Rick and Morty Season 5 Debunks Major Fan Theory With Next Episode

Rick and Morty has answered a major plot hole question fans had for Season 5, and ultimately debunked a theory with the first look at its next big episode! Rick and Morty will soon be reaching the halfway point of its fifth season with the debut of its fifth episode this Sunday, and the first four episodes have been dramatically different from one another in terms of tone and which characters are involved. The series has been on one of its strangest trajectories yet, but fans had noticed something stranger about how Rick was getting from place to place.

There was a growing question as to why Rick seemingly was avoiding the use of his portal gun in the first four episodes of the season, and even led to some theories about how it could play into the future. But look at the opening scene for Episode 5, "Amortycan Grickfitti," proved that this was a question that had an easy answer. Rick's portal gun seemingly wasn't used just because it wasn't! Rick uses it when he starts out in his "Guys Night" with Jerry.

Adult Swim has released the opening scene for Episode 5, and it sets the stage for each of the characters. Beth is dealing with a horse hospital emergency, Morty and Summer will be working together to impress the new transfer student, and Rick and Jerry will be hanging out with the Cenobites from Hellraiser. But as part of all that set up, Rick quickly uses the portal gun to get he and Jerry to the karaoke spot they'll be spending the first part of the night in.

The use of the portal gun is ubiquitous in the series, and its such a huge part of the first four seasons (even playing a role in several plots over the course of the 40 plus episodes thus far) that its absence was notable enough for fans to latch onto and think it meant something else. But it's also just a narrative device at the end of the day, and is a quick way to take characters from one setting to another without issue.

It might have been more interesting for the team behind the series to spend more time in the travelling sections in between each location (which is especially true of the third episode with Rick and Summer's apocalyptic bender), so now we're seeing the portal gun again because maybe the set piece is more fun than getting there! But what do you think? Did you think the missing portal gun was a big issue in the first place? Did you even notice its absence? Let us know all of your thoughts about it in the comments! You can even reach out to me directly about all things animated and other cool stuff @Valdezology on Twitter!