The other bombshell of a reveal is that the Citadel is actually a breeding ground for Mortys.
Sure, the frigid wife and dead daughter backstory is a bit cliche at this point, but it works because of Rick's clear disdain for it, he knows how obvious a motivator this is, and he hates it. Grief sent Rick down a path to find the other Rick who introduced him to portal gun tech, and who killed Beth and Diane, leading Rick to kill hundreds of other Ricks, until he agreed to a truce and created the Citadel of Ricks. Yes, the flashback from the Season 3 premiere was real, Rick's wife did die in that explosion, along with Beth. Here we get a couple of huge lore dumps, the first of which is confirmation of Rick's backstory. The episode starts with Rick living his best Samurai Jack life, acting as an anti-hero slashing and dicing bird people around the universe, and even getting his own catchy anime opening song that perfectly combines the aesthetics of Vampire Hunter D with the visuals of any modern isekai show - the best part? That the sequence added sing-along lyrics in both kanji and romaji.Īfter Rick realizes that his archnemesis, CrowScare is having sex with his crows, Rick leaves his dark companions and returns to Morty, who turned himself into a 40-year-old to guilt Rick into coming back home because he is starting to recognize that he desperately wants to get back together with Rick, as he's become codependent on their relationship and adventures. No, not because of the return of Evil Morty, but because we finally get a good anime parody after that awful Voltron episode. RELATED: New Live-Action 'Rick and Morty' Clip Pays Tribute to Pickle RickĪnd then we have Rickmurai Jack, an episode that personifies the TV sitcom episode equivalent of the "Finally, some good fucking food" Gordon Ramsay meme. The scene also works because it forgets about the crude jokes, the sci-fi concepts and the crows, and focuses on what made this one of the best animated comedies of the past decade, the relationship between the characters. Sure, we know this is only temporary, but as I've noted before, the show doesn't have to actively remind us that things have changed for us to know that things have changed, and even though Rick and Morty will probably largely ignore the events of this episode in the future, the audience knows what Rick said, and it does change how we view their relationship from here on out. I’ll always be your grandpa, I’m just kind of obsessed with crows now," Rick says in a rather teary farewell.
Now, the idea of an episode where Morty and Rick split up is nothing new, but what matters is the emotional and grounded way in which the episode ends, with Rick finally acknowledging his own toxicity, and deciding to leave Morty himself rather than firing him.