Dan Harmon and Justin Roiland’s “Rick and Morty” is now in the midst of its third season, and has once again stunned viewers, resulting in its highest rated and most watched season yet. The first two seasons saw the development of complex characters and dynamics, which has led to Season 3 delving into those same complexities and showing viewers what that means about the reality of our world and humanity’s purpose.

“Rick and Morty” questions humanity’s place in the universe, pits a battle between active and passive nihilism, and includes many more existential questions. Not to mention its witty humor and analogies in the face of it all, it truly is changing the perception of adult oriented animated series.

By spinning the narrative of humans being the center of the universe to humans just being a speck of dust in the grand scheme of everything, viewers are usually emotionally scarred or downright confused by the end of each episode. The writers of “Rick and Morty” have a habit of pulling our emotions one way, then shattering it the very next scene.

In episode 4, “Vindicators 3: Return of Worldender,” we finally see a real, sentimental moment between Rick and his grandson Morty, where Morty is taken into an underground tunnel and carted his way through while a recording of Rick expressing his love for Morty plays throughout, only to find out Rick was talking about an irrelevant character named Noob Noob who laughed at his jokes earlier in the episode. While Noob Noob has become everyone’s new favorite character, “Rick and Morty” solidified the fact that we can trust that the optimism of a character will eventually be crushed.

They also play with our emotions in a positive way, as well. In episode six “Rest and Ricklaxation,” when their negative aspects take form and threaten world destruction, Rick forced the toxic version of himself to accept merging back, and indirectly admitted his love for Morty. Rick being forced to show off his soft side in Season 3 is becoming the norm for the episodes, but it takes away from the aura he had around him as some kind of unstoppable force. This season has seen a grounded Rick, and in turn has provided a more confident Morty, a Summer who has truly grown as a character, and Beth, who is becoming more and more integral to plot and other character’s actions.

The second and third episode saw the development of more “earthly” storylines, such as the fallout of Jerry and Beth’s divorce, much to the disappointment of fans that want to see clever sci-fi adventures episodes. Nonetheless, these episodes, “Rickmancing the Stone” and “Pickle Rick,” serves as a commentary on dealing with and suppressing emotions as well as addressing a person’s free will. In “Rickmancing the Stone,” Summer would rather live in a Mad Max-esque reality than deal with her own problems at home, and then goes through the trials and tribulations of divorce that mirror that of her mom. In “Pickle Rick,” the storyline contrasts Summer and Morty’s dealing with emotions and making of decisions based on the reality they are given with Rick’s free will and lack of guilt of trying to get out of the family counseling session by turning himself into a pickle.

These episodes might not truly go with the tune of a regular Rick and Morty episode, but show the struggle of humans using science to explain everything and dealing with instinctual emotions on top of it. “Rick and Morty” needs these episodes to open up show in general, because continuing with the same Rick and Morty dynamic of going on a crazy adventure would become repetitive and would most likely leave fans bored. This realization by the show led us to the fifth episode, “The Whirly Dirly Conspiracy,” or in other words, a Rick and Jerry episode. While it was fun to see Jerry back in the spotlight, the episode was predictable, as well as unnecessary.

Season 3 Episode 8, the episode usually reserved for Interdimensional Cable, was replaced with “Morty’s Mind Blowers.” Clever analogies, such as M.C. Escher’s Relativity, or Men in Black 2 (not so subtly), were in heavy use in this episode. Some memories seen were worth analyzing, like Beth forced between choosing between Morty and Summer in a life and death situation, and without hesitance, chooses Summer, and some were flat-out weird, like Mr. Poopy Butthole proposing to Morty. Either way, the premise of this episode cleverly allowed “Rick and Morty” to continue accessing memories, which came to an abrupt end when Summer comes in and saves the day in a 2-minute drill, showing this is not the first time this has happened.

“Rick and Morty” is doing its best to remain unpredictable, and it is driving the show to expand its reach into deeper subjects and multifaceted episodes, and if that means leaving the all-powerful Rick as a secondary character a couple times, it seems to be working. “Rick and Morty” are endearing viewers and is forming a strong core fanbase. Season 3 has encapsulated the essence of Rick and Morty better than Season 1 or 2, and has set itself up for many more seasons.