Rick and Morty Season 3 Premiere Review: Bigger and Better Than Ever

Rick gets ready to kick some ass.

Rick and Morty are back and Adult Swim played us all like fools with the best April Fools’ joke ever: the premiere of season 3! I can’t tell you how many people I know who missed the episode because they thought it was a joke. Hell, I almost missed the episode because I thought it was a joke!

This episode starts out with aliens trying to get the portal gun information out of Rick. However, Rick outsmarts them and uploads a virus that allows him to transfer his brain into a different body. Meanwhile, Summer tries to convince Morty they need to rescue Rick from prison. She digs up the dead Rick in the backyard (from season 1 episode 6), but an intergalactic robot attacks Morty and Summer. In an attempt to escape, Morty takes Summer to his old home, which is now ruined due to Rick’s love potion. In this alternate reality Summer meets Morty’s real family who is the lone survivors of a planet taken over by Cronenburgs. The Councils of Ricks picks up the signal from the portal gun so come to investigate. They find Morty and Summer and bring the to the council for a trial. Meanwhile, Rick teleports the citadel into the galactic federal prison and goes to rescue his grandchildren. After rescuing them, he collapses the government by simply making their currency worthless. This causes panic and citizens start to turn on each other as all of the aliens leave earth. Rick is then reunited with his family and Jerry decides he has had enough. Jerry makes Beth choose between him and her father. Beth decides to choose Rick and the two start the process of a divorce.

This episode was an amazing comeback for Rick and Morty. Season 2 ended in October of 2015 and ever since fans have been craving for more crazy adventure and this episode did not disappoint. After almost 2 years of waiting the expectations were extremely high and luckily fans had no reason to be upset. The season 3 premiere had everything fans love about the show. There was action, adventure, dark humor, silly humor, crazy science fiction scenarios, gore, and of course Jerry jokes.

One of my favorite things about this episode was Morty and Summer going on an adventure without Rick. Their short battle against the house robot was a ton of fun.  It was also a lot of fun seeing Morty’s old world and what became of his old family. This also made me love the writing and how dedicated the writers are to their world and stories. There is a clear path of continuity that most cartoon shows wouldn’t follow. I really hope we get to see more of Morty and Summer in action because Summer is such a great character. My favorite Summer line from this episode was, “Maybe I want you to care if I ran away yelling!”

Another amazing part of this episode was when Rick teleports the citadel into the galactic federal prison. I loved all the action and chaos; the writers and animators do a great job with adding so many little details, it makes me want to re-watch each scene so that I can catch everything that is going on. For example, the prisoners fighting all the different Ricks and Mortys was a ton of fun. This episode had a lot of fun action, especially Rick constantly switching bodies to escape from prison.

My absolute favorite part of the episode was when a Rick from the council had taken Summer hostage. Rick tries to outsmart the council member by saying he doesn’t care about Summer, but this cause Morty to turn his gun to Rick. When Rick tells him that he just ruined all his plans, everyone in the room roasts Morty and Morty snaps, shoots Rick, and shouts, “WHO’S STUPID NOW BITCH?” It is then revealed that Morty had a fake gun and Morty says, “haha, yeah, good thing I saw that note.”

Summery and Morty being taken to court.

There were a good amount of Easter eggs in this episode, the first being the title, “Rickshank Redemption” which is a parody of the Shawshank Redemption. When Summer and Morty are being taken to trial, they walk past two Morty’s’ who closely resembled Dipper and Mabel from Gravity Falls. While digging around Rick’s memories, Rick’s old house shares a striking resemblance to Walter White’s house in AMC’s Breaking Bad.

This episode not only solved the problems of the season two finale but also created new problems. Beth and Jerry are getting divorced, Birdperson has been reborn as a cyborg, the Earth is in a pretty bad state, and Morty is unsure about Rick and his adventures. This opens a lot of doors for season 3 while still allowing us the familiarity of the show that we all love. I’m sure I’m not alone when I say that I cannot wait for Season 3 of Rick and Morty coming this summer.




Rick and Morty is Adult Swim's most scientifically accurate animated comedy. Created by Justin Roiland and Dan Harmon, it catalogues the bizarre misadventures of a bored scientific genius/drunkard and his socially awkward grandson, Morty. Their exploits tend to have unintended consequences for Morty's dysfunctional family, especially his unfailingly mediocre father, Jerry. Watch Rick and Morty battle everything from interdimensional customs agents to Cronenberg monsters now, only at http://AdultSwim.com.