his own body.
While Rick from Universe C-137 is the Rickest Rick Of Them All, Morty has long known at the back of his mind that there are infinite Mortys from the multiverse who could immediately start sidekicking for his grandfather should he be left behind. Now that Morty has a full recognition of that fear, it's going to impact his relationship with his grandfather. Harmon continued,
"What we’re assuming with this story is this concept that we’ve fallen back on many times where Rick considers Morty replaceable. So, this is kind of a final step in turning them into a partnership. It’s certainly not an equal partnership in every way, but they’re friends, they’re roommates — they’re kind of like Ernie and Bert."
Along with the escalating mayhem being instigated by Mr. Poopybutthole, it will be fascinating to see how things develop from this point forward, and the wait is now on for Rick And Morty Season 8. The next run of episodes unfortunately doesn't have a release date yet, but fans can distract themselves from the wait by getting a Max subscription and rewatching the existing seven seasons.
