IMPORTANT: If you do not have an IQ of above 300, you are automatically not allowed to read this article.

SPOILER ALERT: This article contains some major spoilers from the newest season, so read at your own discretion.

Rick and Morty, the sci-fi comedy cartoon on the network Adult Swim concluded its third season on Sunday, October 1. Creators Dan Harmon and Justin Roiland spent over two years writing and developing the plot that Rick and Morty (both voiced by Roiland) would accomplish throughout the season.

Season two ended on a massive cliffhanger that left fans of the show with puzzled minds. Jerry (voiced by Chris Parnell), the husband of the family, questioned if his family should turn in Rick to the Galactic Federation, a governing body that controls most of the universe in the show. Jerry said this without thinking Rick would hear it, but Rick ultimately heard it and turned himself into the Federation, leaving his family behind on Earth.  

The first episode of the third season, “The Rickshank Rickdemption,” aired three months before the rest of the season even premiered and definitely did not disappoint. It picked up a bit into the future from when Rick turned himself in. Feeling distraught over the loss of their grandfather, Morty and his sister Summer (voiced by Spencer Grammer) attempt to break Rick out of the prison, but the SEAL Team Ricks intercepts them, taking them to the Citadel of Rick’s and eventually deem it necessary that they must assassinate Rick to preserve the lasting of the Council of Ricks. Rick eventually breaks out of the prison by tricking his interrogator to upload a code that switches his mind with the interrogator. He does this mind-switching often, eventually making his way back to his own mind and meets back up with Morty and Summer. To finish off the Federation once and for all, Rick breaks into their mainframe and switches their currency’s value so it ends up worth as nothing. As a result, the Federation collapses, and Earth no longer contains aliens.

The ending of this episode sets up the main plot for the season, with Beth (Sarah Chalke), the mother of the family, and Jerry divorced. Jerry finally puts his foot down with Rick controlling the family and gives Beth an ultimatum: choose him or Rick. Beth chooses her father, they divorce, and it all ends with Rick wanting the infamous Szechuan McNugget sauce. This dramatic twist set up the season perfectly, leaving all of us wondering what will happen to the family after the divorce.

Harmon and Roiland hyped up the “Pickle Rick” episode, and it came early in the season as the third episode. To avoid family therapy, Rick turns himself into a pickle right before it starts. He sets up a Mouse Trap-esque contraption that would set off an anti-pickle serum containing syringe into Rick , but Beth takes it to therapy with the kids. While the family drives to therapy, Pickle Rick just lays down in his garage, until a cat knocks him out of the garage, and he falls into the sewer. Using the materials around him, he crafts an exoskeleton using roaches and rats and breaks out of the sewer into a foreign governmental agency. He fights with guards and befriends a prisoner named Jaguar, eventually escaping the building and making it to the end of family therapy. After the airing of this episode, Pickle Rick exploded across the country, with people shouting “I’m Pickle Rick!” from every corner. The co-creators did not expect this to blow up as much as it did. People can now buy Pickle Rick shirts, plush dolls, and figurines.

Sadly, Roiland and Harmon said Season 3 would not feature an “Interdimensional Cable” episode, but promised to replace it with an episode where Rick and Morty dive into memories that Rick removed from Morty, either at Morty’s request or to Rick’s benefit. As they run through old memories, Morty realizes that Rick controls all parts of what he can or cannot remember; this causes Morty and Ricky to fight. Seeming that Rick planned for this already, Summer walks into the room and uses Rick’s contingency plan to free them of this bickering and any memory of the event happening. She tranquilizes them and wipes their memories of what happened in the room. Fans come to the realization that Rick holds an immense amount of power with his ability to wipe memories. I feel like this episode gives Morty a realization that Rick possess an obscene amount of power, proving himself as the most genius man in the universe.

The tenth and final episode of the season, “The Rickchurian Mortydate,” left all fans of Rick and Morty pondering the future of the Smith family. To start off the final episode, someone in the White House gets killed by a monster in the tunnels underneath it, and the President (voiced by Keith David) calls Rick and Morty to kill said monster. As they venture into the tunnels, they pick up that the President only uses them for “Ghost Buster” situations and leave the tunnels to play Minecraft. The President sees this and becomes infuriated, calling for the U.S to break ties with Rick and Morty. Beth then calls Rick, asking him if she got switched with a clone Beth from a different universe, but Rick tells her she does not need to worry about being switched. He also tells her if she becomes too self aware, he will kill her, sending her into a panic. To test her realness, she calls Jerry to meet up at his apartment. She felt a connection to Jerry when she talked to him, proving to her that she did get switched with a clone. Beth and Jerry now are back together, ruining Rick’s plan of removing Jerry from the family. Rick and Morty eventually become so caught up with the President drama that they become enemies of the state. The season ends with the whole family reunited, with Rick looking at the family in disgust. That caused confusion that if the Rick that appeared at the end of the episode switched dimensions with the original Rick, but this does not make sense to me. Because it ended with Rick yelling at Jerry and looking heated at the family, it seems that Rick did not switch dimensions. Beth, on the other hand, I feel did get switched out with an alternate Beth from a different dimension because the normal Beth definitely would not ask Jerry for help with anything. Also, at the beginning of the episode, she acted differently with Summer when she allowed her to wear a scandalous outfit.

Overall, this season definitely tops the first two seasons for me. I found myself laughing at more times than the other seasons and thought that all of the episodes incorporated interesting story lines to keep me coming back for more. If I could change anything about the season, I would change how fast it all ended in the last episode. The season originally planned to contain 14 episodes, but the last four episodes missed the deadline and did not air. Since it ended so fast, the episode that aired as the last episode did not have that intention and lacked the closure the audience seeked. Other than this saddening occurrence, this season definitely lived up to the long awaited hype.

The Chant’s Grade: A-