Rick and Morty Episode 55: Night Family

Beth cannot sleep because Jerry is snoring, so she goes downstairs and finds Rick doing crunches in the living room in his sleep. The next morning, Rick explains that he has a machine called a **Somnambulator**, which lets his unconscious body do tasks while he sleeps, and that the version doing the work is his “night person.”

When the rest of the family sees how useful it is, they all want their own night versions too. Rick eventually gives in, and soon the family is using their sleeping bodies for different skills and chores: Rick and Morty work out, Beth learns trumpet, Summer learns Spanish, and Jerry turns his night person into a pen pal.

At first, the arrangement is productive, but the night versions become frustrated by how the waking family leaves work for them, especially dirty dishes that have not been rinsed. Jerry’s night person writes a polite request asking the family to rinse their dishes before bed, but Rick is offended and refuses to cooperate, which pushes the night people into open rebellion.

The night versions seize control of the household and begin treating the waking family like slaves, even building robots to help enforce their rule. The day versions try to escape, but whenever one of them is knocked out or sedated, their night version takes over, which makes the conflict more dangerous and difficult to control.

Night Summer becomes the main leader of the night family and eventually offers Rick a truce: the day family can go free if they simply promise to rinse their dishes. Rick still refuses, so the night family fully takes over.

After a long stretch in which the night family enjoys luxury and expensive vacations, they run out of money and discover that the day family had actually been managing the finances properly. Realizing control is not worth the cost, the night family destroys the Somnambulator and wakes everyone up, ending the takeover.

When the family wakes, Rick checks the world and is devastated to learn that the Choco Taco has been discontinued.