Rick & Morty: Why The Smith Family Has A New Member (Naruto Explained)
Rick & Morty season 5 introduces another addition to the Smith family in the form of Naruto, who has reappeared after his introduction to the series.
Rick & Morty has had a fairly consistent roster in the form of the Smith family, but season 5 has added another face potentially permanently to the team in the form of Summer & Morty's giant space baby, Naruto. For the majority of the series thus far, the Smith family has remained the same, containing Morty, his sister Summer, his parents Beth and Jerry, and of course his eccentric scientist grandpa, Rick. This relatively average-sized family was theoretically expanded almost infinitely by the amount of alternate universe version of the members that have been shown - an idea made clear early when Rick and Morty fled their own universe halfway through the first season of the show, settling in with a version of their family that was almost identical to their original.
And while the consistency of the Smith family itself gives the show a sense of normality amongst the weird events that take place every episode, it does also come with a downside. Rick & Morty has decidedly few important characters outside of the Smiths, and even those few don't have the most fleshed-out moments or personalities. Rick & Morty season 5 appears to be attempting to address this, as can be seen through Jessica, who went from being just Morty's relatively one-dimensional love interest, to seemingly becoming a time god. Rick's own spaceship has also been given more focus, as season 5 episode 5 also allowed the sentient vehicle to display her own - admittedly very unhinged - personality. However, this wasn't the most important reveal of the season.
Because Rick & Morty season 5 episode 4 introduced the newest addition to the Smith family in the form of baby Naruto, in perhaps the most surreal - and gross - way possible. In a plot that saw Morty be responsible for Alien-esque monsters that had evolved from his sperm, the American government attempted to deal with the threat via luring the creatures with a human egg. Unaware the sperm monsters contained Morty's DNA, the decision was made to use one of Summer's eggs, promptly leading to the creation of the then-unnamed Naruto. It very much appeared as though this plot would be immediately ignored for the rest of the season if not the rest of the show, as the following episode did exactly that. However, Naruto - now named by Summer, who had formed an attachment to him - suddenly appeared at the end of episode 7 to aide the rest of the Smiths in taking down their enemies, suggesting that he may be a long-term addition to the dysfunctional family.
Indeed, this idea fits in with previous seasons of the show, as the also unexpected appearance of Space Beth - a version of Beth who may or may not be a clone, who travels the galaxy while her other version stays with the family - similarly expanded the Smith family in a decidedly unexpected way. Given the fact the show revolves around an endless amount of increasingly wacky hijinks, it makes sense the family involved in them doesn't have to consist solely of the nuclear family dynamic, and adding in more members only increases the potential number of plots that could unfold.
The likes of Naruto and Space Beth could be retconned or written out of the universe at any given point, of course, but it seems in Rick & Morty's best interest to continue to lean into the idea that not only are the members of the Smith family constantly changing, but the family itself is growing too - albeit exclusively in the strangest ways possible.