Rick and Morty Kicks Off Season 5 With Great Premiere Episode

Rick and Morty is already knocking it out of the park with an excellent return to form with the first episode of Season 5! The wait for Season 5 has been a much shorter affair than fans had previously been accustomed to, and that's especially impressive when you also factor in the production issues caused by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. When the fourth season wrapped its final five episodes with Adult Swim last year, fans of the animated series had braced themselves for the long wait that had become the norm between the first four seasons.

Yet here we are now with the fifth season on Adult Swim. Slated to air all ten of its episodes throughout the Summer (rather than break up its schedule into two halves like the last season), all eyes have been turned to Adult Swim to see where Rick and Morty would pick things up for the much anticipated Season 5. Now that ComicBook.com has seen the first episode, we can happily confirm to fans that the series has in no way missed a beat.

The first episode of Season 5, "Mort Dinner Rick Andre," is as classic of a Rick and Morty set up as one might think. The difference here for Season 5, however, is that there are already a few twists that tease the new direction each of the characters will be going on with this new season. The episode sees the introduction of Rick's nemesis, Mr. Nimbus, and Rick has to do everything he can to tide over Mr. Nimbus' rage (and keep a war from breaking out) with a fancy dinner.

While previous seasons might have made this the focal point of an entire episode, it's now just a launching off point for other character stories. For example, the episode involves a lot of Morty and Jessica's burgeoning relationship. One of the main through lines of the series as a whole has been Morty's crush on Jessica, and later episodes have seen her involved more and potentially even reciprocate his feelings. Their duo enters a new phase of that relationship with this first episode, and marks a turning point for the series as a whole as it's clearer than ever that we'll see some real development from the characters.

Without getting too much more into detail than I already am for those who want to go in completely blind, there are still some lingering questions from the Season 4 finale that are completely avoided here. It might be a result of wanting to jump into the season with a fresh episodic adventure not held down by Space Beth (or any of the other questions raised by that finale), but it is a shame to see a tease of canonical consequence that isn't immediately followed up.

As mentioned above, however, there is noticeable development in smaller character ways that will likely be explored further as the new season continues. We get a new main story for Beth and Jerry, we get to see a new side of Rick as Mr. Nimbus (hilariously ridiculous as he is) seemingly is Rick's real nemesis, Morty takes more direct action than ever (which makes a lot of sense following his growth in Season 4), and nearly the entire family is involved.

Rick and Morty's Season 5 premiere is a return to form for the series while offering lots of fun little new things that should make for some interesting threads to follow up in future episodes. As we've learned in the past the series isn't so keen to keep to a concrete canon (outside of some key lines fans will pick up on), but the little adjustments in the character arcs here prove that we're going to need to really pay attention this season.

Rick and Morty Season 5 premieres on Adult Swim, Sunday, June 20th at 11:00PM EST. What are you hoping to see from Rick and Morty this season? Let us know your thoughts in the comments! You can even reach out to me directly about all things animated and other cool stuff @Valdezology on Twitter!