Editor's note: The below contains spoilers for Rick and Morty Season 6, Episode 6.
For the last couple of seasons of Rick and Morty, it felt like the show couldn’t handle wacky concepts and canon progression simultaneously. So, we either had adventure-of-the-week episodes that didn’t push character growth forward, or episodes entirely focused on canon. Season 6 is shaking up the formula by finally giving us balanced episodes that have their own crazy idea to explore and are still relevant to the overall story. Season 6, Episode 6, “Juricksic Mort,” is another hilarious exploration of a wacky concept. At the same time, we get a resolution to the portal problem that has been haunting Rick (voiced by Justin Roiland) since the end of Season 5. So, in the end, we get the best of both worlds.
“Juricksic Mort” begins with a casual scene in which Morty (voiced by Roiland) is late for school and needs Rick’s help to get there in time. Rick, however, still didn’t fix the portal gun, which got scrambled by the interdimensional rift left behind by Evil Morty when he escaped the Central Finite Curve. So, after inadvertently summoning a Cthulhu-like monster with his broken portal gun, he has to drive Morty to school. Performing such a tedious task is taking a toll on Rick, but the scientist still lacks the inspiration to fix his portal gun. Fortunately, Rick will get the solution to all his problems when Earth is visited by dinosaurs, who turn out to be hyper-developed space explorers determined to spread peace and prosperity towards the galaxy.
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Humans Thrive in Chaos
When the dinosaurs return to Earth, they are surprised to know their species is extinct and hairless monkeys now rule the planet. When the dinosaurs left Earth, the world was a utopia where technology was used only for the harmonic existence of all living creatures. Their technology was so advanced that they decided to travel to distant corners of the galaxy, helping other planets to achieve the same level of peaceful development. However, now that they are back, they see humanity didn’t do its best to build a utopia, so they are ready to take matters into their pre-historical paws once again.
After convincing the planet's leaders to take a permanent vacation and enjoy their free time, the dinosaurs start to work to change Earth for the better. In a short period, dinosaurs abolished work, produced enough food to end hunger, and basically solved every significant problem humans never got to solve. Everyone is free to enjoy their lives, which should sound like paradise. But in reality, humans thrive in chaos, and once there’s nothing to worry us, we become bored and sink into feelings of uselessness. Well, except for Jerry (voiced by Chris Parnell), who finally gets to publish his book: “Never trying never fails.”
Tired of doing nothing all day, the U.S. President (Keith David) asks Rick to do something about the dinosaurs. However, the dinosaurs' presence doesn’t affect Rick since he’s used to living with no responsibility and doing whatever he wants. To get Rick on board, the President agrees to let Rick host the 95th Academy Awards – any fans trying to understand Rick and Morty’s timeline should take note this episode takes place in early 2023. Rick agrees to those terms and comes up with a plan to lead the dinosaurs out of the planet.
Approaching the dinosaur leaders, Rick introduces himself as the most brilliant man alive, who would be willing to share interdimensional travel secrets so that the prehistorical creatures could spread their way of life to even more planets. The dinosaurs tell Rick they have a strict “one universe” policy. They’ve already explored the multiverse and found it’s morally reprimandable to just jump ship when things get too complicated. As if that wasn’t a direct hit on Rick’s ego, the dinosaurs also volunteer to close the interdimensional rift that Evil Morty left behind, tell Rick his portal technology is faulty, and even gift him an improved portal gun. In other words, the dinosaurs need only a few seconds to prove their intellectual superiority. As expected, Rick gets infuriated and decides to travel to the dinosaur’s previously colonized planets to dig some dirt on the smart fossils.
Balance Can Be Deadly
While traveling to other planets with Morty, Rick discovers dinosaurs were wiped out everywhere. Every single dinosaur-inhabited world was hit by a giant meteor that almost wiped out all life. And now, each planet features different species trying to figure out what the crater and the dino fossils mean. As it turns out, the dinosaurs are honest and transparent in their intentions. However, their evolution into perfect moral beings led the universe to seek balance by devolving some creatures into rock-like forms that wander the galaxy wreaking havoc. So yes, the meteors are sentient — and they are looking for dinosaurs, their true nemesis.
Back on Earth, the dinosaurs steal Jerry’s book and turn it into a free manual for humanity to survive the lack of problems. But, of course, they don’t credit Jerry because they believe the manual's author is certainly not expecting credit and just wants to spread the word. So, even in the only moment he can genuinely shine, Jerry is still doomed to remain in the shadows. Jerry won’t be alone in his hate for dinosaurs, though, because as soon as Rick reveals there’s a screaming meteor coming to Earth, the planet revolts against their prehistorical ruling.
After spending some time trying to devise a non-violent solution to the meteor problem, the dinosaurs decide to leave Earth to keep humanity safe. The planet immediately regresses to its old state, with war, famine, pollution, and the destruction of natural resources. People are content, though, as having so many troubles distract them from the emptiness of existence. Rick is also happier than ever after defeating the dinosaurs in their own non-violent game. The scientist intends to celebrate his victory during the Oscar ceremony. Still, when he learns the dinos are on Mars just waiting for impending doom, he realizes they are not yet defeated.
Rick travels to Mars, dino-proofs his tech so that the dinosaurs cannot teleport him away, and claims he will wait for the killer meteor with them. Rick is risking his life out of pettiness to prove a point. The dinosaurs are sacrificing their lives due to their high moral standards. But, in the end, they are doing the same thing, putting themselves on a pedestal that ultimately alienates them from regular people. Finally, Rick wins the waiting game once a dinosaur becomes so distressed with the meteor killing a human that they destroy the angry rock.
From one god to others, Rick tells the dinosaurs just to live their lives at peace, accepting that they are above moral standards. The dinosaur repay the “favor” by fixing Rick’s universe interdimensional rift to annoy the scientist. Rick screams in despair, as the rift could have been dragged through the whole season to milk more episodes, but ultimately channels his energy into finally fixing his portal gun. And there we have it: the Central Finite Curve is repaired, and Rick and Morty are back to their classic structure. No one expected them to solve such a huge problem so quickly.
Interdimensional Lost & Found
- The episode starts with an ad for Eyeholes, the unique interdimensional cereal coveted by the Eyehole Man. The Eyehole Man's only appearance so far was in Season 2, Episode 8, “Interdimensional Cable 2: Tempting Fate.”
- If you have ever wondered what are humanity’s unique achievements compared to other species in the universe, some of them are gunpowder, anime body pillow, celebrity presidents, jazzercise, gluteal implants, Marvel movies, space tourism, dogecoin, social media, comment sections, domestic terrorism, Crocs, Amazon Prime, Fluffernutter Sandwiches, capitalism. So I guess we can say we failed as a species.
- Incredibly, even the President gets too many Grammarly ads on YouTube. We would have guessed that a man so powerful would know how to use an adblocker. Just Google it and thank us later.
New episodes of Rick and Morty come to Adult Swim every Sunday at 11 p.m. ET. Check out Season 6’s trailer below.
