A Final Season of Rick and Morty

24 -- Give and Take

The morning's first light reaches the Smith family lawn just as a newspaper gets tossed onto it. Following the paperboy, an Apple-store techie steals the newspaper and posts an ad that says 'Newspapers kill trees. Read news on a new phone. Just $19.95.' Following behind him out of sight, a protester posts a sign over it that reads 'Phones kill Asian child laborers. Watch news on American-made TVs.' Following him, someone posts 'TVs kill brain cells. Bad brains cause overpopulation. Kill your TV." And behind him, a smug emo posts over that sign 'Over population kills everything. Kill yourself,' and he posts a picture of it on Snapchat, thinking he's so clever.

Inside the quiet Smith house, a letter slides under Morty's door that reads:

Morty,

To save Rick:

1. Wait until he's calm or sad.

2. Tell him you love him without concern for being loved back.

3. Then hug him.

4. While hugging him, tell him you love him again.

Repeat these steps as often as he'll let you. Could be months apart.

And most importantly, whenever he does good, give thanks, no matter how mad you might be.

A long paragraph follows this, but Morty wasn't in his room to read it.

He stood outside. With his portal gun in his hand. A backpack on his back. His eyes brooding—fretting—into the pavement outside. Exactly the same as younger Mortys had two years earlier.

'Maybe—Maybe just a walk would help, clear my head, give me time to think.' So Morty starts walking, all of his thoughts pouring into the ground—

"Morty?"

Morty's head whips around, opening his mouth to speak, but it stays gaping when he sees Rayna wearing a backpack too.

"Why are you—" both gasping the words "—You—"

"I can't stay here," Morty says. "Rick is... He's impossible. Pushing him doesn't work. He needs people that love him. I can't do that anymore and we'll just kill each other if I stay, or I'll become like his Morty. And, my family doesn't even know me anymore, and vice-versa, so..."

Rayna counters, "His family could never understand him, not like we do. He needs you. I can't stay, I'll just fuck things up more than I have. I left a note in your room—I should have told you the first day. Instead, I told you the opposite and pretended it was advice."

In his bed, Rick tries to stay unconscious, but he gets pulled out of it when his hand finds no portal gun to rid himself of pee. Getting up, he sees a letter slid under his door and turns both hot and cold. 'Not another letter, not another god damn letter! Why do I always DESTROY EVERYTHING!'

He rushes to it, seeing two full pages, but almost can't pick them up. It begins:

Rick,

I'm sorry I've been terrible to you.

I have a sick feeling I've been terrible for a long time. I don't think I always was, but when my mother died—I think in my teens—I certainly lost her as a compass.

"He's like a god, Rayna. And gods are alone. He needs an equal. I'm 40 or whatever years behind. 46," Morty amends, as Rayna opens her mouth to correct his bad math but decides it's not a good time. "He wants love from someone smart, that's why he hates it when everybody's stupid. But with me, it's like he's squeezing the life out of a dry sponge, when he's dying of thirst."