Description: A complete, in-depth recap of Rick and Morty's entire story. Explore every major plot point, character arc, the Citadel, Rick Prime, and the Central Finite Curve.
The animated series Rick and Morty takes place across countless dimensions and infinite realities. If you're looking for a complete breakdown of the entire story, from the first episode to the hunt for Rick Prime and beyond, you've come to the right place. This is a world built on high-concept sci-fi, dark humor, and surprisingly deep emotional stakes. Let's dive into the chaos.
The Core Characters
Before we begin our journey, here's a quick introduction to the family at the center of it all:
Rick Sanchez (Dimension C-137): A brilliant but unhinged scientist with a serious drinking problem and a god complex. He's the father of Beth and the grandfather of Morty and Summer. Rick spent most of his life away from his family, running from a past tragedy and exploring the cosmos. His nihilism is a shield for a deep-seated pain, which he often expresses through his original catchphrase, "Wubba Lubba Dub Dub," a phrase that, as we later learn, means "I am in great pain, please help me."
Morty Smith: Beth and Jerry's son. He starts as a typical introverted teenager—shy, clumsy, and easily flustered. He secretly has a crush on his classmate Jessica. Rick often drags Morty into his wild adventures, not because he needs help, but because Morty's... unique... "Morty waves" create an aura that helps shield Rick's "genius waves" from interdimensional scanners. Over time, Morty's moral compass is constantly challenged by Rick's chaos, and he evolves from a terrified sidekick into a more capable, and far more jaded, adventurer.
Beth Smith: Rick's only daughter and Jerry's wife. While not a super-genius like her father, she's still very smart and works as a horse surgeon. Deep down, she dreams of becoming a "real" doctor and craves her father's approval, leaving her feeling unsatisfied with her domestic life. Her marriage to Jerry is a constant source of friction, and her deep-seated "daddy issues" are a core part of her identity.
Jerry Smith: Unemployed and often considered the most passive character in the series. He's naive, gullible, and constantly manipulated, which is exactly why Rick can't stand him. He and Beth married out of obligation after an unexpected high school pregnancy. Despite his flaws, Jerry's simplicity often contrasts with the family's chaos, and he has rare, accidental moments of insight or bravery.
Summer Smith: Morty's older sister. She begins as a typical teenage girl, obsessed with being popular at school and her phone. She's often jealous of Morty because Rick spends so much more time with him. As the series progresses, Summer proves herself to be highly adaptable and often more competent and ruthless than Morty, earning a new level of respect from Rick.
Season 1: The Foundations of Chaos
The story begins with 70-year-old Rick Sanchez returning to his daughter Beth's family after 20 years away. By the start of the first season, he's already been living with them for about a year, having installed himself in the garage.
The Mega Seeds and a New Reality
In the very first episode, Rick drags Morty on a mission to Dimension C-35 to find Mega Seeds. After Morty badly injures his legs from a fall, Rick briefly disappears to an advanced future dimension to get healing medicine. Once they retrieve the seeds, Rick's portal gun runs out of power, forcing them to go through interdimensional customs. Morty hides the seeds... inside himself.
After a chaotic chase, they escape back to Morty's school, just as his parents are complaining to the principal about his absences. To prove Morty isn't wasting his time, Rick has him solve complex equations. This convinces Beth and Jerry to let Rick stay. It's later revealed that Morty's sudden genius was just a temporary side effect of the Mega Seeds dissolving inside him, which leaves Morty convulsing on the floor as the credits roll.
Rick Potion #9 and the Cronenberg World
Morty, desperate to get Jessica to go to the flu season dance with him, asks Rick for a love potion. Rick agrees but mutters that it could cause trouble if Jessica has the flu.
Naturally, Jessica has the flu.
The potion spreads through the virus, and soon, everyone at the dance—and then the world—is madly in love with Morty. Rick's first attempt at an antidote (made from mantis DNA) turns everyone into mantis-like mutants. His second attempt (a potion to "fix" the mantis-people) fails even more spectacularly, turning the entire population of the planet into grotesque, Cronenberg-esque monsters.
Unable to fix the mess, Rick tells Morty he has one last solution. This is a pivotal moment for the series. They abandon their home dimension (the Prime Dimension) forever. Rick finds another reality where an alternate Rick and Morty just died in a lab explosion. They quietly take their places, burying their own bodies in the backyard. Morty is left shaken, forced to live with the knowledge of what they've done, in a world that isn't truly his, with a family that isn't his family.
