Rick & Morty Season 5 Recap + How to Watch Hour Long Finale

Adult Swim’s popular animated show Rick & Morty will wrap up its fifth season with an hour-long finale! The episode will air on Sunday, September 5th at 11pm EST.

A brief teaser shows Rick and Morty in a heated exchange. Morty invites Rick to replace him, and Rick whips out a “wheel of better things than Morty.” On this spinning wheel are names like Kyle 2.0, Gene With Donkey Brains, Bag of Meat, and others. The wheel lands on Two Crows, and Rick fires Morty.

The voiceover in the trailer then says viewers can tune in to find out, “Who is Rick without Morty?”. It seems in this episode we will see Rick take on a new companion, Two Crows, but whether or not it’s meant to be is yet to come.

Here’s a brief refresher before the hour-long finale airs:

Episode 1: #42: “Mort Dinner Rick Andre”:
– After crash landing Rick’s ship in the ocean, Morty talks Jessica into a date. Unfortunately, the landing provokes never before nemesis, Mr. Nimbus, King of the Ocean, and controller of police. Morty attempts to have a normal date with Jessica, but is roped into helping Rick supply wine for the dinner with Mr.Nimbus. This leads him to accidentally mess up the event of an alternate dimension where time passes differently. Rick and Mr. Nimbus resolve their differences and help Morty and Jessica escape the futuristic overlords. Mr. Nimbus fights Rick and uses his ability to control the police to arrest him after discovering he had sent Summer to destroy a shell that unknowingly increases his strength. Jessica decides to stay friends with Morty after being imprisoned for generations on the alien planet.

Episode 2: #43: “Mortyplicity”:
– The Smiths are having breakfast when alien squid assassins kill them. They are revealed to be decoys, and the real Rick is alerted of their deaths. However, the real Smith family is revealed to also have been decoys, and a chaotic series of events erupt when the decoys are alerted to the deaths of other decoys and struggle to figure out which family is the original as the original. After a family of decoys clashes and kills another, they figure out that the squids are actually decoys trying to kill all other versions of themselves. Another family, who still thinks they are real, are kidnapped by mutilated decoys trying to harvest their skin but are rescued by other decoys who attempt to rally a group of decoys but are crushed to death when squid-decoys kill them. One family alerts all decoys to their location and almost all of the decoys are killed in the ensuing mayhem, though several ignore the beacon and walk away unharmed. Meanwhile, the real Smith family, on an adventure with Space Beth, are alerted to the decoys’ deaths.

Episode 3: #44: “A Rickconvenient Mort”:
-Rick and Morty are outside when acid rain begins falling on them. Planetina, a superhero, appears and puts a stop to the rain. Morty immediately gains an interest in her. Later, Rick decides to take Summer on a trip to three planets that are about to be destroyed and are having large sexual parties because of it. While Morty is strengthening his relationship with Planetina, Rick finds a girlfriend, Daphne, on the first planet and takes her with him. Back at home, Beth finds out about Planetina and forbids Morty to be with her. The two of them run away, doing eco-friendly activities until Planetina stumbles upon a coal mine and decides to destroy it, killing everyone inside. Morty is horrified by this, and decides to end his relationship with Planetina, leaving Morty severely heartbroken with Beth comforting him. Rick and Summer, along with Daphne, travel to the third planet. Summer, tired of Rick ignoring her, blows up the asteroid that’s about to destroy the planet. Daphne realizes that she’s no longer in any danger and abandons Rick, proving Summer’s earlier claim that she did not love him.

Episode 4: #45: “Rickdependence Spray”:
-Rick unknowingly uses Morty’s sperm to create giant sperm monsters. The president works with the Smith family to destroy the sperm monsters, and pinpoint them in the Grand Canyon. Rick and Morty destroy the sperm queen’s base of operations and follow the remaining sperm monsters to Las Vegas, where the government has placed a giant human egg from Summer, unaware that the sperm is Morty’s, to attract the sperm. Once Morty reveals the sperm is his, the US military, Vegas performers, and the CHUD destroy most of them, but one abnormal sperm gets to the egg and fertilizes it before it launches into space.

