Rick And Morty Theory: Jerry Is At Fault For The Night People's Consciousness

The rip-roaring "Rick and Morty" television show certainly loves their unintended consequences, and the Season 6 episode "Night Family" shows that even when attempting to improve some skill, the Smith family will always run into trouble. This particular episode sees Rick unleash a technology called a somnambulator that creates a subconscious persona that performs a specific task — Rick and Morty both utilize these creations, called a "night person," to get absolutely shredded ab muscles, while Summer (Spencer Grammer) learns a new language and Beth (Sarah Chalke) masters an instrument. Beyond these skills, the "night family" is also given household chores to complete. 

However, Jerry (Chris Parnell) doesn't give his night person iteration a task, and instead, the two behave as pen pals, much to the entertainment of the rest of the family. Although "Night Family" eventually culminates in a conflict between the conscious and unconscious Smith family, often switching personas mid-fight, some fans think that Jerry is actually to blame. Starting a conversation over on Reddit, u/Tricky-Two6014 said that they believe that Jerry is responsible for the night family gaining sentience, and stated, "I think this because him asking for a pen pal it allowed Night Jerry and the others to gain a 'conscience.' I believe that because in order for Night Jerry to write back he would need some sort of conscience. As you could see at the beginning of the episode when Beth was trying to talk to Rick he wouldn't respond. At the end of the episode the night family was able to talk to the day family. All of this started after Rick allowed them all to have night people."

This statement caused u/Busy-Egg2018 to reply, "Na that makes a lot of sense like Jerry probably asked night Jerry stuff about himself thus allowing night Jerry to actually just do what he wanted and create a personality and become more self aware. Idk if it's proof for all of it tho it makes sense that night summer is in control since she's the most like Rick and night summer is just her but without her humanity."

Others also echoed the original theory, like u/daigunder2015, who also shared the same conclusion as the first comment, believing that Jerry caused the free will among the night family. They added that at the start of the episode, Rick said that his night person was his unconscious body, so something changed. Another Reddit user mentioned a lecture that said sentience is gained from the recognition of others, which would once again firmly place the blame on Jerry for the night family's antagonism. u/starcolour1990 agreed that Jerry is responsible, and they brought up that Jerry was always the one who suggested a truce between the day and night versions. Still, it doesn't seem like it ever occurred to the rest of the family that Jerry's choice of night person activity could have been the mechanism that caused the night family to unite and stand their ground.