"The Rick, The Mort & The Ugly" is the third episode of the eighth season of Rick and Morty. It is the 74th episode of the series overall. It premiered on June 8, 2025. It was written by Albro Lundy, James Siciliano, and Michael Kellner[4] and directed by Brian Kaufman. This episode is rated TV-MA-LV.
Synopsis[]
While Rick and Morty collect scraps in space, recent events within the rebuilt Citadel are explored.
Plot[]
The episode begins in the Citadel's space with Rick collecting its wreckage using his Space Cruiser. Morty sighs indignantly at the length of the garbage collection. One of the shards crashes into the glass of the ship and breaks it. Rick makes an emergency landing on an asteroid to fix the glass. Morty sees the village of Mortys and asks Rick why are they here when portal reset sucked everyone to their dimensions. Rick explains that they are the Citadel's clones so they have no home reality to return and stayed in the Citadel's space.
In the post credit scene, one of the survivors of the Citadel, a pair of fighting dice the Rick clones were using to play emerge from the wreckage and begin to fight each other.
Characters[]
Major characters[]
- Homesteader Rick
- Rick Clones
- Boss Hog Rick
- Oddjob Rick
- Trafficker Ricks
- Morty Clones
- Arcade Morty
- Doc Morty
Minor characters[]
- Rick Sanchez
- Morty Smith
- Giant Morty clone
- Fighting dice
- Andy (cameo)
- Summer Smith (mentioned)
Deaths[]
- Andy
- Boss Hog Rick
- Doc Morty
- Giant Morty clone
- Homesteader Rick
- Homesteader Rick's pets
- Multiple drones
- Multiple Rick clones
- Oddjob Rick
- Trafficker Ricks
Locations[]
- The Citadel
- Morty Village
- Arcade
- Homesteader Rick's farm
- Brewery
- Boss Hog Rick's club
- Boss Hog Rick's office
- Unnamed construction site
- Unnamed laboratory
- Big Rick's Gumbo Hutch (mentioned)
- Morty Village
Episode notes[]
Trivia[]
- This is the seventh episode of Rick and Morty to be rated TV-MA from the FCC. The first six episodes were "Interdimensional Cable 2: Tempting Fate", "Vindicators 3: The Return of Worldender", "Bethic Twinstinct", "Unmortricken", "Rise of the Numbericons: The Movie", and "Fear No Mort".[5]
- This episode was previewed early at SXSW London 2025 on June 3, 2025.[6]
- In celebration of Season 8, Pocket Mortys' weekly updates coincided with new episodes, including new avatars and Mortys for players to collect. With the release of this episode came Homesteader Rick as an avatar, along with Arcade Morty and Doc Morty to catch.
- Jerry, Summer, and Beth do not appear in this episode.
- This is the ninth episode not to feature a cold open. The first eight episodes were "Lawnmower Dog", "Anatomy Park", "M. Night Shaym-Aliens!", "Meeseeks and Destroy", "Rick Potion #9", "Never Ricking Morty", "Ricktional Mortpoon's Rickmas Mortcation", and "Fear No Mort".
Series continuity[]
- The episode is structured in the same way as "The Ricklantis Mixup", where the episode begins with the main Rick and Morty as Morty mentions his curiosity about Ricks and Mortys at the Citadel and Rick dismissing them. The rest of the episode then follows the other Ricks and Mortys of the Citadel much like the previous one. At the end of both episodes, the main Rick and Morty appear again.
- The Citadel's mascot Andy from the episode "Rickmurai Jack" reappears but as a floating dead corpse.
- Rick resetting portal travelers in "Solaricks" is mentioned by Morty as he thought that "everyone got sucked back to their reality of origin". Rick then explains how since many Ricks and Mortys are clones created by the Citadel (as revealed in "Rickmurai Jack"), they were resent back to it and stayed since they have no home realities to go to, leading to the events of this episode.
- Homesteader Rick's license plate reads "B6RA1DS", referencing how Ricks do not like to name things and as a result name everything "Booger Aids" as seen in "Morty's Mind Blowers" with one of Morty's memory vials, "Solaricks" with Summer's protocol and Rick's files, and "Unmortricken" with Rick Prime's Omega Device schematics.
- The Citadel was previously destroyed by Rick in "The Rickshank Rickdemption", rebuilt sometime before the events of "The Ricklantis Mixup", and destroyed again by Evil Morty in "Rickmurai Jack". It was then seen floating in space in "Solaricks" and "JuRicksic Mort" before crashing on a planet sometime afterwards, leading to the events of this episode.
Cultural references[]
- The episode's title is a reference to the film, The Good, the Bad & the Ugly.
- In the beginning, Morty plays with a fidget spinner. Rick mentions that he is "a million years late on that thing anyway", referencing how the toy became a trend and fad in 2017.
- The Ricks from the Citadel make fun of Homesteader Rick's collection of Tori Amos albums.
- Oddjob Rick is a parody of Oddjob, a character from the James Bond film, Goldfinger.
- Boss Hog Rick is a parody of Boss Hogg, a character from the television series, The Dukes of Hazzard.
- Arcade Morty and Doc Morty bear resemblances to Marty McFly and Doc Brown from the Back to the Future films.
Transcript[]
View a full transcript of this episode here.
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