‘Rick and Morty’s Season 4 Finale Is a Sign of Great Things Ahead

Wowee, what a season of Rick and Morty, huh? There was a new form of jazz, accidental genocide, talking cats, heists, and even a pet dragon. But buried beneath all of this season’s chaos there was a teasing glimmer about what may be ahead. Rick and Morty Season 4’s casual pace may be be an indicator of what Dan Harmon and Justin Roiland have in mind for the future of their acclaimed cartoon. And that future likes very, very bright indeed.

Typically, seasons and episodes of Rick and Morty have walked the line between exploring silly adventures and narrative-changing emotional arcs. “Rixty Minutes” is the perfect example of this balance. In what other show would as anthology about fake TV shows be paired with a nihilistic examination of existence and one couple’s impending divorce? For its first three seasons Rick and Morty devoted most of its runtime to adventures, but there were always a couple of minutes to spare for intense character development and plot continuity.

That changed with Season 4. There were certainly emotional moments throughout this season. Who wasn’t sad when Rick lost his pooping potential friend Tony? And how could anyone look at Rick and Morty’s Pearl Harbor-ing of a race of face huggers as anything other than ghastly? But unlike with seasons past these shifts have existed almost exclusively in the background.

This time around those few minutes of intense character development were incorporated directly into Rick, Morty, Beth, Summer, and Jerry’s actions rather than saved for a gut punch at the end of an adventure. But even this new rhythm was broken in Season 4’s finale, “Star Mort Rickturn of the Jerri.” Whether or not Beth was a clone wasn’t carefully threaded through blink-and-you’ll-miss-them moments like we’ve seen with the Evil Morty saga. It was addressed head on in one whirlwind of an episode.

Rick and Morty has always liked to be direct when it comes it its revelations. But revealing Beth’s clone after a full season of not acknowledging it was far more shocking and painful than any few minutes Harmon, Roiland, and the writers’ room could tag onto the end of an episode. It was masterful. As Rick watched his own memory of refusing to answer where his daughter belonged in his world, almost all of Season 4 was thrown into question. An entire season spent gloating over how incredible, strong, smart, and unstoppable Rick is ended with lifting the curtain on his irredeemable cowardice.

Harmon and Roiland have long maintained that they want to write the story of Rick and Morty on their own terms This past season, which is the first to premiere after Adult Swim’s 70-episode order, may hint at what exactly these creators may mean by that. Season 4’s absolute skewering of Rick is something that continues to haunt this series well after “Star Mort Rickturn of the Jerri”s final moments. It rewrites almost every interaction between Beth and Rick over the past four seasons. In many ways it imitates the mounting pressure of distrust and confusion that Beth has felt for years when it comes to the father who abandoned her. That sort of intricacy isn’t something that can be constructed at the spur of the moment.

If this episode is any indication, that’s what we can expect from Rick and Morty‘s future: more planning, more surprises, and more meticulously crafted examinations of this series’ biggest upsets. We already know that the team behind this beloved show is already working on Season 6. And if Season 4 has proven anything, it’s that more careful planning only leads to greater things.

Where to stream Rick and Morty