What Is Going on With Rick & Evil Morty? Season 9 Premiere Explained

Season 9 doesn’t waste any time diving again into the remnants of the Citadel arc and the chaos surrounding Evil Morty (Harry Belden), because the season premiere throws followers proper again into the messy, multiversal nightmare that’s Rick’s difficult legacy together with his eye-patch-wearing nemesis. Warning: Spoilers forward for Season 9 Episode 1, “There’s One thing About Morty.”

Between the nifty deadly devices, existential dread, and the same old serving to of dimension-hopping madness, the premiere instantly reminds viewers why Evil Morty stays one of the vital harmful wild playing cards within the Rick and Morty universe.

The episode kicks off when Morty (Harry Belden) discovers that Rick (Ian Cardoni) has been texting the ruthless, hyper-intelligent alternate model of Morty. Not like typical Mortys, he rivals his grandfather’s mind, despises the systemic abuse of Mortys, and dedicates his life to escaping Rick’s management over the multiverse. A number of seasons in the past, he punched a gap via the Central Finite Curve to flee a multidimensional barrier created by the neatest Ricks to seal off the infinite universes the place they’re the neatest beings from the remainder of infinity. He additionally killed Rick Prime, Rick C-137’s biggest enemy.

Throughout the scuffle involving the killing of Rick Prime, Evil Morty obtained maintain of the Omega Machine, a machine that completely annihilates each single variant of a person throughout infinite dimensions. Now he makes use of it to make Rick his errand boy by holding your entire Smith household hostage and threatening to erase their existence.

In order that they go on adventures, like Rick and Morty.

And for these of you who must maintain monitor: Morty is Rick Prime’s actual grandson, Rick C-137 has no household, and Evil Morty is a regular, unnamed Morty.

ANYWHO, Evil Morty wants Rick’s assist destroying the Collective (Tilda Swinton), a being that appears to take pleasure in snacking on universes and absorbing them. The high-stakes, near-lethal journey is sort of fumbled by Morty, however Evil Morty and Rick trick the entity into absorbing itself, a lot to the dismay of Morty, who doesn’t actually look after his biggest foe hanging out together with his grandpa.

Afterward, the trio hits a diner, the place Evil Morty wastes no time throwing his burgeoning relationship with Rick proper in Morty’s face. Rick instantly denies there’s something buddy-buddy occurring, insisting he’s solely taking part in alongside as a result of he’s being blackmailed. Naturally, the entire thing devolves into an argument, and Rick and Morty storm off in a huff whereas Evil Morty returns to his lair… solely to find it’s been destroyed.

Seems, Rick hid the plans for the Omega Machine contained in the Omega Machine itself, that means when the gadget was worn out, the plans vanished from existence together with it. It’s the type of galaxy-brain transfer solely Rick might provide you with, and now Evil Morty may be very, very pissed.

Grownup Swim

Realizing they’ve simply backed probably the most harmful Morty within the multiverse right into a nook, Rick and Morty flee with the remainder of the Smith household — home and all — to a bunker dimension. Sadly, that doesn’t do a lot good, as a result of an enraged Evil Morty is already sizzling on their path, and he’s not precisely in a forgiving temper.

After melting all of the flesh from Rick’s physique, protecting him in sizzling magma, and slicing and dicing him, Evil Morty removes Rick’s mind. However none of it is sufficient to kill Rick. The 2 mortal enemies are relentless and annoyed with their incapability to kill one another.

Morty jumps in and calls out Evil Morty: Making Morty jealous isn’t an act. He thinks Evil Morty is lonely. And unhappy. “I noticed what I noticed, Rick. He has an enormous ol’ crush on you.”

Evil Morty runs into the Smith home, the place Beth, Summer season, and Jerry slap him round. Then the entire Smith household takes turns kicking him till he freezes time.

“It all the time struck me as odd that Ricks don’t do time journey,” says Evil Morty, as he prepares to kill the household. However then, Evil Morty finds out precisely why Ricks don’t do time journey when dozens and dozens of fourth-dimensional Time Cops (GaTa and Keegan-Michael Key) present as much as arrest him earlier than he can disintegrate anybody. They arrest Evil Morty and take him away.

However not earlier than Morty will get in a single ultimate slap, only for good measure.

“Season 9, child,” says Rick as he takes a swig of an grownup beverage. “Solely… an indefinite quantity extra.”

What does this imply for the longer term?

Properly,  for the primary time in a very long time, Evil Morty is not the man with all of the leverage.

Ever since Rick and Morty launched him, Evil Morty has principally operated three steps forward of everybody else. He escaped the Central Finite Curve, outsmarted whole civilizations of Ricks, killed Rick Prime, and managed to blackmail Rick C-137 utilizing the Omega Machine. He was untouchable.

However the Season 9 premiere adjustments that dynamic in an enormous manner. Rick successfully neutralizes the Omega Machine by erasing the plans from existence, which implies Evil Morty out of the blue loses the one factor preserving Rick absolutely underneath his thumb. On the identical time, the episode additionally reveals one thing arguably much more harmful: Evil Morty is getting emotionally compromised. Morty calling out his attachment to Rick clearly rattles him, and that’s not one thing we’ve actually seen earlier than from the character.

Up till now, Evil Morty’s story has largely been about rejecting Rick totally. However this episode hints that the road between hatred, obsession, and real attachment could also be getting blurrier than both Morty needs to confess. That’s a harmful path for a personality who already has scary-high intelligence and no ethical restraint.

Rick and Morty, Season 9, Sundays, 11/10c, Grownup Swim