The Citadel of Ricks and the First "Evil" Morty
One morning, alternate Ricks appear and arrest our Rick (C-137), accusing him of murdering 27 other Ricks from various dimensions. They are taken to the Citadel of Ricks, a massive, secret hub populated by countless versions of Rick and Morty, all living in a society hidden from the Galactic Federation.
Our Rick escapes and goes on the run, eventually revealing to Morty that a Morty's "idiot aura" is what shields a Rick from detection. They are eventually captured by the real culprit: a mysterious, cold-looking Rick and his sinister, eyepatch-wearing "Evil Morty."
Evil Rick reveals a plan to download our Rick's brain to steal his memories. Just as he's displaying Rick's memories (including a surprisingly tender one of a baby Morty, which brings Rick C-137 to tears), our Morty incites a mass rebellion among the other captured Mortys. In the chaos, our Rick and Morty escape. The other Ricks later discover that "Evil Rick" was just a robot being controlled by... Evil Morty, who slips away unnoticed into the crowd of refugee Mortys.
The Party and Birdperson's Wisdom
With Beth and Jerry away on a Titanic-themed vacation, Rick and Summer throw a massive house party. Rick invites old friends like Squanchy and the stoic Birdperson. During the party, Morty accidentally transports the entire house to another dimension.
After a side-quest to get home, Morty confronts Rick about his recklessness. Later, Birdperson pulls Morty aside and tells him that Rick's catchphrase, "Wubba Lubba Dub Dub," actually means "I am in great pain, please help me." He explains that Rick drinks so much and acts so chaotic because he's battling severe depression. This resonates with Morty, who begins to see his grandfather as more than just a mad scientist.
Because they spent so long partying, Rick is forced to freeze time for six months so he, Morty, and Summer can clean the house before Beth and Jerry get back.
Season 2: Consequences and Complications
Splitting Time and an Existential Crisis
When Rick, Morty, and Summer unfreeze time, their own internal uncertainty about the situation causes reality to fracture into multiple, equally possible timelines. This chaos summons a "Fourth-Dimensional" being (a time-cop named Schlemypants) who scolds Rick for his carelessness. After a complex, mind-bending battle across 64 parallel realities, the three manage to re-sync time, but the experience leaves them deeply rattled.
The "Wrong" Jerry
Rick and Morty drop Jerry off at a special multiverse daycare designed for Jerrys (complete with a Lost & Found for abandoned Jerrys) while they go to sell an antimatter gun to an alien assassin named Chrombopolis Michael. The assassin plans to kill a gaseous being known as "Fart." Morty, horrified, rescues Fart, only to learn the creature intends to wipe out all carbon-based life. In a moment of grim maturity, Morty is forced to kill Fart himself using the same gun.
Later, they pick Jerry up from the daycare, but they accidentally leave with the wrong Jerry (from dimension 5126), swapping him with their original Jerry. This mistake goes unnoticed for two full seasons.
Unity and a Lost Love
Rick, Morty, and Summer answer a distress signal that turns out to be from Unity, a hive-mind entity and Rick's former partner, who has taken over an entire planet. Rick and Unity rekindle their complicated, destructive relationship, indulging in a planet-wide party that quickly spirals out of control.
Meanwhile, Summer tries to "liberate" the population, causing chaos. Unity, realizing that her relationship with Rick is unhealthy and distracting her from her "work," leaves him a note and disappears, abandoning him. Rick is left genuinely heartbroken. He quietly returns to the garage, creates a small, pleading creature, and sadly disintegrates it, before collapsing in the garage.
The Parasites and Mr. Poopybutthole
The family is infiltrated by alien parasites that implant false, happy memories to multiply. The house soon fills with wacky, beloved characters (like "Sleepy Gary," "Pencilvester," and "Reverse Giraffe") that nobody actually knows. Rick seals the house and explains the only way to identify a parasite is that they can only create good memories.
Morty realizes that he and Rick, and by extension the core family, have plenty of bad memories of each other, confirming they are real. The family proceeds to wipe out all the parasites in a bloody, chaotic showdown. In the end, Beth shoots one last "wacky" character, Mr. Poopybutthole, only to discover in horror that he was real all along. The season ends with him in physical therapy, recovering.
"The Wedding Squanchers" (Season 2 Finale)
The family attends the wedding of Birdperson and Summer's friend, Tammy. Rick is grumpy, calling weddings "funerals with cake."
During the ceremony, Tammy reveals she is an undercover agent for the Galactic Federation. The wedding is a sting operation. Chaos erupts. Federation troops swarm the building, and Tammy shoots and kills Birdperson. Squanchy transforms into a giant creature, sacrificing himself to help Rick and the family escape.
