Showrunners Dan Harmon and Scott Marder have told Polygon that the brutal tone of Rick and Morty's season nine finale, "Field of Dreams", was a deliberate and necessary choice to keep the long-running animated series true to itself. Harmon argued that easing off Morty's suffering would make the show "unrecognisable", pointing out that the character has effectively endured a decade of trauma from his abusive relationship with grandfather Rick despite never physically ageing beyond 14.

In the episode, Morty encounters an alternate, loving version of his family who severed ties with Rick over his refusal to confront his alcoholism, and meets a healthier Rick who has been sober for 17 years, is happily married and teaches at MIT. Morty nevertheless persuades this Rick to build a portal gun, an obsession that wrecks his marriage and drives him back to drinking and nihilism, restoring the familiar dysfunctional dynamic by the episode's end. Marder described this push-and-pull as "the heart of the show", noting that Morty, corrupted by Rick, ultimately corrupts him back in a "full circle" moment.