Rick and Morty Team Talks How They "Owed" Fans Season 5's Birdperson Episode

The team behind Rick and Morty opened up about how they felt they had 'owed' fans the Birdperson [...]

By Nick Valdez

The team behind Rick and Morty opened up about how they felt they had "owed" fans the Birdperson focused episode in Season 5! The fifth season of the Adult Swim animated series has not been particularly focused on continuing the canonical story threads from the fourth season (even making an off-hand reference about Space Beth), but that changed with the eighth episode, "Rickturnal Friendshine of the Spotless Mort." Finally picking up on the idea of a broken down Birdperson in Rick's garage from the fourth season finale, the team behind the series explained how they felt they "owed" Birdperson this episode.

Rick and Morty producer Steve Levy, writer Albro Lundy, and co-creator Dan Harmon opened up about the process of making "Rickturnal Friendshine of the Spotless Mort" with a new behind-the-scenes video for Adult Swim, and not only did they discuss finally exploring that cliffhanger from the end of the fourth season, they talked about how they had been meaning to explore Birdperson's journey on this kind of level.

Rick and Morty Season 5 Birdperson Episode Adult Swim
(Photo: Adult Swim)

Producer Steve Levy opens with the fact it was an episode the Rick and Morty felt like they "owed" coming off of Birdperson's state in the Season 4 finale, and writer Albro Lundy then elaborated on this further by noting that Birdperson's state of mind was unresolved as he had gone through not only Tammy's betrayal, but being killed, turned into Phoenixperson, and brainwashed. They had believed he would be reluctant to come back to life.

Thus as co-creator Dan Harmon explains, the stakes then became more about saving Birdperson from himself or he would die. The ramifications of falling in love with the physical manifestation of everything Birdperson had been fighting to that point left him even more broken hearted. But as Lundy explained, this episode was more about Birdperson getting closer from all of this and closing the book on this particular traumatic chapter on his life.

The next chapter from then on is now Birdperson has to learn how to be a father, and that's a chapter that Rick won't really be a part of. Ultimately, that's an extra heartbreaking element on top of everything as no matter how much Rick did to save him, Birdperson will never completely reciprocate his feelings. But what did you think of Rick and Morty's look into Birdperson's mind? Let us know all of your thoughts about it in the comments! You can even reach out to me directly about all things animated and other cool stuff @Valdezology on Twitter!

Trending Now: