Beth Smith

Bethany "Beth" Smith (née Sanchez) is one of the main characters of the American animated television series Rick and Morty. Created by Justin Roiland and Dan Harmon, Beth is a veterinarian who specializes in horse surgery, who is struck with a deep sense of dissatisfaction with her life, stemming from her belief that she has "settled" in her marriage, family, and job, leading her to accept her father into her household after he abandoned her as a teenager.[2] Known for her selfish and humorous personality, alcoholism, and abrasiveness when criticized, the character has been well received. She is the level-headed and assertive daughter of mad scientist Rick Sanchez, mother of Morty and Summer Smith, wife of Jerry Smith, and grandmother of Naruto and Morty Smith Jr.

For the reality star sometimes credited as "Beth Smith", see Beth Chapman (bounty hunter). For the New Zealand field hockey player, see Beth Smith (field hockey).
Beth Smith
Rick and Morty character
A woman wearing blue pants and a red T-shirt. She has a smile on her face.
First appearanceBeth C-131:
"Rick Potion #9" (2014)
Beth Prime:
"Pilot" (2013)
Beth C-137:
"The Rickshank Rickdemption" (2017)
Space Beth C-131:
"Star Mort Rickturn of the Jerri" (2020; first confirmed appearance)
Last appearanceBeth Prime: "Look Who's Cronenberging Now" (2018)
"Rickmurai Jack" (cameo; 2021)
Created byJustin Roiland
Dan Harmon
Designed byJustin Roiland
Voiced bySarah Chalke
In-universe information
Full nameBethany Smith (née Sanchez)
"Space Beth" Smith (née Sanchez)
NicknameBeth
SpeciesHuman
Clone (Clone Beth)
TitleThe Destroyer
OccupationBeth Smith: Horse surgeon and veterinarian of St. Equis Hospital
Space Beth: Leader of "The Defiance" resistance movement
AffiliationSpace Beth: Galactic Revolution
FamilyRick Sanchez (father)
Diane Sanchez (mother)
SpouseJerry Smith (husband)
Space Beth (wife)
ChildrenSummer Smith (daughter)
Morty Smith (son)
Relatives
NationalityHispanic-American[1]
Age40s
1 (biological age of Beth clone)

Following Rick and Morty abandoning the latter's original reality in the first season episode "Rick Potion #9", a new Beth identical to the original is introduced, Beth C-131; the original Beth Prime is subsequently shown to be ruling a post-apocalyptic wasteland with the original Jerry and Summer in the third season episode "The Rickshank Rickdemption" and the Rick and Morty comic series arc "Look Who's Cronenberging Now", before dying of illness before the events of the sixth season premiere "Solaricks". Following the events of "The ABC's of Beth", in which Beth confronts sharing her father's sociopathy, Rick creates a clone of Beth and sends one of the pair to space; it is left ambiguous as to whether the newly dubbed Space Beth is the clone or the original following the official introduction of the character in "Star Mort Rickturn of the Jerri". The character description for Space Beth in the Pocket Mortys update that accompanied the Adult Swim release of the episode initially identifies her as Clone Beth, despite the episode itself not confirming whether or not she or Beth is the clone; both Beths and Jerry later form a throuple in the sixth-season episode "Bethic Twinstinct".[3] In "Rickmurai Jack", Rick's original Beth, Beth C-137, is revealed to have been killed as a child along with her mother Diane, with Rick having spent the following decades scouring the multiverse for their killer, eventually electing to move in with the adult version of Beth and her family from his target's native reality. The character is voiced by Sarah Chalke, and portrayed by Whitney Avalon in a promotional music video for the third season.[4]

Biography

Rick C-137's original daughter Beth died when she was a child. Later, Rick crashes into an alternate Smith household having the show's main Beth. This Beth was abandoned by her Rick about 20 years ago. This Beth is 34 years old and is an equine veterinarian ("horse doctor") at St. Equis Hospital; Rick subsequently abandons this Beth's reality in "Rick Potion #9" for another identical one, bringing Morty with him. Several episodes have dealt with Beth's dissatisfaction with her life, having wanted to become a "real" surgeon before she became pregnant with her daughter Summer at 17. Beth is depicted as being unperturbed by her father Rick's destructive and dangerous tendencies around her son Morty. She, from childhood, views Rick more favorably than her mother due to their parental separation despite Rick having abandoned her when she was 15.[5] As a child, Beth is depicted as having had sociopathic personality traits;[6] following the character's cloning, her space-faring adventurer "Space Beth" self in the fourth season finale is depicted as having taken up her father's former position as the leader of resistance movement "The Defiance" against the government of the Galactic Federation.[7] In "Rickternal Friendshine of the Spotless Mort", Birdperson's memory of Rick states that his original Beth is dead.[8] which is confirmed in "Rickmurai Jack", with the portion of Rick's origin story presented in "The Rickshank Rickdemption" (depicting her and Diane's deaths) having been true. In "Bethic Twinstinct" Beth and Jerry start a polyamorous relationship with "Space Beth", following both Beths having a series of affairs on Thanksgiving due to ingesting Venusian wine (love potion).

