Season Overview
The season explores the fallout of the family's "rebellion" against Rick at the end of Season 3. While Rick still drags Morty on dangerous adventures, he is now often forced to ask for permission or follow "family rules," which clearly irritates him. Major highlights include the introduction of Space Beth, the return of Phoenixperson, and several high-concept parodies of genres like heist movies and anime. [1, 2, 3, 4]
Episode List
# [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8] Plot Summary:
Ep 1. Edge of Tomorty: Rick Die Rickpeat: Morty uses "death crystals" to forge a future where he dies with Jessica, while Rick cycles through fascist clones.
Ep 2. The Old Man and the Seat: Rick hunts down a "mystery pooper" who used his private toilet planet; Jerry makes a dangerous dating app.
Ep 3. One Crew over the Crewcoo's Morty: A meta-parody of heist movies where Rick builds a robot to "out-heist" a rival to ruin Morty's screenwriting dreams.
Ep 4. Claw and Hoarder: Special Ricktim's Morty: Morty gets a pet dragon, leading to a weird "soul-bonding" fiasco; Jerry goes to Florida with a talking cat.
Ep 5. Rattlestar Ricklactica: Morty causes a space-snake time-travel war; Jerry tries to hang Christmas lights without touching the ground.
Ep 6. Never Ricking Morty: A highly meta anthology episode set on a "Story Train" that physically manifests narrative devices and fan theories.
Ep 7. Promortyus: Rick and Morty are controlled by face-hugging parasites until they realize they were the "villains" of the story.
Ep 8. The Vat of Acid Episode: Rick creates a "save point" device for Morty to prove a fake vat of acid was a good idea, leading to a tragic romance arc.
Ep 9. Childrick of Mort: The family visits a planet Rick "impregnated," leading to a battle between Rick’s technology and a god named Zeus.
Ep 10. Star Mort Rickturn of the Jerri: Space Beth returns to Earth, forcing Rick to confront the fact that he doesn't know which Beth is the "real" one.
Season Finale & "Space Beth"
The finale confirms that Rick actually did clone Beth back in Season 3. However, to avoid the responsibility of choice, he shuffled the two Beths until even he didn't know who was who. The season ends with Rick realizing that while he is the smartest man in the universe, he is a "terrible father" who has alienated everyone he loves. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]