The bestRick and Mortyepisodes feature both standalone stories and some additions that actually move forward its overarching plot. The humor is often funny, creative, and very intelligent, looking at more than just the pop culture references and easy sight gags of other adult animated shows. Instead, the attention to detail and world-building that goes on in the episodes delivers jokes when viewers least expect it and with the quirky time travel and alternate worlds, the storylines are never-ending.
Created by Dan Harmon, Rick Sanchez is a brilliant mad scientist who has created devices that can wreak havoc as well as travel to alternate worlds and he takes his grandson, Morty, with him, often to the chagrin of his parents. However, nothing is ever as it seems. The episodes take things in unexpected directions, offering brilliant sci-fi storylines, absurdist humor, andjokes that go deeper than almost any of its contemporaries. The best andmost importantRick and Mortyepisodesare also some of the best adult animated episodes of any show.
10The Ricks Must Be Crazy
Season 2, Episode 6
The name of this episode ties into the 1980 movieThe Gods Must Be Crazy. That film sees a hunter-gatherer tribe who finds a Coke bottle dropped from an airplane, and they think it is a gift from the Gods. In “The Ricks Must Be Crazy,” Rick and Morty travel to a micro-universe that exists in Rick’s spaceship battery. While there,the feud between Rick and his rival Zeep Zanflorp takes a dangerous turn.The fans see why Rick’s battery helps keep his dimension-hopping possible.
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There is also a subplot where the spaceship does everything it can to keep Summer safe. The episode works so well thanks to Zeep being a perfect foil to Rick, as the two are mostly intellectual equals, and he even created his own Teenyverse; just like Rick created his world, they begin to battle each other for superiority. Morty slams the point home when he tells the micro-universe idolaters that their “Gods are a lie” before going back to his world.
9Mortynight Run
Season 2, Episode 2
Throughout most ofRick and Morty, the young Morty loses his innocence more and more. He learns over time that there is chaos and terrible people and beings all over the universe. That happens in the episode “Mortynight Run” like almost no other. Morty sees Rick sell a gun to a notorious intergalactic assassin named Krombopulos Michael. This astonishes Morty,who can’t understand why Rick would help an assassination attempt,so Morty decides to save the target.
The fact that Morty is trying to save a telepathic gas being whose nickname is Fart (Jermaine Clement) is a great joke on its own. There is also a David Bowie-inspired musical number that is better than almost any other in anyRick and Mortyepisode. Add in the horror from Morty, thanks to his experience in the arcade gameRoy: A Life Well Lived, and this might be one of the wildest and nihilistic episodes of the adult animated series.
8Auto Erotic Assimilation
Season 2, Episode 3
“Auto Erotic Assimilation” is aRick and Mortysummer adventure episode.Rick, Morty, and Summer head out to a planet where an entity known as Unity (Christina Hendricks) is in control.It doesn’t help that Unity is Rick’s ex. This then leads to one of the more twisted moments in the adult animated series when Rick and Unity’s billions of hosts head into a hedonistic party of excess. It was clear why Rick and Unity were better off apart and should never be together at all.
The episode shows how bad of a human Rick Sanchez really is. The party turns into a race war and both Summer and Morty have to find their way through the horror before Unity abandons the planet because it knows that it can’t be with Rick because of his self-centered, self-destructive nature. This is the episode where Rick sees for himself how much his bad tendencies can hurt others, and it almost leads to him ending things once and for all. This was a deeply effective episode.
7Close Rick-Counters Of The Rick Kind
Season 1, Episode 10
This episode goes deep into the multiverse ofRick and Mortyas theCouncil of Ricks captures Rick and Morty(from the main world) and puts them on trial for murdering alternate Ricks and kidnapping alternate Mortys. The charges are all mostly bogus, but this is a very important episode becausethis is where the show introduces one of the series' greatest villains, Evil Morty- the person behind all the crimes this world’s Rick and Morty were accused of.
This is the first season episode where the showrunners reveal that anything is possible…
This is the first season episode where the showrunners reveal that anything is possible, nothing is as it seems, and anything can be changed to represent something else no matter how bizarre. That is how the multiverse runs onRick and Morty,and it’s one where a person can be a pickle, which is seen in late episodes. However, at the same time, the show never loses its way and gets lost in its absurdities because there are still moments of heart that make it all worth the frustration.
6The Ricklantis Mixup
Season 3, Episode 7
Also known as “Tales from the Citadel,” Rick and Morty take a trip to none other than Atlantis in this season 3 episode. What is interesting is that the duo spends their time off-screen in the lost city. Instead,viewers get to see what is happening at the Citadel of Ricks after the death of the Council of Ricks. Evil Morty is growing in power, and he has finally worked his way into the role of the dictator of the Citadel. This is something that changes the overall story arc to put every Rick and Morty in danger.
