5 Best Moments From The Rick And Morty Season 3 Premiere

Nathan Fillion


It's always a treat when Television's Sweetheart makes an appearance, no matter where it is. So even though he's a dirty, imprisoning, torturous bug, he still has a memorable appearance.

Fillion plays the Gromflomite Galactic Federation prison interrogator, attempting to learn how Rick invented his interdimensional portal gun.

A series of mind games between the two ensues—all within the mental recreation of the family-friendly restaurant Shoney's—but of course Rick gets the upper hand because he's the smartest person in the universe. He then takes over the Gromflomite's body and transports out of his own consciousness, where he enacts his master plan.

The cherry on top of this scene is hearing Fillion's best Rick impression. It's alright.

Summer Takes Charge

Morty has seen a lot of terrible things over the course of the show's first two seasons. And now he's beginning to understand the depths Rick will sink to in order to get what he wants, with wanton disregard for anyone and anything.

So despite the Galactic Federation sedating Earth's population with a steady diet of pills, Morty isn't exactly itching to get his grandpa back.

Summer, however, won't rest until she gets him back. She became a much more prominent character on the show during the second season and that seems to carry on through here as she frantically searches the garage for clues Rick might have left behind. She even gets pretty close to arranging a series of dead flies in perfect order!

But Morty wants to make it clear that Rick doesn't care about anything, least of all her, and points out that her universe's Rick is still dead in the backyard in an attempt at "ghoulish overkill." If you recall, Rick and Morty accidentally ruined their universe's Earth and damned it to a Cronenberg-like hell (we'll get there in a second), so they abandoned it and went to their current home seconds after that universe's Rick and Morty killed themselves in a failed experiment. They buried the bodies in the backyard, giving Morty his first truly horrifying existential crisis.

Summer frantically takes this as another clue and digs the body up, where they find the decayed body and a working portal gun. Summer finally has the tool she needs to save Rick, but Morty still needs to teach her a lesson. He takes the gun and takes his sister to his home dimension…

Return to the Cronenberg ‘Verse

Morty shows Summer the results of Rick's actions by returning to his original universe, which was destroyed in the first season from Rick's love potion.

The potion turned everyone into mutated monsters that look like something John Carpenter's the Thing would have nightmares about, except those who share Morty's DNA. It was pretty funny.

So Rick and Morty abandoned Beth, Jerry, and Summer to a survivalist fate, being the only beings uninfected on the entire planet.


When a Galactic Federation robot chases them through the portal and attempts to imprison them for harboring illegal technology, Jerry and Summer Prime rescue the visiting Morty and Summer and easily dispatch their electronic foe.

It was great to see how feral the original family has become in the wake of Rick and Morty's reckless abandonment. It also underscored one aspect of Beth and Jerry's co-dependent relationship: that it only thrives when Rick is absent. Our Morty and Summer are saved by the Council of Ricks, who save the kids and take them hostage.

They also fail to kill the Prime family, leaving the Cronenberg 'Verse in play to be revisited in future episodes.

Rick’s Master Plan

With the end of Season 2 taking Rick on a depressing downward spiral, it was easy to see why the mad scientist would turn himself into the Galactic Federation after Jerry ratted him out. It was presented as a crisis of conscience in which Rick decided to do right by his family, but it resulted in Earth entering totalitarian control by the alien regime.

But getting captured was all a part of Rick's plan to destroy the two major governments in the universe and eliminating the biggest threats to his and Morty's adventures in science. And it also (maybe temporarily) succeeded in eliminating Jerry from the family as well.

Rick gets caught and then tricks Nathan Fillion's character into relinquishing control of a "Brainalyzer," allowing Rick to transfer his conscience into other beings. When he attempts to secure Level 9 access of the Galactic Federation to enact his master plan, he's interrupted by Seal Team Ricks of the Council of Ricks—the bad ass fighter squad of Ricks sent only for the most dangerous missions.

Rick takes over one of their bodies and kills the rest of the squad, annoyed that they ruined his plan, kidnapped his grandkids, and forced him to improvise. But it's all just a minor setback, as Rick infiltrates the Council and teleports their Citadel right into the center of the Galactic Federal Prison where he was once contained.

In the ensuing chaos, Rick eliminates the council and saves his grandkids after an intense standoff. He finally gets access to the Level 9 systems he needed and devalues the Galactic Federation's currency to nothing.

With both governments in shambles, Rick returns with Morty and Summer to the Sanchez household. His presence causes Beth and Jerry to decide on getting divorced. And when Rick and Morty are finally left alone, Rick reveals his motivation for everything: szechuan sauce.

Specifically, the McDonalds McNugget Szechuan Sauce temporarily released in promotion of the Disney animated film Mulan. Released only for a limited time, Rick has been searching for the sauce ever since and will do anything to get it back. He refers to it as his "one armed man."

Bird Pers…er, Phoenix Person Flies Again

Not Cyber Bird.

The second season finale took everyone for a loop when Bird Person was murdered by his newly-wedded wife Tammy. Summer's high school friend was actually a secret agent for the Galactic Federation and used her cover to infiltrate Rick's world and take him captive.

It didn't work, and many thought the fan-favorite Bird Person would never be seen again.

But this is Rick and Morty! Never say never.

The final moments of the episode revealed that Tammy was leading a team of engineers to bring Bird Person back from the dead as a cyborg. Under the thrall of the remnants of the Galactic Federation and now going by Phoenix Person, Rick's former best friend is sure to become a threat in future episodes of the show.

But if there's anything we learned from Captain America: Winter Soldier, there's always a possibility of redemption for cybernetically enhanced foe.

Rick And Morty

More Rick And Morty: Twitter Reacts To Season 3 Premiere / NOT A JOKE: Rick and Morty Season 3 Premieres On Adult Swim Website / Season 3 Update Rap / Dan Harmon Explains Season 3 Delay / Season 3 Sneak Peek

Rick and Morty is Adult Swim's most scientifically accurate animated comedy. Created by Justin Roiland and Dan Harmon, it catalogues the bizarre misadventures of a bored scientific genius/drunkard and his socially awkward grandson, Morty. Their exploits tend to have unintended consequences for Morty's dysfunctional family, especially his unfailingly mediocre father, Jerry. Watch Rick and Morty battle everything from interdimensional customs agents to Cronenberg monsters.

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