Top 10 Darkest Rick and Morty Moments

One of the more bizarre things about “Rick and Morty” is that an entire city’s worth of alternate versions of the genius Rick and not-so-genius Morty live and work together on one massive space station. One of the businesses on the Citadel is a cookie factory, whose products are flavored by the joy distilled from the single memory of a Rick held prisoner. As if this wasn’t grim enough, one of the factory’s employees frees the trapped Rick by killing him, but is then used to replace “Simple Rick” just when he thinks he’s escaped. And we thought Willy Wonka was diabolical!

The Season 2 finale of “Rick and Morty” sees Rick Sanchez give himself up to the Galactic Federation and going to prison; seemingly to protect his family. However, after escaping imprisonment and his son-in-law Jerry asks his wife Beth to choose between them, Rick’s motives are shown to be less clear cut. In a deranged rant to Morty in the garage, echoing the one in the pilot episode, Rick reveals his imprisonment was an elaborate way for him to push Jerry out of their lives, while also promising darker adventures to come. He also manages to make a tangent about Szechuan sauce from McDonald’s surprisingly menacing.

After Rick’s near destruction of the Citadel and the deaths of its council, the bizarre dimension-hopping city is in need of new leadership. An election is held and a Morty manages to take a surprising lead. However, an assassination attempt by one of his former Morty staffers and a few other hints make it clear that something’s off. All becomes clear when the newly elected Morty leader has an influential cabal of Ricks murdered and a familiar tune begins playing; revealing this Morty to be the evil one previously encountered in the series, who has demonstrated that he can be just as bad or worse than any Rick.

While visiting a dimension where giant spiders coexist with humans, Rick, Morty, and Summer encounter engine trouble. While the former two investigate the problem inside the battery, Rick instructs his car’s artificial intelligence to “keep Summer safe.” The A.I. takes this incredibly seriously, as it first stuns or kills people who come close to the car. This eventually draws the attention of the police, leading to a horrifically traumatic experience for one of the officers. Although the A.I. is able to resolve things peacefully eventually, its initial, draconian methods are quite traumatizing for Summer and the viewers.

Rick’s personal life outside his family is rarely delved into, and one of the few times we’ve seen reference to it is when he runs into an ex-love interest of his, Unity, a hive mind. Although, they and Rick reconnect and engage in a lot of hedonistic activities, ultimately Unity breaks up with Rick after their intoxication leads to a loss of control over their unruly hosts. While it was probably in both of their interests, Rick takes it harder than one might expect, given his character; attempting to vaporize his own head and only surviving by passing out in a drunken stupor. Rick Sanchez is a monumentally self-destructive person, but seeing him actually try to end his own life was still shockingly dark.

Rick’s capacity for destruction is as big as his ego, and that ain’t small! After a request for a love potion from Morty turns viral, Rick’s attempts to fix it actually make things worse; creating an apocalyptic spread of the virus which mutates the inhabitants of their version of Earth into monsters. Rather than attempt to fix things, Rick and Morty abandon that version of reality and go to a version of Earth where their counterparts died; burying their own dead bodies in the backyard. While Rick takes it in stride, Morty is completely traumatized and we would be too in his shoes.

The Citadel of Ricks amplifies the dysfunction of Rick and Morty by thousands and there are several dark and grim tales of Ricks and Mortys who live there. One story sees a group of Morty students go on an adventure in the vein of “Stand by Me,” in order to find a legendary wishing portal. However, upon arriving at their destination and making their wishes by throwing things in the portal, the cool “Slick” Morty throws himself in, as he has become despairing of life ever improving for Mortys. While it’s possible he survived, the fact that the portal ends up being a garbage dump is still a grim cherry on this bleak cake.

Morty’s dad Jerry rarely goes on adventures with Rick, partly because of their mutual dislike, but also because Jerry is easily intimidated and it would be easy for him to die. Rick seeks to prevent this outcome by taking Jerry on a trip to a resort with an immortality field that prevents visitors from dying from otherwise fatal injuries; including a pair of alien children who shoot one another with real laser guns. An attempt on Rick’s life unfortunately causes the field to deactivate, causing the little boy alien to shoot and kill the little girl, Lisa, who’s presumably his sister. Talk about something that would mess you up for life!

Morty’s own attempts at finding a fun adventure don’t turn out well. He and Rick soon land themselves on trial for the murder of a giant, but after being exonerated from any wrongdoing, they come across something even more upsetting. While in a restroom in a tavern, Morty encounters an anthropomorphic jellybean, who soon attempts to rape Morty; forcing the distraught teen to fight off his attacker in a brutal and incredibly upsetting moment. Seeing one of the protagonists nearly raped is an incredibly dark place to take the show to. We’re just glad Rick gave Mr. Jellybean what he deserved.

Before we get to our top pick, here are a few honorable mentions:

Strawberry Smiggles
“Rixty Minutes”

Rick Destroys the Citadel of Ricks & the Galactic Government
“The Rickshank Rickdemption”

Morty’s Nihilistic Speech to Summer
“Rixty Minutes”

Morty Tries to Kill Rick
“The Rickshank Rickdemption”

Morty Purging
“Look Who’s Purging Now”

A parasite Rick or Morty brings back from one of their adventures ends up attaching itself to the family and reproducing; creating false memories of various, increasingly outlandish friends and loved ones. Morty and Rick discover that the parasites are unable to create bad memories though, which leads to them and the rest of the family being forced to kill the people they have only happy memories of, which is really messed up, since it leads to Beth killing a parasite pretending to be her perfect husband, “Sleepy Gary,” no doubt deeply affecting her, and her real husband Jerry, for that matter. Although, the fact that she mistakenly shoots the very real Mr. Poopybutthole seems to be the thing that pushes Beth most into grief.