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This might be the best performance of the entire series for former co-showrunner and co-creator Justin Roiland, who does almost every single voice in the episode. It is really impressive that this was such a fantastic episode since it really ignored Rick and Morty (the real world ones) for almost the entire episode and still delivered an inspired story. The ending was also huge and set up a major showdown that would come two seasons later in season 5. In the end, it is one of the best in the show’s run.
5Rixty Minutes
Season 1, Episode 8
There have been a few episodes involving the Interdimensional Cable, but “Rixty Minutes” was the first to tackle the subject, and it remains the best of the best when it comes to this storyline. Morty reveals to Summer the truth about his identity (following the events of Rick Potion #9) and then delivers one of his most disturbing lines when he says “everybody is going to die” before asking her to watch TV with him.
The fact thatthe entire episode has the characters watching televisionshows how brilliant writing and dialogue can go a long way in making something that seems boring on the outside still intriguing and inspired. The episode has Rick’s interdimensional cable box delivering some weird clips and bizarre characters (the best being Ants in My Eyes Johnson). It also has some deep moments involving Jerry and Beth when they see small looks at their alternate lives. The episode sets up a lot in a unique way.
4Rick Potion #9
Season 1, Episode 6
For the first five episodes ofRick and Morty, the mad scientist and his reluctant grandson have sci-fi adventures that seem wild and fun. However, the entire series switches into something different and darker in the sixth installment, “Rick Potion #9.” The episode starts out like most other similar ones with a sci-fi theme that gets out of control.Morty wants to use a love potion, but soon everyone on Earth loves him, and he has to flee the planet to save himself when the world goes to war to show their love.
This is the episode where Morty changes drastically as his perspective of the world around him alters.
This is where everything gets very weird and actually sets up the multiverse in an unexpected manner. They travel to an alternate Earth, kill Rick and Morty there, bury their bodies, and assume their identities. It is a dark and morbid twist ending that shows that these two are now willing to do anything, even kill versions of themselves, to protect their existence. This is the episode where Morty changes drastically as his perspective of the world around him alters forever.
3Meeseeks And Destroy
Season 1, Episode 5
While the sixth episode of the first season changes everything viewers know about the world ofRick and Morty, the episode before it showed how dark and disturbing the episode can really get. Rick Sanchez has to leave, and he knows that he has to leave something behind for the family’s protection.He then introduced the Meeseeks box,which creates a happy blue creature (known as Meeseeks) that will do anything the person asks before disappearing in a puff of smoke.
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This was the first episode that mostly saw Rick and Morty leave for an adventure in a medieval fantasy land. However, the best part of the episode saw the rest of the family using the Meeseeks for their own lazy and often selfish purposes, without ever considering what it means when the creatures disappear in a puff of smoke. When Beth wants them to help her find fulfillment in life, the Meeseeks ask other Meeseeks for help and soon the family is overrun with the creatures until they have to destroy each other to survive.
2Pickle Rick
Season 3, Episode 3
Even people who have never watched an episode ofRick and Mortyhave likely heard the term “Pickle Rick,” if only as a meme or a term dropped by someone randomly on social media. The third season episode of the same name introduced the idea, and it is a lot more than just a joke for a sight gag. Rick doesn’t want to attend family therapy, so he does the one thing that seemed to make the most sense to him at the time.Rick turns himself into a pickle.
“Pickle Rick” wonRick and Mortyan Emmy Award.
However, when Pickle Rick gets knocked down a drain, he has to find a way to survive andeventually creates armor from the exoskeletons of dead roaches and ratsuntil he can turn himself human again. The entire theme of the episode is the lengths Rick will go to avoid discussing his problems, and even here he only slightly admits that he might have gone too far to avoid talking. The installment looked hard at Rick’s insecurities and won an Emmy Award for the third season.
1Total Rickall
Season 2, Episode 4
The season 2 episode “Total Rickall” ranks as one of the best, if not the bestRick and Mortyepisode of all time. This is a mostly standalone installment that sees the entire Smith family forced to fight a legion of parasites that infest their house.They then have to kill all the parasites, even ones that appear to be family and friends. The episode really goes a long way in introducing some bizarre new characters too, including Ghost in a Jar and Sleepy Gary to Duck with Muscles.
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The episode goes a little deeper than just visual gags and zany characters, too, as these characters take root in the hosts and create false memories. It even introduced a fan-favorite character that has stuck around in Mr. Poopybutthole. This installment has everything the bestRick and Mortyepisodes have, from wild and creative ideas to absurd characters to the Smith family ending up out of their depth and fighting for their lives. That holds it up above the rest.
Rick and Morty
Cast
Rick and Morty is an animated science fiction series that follows the eccentric scientist Rick Sanchez and his impressionable grandson Morty Smith as they embark on perilous adventures across space and alternate dimensions. The show explores the impact of these exploits on Morty’s tumultuous family life and personal challenges.
