Beth IS a Clone!

I am both a huge fan of The Film Theorists and Rick and Morty, however, after watching the Rick and Morty Season Finale last night, I was perfectly convinced that Beth was, indeed, the original copy. I had no qualms with this until I watched the brand new Film Theory episode on YouTube this morning. If you are not caught up on Rick and Morty or Film Theory, then I recommend that you do that before continuing to read this article.

Consider that a spoiler warning.

If you have watched the Film Theory episode "Film Theory: Did Rick CLONE Beth - SOLVED! (Rick and Morty)," then you know that MatPat has come to the conclusion that Beth is the original Beth and did not decide to clone herself and embark on a journey of self-discovery.

MatPat's reasoning comes entirely from calculating critical times involving the plot of the episode "The ABC's of Beth." He calculates that Rick would not have had enough time (3 hours) to create a Beth clone by the end of the episode, and thus believes that Beth did not decide to be cloned solely upon this reasoning.

Although his timing and calculations are correct, and I understand his reasoning, there is some context outside of this Rick and Morty episode that points to the Beth we see afterwards being a clone.

The first thing to take in is the fact that Rick and Beth were affectionate towards each other at the end of the episode "The ABC's of Beth." MatPat knocks this off as insignificant since the time doesn't line up for Beth's clone to have been made. Though this is true, there is also the possibility that the real Beth is who we're looking at, but she has still made the decision to leave. At this moment, we don't know if the clone is close to finished back in Rick's workshop or not.

This would explain the affection "I love you," since Beth would be feeling a huge weight off her shoulders while she waited for the clone to be finished and gratitude to her father for assisting her in removing it.

The second thing that tipped me off and told me that Beth is a clone is the season finale, where Beth gets back together with Jerry.

This is a plot twist that comes straight out of nowhere. Just because Jerry kissed her? Because he helped her solve her existential crisis? If I was in the middle of a divorce, I wouldn't go to my ex-husband for help or advice, and if I did, I certainly wouldn't fall for him for the eightieth time.

Though Beth has repeatedly changed her mind about Jerry throughout the seasons of the series, I find this to be drastic. The moment where she calls Jerry an idiot and immediately apologizes for it is as uncharacteristic of her as her decision to get back together with him.

My theory is that Rick gave Beth's clone more of a maternal and, consequently, empathetic instinct in order to make her believe that she chose to stay home. At the end of "The Rickchurian Mortydate," when Rick comes to where Beth, Jerry, Morty, and Summer are hiding, he has a gun. Beth comes out and talks to him. She explains how she is still a part of the family, even if she is a clone. Rick stands there in silence and listens, gun aimed at the sky. After Beth is done, Rick tells her without flinching that she is his daughter. He then says "I brought this (the gun) here to kill Jerry" and throws the gun to the ground.

Throws the gun to the ground? If he went there to kill Jerry, then why didn't he do it, or at least attempt to? This is Rick we're talking about here, not a very merciful person. If he brings a gun to a place his family—and only his family—are hiding, then he intends to use it.

My theory: Rick cloned Beth and she went on her way, leaving behind someone almost identical. In order to keep the clone from discovering her true identity, Rick programmed more of a maternal instinct into her genes, so that deciding to stay was a decision she could see herself making. He knows that an existential crisis will come along eventually, and intends for this Beth clone to be the first of several prototypes before he can get all of the kinks and wrinkles out, much like he did in "Rickmancing the Stone" after Morty and Summer refused to come home from the post apocalyptic wasteland.

Unfortunately, this first Beth clone creates repercussions that Rick is unable to fix so easily.

When Rick comes to dispose of the Beth clone at the end of "The Rickchurian Mortydate," he discovers that her emotional condition has brought Jerry back to her, Morty and Summer back to wanting to be a part of a family, and that if he replaced this Beth clone with an alternate one, that the family would notice, and the entire point of creating a clone in the first place would be useless.

But that's just my theory.