Now fugitives, the family tries to find a new planet to live on, but none are suitable (one is too small, one has a constant screaming sun). They return to Earth to hide, but Rick overhears Jerry telling the family they should turn him in to save themselves. Feeling the crushing weight of his responsibility for ruining their lives, Rick C-137 surrenders to the Galactic Federation. He is taken to a high-security prison, and Earth falls under Federation control.
Season 3: The Citadel's Shadow
The Prison Escape and Federation Collapse
Rick is interrogated inside a "Shoney's" simulation by a Federation agent, who wants the secret to his portal gun. Rick tricks the agent by feeding him a fake origin story—a memory of his wife Diane and a young Beth being killed by another Rick, which he claims drove him to invent portal travel. This "memory" is actually a virus.
Rick uses the virus to take over the agent's body and, subsequently, the entire Federation system. Meanwhile, Summer and Morty, trying to find Rick, are captured by the Citadel of Ricks. In a "god-mode" display of power, Rick C-137 teleports the entire Citadel into the Federation prison, sparking a massive battle.
In the chaos, Rick rescues his grandchildren. He then collapses the entire Galactic Federation's economy by simply changing the value of their currency from 1 to 0. Back home, Earth is freed, but Rick's return is the final straw for Beth and Jerry, who decide to get a divorce.
In a post-credit scene, Tammy revives Birdperson's body, turning him into the cyborg Phoenixperson.
"Pickle Rick" and Family Therapy
To get out of family therapy, Rick turns himself into a pickle. The plan goes wrong when he's washed into the sewer, forcing him to build a high-tech exoskeleton out of rat parts and fight his way out, eventually confronting a foreign agent named "Jaguar."
He finally shows up to therapy, still a pickle, where Dr. Wong delivers a powerful, cutting speech about Rick's intelligence. She notes that he uses his genius to avoid the hard, "boring" work of maintaining his family and improving himself, a diagnosis that leaves even Rick speechless.
The "Clone Beth" Dilemma
Beth, struggling with her life and her father's return, confronts Rick. He admits he created a magical world called "Fruppieland" for her as a child because she was... a frighteningly destructive kid. This confirms her fears that she is just like him.
Feeling lost, she asks Rick for a way out. Rick offers her a choice: she can leave to explore the universe and find herself, and he'll create a perfect clone of her to stay behind with the family, or she can stay. Beth, unable to decide, asks Rick to choose for her. He does, but we don't see the choice. One Beth stays, and one Beth (or the clone) leaves. This sets up the central mystery of "Space Beth."
"The Ricklantis Mixup" (Evil Morty's Rise)
While our Rick and Morty go to Atlantis, the episode focuses on the rebuilt Citadel of Ricks. We see a deeply corrupt society where Ricks are the ruling class and Mortys are an oppressed underclass. We follow a rookie Morty cop, a group of Mortys at a "Morty School," and see a factory that makes "Simple Rick's" wafers from the brain-scrambled memories of a happy Rick.
During a presidential election, a candidate Morty from the "Morty Party" rises to power with a message of unity. After his inspiring victory speech, he executes the Shadow Council of Ricks who challenge him. It's revealed that this new president is, in fact, the Evil Morty from Season 1. He has now taken control of the Citadel.
The President and the Season 3 Finale
Rick and Morty get into a petty feud with the President of the United States, which escalates into a full-on, destructive battle in the White House. The family, meanwhile, gets back together, as Beth and Jerry reconcile. Rick ends his fight with the President, only to return home and find Jerry is back, much to his annoyance. He has lost his position as the family's patriarch.
Season 4: Solo Adventures and Toxic Pasts
The Death Crystal and Fascist Mortys
Rick and Morty collect "Death Crystals," which show the holder their possible futures. Morty steals one and becomes obsessed with a vision of dying old with Jessica. He follows the crystal's every instruction, which leads to Rick's "death."
A hologram of Rick instructs Morty on how to revive him, but Morty refuses, as it would deviate from his perfect future. Rick's consciousness is rerouted through "Operation Phoenix," rebooting him in clones across other fascist dimensions (including Fascist Shrimp Rick). He fights his way back, finding Morty has become a monstrous, Akira-like creature obsessed with the crystal. After Rick and other Ricks subdue him, the two return home, their relationship strained.
The "Save Point" Vat of Acid
After Morty criticizes one of his plans, Rick creates a "save point" device to prove him wrong. Morty uses the device to live consequence-free, restarting time whenever he makes a mistake. He even finds love in a relationship that develops over months. But Jerry accidentally hits the "reset" button, erasing the entire relationship in an instant.
