Guys the new episode of Rick and Morty has me thinking and like........ What if the end of the show has Rick finally using time travel to go back to the day he came back "home"?
--- I have no clue how this would fit in with all of the infinite versions of them, but even so, just hear me out lmao ---
What if the finale has Rick sacrifice all of the adventures, the life he currently has with his family, with Morty, because he knows the damage he's caused is too great. They've all become Rick, in a sense; cynical, cold, numb to everything that's thrown at them and WHAT IF, in the end, Rick wants them to live a better life.
He says goodbye to the Morty he's grown to love and trust, the smart, hardened, dependant Morty that has been with him through thick and thin for 1,000 years and forevermore...and he goes back in time.
And this time, when he crashes into the Smith's front lawn? He's better.
Rick makes amends with his daughter; even Jerry, god forbid. He fixes things. No more adventures with Morty. No more fights to the death on foreign planets, or torture, or race wars, or Citadels. Just the occasional invention as a christmas gift, or a leisurely drive around earth in his ship.
It's a little boring, sure, and Rick would be damned if he didn't slip off at night to run some multiversal errands from time to time, but he never exposes that part of his life to those he loves.
He watches as Morty grows up, guiding him gently through life but never intruding too far. And Morty is strange, different, but he's happier than Rick has ever seen him before. His family is happier.
And that makes it all worth it.