The Most Shocking And Surprising Moments In Rick And Morty

“Rick Potion #9” is an episode of Rick and Morty that already starts with a dark and disturbing premise: Morty gets Rick to develop a special serum to win Jessica’s affection, which Rick rightly likens to dosing her with a date rape drug.

In typical series fashion, everyone in the area begins to get infected, and Rick’s attempt to provide a cure turns the entire world into monsters out of a David Cronenberg film.

Most shocking, though, is that Rick and Morty abandon this planet to the horrors they’ve unleashed and move to a different dimension whose own Rick and Morty have recently died.

Look, we get it: at this point, the “Pickle Rick” episode of Rick and Morty has been endlessly meme’d and endlessly merchandised, and it’s not nearly as funny as it once was.

But the entire premise of the world’s smartest super-scientist turning himself into a pickle remains surprising, and as the episode pivoted into Rick fighting everyone from cockroaches to soldiers guarding a secretive compound, we witnessed one surprise after another.

And the fact that the episode can deliver all of these funny moments with Rick’s misadventures while still delivering some emotional truths via the therapy session made for a pleasant surprise.

Generally, Rick and Morty episodes come in two flavors: episodes that advance the lore of Rick Sanchez and those that just highlight a day in his crazy life.

If you like lore, “The Wedding Squanchers” is full of interesting surprises, including the fact that Birdperson’s bride and Morty’s former classmate, Tammy Gueterman, is secretly an agent of the Galactic Federation.

We get several shocking moments after this, including her murder of Birdperson, but perhaps nothing was more surprising to fans at the time than Rick willingly turning himself in to the authorities in order to keep his family safe from future threats.

Rick Sanchez remains one of the most fascinating characters on television because every moment of potential personal growth we see him have is counterbalanced by a reminder that he remains an amoral monster.

That’s on full display in the Rick and Morty episode “Vindicators 3: The Return of Worldender,” in which Rick finally caves into Morty’s request to join the Vindicators (a kind of intergalactic Justice League) as they go to fight a villain named Worldender.

But Rick goes on a Bender and defeats the villain solo. Then he sets up elaborate death traps inspired by the movie Saw for the Vindicators, leading to a series of gruesome deaths for his one-time teammates.

“The Ricklantis Mixup” is another one of those Rick and Morty episodes where there are shocking surprises in almost every scene. Set entirely on the futuristic Citadel, the episode gives us a close look at a society full of various Ricks and Mortys.

And we see the police corruption of Mortytown and the dystopian methods that go into every Simple Rick’s wafer (the secret ingredient really is happiness, but at what cost?).

But the two biggest surprises come at the end: not only do we see Morty inexplicably get elected as President of the Citadel for the first time, but we also find out he is secretly the nefarious eyepatch Morty.

“Total Rickall” is an episode of Rick and Morty that reminds us that encounters with telepathic aliens would likely not be nearly as peaceful as Star Trek makes us think.

In this case, the Smith family has been infected by aliens who infiltrate minds and make people think they have been best friends with new characters for a very long time.

The only solution to this mind control is to identify and kill the new characters, which leads to a hilariously dark ending where Beth shoots newcomer Mr. Poopybutthole…only to discover he really is Rick’s friend and will now need extensive physical therapy.