| “ | They say my mind is held captive in a time loop, trapped in the day of a traumatic event by the agony of a formidable intelligence, but also that my captor forgot about aging, that my body spoils and yearns for death while my soul remains stuck in place, caught like a fly in amber. |
| — Mr Goldmanbachmajorian unintentionally describing the time loop that Dimension C-137 is stuck in |
Dimension C-137 is one of the many universes in the multiverse, and the original universe where the titular Rick was born and grew up. This is one of many dimensions where Rick's wife Diane and daughter Beth were killed when Beth was a child, and as a result, Summer and Morty never existed. Before it was revealed that the Rick and Morty we follow in the show are each from different dimensions, "Dimension C-137" was thought, including by Morty himself, to refer to the Prime Dimension where our Morty originated and the first six episodes of the TV series took place.
Rick returns to this dimension in "Solaricks", where it is revealed he kept the entire dimension on a time loop of the day he lost Beth and Diane, leaving its inhabitants trapped for decades. As part of his effort to move on, Rick gets rid of the time loop, giving his neighbor Mr. Goldmanbachmajorian, and likely most of Earth's population, the relief of death.
History[]
Dimension C-137 is first mentioned in "Raising Gazorpazorp", by Rick himself. Morty also refers to himself as "from Dimension C-137", unaware that he is not from the same dimension as Rick.
Dimension C-137 is briefly mentioned in "Mortynight Run", when Rick is asked to identify his home dimension for identification purposes when returning to pick up his Jerry. Because Jerry is not from Rick's home dimension of C-137, Rick marks him as "N/A". This might mean that Rick is (or was) uncertain of their current dimension's official alphanumeric identification.
Dimension C-137 is mentioned in "The Rickshank Rickdemption", when several Ricks from the Citadel capture Morty and Summer in the Prime dimension. Morty identifies himself as "Morty C-137", which causes two of the Ricks to look at one another and take pause. This is likely because of Rick C-137's notoriety as a "terror-rick", and that the Council would've been aware that there is no naturally occurring "Morty C-137" in existence. Other Council members again refer to Rick as "C-137" in this episode, meaning Rick has been intentionally identifying himself accurately.
Rick showed Cornvelious Daniel a "memory" taking place in Dimension C-137 after their detour for Szechuan sauce. While Rick was trying to invent the Portal Gun, an alternate Rick appeared from a dimension where he had already discovered interdimensional travel. His alternate self then allegedly offered to actively share the secrets of this fabled technology with Rick C-137. After some reflection, thinking the "Infinite Rick" life sounded lonely and unfulfilling, Rick C-137 refused and seemingly decided to forge his own destiny, or in his words to be "a different kind of Rick...", giving up on science to spend more time with his family. The alternate Rick seemed to be visibly offended at C-137's refusal, and likely sent a bomb through a green portal to kill him shortly thereafter. It may also been speculated that his intent was actually to kill Rick's wife Diane, and daughter Beth in a bid to force C-137 to change his mind. After the commercial break, Rick's younger self is then shown rapidly calculating the math required to complete the portal gun and inventing interdimensional travel. However, Rick then humorously claimed the entire sequence was a "totally fabricated origin story", and "the three lines of math" disclosed to the agent (and uploaded to his superiors) was actually a virus designed to take control of the outdated Brainalyzer. This statement was later shown to be only partially accurate.
Rick C-137's recollection of his childhood bedroom.
In "Rickternal Friendshine of the Spotless Mort", it was revealed that Rick came from a dimension where Beth died, meaning the Prime dimension and Dimension C-137 are not the same. Dimension C-137 itself does not appear in any of Birdperson's memories from this episode since Rick left this dimension before meeting Birdperson. It makes its first appearance at the end of the episode, within Rick's memory of his childhood.
When Morty views Rick's brain scan in "Rickmurai Jack", it confirms that most of the events from Rick's "totally fabricated" brainalyzed memory sequence in "The Rickshank Rickdemption" did in fact happen, and the only difference from the fabrication was that after Diane and Beth died, Rick did not immediately invent the portal gun, but instead went in an ambulance to heal his wounds from the explosion. Afterward, Rick lived by himself for some time before shaking off the trauma and deciding to finish the portal gun on his own terms.
Rick returns to this dimension in "Solaricks" where it is revealed he kept the entire dimension on a time loop of the day he lost Beth and Diane, leaving its inhabitants trapped for decades. As part of his effort to move on, Rick gets rid of the time loop, allowing his neighbor Mr. Goldmanbachmajorian the relief of death.
Appearances[]
Season 1[]
- "Raising Gazorpazorp" (first mention)
- "Close Rick-Counters of the Rick Kind" (mentioned)
Season 2[]
- "Mortynight Run" (mentioned)
Season 3[]
- "The Rickshank Rickdemption" (shown in fabricated flashback)
Season 5[]
- "Gotron Jerrysis Rickvangelion" (mentioned)
- "Rickternal Friendshine of the Spotless Mort" (cameo based on Rick's memory)
- "Rickmurai Jack" (flashback)
Season 6[]
- "Solaricks" (first actual appearance)
- "Ricktional Mortpoon's Rickmas Mortcation" (mentioned)
Notable Inhabitants:
- Rick Sanchez C-137
- Diane Sanchez C-137
- Beth Sanchez C-137
- Mr. Goldmanbachmajorian
- Rick Prime (formerly)
Episode notes[]
Cultural references[]
- Rick's family home where Beth C-137 grew up appears to be drawn with a strikingly similar appearance to "The White Residence" residence from Breaking Bad, though the address numbers are not consistent between the two households.
- Other relevant parallels can also be drawn, as the main protagonists in both series display a profound interest in hard sciences, are married to blonde women, and are eventually driven to become callous anti-heroes by forces outside of their control.
Trivia[]
- C-137 may be a reference to:
- Civilization 137, virtual civilization in sci-fi novel The Three-Body Problem. Civilization 137 is the civilization in chapter 7 - Miao's first time in the game.
- Caesium-137, one of the two principal medium-lived fission products, along with Sr-90, which are responsible for most of the radioactivity of spent nuclear fuel after several years of cooling.
- The fine structure constant (1/137), a fundamental constant in physics which quantifies the strength of the electromagnetic interaction between elementary charged particles.
- Given what is currently known of the dimensional designation system where similar designations equate to near-identical dimensions, it seems that C-137 was extremely similar to C-131 and by extension the Prime Dimension, with perhaps only the interruption by Rick Prime and subsequent choice to abandon science separating the two.
- The Jerry of this dimension has never been seen, but he may be the only member of the main cast that lives here.