Rick and Morty Writer Opens Up About Rick and Morty’s Big Break Up

One Rick and Morty writer has opened up about the duo’s big break up in Season 5’s big finale! Adult Swim aired the final two episodes in a special two-part event, and it was immediately clear that the two episodes were going to be related to one another when at the end of the first half, “Forgetting Sarick Mortshall,” the titular duo decided to actually go their separate ways. Fans have seen them slowly distancing themselves from one another throughout the rest of the season to that point, but that episode truly cemented it with their break up.

The break up between the two of them capped off a season of the two of them realizing how toxic they are to one another and as writer Siobhan Thompson and Rick and Morty co-creator Dan Harmon explain in Adult Swim‘s special video for the episode, it was the necessary time away from one another that the two of them needed to grow a little more than they had in the past few seasons.

While the fifth season had been highly episodic for its first seven episodes, it was clear that this all did not happen in a vacuum as the emotional threads and character beats had been carried in between episodes. Morty had gone through an intense break up with Planetina earlier in the season, and this episode had tackled that same kind of tension in between Rick and Morty themselves as Thompson explained that they have had the “same kind” of fight.

As Harmon explains, Rick and Morty go on their respective rebound relationships where Morty ended up with someone who was also an underdog before finding out how that kind of relationship wouldn’t work for him either. But as Thompson cleared up, Morty had expected to get back with Rick at the end of the episode because that’s the status quo (which is broken for the finale episode that sees Rick team with two crows) but Rick’s rebound relationship allowed him to finally learn about the empathy he’d need for a healthier partnership.

It’s that empathy that carries over into the finale, and through a series of reveals Rick finally opens up to Morty in some major ways and allows them to enter a new version of their relationship for the future seasons. But what did you think of Rick and Morty’s big break up in the Season 5 finale? 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!