Episode 5: #46: “Amortycan Grickfitti”:
-Jerry unknowingly uses his sheer power of cringe to inflict pain on and subsequently pleasure hell-demons to repay a debt Rick owes to them. After realizing that he is being used as a pawn he ticks the demons off and he is kidnapped to Hell. Beth and Rick save him by disguising themselves as demons and creating an “Aversion-Converting Inversion Reverter” which shoots shrapnel reverting the pleasure from pain to actual pain. Meanwhile, Morty and Summer try to impress new student Bruce by taking the spaceship on a joy ride and going on adventures, but they are found out by the car’s AI who blackmails them into going on, even more, life-threatening adventures. They try to appease it by hooking it up with a group of Changeformer men, but they are forced to escape when the AI kills the Changeformers. Morty, Summer, and Bruce get themselves arrested and are then rescued by the AI, brought back home, and forced to act like nothing happens. Bruce reveals that he enjoyed the night, but will only continue to hang out with Morty and Summer if they have a good reputation at their school.

Episode 6: #47: “Rick & Morty’s Thanksploitation Spectacular”:
-Rick tries to obtain a “Turkey pardon” from the president by disguising himself and Morty as turkeys, but the president, aware of Rick’s schemes, turns himself and other military volunteers into turkeys to stop him. All the while, a turkey is accidentally infused with the president’s DNA and takes his place as a human. The president, his forces, and Rick and Morty team-up with aliens and robots kept in stasis in the crypt to overthrow the turkey-president and their turkey enforcers. Rick gets his turkey pardon.

Episode 7: #48: “GoTron Jerrysis Rickvangelion”:
– Rick, Morty, and Summer are on a trip to Boob World when Rick spots a crashed GoTron Ferret, completing his collection of five ferrets. Deciding to use the GoTron ferrets to form a GoTron and fight monsters from other worlds, with the Smith family serving as pilots. As Rick’s obsession with the GoTron deepens, they start working with other Smith families from other realities on building the Ultimate GoTron with all their collected ferrets, but also by stealing the other GoTrons from their universes’ pilots. As Summer helps Rick with his big plans, she finally feels like Rick appreciates her more than Morty. Morty tries to help Summer see that Rick doesn’t really care about her, but only his obsession with the GoTrons. Rick had already replaced her with an “anime girl” named Kendra and unbeknownst to Rick, Kendra is leading the original GoTron pilots of the other universes, seeking their ferrets back. When Summer is fired, she reveals that her “Giant Incest Baby” is alive and she helped him escape. The family returns to Rick and they save him with the Giant Baby’s help from the original GoTron pilots. After the rescue, Rick grows tired of the GoTrons.

Episode 8: #49: “Rickternal Friendshine of the Spotless Mort”:
– Rick enters Birdperson’s mind in order to find out why he is failing to act normal and how he could bring back the original mind of Birdperson. Memories reveal that Birdperson distanced himself from Rick after Rick expressed feelings for him and told him life was meaningless because there are infinite realities he could take them to through the portal gun. Rick discovers that Birdperson and Tammy have a daughter, who was inhibited from Birdperson’s memories by the Federation. They track down Birdperson’s central body, where he is cherishing his relationship with Tammy blissfully unaware of her treachery. They are hunted down by other versions of Tammy and Phoenixperson and barely escape after Birdperson’s memory of Tammy reveals that she loved him more than the Federation. Birdperson is revived in the real world and leaves to find his daughter. Rick finds his younger self hiding in memories of his childhood, afraid of the person he will become.

Even after Season 5 wraps up, there is plenty more Ricky and Morty coming down the line. In 2018, Adult Swim ordered 70 more episodes of the series, and co-creator Dan Harmon stated earlier this year that the writing team already has season 7 in the works. We can assume that Rick and Morty won’t be away for too long. Unless, you know, the rest of the series is renamed Rick Without Morty.