Rick And Morty: 5 Things Season 1 Jerry Would Love About Season 5 Jerry (& 5 He’d Hate)

The characters of Rick And Morty have gone through a lot of changes in the five seasons the show has aired. Morty has gone from a terrified young boy to someone who is as outrageous as Rick, and Beth went from being unhappy with her life to an emotionally present wife and mother. However, the character with perhaps the most tumultuous character arc has been Jerry Smith.

Morty’s perpetually beleaguered father went from a barely tolerated husband to a somewhat respected and self-assured family member. Jerry’s come a long way from season 1 and there are several things he would like (and wouldn’t like) about his current season 5 incarnation.

10 Love: Relationship With Beth

In season 1, Beth is barely interested in Jerry. She often sees him as someone she has to “work” to love, and never seems particularly interested in him as a romantic partner. After a rough separation and a lot of time spent by himself, Beth and Jerry eventually get back together although some theorize that Beth being a clone is the reason.

Their relationship seems better than ever in season 5. Beth shows renewed interest and love for Jerry and all of the things that make him who he is. When Jerry misremembers the lyrics to “What’s Love Got To Do With It” or eats so much soup that he poops his pants on three occasions, she laughs with Jerry instead of at him. The two even become  “sex-positive” partners thanks to couples therapy.

9 Hate: Every Version of Him Will Sacrifice His Family

Jerry’s had personal growth, but that doesn’t mean he’s perfect. His inability to put others first seems to be just as present as it was at the beginning of the show. In season 1, fans saw Jerry lock himself in the car while a homeless man attacks Beth with a broken bottle, showcasing one of the many times Jerry was a bad guy in Rick and Morty.

Then, in season 5’s “Mortiplicity,” decoy versions were made of the entire family, with a wooden doll version of Jerry shutting a door on his fleeing family in a desperate act of self-preservation. Even several seasons later, Jerry, no matter what form he takes, still has the instinct to save himself before anyone else.

8 Love: Useful On Adventures

Jerry is never included in Rick and Morty’s adventures in season 1 (except when accidentally kidnapped along with them by Zigerians), and any time he’s involved, his presence is unappreciated. He has a brief moment of acceptance from Rick in “The Whirly Dirly Conspiracy,” but that’s short-lived because of the attempt on Rick’s life and Jerry’s accidental role in almost getting his father-in-law killed.

In season 5, Jerry plays a larger role in the duo’s adventures and is an integral part of the episode  “Amortycan Grickfitti.” In that episode, it’s Jerry’s misery that powers the turret that sends the demons back to Hell. Rick is forced to acknowledge his son-in-law’s usefulness to their mission although he’s not too happy about it.

7 Hate: Still Doesn’t Have A Job

In the first season of Rick and Morty, Jerry is employed in advertising for all of four episodes. When he pitches his “Hungry For Apples” idea to real people (instead of the Zigerian’s low-functioning simulation), he’s immediately fired. He would be upset to find out that four seasons later, he still hasn’t found any work, and the family is pretty mean to him about it.

For a brief moment in season 3, Jerry is employed by the galactic federation that takes over Earth. The job doesn’t last, however, and Jerry is once again unemployed. Besides interviewing off and on throughout seasons 4 and 5, Jerry’s remains jobless, which would no doubt sadden season 1 Jerry.

6 Love: Better One-Liners And Comebacks

From the beginning, Jerry has been the proverbial punching bag of the family. He’s constantly looked down on by everyone from his wife to his two children. When given the opportunity to retaliate, he very rarely does so, and when he works up the courage to attempt a comedic comeback, it’s not very good.

Season 5 finds Jerry with a sharper tongue. In “Rick And Morty’s Thanksploitation Spectacular,” Jerry has the confidence to make a snappy remark to the President by quipping “Sorry Summer, the United States enclosed us in a shimmer bubble that scrambled my oven timer. So, I guess elections do have consequences.” Not only is this a huge step in Jerry’s ability to think on his feet, but it’s also a more intellectual joke than he usually makes.

5 Hate: Still Being Forgotten

Jerry is always an afterthought. Rick and Morty don’t notice when he tags along in the backseat of the ship, and when Jerry goes to the Jamboree-style daycare early in season 2, Morty immediately loses his ticket. Some fans theorize they don’t even end up taking the right Jerry home.

He’s continually forgotten about, and that is still present in season 5. In the episode “Gotron Jerrysis Rickvangelion,” the family talks about protecting what’s important from the giant space aliens, but when the shields on the house go up, Jerry is still outside begging to be let back into the house.

4 Love: More Assertive

Jerry is docile and a pushover in most of Rick and Morty‘s episodes. He lets everyone bully him, and when a Rick from the Citadel freezes him, he begs for his life and embarrasses himself. Later, he finds out that Beth’s mental image of him is a slug that rolls over at the slightest hint of conflict.

In season 5, however, Jerry does what he wants. He makes puppets for therapy, with little care what people think. He also asserts himself as an authority and parent figure in “Gotron Jerrysis Rickvangelion.” When Morty questions the motive for the Gotrons, Jerry is the first to put him in his place, responding, “Because it’s fun, you little rat. Now go home and play video games while we clean up these bodies or your mother and I will hire people to break your knees.”

3 Hate: Rick Still Doesn’t Respect Him

Rick’s and Jerry’s relationship started poorly and hasn’t gotten much better. In season 1, Rick tells Beth that Jerry is an idiot and actively plots against him. Rick resents Jerry for taking away Beth’s “potential” by getting her pregnant and he shows his distaste for Jerry by doing some pretty horrible things to him.

In season 5, Rick still isn’t Jerry’s biggest fan, and he makes it known. When the president insults Jerry in the Thanksgiving turkey episode, Rick excitedly chimes in, “Yes! Jerry’s a piece of sh**, I agree.” Even in “Amortycan Grickfitti” when Rick admits that if he’s “genuinely cool” he should be able to love Jerry, he backtracks and says he’ll just replace him with someone better.

2 Love: More Self Aware

Jerry is oblivious in earlier seasons of the show. He thinks that he’s cooler than he is, even if the things he likes are Titanic-themed cruises. He never understands his family’s disinterest in his hobbies and is never aware of when he is unwanted or underappreciated.

In season 5, Jerry is more accepting and self-aware of his flaws. He isn’t ashamed of himself as in earlier seasons. Before he finds out that his lameness is being used to pay a debt to Hell, he proudly shares the less-than-flattering stories. During “Gotron Jerrysis Rickvangelion,” he even acknowledges that “I’m easy to make happy, which is why nobody gives a sh** if I am.”

1 Hate: Sexual Exploits

This change isn’t necessarily for the worse–Jerry seems to be in his element, but the season 1 version of Jerry, with his conservative tastes, would definitely disapprove. In that season, Jerry was fiercely loyal to Beth, holding onto their marriage for dear life and ecstatic when Beth says “You know what? Okay!” to sex.

By season 5, Jerry had been in a shameless sexual relationship with Kiara, and even when he and Beth get back together, they’re very open. For example, they’re invited to a threesome with Mr. Nimbus and almost immediately agree. Season 1 Jerry was never someone who was very sexually adventurous so he would be wildly uncomfortable with what his season 5 counterpart is doing.

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