Rick and Morty Season 4 (finally) begins this Sunday. While the show has only had a relatively short three-season run, its cultural impact has been tangible, and it’s earned a cult of adoring fans.
In the build up to the return of Rick and Morty, it’s only fitting that we revisit some of the highlights of the show so far. There will be no need for argument.
10. Rick Potion #9 – Season 1, Episode 6
This isn’t the *best* episode of Rick and Morty, but it’s a very important one for the themes of the show. The episode itself is fun enough, with love potions that accidentally turn the world into “Cronenbergs,” but it’s the ending that sets this episode apart.
When Rick fails to find a cure for the world, he instead turns to the multiverse to find a timeline in which he did find a cure, and also where his and Morty’s counterparts are dead. Morty is forced to face not only his own mortality, but also the meaninglessness of his existence while abandoning his homeworld and original family to monsters. The whole situation leaves Morty visibly shaken and has a huge impact on him for the rest of the series. It also shows just how far Justin Roiland and Dan Harmon can take the characters in this world they’ve created.
9. The Ricks Must be Crazy – Season 2, Episode 6
KEEP SUMMER SAFE!
This episode, featuring Stephen Colbert in a guest role, has some of the best one-liners and messed-up moments in the entire series (dissolving recreation of a dead son, anyone?). The bulk of the episode is spent in Rick’s spaceship battery, which is an actual mini-verse he created in his lab. Once the mini-verse was populated with enough beings, he tricked them into generating the electricity for his car, and whatever leftover electricity there is powers their economy. Slavery with extra steps, as Morty points out.
Of course, the mini-verse has its own version of Rick (played by Colbert) who has created a teeny-verse to generate their power for them. It’s all a cycle, and Rick has to figure out how to stop the cycle to get his ship running again. It’s a dark episode, but one of the funniest of the series.