The Slow-Burn Callback You Probably Missed In Rick And Morty Season 5

It's important for TV shows to pay attention to the little details so that callbacks and references make sense. Ideally, there's some kind of established timeline and mythology to a series so that nothing contradicts each other. Of course, plot holes and inconsistencies are to be expected every now and then, but it's always a treat to see a show taking its canon seriously. 

Few shows manage to do this as expertly as "Rick and Morty." Considering the show deals heavily with science and mathematics, staying accurate to what's been pre-established is even more critical. Viewers can see this from the very beginning, as the show had both Rick and Morty travel to an alternate dimension when they filled their own with Cronenberg-esque monsters. This wasn't done as a lark either; it's been brought up multiple times since that the two are not in their original reality.

However, there's another callback you may have missed at first glance, especially considering how it's spread out across several seasons.

"Rick and Morty" isn't afraid to dive headfirst into full absurdism. When you have the entire multiverse at your disposal and an endless supply of planets where anything goes, it's easy to have fun with the main continuity. That just makes it all the more fun to see how "Rick and Morty" is willing to make things as odd as possible on the Earth's main timeline. 

This is first seen in Season 2, Episode 1, "A Rickle in Time." When Rick, Morty, and Summer run afoul of a timekeeper creature, it calls in backup, and as it's telling its partner its time coordinates, it says the following: "Yeah, with the dinosaurs. No, if you get to the dolphin people, you are going too far." At first, it just seems like a weird revelation that at some point in Earth's chronology, dolphin people will inhabit the planet. 

However, when the show actually goes forward in time with wooden Jerry, we see one of these dolphin people first-hand in Season 5, Episode 2, "Mortyplicity." It's a fun nod proving the "Rick and Morty" writers do, in fact, keep track of what's been established in the past. The joke was pointed out on a Reddit thread, where many people discovered it for the first time, including one fan who wrote, "Wow I would have never got that...freaking great." Hopefully, this isn't the last time dolphin people make an appearance on the series.