Sure, we know this is only temporary, but as I've noted before, the show doesn't have to actively remind us that things have changed for us to know that things have changed, and even though Rick and Morty will probably largely ignore the events of this episode in the future, the audience knows what Rick said, and it does change how we view their relationship from here on out. I’ll always be your grandpa, I’m just kind of obsessed with crows now,' Rick says in a rather teary farewell. Now, the idea of an episode where Morty and Rick split up is nothing new, but what matters is the emotional and grounded way in which the episode ends, with Rick finally acknowledging his own toxicity, and deciding to leave Morty himself rather than firing him. After Nick kills a bunch of people in his quest to fuel his own portal gun, Morty decides to leave him, pulling a 127 Hours to cut his own hand off and then throwing it down Nick's own portal hole, killing him. Turns out, Morty and Nick are linked because they both accidentally spill some portal gun fluid on their bodies, creating a direct portal between them. This time, it is Nick, a guy that hung out with Rick once and now lives in a mental institution because of this experience. Meanwhile, Morty teams up with yet another seemingly innocent person that turns out to be a violent psychopath. Most of the episode's humor lies in Rick learning that crows are 'empathetic as fuck' and extremely cool.

While the finale doesn't retroactively fix those problems, it does provide a thin layer of continuity that makes the feeling of something being off lead to a big change in the main dynamic of the show, as Rick fires Morty once and for all.Įpisode 9, Forgetting Sarick Mortshall, starts with Morty pissing Rick off so much by messing with the portal gun - to literally fix the many problems Rick leaves behind - that he pulls out the Wheel of Sidekicks Better Than Morty and decides to team up with two crows. The big problem in the season is that many of the episodes felt like they were sidetracking the character dynamics we know and love in favor of wacky sci-fi concepts, and every time two characters were on screen together, something felt off. So far, Season 5 has played fast and loose with continuity, teasing small changes that have been lurking in the background, with subtle differences in the way certain characters act that seem to indicate they've changed after all this time.

The damaged coda rick and morty