'Rick and Morty' Blows Fans Away With Shocking Season 5 Finale

The Rick and Morty Season 5 finale gave fans what they've been asking for for years in some cases, and many are still reeling from the shock. The one-hour-long episode was split into two parts, bringing back some of the most popular storylines in the show's history and more backstory than we've ever had before. Warning: there are spoilers ahead for Rick and Morty Season 5!

 
The first half of the Season 5 finale was titled "Forgetting Sarick Marshall," and it featured a dramatic breakup of the titular duo. Rick went on a dimension-hopping adventure without Morty, but quickly realized that no amount of cool trips could justify his broken relationship with his grandson. Meanwhile, Morty accidentally spilled portal fluid on his hand, and has a dark adventure of his own experimenting with the substance. At the end of the episode, he tries to make Rick feel guilty by tricking him into believing that the fluid has aged him several decades, and they travel to the Citadel of Ricks for a cure.

The second half of the finale is where fans' long-held hopes finally come true - the return of "Evil Morty." The last episode is called "Rickmurai Jack," and it begins with a return to Citadel where Evil Morty has used his power as president (gained in Season 3, Episode 7, "The Ricklantis Mixup") to twist the dynamics of Ricks and Mortys across all dimensions into horrifying configurations.

The audience learns that despite Ricks' general disdain for Jerrys, Ricks everywhere have been pushing Beths and Jerrys together to produce Mortys. We also learn that Ricks rely on Mortys not for their distorting brain waves as proposed in Season 1, but for their boundless forgiveness. Evil Morty's plan, however, is to kill all the Ricks and Mortys of other dimensions and become completely autonomous, escaping the multidimensional cycle of abuse and the "Central Finite Curve" once and for all.

The episode also surprised many fans by confirming that Rick's backstory depicted in the Season 3 premiere was more or less accurate, despite Rick's claims to the contrary. It also disproved several prominent fan theories by confirming that the Rick depicted in the show is Rick C-137 - the same version of Rick depicted consistently since the pilot episode. We see a bleak look at that Rick losing his family, hunting other Ricks for revenge and finally finding a new version of his family to settle down with. We then see that Morty has learned everything alongside the audience, to his horror.

Fans are busy picking apart the details and implications of these two episodes on social media, with new fan theories already blossoming to take the place of the abandoned ones. Rick and Morty has been renewed for several more seasons already, and the writers are as far as ahead as Season 7. However, so far there's no word on when Season 6 will premiere on Adult Swim.