Development

Series creator Justin Roiland has observed that Beth was developed as a character whose behavior would realistically enable Rick to be able to take Morty on their adventures despite her own misgivings, describing them as one who "fetishizes exceptionality. She believes that Rick, as crazy as he is, is the better of her two parents even though she was raised by her mother and she blames her mother's unremarkability on her father's departure, and will do anything to keep her father back in her life."[9] Addressing Beth's continuous "unhealthy" search for approval from her father in an interview with HitFix, Dan Harmon stated that:[5]

"Kids can sometimes idolize their worst parent and blame their supportive parent for chasing off the dad with the guts to leave. ...She believes that Rick, as crazy as he is, is the better of her two parents even though she was raised by her mother and she blames her mother's unremarkability on her father's departure and will do anything to keep her father back in her life."

Addressing the introduction of Space Beth in the fourth season compared to the original Beth, Sarah Chalke praised the "really interesting dynamic" between the characters, expressing interest in future seasons of the series depicting "all of the things she used to do [as a child], like force Rick to make her mind control hair clips so people would like her. Just seeing her behave so much like Rick at such a young age would be really fun."[10]

Reception
Year Award Category Nominee(s) Result Ref.
2014 BTVA Voice Acting Awards Best Female Vocal Performance in a Television Series in a Supporting Role — Comedy/Musical Sarah Chalke Nominated [11]

The character has received positive reception. Inverse complimented Beth's characterization in "The ABC's of Beth" compared to "Pickle Rick", and "the obvious realization that Beth finally vocalizes: She spent years worshipping her father while trying to always do the right thing. But she realizes that he’s a terrible person, and she’s exactly like him."[12] Screen Rant similarly described "the father-daughter relationship between Beth Smith and Rick Sanchez [as] genuinely one of the deeper and more complicated relationships explored in the show, with the history between these two family members stretching for quite some time." in addition to praising their relationship with Space Beth in the fourth season, ranking Beth as having the second-best character arc in the series behind Rick.[13]

VerbStomp described Beth as "both insecure and controlling, intelligent and doubtful, family-oriented and cold. She’s somehow the polar opposite of every emotion at the exact same time", before "ping[ing Beth] as the [most] troubled character of the show",[14] while 411mania praised how "Beth [may] seem cliché on the surface but [her] wants and needs are so fleshed out that we quickly learn what makes these three tick and why they’re anything but ordinary."[15]

