Rick and Morty Season 4 Premiere May Tease Big Upcoming Threats

Rick and Morty season 4 premieres with the episode “Edge of Tomoroty: Rick Die Rickpeat”, a spin of the popular Tom Cruise sci-fi/action movie, Edge of Tomorrow. Following that film’s premise, Rick becomes locked in a vicious cycle of resurrection when Morty accidentally causes his death. The story hinges on Morty’s obsession with “Death Crystals”, an object that allows the user to see the ever-changing flow of future events leading to his/her death. Like so many things in Rick and Morty, the death crystals and the visions they bring are a zany and irreverent source of sci-fi comedy hijinks – but also a very serious and potentially important foreshadow of events to come.

Warning: Spoilers for the Rick and Morty Season 4 Premiere Follow!

As stated, “Edge of Tomoroty: Rick Die Rickpeat” revolves around the sci-fi MacGuffin of the Death Crystals, and the visions they provide to Morty about a future in which he can die in the arms of his crush, Jessica. To establish that premise, the opening act of the episode sees Rick and Morty recovering the Death Crystals from their native planet. Things don’t go so smoothly though, as Rick and Morty are attacked by scavengers who want to take the crystals for themselves. In order to get out of that situation, Rick must use the Death Crystals himself.

During the season 4 premiere both Rick and Morty use the power of the Death Crystals multiple times to look at their potential future deaths. Those visions are depicted as fractured prisms of different possibilities, and a few of those visions seem to be oddly specific and ominous death sequences for Rick and/or Morty, which may in fact be teases of some big threats yet to come in season 4.

Two particular visions stand out from the bunch:

1. Rick being killed by torn apart by Squanchy. Last we saw, Squanchy went into Hulk mode during the season 2 finale “The Wedding Squanchers” to battle the Galactic Federation during the ambush at Bird Person’s wedding. Assuming Squanchy never escaped, it would make sense that the Galactic Federation would capture and re-purpose Squanchy to serve them, like they did to Bird Person. The fact that Squanchy is wearing a control collar device in the Death Crystal vision hints that this is indeed a foreshadow of the Galactic Federation’s next strike at Rick, as retaliation for Rick collapsing the government during the season 3 premiere.
2. In one vision, Morty is seen hanging off a ledge while some figure offscreen is stomping him, trying to make him fall. Never forget that Evil Morty is still out there kids – could this be a hint of his return?

Did you spot any other potential big clues in those Death Crystal vision? Let us know in the comments.

Rick and Morty season 4 is now airing Sunday nights on Adult Swim.