Rick and Morty season five has been a mixed bag. The premiere felt like a whole season crammed into a single episode, then two episodes in it was back to its best. It even seemed to have rediscovered the parody magic, until we hit the halfway point and the show began giving into its own worst impulses and it became apparent that after a brilliant start it was never going to stick the landing. With the arrival of episode ten, all of that ceased to matter. Evil Morty was back, canon was back, and the Rick and Morty we remembered were back, and are hopefully here to stay.
While one-off adventures were commonplace, the show’s first three seasons largely followed the same through line of canonical narrative. Conversely, seasons four and five have leaned heavily into the one-off nature of these adventures, and while some storylines swirled in the background - Space Beth, Birdperson - the core of Rick and Morty was abandoned. The majority of fans preferred this old, down to earth style, not the off the wall, swarming with magic robots type of show it became, but wherever you stood there was one very long loose thread the show still needed to wrap up - Evil Morty. The season five finale felt like a return to form, and tied a perfect bow around the overarching story, all while setting up a new dynamic for the series moving forward.
Evil Morty debuted in the season one finale Close Rick-counters of the Rick Kind, but it wasn't until season three's Tales from the Citadel (better known as The Ricklantis Mixup) that the character really came into his own. Ricklantis is one of the few episodes not driven by Rick C-137 - the main Rick whose adventures we follow - and instead takes a look at the Citadel as a whole. It focuses on a Morty presidential candidate who is seen as a joke but eventually becomes president, revealing himself to be far more violent and conniving than any of the Ricks who wander the Citadel itself. This Morty, it turns out, is Evil Morty. The ending seems to usher in a new era for the Citadel, but aside from a minor appearance in meta episode Never Ricking Morty from season four, the show has never addressed him again. At least, not until the season five finale.
Spoilers for Rick and Morty season five, episode ten follow.
The finale folds together eight years of storytelling in ways the show seemed to have long ceased to care about, going right back to season one to tie everything together. We discover that Ricks and Mortys are not a happy accident, but instead a direct result of Rick C-137's depression and need for a forgiving sidekick willing to be his punching bag. That C-137 built the Citadel, including infinite universes where he was the smartest man in them. He shut out all of the others, setting up a conveyor belt of Mortys by ensuring that Beth and Jerry always meet in every universe to have children, ensuring that Morty can be used as a malleable and forgiving companion in his grandfather’s adventures
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Evil Morty has one singular goal - to stop this cycle. "That’s what makes me evil," Evil Morty tells Morty C-137. "Being sick of him. If you’ve ever been sick of him, you’ve been evil, too."
The episode ends with Morty challenging Rick as to why he even came back after they parted ways previously. Rick replaces him with two crows, initially as a joke before coming to empathise with them and leaving Morty behind. Rick then gets ditched by the birds, and returns to Morty pretending to have returned of his own free will. Meanwhile, Evil Morty blows up the Citadel, killing all the Ricks and Mortys on there - C-137s are alive when we see them last, so will likely escape - and destroying both the barrier around the infinite universes and the Morty production line.
After the show has largely meandered with different adventures, there are now three huge changes that must influence season six. First, the lack of a Citadel and therefore government, along with other universes and Mortyless Ricks now on the table. Second, the relationship between our C-137 pair, and where it goes next. Third, Evil Morty is still out there, shown escaping to some unknown destination in the final scene with a gold portal gun, rather than green. After a long wait, the payoff was finally worth it, completely spinning the show on its head while recognisably being Rick and Morty. It might be a while before season six arrives, but after season five spent so long falling over its own feet, the finale has done the impossible and made me excited for the future.