Morty is devastated, only for Rick to reveal the horrifying truth: the device didn't turn back time. Every time Morty "reset," it killed him and transported his consciousness to an alternate, nearly identical reality, leaving a different Morty to suffer the consequences of his actions. To merge all the timelines and escape the people he wronged, Rick forces Morty to fake his own death by... jumping into a vat of fake acid. The ultimate "I told you so."
"Star Mort: Rickturn of the Jerri" (Season 4 Finale)
A warrior, Space Beth, arrives on Earth, believing she is the original and that the Beth on Earth is the clone. The Galactic Federation, now rebuilt, attacks Earth, led by Tammy and Phoenixperson.
A massive battle ensues. Rick fights Phoenixperson (his former friend, Birdperson) and is nearly killed. Jerry, in a rare moment of competence, saves the day by using an invisible-but-dead Tammy as a puppet, distracting Phoenixperson long enough for him to be defeated.
Rick, Earth Beth, and Space Beth are left with the question: who is the real Beth? Rick reveals he has no idea. He intentionally shuffled the Beths during the cloning process so that not even he would know who was who. The family is furious at his cowardice. Alone, Rick watches a memory of his, showing that he did dispose of the "clone" label, but turned away so he would never know. He admits he's a terrible father.
Season 5: Rick's Nemesis and the Truth
Rick's Nemesis and Narnia Time
Rick's old nemesis, Mr. Nimbus, King of the Ocean, appears, forcing Rick to host a dinner party for him. Rick sends Morty to an alternate dimension where time moves faster to age some wine.
Morty's quick trip results in him becoming a generational boogeyman to the dimension's inhabitants, who evolve over centuries to hunt him. He accidentally pulls Jessica into their world, and when he rescues her, she has experienced so much time that she has become a "Time God," breaking up with him for good and finding a new level of enlightenment.
Restoring Birdperson
Rick, ignoring a family vacation, initiates a "Best Friend Restoration," revealing he has kept the broken body of Phoenixperson. He enters Birdperson's mind to save him from his own memories.
Inside, Rick confronts his own younger, more idealistic self. He discovers that Birdperson and Tammy had a daughter together, who is now in Federation custody. This revelation is enough to convince Birdperson to wake up, though he is now broken, aged, and angry at Rick for leaving him to rot.
The Citadel's End and Rick's True Origin
After a falling out with Rick, Morty's portal-fluid-covered hand connects him to another of Rick's victims. Their adventure goes sour, and Rick "breaks up" with Morty, replacing him with two crows. After a short-lived anime-style adventure, Rick realizes his mistake and returns, only to be tricked by an aged-up Morty into going to the Citadel.
There, they are invited to dinner by President Evil Morty. Evil Morty reveals his grand plan: he has hacked Rick's brain and now has the knowledge to escape the Central Finite Curve—a barrier created by Ricks to wall off all the realities where Rick isn't the smartest person in the universe. It's a "cosmic daycare" the Ricks built for themselves.
Evil Morty activates his plan, powering his escape by killing thousands of Ricks and Mortys and destroying the Citadel. Before he leaves, he offers Morty a place, which he refuses. As the Citadel collapses, Rick is forced to reveal his real backstory to Morty.
Rick's True Origin: Rick C-137's wife, Diane, and his young daughter, Beth, were murdered by another Rick (now known as Rick Prime). Our Rick (C-137) then invented portal travel not for science, but for revenge. He spent decades hunting Rick Prime, killing countless other Ricks, but never found him. His despair led him to alcoholism. He eventually helped build the Citadel to use its resources for his hunt. Finally, he gave up and crashed into the lives of an adult Beth in a dimension where that Rick had abandoned his family—the Prime Dimension.
This means Rick Prime is our Morty's original grandfather, and our Rick (C-137) is not.
As the Citadel is destroyed, Rick and Morty are stranded in space. Evil Morty successfully breaches the Central Finite Curve and enters a new, golden portal to a universe free of Ricks.
Season 6: The Hunt for Rick Prime
The "Reset" and Finding a New Home
Rick, Morty, and Jerry are "reset" to their original dimensions due to a portal gun malfunction. Rick C-137 goes to his empty, ruined home (C-137). Morty goes to his Cronenberg-infested Prime Dimension, where he finds his original father, Jerry, has become a hardened, cynical survivor.
