We’ve been seeing Galactic Federation bureaucrats on Rick and Morty since the Season 1 pilot, but beyond brief appearances in episodes like Rick and Morty Season 2 Episode 2 “Mortynight Run,” the Federation has been largely in the background. That all changed with the Rick and Morty Season 2 finale, which ended with Earth joining the Galactic Federation as its 6048th member planet and Rick Sanchez in Galactic Federation space jail. The new status quo set in Rick and Morty Season 2 Episode 10 “The Wedding Squanchers” will have a number of major consequences for 2016’s Rick and Morty Season 3.

Rick and Morty Season 2 Episode 10: What “The Wedding Squanchers” Means For Season 3

No More Earth Relief

While Rick and Morty Season 2 was already cutting back substantially on time spent on Earth, alternating space adventures with more grounded family drama was part of the Rick and Morty DNA from the beginning. And while Rick and Morty Season 3 will still have Smith family drama, it will no longer take place on a recognizable Earth. We caught a quick glimpse of this in the Rick and Morty Season 2 finale, as Mr. Goldenfold is bullied by some aliens and Jerry has his first run-in with the utopian work programs of the newly federalized Earth.

Redefining Rick and Morty

Ricks keep Mortys around because the easily identifiable Rick brainwave can be shielded by the opposite “Morty Waves.” Basically, Rick and Morty are a stable relationship across the multiverse because Morty’s stupidity counterbalances Rick’s intelligence and keeps them hidden from Galactic Federation probes.

So what does that mean for Rick and Morty now that Rick is no longer hiding from the Galactic Federation?

It’s probably a safe assumption that Galactic Federation prison won’t be able to hold Rick for long, perhaps not even through the first episode of Rick and Morty Season 3. And the idea of Rick simply escaping and being on the loose again doesn’t make much sense either. In Season 3 of Rick and Morty Rick will have to either destroy the galactic federation or somehow come to terms with it.

Either way, the reason for Rick and Morty to be Rick and Morty ceases to exist.

Of course, we know from Rick and Morty Season 2 that Rick loves Morty beyond simply needing his Morty Waves. But while Rick and Morty’s relationship has evolved over the course of Rick and Morty Season 2, the new status quo come Rick and Morty Season 3 seems likely to entail even bigger changes.

Insight Into Rick’s Past

Squanchy doesn’t exactly seem like the most insightful fellow. In fact, he seems like an even more dissolute partier than Rick. So how will we learn more about Rick’s past with the firm guiding hand of Bird Person?

Outside of Rick’s suicide attempt in Rick and Morty Season 2, our clearest glimpses into the man’s interior has come from Bird Person’s calm goodness.

Rick and Morty co-creators Justin Roiland and Dan Harmon killed off Rick’s best friend. It will be up to Rick and Morty Season 2 to find a way back into Rick’s tragic past.

Rick and Morty Season 3

Rick and Morty has always been a show willing to shake things up. But it has never so radically altered its own structure moving forward as with the imprisonment of Rick and the entry of the Galactic Federation in Rick and Morty Season 2 Episode 10 “The Wedding Squanchers.”

It seems certain that Rick and Morty Season 3 will be, by narrative necessity, an even bigger change from Rick and Morty Season 2 than this most recent season was from the first episodes of Rick and Morty.