Rick and Morty season 5 is due to arrive on June 20th (11 pm ET) on Adult Swim with new trailers revealing new plotlines, characters and fun references. So strap in, it’s time to look through absolutely everything we know about Season 5 of Rick and Morty so far.
This post will contain some spoilers.
Characters
Rick and Morty fans will not need to be introduced to these characters, but for any newbies here is the run-down of who’s who on the show:
- Rick Sanchez: A mad, belligerent scientist with a dark past that is yet to be revealed. A mega genius, inventor and lone ranger struggling with his love and care for his family. Rick is still a mysterious character, but perhaps there is more to come.
- Morty Smith: Quite the opposite to his grandfather, Rick. A nervous, bumbling idiot of a 14-year-old who wants to live a normal life but is being pulled into adventures in the formative years of his youth.
- Jerry Smith: Father of Morty who passed down his equally pathetic and clumsy nature. Rarely employed and regularly victimised and yet Jerry still lives a fairly comfortable life as a married man. Will his luck change? Probably not.
- Beth Smith: Married to Jerry and only stayed with him for the sake of their children. The finales of season three and four revealed that in Beth’s existential crisis she asks Rick to choose whether she started a new life out in the vast reaches of the galaxy while a clone took her place, or if she should stay with her family and resume her responsibilities in sadness. Rick clones Beth and sends one away and keeps the other around, not knowing who was the clone. The adventurer Beth eventually returned and lives with the Smith family.
- Summer Smith: Sister to Morty and the first child of Beth and Jerry. Summer is a little older than Morty and perhaps a little cooler too, but she also suffers from an identity crisis as she tries to find her place in the universe.
Storylines
The Season 5 trailer has given us a sneak peek into some of the storylines we will see in what is expected to be another 10-episode season. The Smith family are set for even more full-family adventures, starting with the most featured arc in the trailers.
The ‘Power Rangers‘ arc gives us little more information. Just a few clips of the Smith family gearing up in Power Ranger-esque armour, readying themselves for battle on ziplines and in flying speeders similar to vehicles seen in Star Wars.
The ‘clones’ arc shows us clips of up to three full Smith families fighting amongst each other in the family household. Could this link to the clone of Beth who returned to Earth in the Season 4 finale? There is also a clip that suggests a Transformers spoof, but it is unclear whether the ‘Power Rangers‘ and ‘Transformers‘ episodes are linked in any way.
The new trailers also give us a look into a Morty and Jessica episode. Jessica is Morty’s love interest as established from the pilot episode. It’s set in a futuristic landscape as the pair run from robots who are presumably trying to capture and/or kill them. A clip is also shown of Rick in a similar setting as he is set to face a squad of robotic bird people, referencing his former friend Bird-person who almost died at the hands of his traitorous wife. He was saved by her to become Phoenix-person, an evil cyborg who almost killed Rick in the Season 4 finale before being killed in battle.
There are also some inter-dimensional elements in Season 5. At 0:27, a clip shows what seems like a scarred and worn-out dog-humanoid in a spacesuit. He emerged from what seems to be a portal into the Smith family kitchen to attack Rick. Could this be the return of the intelligent dogs as seen in Season 1? Rick was the catalyst for what would become a world populated by dogs made intelligent by robotic technology. Perhaps they evolved beyond controlling robots to become cyborgs, returning to Earth to come for Rick.
A horror-themed episode is also due, with the trailer starting out with a spoof on the classic horror cliche: “It’s quiet, too quiet.” More clips are featured of Beth and Rick dressed in gothic outfits saving Jerry from yet another terrible situation.
More peeks into episodes are sprinkled around the trailer, but it’s difficult to get any more information.
Mr. Nimbus
One new character dominates the new trailers. A character who comes from the sea and dresses extravagantly, with the character first being revealed in a Season 5 teaser. In the scene, Rick, on his last legs, being carried by Morty through what seemed to be a world showing the alternate universes of Rick and Morty. Walking past a dimension where the pair are likened to Wesley Snipes in the movie Blade.
Morty loads Rick into his flying car as the mad scientist stares death in the face. Morty has one chance at escaping the realm to return to Earth. He barely makes it through a wormhole back to Earth’s orbit but sustains damage and plummets toward the ground. Rick is passed out and Morty has only the calmness that a man facing certain death could possibly have. He awkwardly calls his love interest Jessica to ask her out on a date, reminiscent of the ending of Captain America: The Winter Soldier.
Jessica agrees and gives Morty a reason not to give up. He flies the ship into a tree, which slingshots them into the sea. Rick wakes up and is distressed as Morty broke a treaty between land and sea. A giant clam rises from the water surface, opening to reveal Mr. Nimbus, Rick’s supposed arch-nemesis. Goofy and very light-hearted, yet could he become the new super-villain that the audience would never expect? It seems unlikely but the show has thrown the audience for a loop a fair few times.
Conclusion
Rick and Morty‘s fifth season has plenty of potential and fun spoofs coming up. Perhaps Morty will overcome his fears and social problems to develop confidence and become his own person. Will we see more of Rick’s shady past? What will happen to the two Beths, and which is the clone? Hopefully, answers to these questions along with another brilliant season of Rick and Morty will arrive on June 20th.
