Rixty Minutes

Plot

Rick, fed up with what he saw as terrible modern TV, swapped the Smiths' cable box for a device pulling in shows from infinite realities. Flipping through channels, he showed off endless options, like one where Jerry was a famous actor. Excited, Jerry, Beth, and Summer begged to see their own alternate lives. Rick handed them Inter-Dimensional Goggles, letting them view the world through their other selves' eyes. Morty stayed behind with Rick, and they kept watching random commercials and clips from other dimensions.

Jerry, using the goggles, saw himself snorting piles of cocaine with Johnny Depp. Beth saw herself performing surgery on a person instead of a horse. Summer, however, discovered she didn't exist in most realities, and in the few where she did, her life was mostly the same. Jerry and Beth then admitted that Summer had been an unwanted pregnancy they originally planned to abort, and that her birth had stopped them from reaching their dreams. Devastated, Summer announced she was running away.

As Summer packed, Morty tried to comfort her. He showed her the graves he and Rick had dug in the backyard during the events of "Rick Potion No. 9," confessing that the Morty from her reality was dead, and he was actually her brother from another reality. He finished by saying, "Nobody exists on purpose, nobody belongs anywhere, everybody's gonna die... Come watch TV?" Summer agreed and went back downstairs with him.

Jerry came into the living room and told Morty that he and Beth had decided to take a break from each other. The TV then showed the alternate Jerry having a nervous breakdown, driving a mobility scooter in a low-speed police chase on a freeway. He arrived at alternate Beth's door, telling her he hated his life and regretted ending their relationship. Seeing how much they meant to each other, Beth and Jerry rushed back into each other's arms.

In a post-credit scene, the Smith family watched news from a place called Hamster-in-Butt World. They pestered Rick with questions until he grudgingly opened a portal there. The family then enjoyed a pleasant vacation in that bizarre world.

Reception

Rixty Minutes has received high praise since its release and is often referred to as one of the best episodes of the series. Matt Fowler of IGN gave it an 8.8 out of 10, noting that the series does not sacrifice humor for strangeness but integrates them perfectly. Zack Handlen of The A.V. Club gave the episode an A, stating it blew him away. Stacy Taylor of Geek Syndicate gave a 5/5, calling it as close to a perfect 20 minutes of television as possible. Den of Geek gave a 3.5/5, with Joe Matar remarking that much of the episode functions like a sketch show, with hit-or-miss output.