Family tree
Smith–Sanchez family tree
JacobJoyce Smith[n 1]Leonard SmithDiane SanchezRick Sanchez[n 2]Princess Poñeta[n 3]Gaia[n 4]Reggie[n 4]
Jerry Smith[n 1][n 5]Beth Smith[n 1][n 6]Space Beth[n 6]CHUD Heir[n 3]
Hemorrhage[n 7][n 8]Summer Smith[n 1][n 7]Morty SmithGwendolyn[n 9]President MortyThe Ricklets[n 4]
Summer Smith Jr.[n 8]Naruto Smith[n 10]Mortimer Smith Jr.[n 9]
Notes:
  1. In the 2014 first season episode "Rick Potion #9", the original Prime Smith family are abandoned by Rick and Morty, who move to another reality with identical alternate-universe versions (where they themselves have just died) after the previous one was "Cronenberged" by Rick. The Prime Smith family return in the 2017 third season premiere "The Rickshank Rickdemption" and 2018 comic arc "Look Who's Cronenberging Now", left to freeze by Morty in the former, with Summer Prime dying in the latter, before Beth Prime is apparently revealed to have also since died in the 2022 sixth season premiere "Solaricks", and Jerry Prime is murdered by Rick Prime in the episode's post-credits scene.
  2. Rick Sanchez's wife and daughter from his original reality, Diane and Beth Sanchez, are murdered thirty years before the events of the series, by an alternate reality version of Rick known as Rick Prime, whose living family (of which Beth was abandoned by Rick Prime when she was 14-years-old, before marrying her high school boyfriend Jerry Smith at 17 after becoming pregnant with Summer Smith) Rick moves in with himself one year prior to the events of the series.
  3. In the 2021 fifth season episode "Rickdependence Spray", Rick Sanchez learns that his brief affair with the humanoid horse Princess Poñeta of the CHUD (Cannibalistic Horse Underground Dwellers) resulted in her becoming pregnant with the CHUD heir, their son, whom he is prepared to raise prior to learning that the CHUD raise themselves (immediately after his son is born at the end of the episode, and immediately digs down into the CHUD's underground society).
  4. In the 2020 fourth season episode "Childrick of Mort", Rick Sanchez's ex-girlfriend, a living planet named Gaia, tricks him, Rick's parallel universe daughter Beth Smith and son-in-law Jerry Smith into raising her offspring into a civilisation by claiming that Rick is the father of her "Ricklets", before the family learn the actual father of the Ricklets to be Reggie, a thunder god and "Zeus", who then duels Rick before being accidentally killed by Morty and Summer Smith.
  5. In the 2022 sixth season premiere "Solaricks", Jerry Smith is confirmed to have been accidentally switched with another Jerry in the 2013 second season episode "Mortynight Run", with the previous Season Two Jerry subsequently accidentally killing himself and destroying the Earth at the conclusion of the episode, forcing the Smith family to find a new replacement dimension (just as Rick and Morty had previously done in the 2014 first season episode "Rick Potion #9").
  6. In the 2020 fourth season finale "Star Mort Rickturn of the Jerri", Beth Smith is confirmed to have been cloned in the 2017 third season finale "The ABC's of Beth", with one Beth remaining on Earth with the Smith family, and the other going off adventuring in space, becoming known as Space Beth, with no one knowing which Beth the clone and which is the original. In the 2022 sixth season episode "Bethic Twinstinct", Beth, Jerry, and Space Beth establish a throuple.
  7. In the 2017 third season episode "Rickmancing the Stone", Hemorrhage and Summer Smith get married in the former's home dimension, before the latter abandons the former for her own home dimension.
  8. In the 2021 comic series arc Rick and Morty Presents: Death Stalkers, Hemorrhage adopts a mutant baby as his daughter, whom he names "Summer Junior" after his estranged wife after making peace with her.
  9. In the 2014 first season episode "Raising Gazorpazorp", Morty Smith's use of Gwendolyn, a sex robot with a built-in "baby maker" (of which he was unaware of while using) results in an alien Gazorpazorp hybrid being born of it, whom Morty subsequently names "Morty Junior", who matures to adulthood in days and ultimately goes by the longer "Mortimer Smith, Jr.", becoming a successful author with his pseudo-autobiographical best-selling book, My (Horrible) Father.
  10. In the 2021 fourth season episode "Rickdependence Spray", a well-meaning attempt by the President to lure a group of giant sperm monsters (led by the Sperm Queen) into space using an enlarged egg of Summer Smith (unaware before donating that the creatures had originated from Morty Smith unwittingly sabotaging an experiment of Rick Sanchez's) results in the creation of a "giant incest baby", whom Summer later names Naruto in "Gotron Jerrysis Rickvangelion".

References
  1. Audio commentary — "Auto Erotic Assimilation"
  2. "Beth Smith". comicvine.gamespot.com. Retrieved September 14, 2018.
  3. Opie, David (6 November 2020). "Rick and Morty game may have just revealed which Beth is the clone". Digital Spy. Retrieved 6 November 2020.
  4. Marnell, Blair (31 January 2018). "This Rick and Morty-inspired song checks in on Beth after Season 3". Nerdist. Retrieved 31 January 2018.
  5. Sepinwall, Alan (October 18, 2014). "Mega Dan Harmon interview, part 3: 'Rick and Morty'". HitFix. Retrieved October 18, 2014.
  6. Audio commentary — "The ABCs of Beth"
  7. Audio commentary — "Star Mort Rickturn of the Jerri"
  8. "Rick and Morty season 5 just revealed a major character is dead". Digital Spy. 9 August 2021.
  9. Roiland, Justin (January 18, 2015). "We are Dan Harmon and Justin Roiland creators of Rick and Morty on adult swim NEW EPISODE TONIGHT MARCH 10 ON ADULT SWIM!!! AUA! Even about our personal secret stuff too!". IAmA. Retrieved January 18, 2015.
  10. Plante, Corey (October 18, 2014). "Scene Stealers 2020 — 'Rick and Morty' Season 5: Sarah Chalke on the Future of Space Beth". Inverse. Retrieved December 28, 2020.
  11. "2013 BTVA Voice Acting Awards". Behind The Voice Actors. Archived from the original on March 10, 2015. Retrieved January 16, 2018.
  12. Mitra, Ritwik (25 September 2017). "Beth Visits the Most Disturbing 'Rick And Morty' World Yet". Inverse. Retrieved 25 September 2017.
  13. Mitra, Ritwik (2 January 2021). "Rick And Morty: The Main Characters, Ranked From Worst To Best By Character Arc". Screen Rant. Retrieved 2 January 2021.
  14. Martineau, Maxym (November 10, 2015). "That's Deep: The Characters of Rick and Morty". VerbStomp. Archived from the original on October 26, 2020. Retrieved September 14, 2018.
  15. Ornelas, Michael (25 March 2017). "From Under A Rock: Rick & Morty". 411mania. Archived from the original on 28 June 2021. Retrieved 25 March 2017.
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