Rick C-137 arrives and reveals he stayed with Morty's family only to lure Rick Prime. They discover Prime's empty base, but it's a trap. The whole family reunites, but when they return to their home dimension (C-131), the "wrong" Jerry they left behind unleashes a parasite that destroys the planet. Rick is forced to find a new, nearly identical dimension for the family to move into—one where their counterparts all recently died.
Beth's "Thanksgiving"
Space Beth returns for Thanksgiving, and her relationship with Earth Beth evolves from flirtatious to romantic. Jerry, upon learning this, curls up into a protective "pill bug" form (a failsafe Rick installed in him). The three eventually... work things out, forming a polyamorous relationship, much to the confusion and trauma of Rick, Morty, and Summer.
The Dinosaur Utopia
Dinosaurs return to Earth, revealing they are a highly advanced, benevolent species that travels the galaxy helping civilizations. They quickly solve all of Earth's problems, creating a utopia that makes life boring. The President asks Rick to get rid of them. Rick, jealous of their superior technology (they even fix his portal gun for him), exposes that they are "cursed" by a meteor that destroys every planet they inhabit. The dinosaurs leave, and Rick hosts the Oscars as his reward.
"Ricktional Mortiverse" and the Lightsaber
It's Christmas, and Rick gives Morty a real Star Wars lightsaber. Morty immediately drops it, and it begins burning its way to the Earth's core. The family discovers that the Rick who has been with them is a robot, designed by the real Rick C-137 to take his place while he obsessively hunts for Rick Prime.
After a chaotic adventure involving the President, the robot Rick is destroyed, and Morty confronts the real Rick, furious that he was lied to. Rick C-137, defeated and lonely, finally agrees to let Morty join him on his hunt.
The Omega Device and the End of Rick Prime
Evil Morty, living peacefully outside the Curve, is pulled back when Rick C-137's obsessive search for Rick Prime threatens to destabilize reality. Rick, Evil Morty, and our Morty team up.
They are lured into a trap by Rick Prime, who reveals his ultimate weapon: The Omega Device. This device can erase a specific person from every single universe simultaneously. Rick Prime confesses that the first person he used it on was Diane, Rick's wife. This is why no Rick, in any universe, has a living Diane. He erased her from all of existence.
An epic battle ensues. Evil Morty incapacitates Rick Prime, scans his mind to get the plans for the Omega Device, and then leaves Rick C-137 alone with his nemesis.
Our Rick beats Rick Prime to death, finally achieving the revenge he has sought for decades. Evil Morty, now possessing the ultimate weapon's schematics, destroys the device and leaves. Rick and Morty return home. Morty celebrates, but Rick is left empty, his life's purpose now gone.
Season 7 & Beyond: What's Left?
The Emptiness of Revenge
After killing Rick Prime, Rick falls into a deep depression, drinking heavily. Morty tries to "cash in" his "Morty Adventure" cards to pull Rick out of his slump. This leads to an encounter with an "Observer" and a chaotic trip to a "Fear Hole."
Inside the Fear Hole, Morty confronts his deepest fear: that Rick will find him replaceable. He emerges, only to find Rick never went in with him. Morty had faced his fear alone the whole time. When Rick learns the hole manifested a vision of Diane, he is tempted to enter, but ultimately resists. In a profound moment of character growth, he leaves a picture of Morty from his wallet on the "conquered fears" board.
The Finality of Diane
Rick, still struggling, notices that Jerry's mind still contains fragments of his own consciousness (from their "Burger and Fries" merge). He extracts "Memory Rick" but also decides to finally erase his own memory of Diane to be free.
He enters his own mind and deletes the last lingering memory of his wife. For a while, he seems happier, even pursuing a new relationship. However, "Memory Rick" (from Jerry's mind) and a "Memory Diane" (from Rick's mind) end up in Beth's consciousness, causing her to have a mental breakdown as she relives Rick's trauma.
Rick is forced to retrieve them. In the end, he doesn't destroy the memories. Instead, he places the "Memory Diane" and "Memory Young Rick" into a special device, creating a miniature world for them, and sends it 100 light-years away into space—a final, sad farewell to the love he lost.
The story continues, with Rick now free from his quest for revenge, but still grappling with the man he became because of it. The multiverse is as infinite as ever, and the adventures are far from over.
What's Next for the Smith Family?
From the Cronenberged dimension to the fall of the Citadel and the death of Rick Prime, the journey has been wild. Rick C-137 is finally free from his past, but what does that mean for his future with Morty? And with Evil Morty possessing the plans for the Omega Device, the multiverse may be in more danger than ever.
What's your favorite Rick and Morty theory or plot twist? Share your thoughts on the multiverse's wildest ride in the comments below!
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