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Rick and Morty: The Dirty Half-Dozen – 6 Seasons, 6 Key Episodes

Six seasons. Six Episodes. One episode per season. Here are six key episodes from Adult Swim, Dan Harmon & Justin Roiland's Rick and Morty.

If you've been following our coverage of Dan Harmon & Justin Roiland's Rick and Morty lately (at least when it comes to what's on Adult Swim screens), then you know that we've been doing some deep-diving into what Evil Morty & Rick Prime could mean to our dimension-hopping duo's future. Now, with a seventh season (hopefully) hitting screens later this year and an anime-themed spinoff series expected to hit soon (again, hopefully), we're taking a look at our "The Dirty Half-Dozen," six key episodes (one per season) that we consider essential to the series. That doesn't necessarily mean that they're the best episode per season. You'll notice "Pickle Rick" isn't listed below, but it's still the genius episode of the third season. And leaving off "Inter-Dimensional Cable" & "Morty's Mind Blowers" still hurts. That said, quality is one of the factors we considered, as well as the impact that the episodes have on the series & its overarching mythology.

Rick and Morty: The Dirty Half-Dozen

Are we saying that there aren't excellent arguments that can be made for the episodes that didn't make the cut? Nope, because there were about a dozen or more tough choices that needed to be made to narrow down 61 episodes to only six. But, if nothing else, consider this a bit of a conversation starter until a new round of adventures gets underway:

Season 1 Episode 9 "Something Ricked This Way Comes" (directed by John Rice; written by Mike McMahan): Everything that we will need to know about Rick Sanchez moving forward begins with this episode, as he drives The Devil himself into attempting suicide. It was also one of the earliest signs of the Rick/Summer dynamic and has one of the best uses of DMX's "X Gon' Give It to Ya" ever.

Season 2 Episode 4 "Total Rickall" (directed by Juan Meza-León; written by Mike McMahan): A sign of the mind-fuckery to come, it's a photo finish when it comes to deciding if the episode has greater "ensemble characters" or one-liners (the "90s Conan" line still gets me). Plus, this being our formal introduction to Mr. Poopybutthole earns it serious bonus points.

Season 3 Episode 7 "The Ricklantis Mixup" (directed by Dominic Polcino; written by Dan Guterman & Ryan Ridley): The Rick and Morty that tells you a ton about the dimension-hopping duo without actually having them in the episode for more than a few minutes. Guterman & Ridley layer on serious amounts of backstory & canon, effectively hiding it behind effectively creative homages to The Manchurian Candidate, Stand by Me & Chinatown.

Season 4 Episode 8 "The Vat of Acid Episode" (directed by Jacob Hair; written by Jeff Loveness & Albro Lundy): Looking back, this felt like the first time that the growing divide between Rick and Morty became evident. After nearly four seasons of adventures and the fact that Morty's got hormones raging up all sorts of rebellious feelings, Morty came across as more in-your-face confrontational than we've seen him before. And though Rick on this round, "Acid" was clearly the start of a bigger issue at play (paging Dr. Wong).

Season 5 Episode 10 "Rickmurai Jack" (directed by Jacob Hair; written by Jeff Loveness & Scott Marder): President Morty is Evil Morty. The Central Finite Curve was destroyed. We learned the truth about Rick's true backstory. We learned just how "hands-on" the Ricks were when it came to "Morty management." This was the episode when the Adult Swim series learned to stop worrying and learned to love canon and the moment that the Adult Swim series took things to yet another creative level.

Season 6 Episode 7 "Full Meta Jackrick" (directed by Lucas Gray; written by Alex Rubens): The episode that tested our limits when it came to having meta moments shoved down our throats. but the joke was on Gray & Rubens because all they did was leave us wanting more. By offering us such a well-thought-out meta-existence, it added layers to the questions we have about where the series is heading and Evil Morty's "big picture" plans. And if you think of Rhett Con in terms of being a Dr. Manhattan (from Watchmen)-like character in the Rick and Morty universe, then we have to wonder what impact that could have moving forward. But perhaps the biggest headline-grabber from the episode? That Rick knows that they're in a television show and, unless he's seriously repressed it, so does Morty.

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