Is Rick and Morty Season 5 Setting Up for Evil Morty’s Return?

Could Rick and Morty‘s fifth season be setting up for Evil Morty’s return? The fifth season of the Adult Swim is currently in the midst of a hiatus for the rest of the Summer before it returns this Fall for a special one-hour long finale, and one of the many things fans had been hoping to see from the season thus far were connections to the overall canon of the franchise. This didn’t exactly happen until Episode 8, which explored Rick’s past with Birdperson, but there have been some notable character threads tying each adventure together.

Rick and Morty Season 5 began with a Rick and Morty separating further from one another as Morty begins to take more of a hard line against Rick’s shenanigans, and Rick begins to open himself up more to the rest of the members of his family. This has led many fans to question whether or not we were actually seeing the series plant seeds to an Evil Morty origin story (which could have been in the works for a long, long time), but the promo for Season 5’s finale makes that all the more intriguing.

One of the major teases for Season 5’s one-hour finale episode sees Morty trying to use Rick’s portal gun without Rick’s permission before inevitably being caught. But rather than profusely prostrate himself and try and get back into Rick’s good graces like in past seasons, Morty instead fights back and angrily asks to be replaced instead. The voice over for the promo goes even further and asks “What’s Rick without Morty?” and it’s an interesting question to go out on overall.

We’ve seen dozens of examples of a Rick defining himself without a Morty throughout the episodes thus far, but the fifth season made this even more prominent by revealing that Rick’s original Beth is technically dead already. “Rickturnal Friendshine of the Spotless Mort” sees Rick explain to another Rick that Morty is a “hypothetical grandson” that he has adventures with along with the reveal that he’s living with an “abandoned” adult version of their dead daughter.

With a Morty slowly disconnecting from his Rick (going on dates with Jessica and Planetina, choosing to go to Boob World, going on a joyride with Bruce Chutback), a Rick being more vulnerable and open with Beth, Jerry, Summer, and Birdperson, and an episode throwing in the ideas of decoys and red herrings, the season might be setting up for a huge reveal…or something else completely different. Will it be a Morty who turns on Rick after finding out he’s only a hypothetical?

Maybe, maybe not, but we won’t get to see for ourselves until Rick and Morty returns for the final episodes of Season 5 on Sunday, September 5th on Adult Swim at 11:00PM EST. What do you think Rick and Morty is setting up for the finale? Is it an Evil Morty return? Is it something else altogether? 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!