Rick and Morty: Season 5 Recapped

With Rick and Morty Season 6 on the horizon with Adult Swim, it is now the perfect time to look back on everything that happened during the game changing fifth season of the series! The first four seasons of Rick and Morty had dabbed with more of a serialized story here and there, but the fifth season made the biggest moves forward in the series to date. Not only did it confirm some major elements of the series fans had been curious about such as Rick’s origin story, but also made some big status quo shifts that we’ll see play out in future seasons. 

Yet like other seasons in the past, this was still in between lots of episodic adventures that likely won’t be playing into the future of the series. When thinking back on Rick and Morty Season 5, it’s best to highlight the stuff that will seemingly play a role in future episodes rather that detail every single thing that happened. So in this recap you’ll find many of the elements that will likely lead to some bigger reveals in the rest of the series, and many of the character moments that should be important later. 

Rick and Morty Season 5 opened by introducing Rick’s rival, Mr. Nimbus in “Mort Dinner Rick Andre.” A take on Marvel’s hero Namor, Mr. Nimbus controls the seas and the police. It’s revealed that he has a much deeper past with Rick than one would expect (even knowing Rick’s wife Sarah), and the two of them come to a sort of understanding at the end of the episode. Notably, Season 5 didn’t follow up on Season 4 bringing back Space Beth until “Mortyplicity.” The second episode of the series also made sure to destroy every copy of Rick made of the Smith family to act as decoys. Which plays an important role later. 

The next important episode is the third, “A Rickconvenient Mort.” This was the first real episode of the season in which Morty was actively pushing against Rick (while the premiere began the rift between the two), and pursued a full romantic relationship. He’s had luck with a few romantic interests in the past, but Planetina ended up being his first real girlfriend. Unfortunately, it was also his first real heartbreak too. But in the end, this is also what brought Morty together with his mother. 

The next significant event comes during the fourth episode, “Rickdependence Spray.” While most of this episode will likely be tossed out heading into the future, it’s worth bringing up because Morty and Summer’s giant incest baby that spawns at the end of the episode comes back into play during the climax of the seventh episode “Gotron Jerrysis Rickvangelion.” It’s in that episode where Summer reveals she’s grown closer to her space son, named him Naruto, and helped set her son free into the vacuum of space. It’s a ridiculous card the series can always play. 

Episode 5, “Amortycan Grickfitti” and Episode 6 “Rick and Morty’s Thanksploitation Spectacular” don’t really have too much of note other than he fact that Rick gets a little closer to Jerry, and Rick and the President find some common ground as rivals for the first real time moving forward. The plot in full kicks in at the eighth episode, “Rickturnal Friendshine of the Spotless Morty,” as it finally picks up from the Birdperson tease following Season 4’s finale. Rick begins to try and save his old friend by venturing into his mind to find the original, unbrainwashed Birdperson. 

This takes Rick on a journey through his memories with Birdperson, and notably their time together fighting for the resistance. It’s revealed that Rick had confessed to Birdperson that he was having much deeper feelings for his friend than Birdperson had for him, and was unfortunately rejected. This rejection serves as one of the many roots for Rick’s current cynical side, but more importantly also colors more of his relationship with Birdperson. It’s revealed through all of this that Birdperson actually had a child with Tammy, and Rick had been keeping this from his friend for fear of losing him again. 

Birdperson is able to return to his body, and although Rick is successful in saving his friend, Birdperson prioritizes saving his daughter and starting a new phase of life. Leaving Rick behind, this leads into the events of the final two episodes, “Forgetting Sarick Marshall” and “Rickmurai Jack.” When Rick and Morty have a fight, Rick decides to replace Morty with two crows. It starts out as Rick’s usual passive aggressive dig at Morty, but through this new partnership Rick realizes just how toxic and co-dependent his relationship with Morty really had become. Thus he decides to fully leave Morty heading into the final episode. 

The finale, “Rickmurai Jack,” opens with Morty appealing to Rick to try to get him back. While Rick is hesitant at first, he ultimately decides to try for a classic adventure between the two of them. Heading to the Citadel, it’s here they meet with “Evil Morty” for the first time. Following his taking over the Citadel, Evil Morty reveals his grand plan is to basically sacrifice the Citadel in order to break free of the Central Finite Curve. As Evil Morty explains, the Central Finite Curve is a version of the multiverse Rick had created for himself that only gathers and interacts with other universes where Rick is the most dominant being. 

As Evil Morty begins his plan of using all the remaining portal fluid and sacrificing many of the Ricks and Mortys from other universes, we finally get a full look at Rick’s backstory. While Rick had teased that the version of his origin we had first seen in the Season 3 premiere, “The Rickshank Redemption,” was actually a joke, it turned out to be totally true. After Rick refuses to join up with the rest of the Rick multiverse, his wife Sarah and child Beth were killed. This sends Rick into a spiral where he begins hunting down every other Rick available, but he never quite catches up to the original one that did the deed. 

Rick kills so many other Ricks that they decide to work with him, and it’s revealed that Rick (C-137, our main Rick) actually had a hand in creating the Citadel as we knew it. Giving up on the fact that he’ll likely never find the Rick that killed his wife and daughter, he then heads to the universe we see in the main series and reunites with Beth for the first time. Back in the present day (after Morty discovers Rick’s origin), Evil Morty succeeds in his plan of escaping the Central Finite Curve. It’s yet to be revealed if the curve has been destroyed completely, but what is known is that Rick will no longer have access to his Portal Gun. 

Rick and Morty are able to save themselves before the Citadel is totally destroyed. While they do grow closer during this process, Season 5 ends as they drift through space in the broken Citadel with no real means of escape. Now it’s just a matter of seeing how Season 6 picks it up! That’s everything important that happened during Rick and Morty Season 5, and you’re ready for Season 6’s premiere! What are you hoping to see? 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!