Top 10 Times Rick Was Wrong

When it comes to scientific experimentation, Rick has never been one to let either good taste or ethics get in his way. This cavalier attitude is on full display when he is confronted by Abradolf Lincler, a blended clone of both Adolf Hitler and Abraham Lincoln. Rick claims that Lincler is the result of his attempt to create a morally neutral super leader, but really Lincler is a walking, talking bag of yikes with all kinds of issues. Always at odds with his polarizing moral impulses, Lincler is a mess and far from what Rick intended. It’s really no wonder Lincler has it out for Rick.

In this anthology episode, we are treated to a smorgasbord of traumas that were so bad Morty had them permanently removed from his memory banks. However, we soon learn that sometimes Rick has done a little cerebral editing when it suits him. In one memory, Morty sees that Rick thought that the expression to take something for “granted” was “take for granite.” It’s a small thing, but funny. Rick never lets anyone else live down the littlest, most petty flub-up. That this sociopathic genius didn’t fully understand an idiom related to gratitude … actually, considering it’s Rick, we’re not surprised.

Rick’s general disregard for Morty, his needs, and his schedule are the backbone of the entire show. A number of episodes begin with Rick just dragging Morty off (out of bed, out of school, etc.) to take part in his latest adventure. All things considered, it usually works out and Rick is generally in control. So, in this cold open, there is no reason for the audience to believe that this “twenty-minutes adventure” will be any different. Jumpcut to a crazed space chase, a thermonuclear explosion, and the best freak out in animation. So much for in-and-out.

Rick likes to play god … a lot. Even with himself, apparently. Taking a dive into youthful hijinks, Rick becomes Tiny Rick, a younger, more fun-loving version of himself. At first, it seems like an improvement, until Summer realizes something is seriously wrong. Morty and Summer save Rick from dying in a jar in his lab, and he gives Operation Phoenix the literal axe. It was a huge misstep, and sort of makes you wonder how Rick could have miscalculated so badly that his life depended on angst and being the dude who brings a guitar to a party.

One of Rick's blind spots is his arrogance. So, not only is he successfully (for a time) framed for murder, he’s caught by the rogue Rick who’s really killing off other Ricks … Or is he? The point is, it isn't even a Rick doing all that slaying. It's Evil Morty. But Rick (as far as we’ve been shown) totally buys that it was this rando-Rick. We don’t yet know what Evil Morty’s plans are, or what precisely his beef with Rick C-137 is (although we have our theories), but it seems clear that Rick’s tendency to underestimate Mortys, broadly speaking, is a big mistake.

After a chance encounter, Rick rekindles the spark of an old flame: Unity, the Hivemind. At first, they click and Rick seems to think that Unity, like him, is down for letting the good times roll on and on. But it’s not long before Unity sees what a terrible influence Rick is, and how destructive his personality can be. Rick is a genius but, in many ways, also incredibly emotionally immature. He did not see her change of heart and mind (or minds, in this case) coming. Rick is not used to being the one left behind, so when Unity leaves abruptly, it’s such a crushing blow to his sense of self-worth that he’s brought to his lowest point in the show to date.

It’s not that Rick wasn’t suspicious that something was up. All those sloppy little details sort of gave the Zigerion scammers away. One might argue that Rick was in control the whole time. We’d like to point out, though, that while he at first suspected Morty was a simulation, he really WAS convinced of Morty’s realness for a time – at least enough to be paranoid and get all knifey later at home. But once he worked it out, he administered that old Sanchez payback. You know the old saying: Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, dwan-nut dun-ne ne-ne-nahhhhhh …

One of Rick’s greatest problems is that, because he’s often the smartest man in the room, he believes that gives him the most insight, and that his interpretation of any given situation is always the correct one. Due to his controlling ways, he has bullied his family into believing the same. When Beth brings the kids to therapy, Rick – who was supposed to attend – has a crazy method of avoiding the session. He arrives late, cynical as ever, but within seconds the therapist sees through him and eloquently lays his issues bare. He's wrong about himself not needing therapy, and about his family in so many ways, but perpetually refuses to acknowledge the problems. Avoiding being wrong is not the same as being right.

When Rick and the Smith family get invited to the wedding of Birdperson and Tammy, Rick thinks it’s going to suck because he's pessimistic about the institution of marriage and relationships in general. Ultimately, they go, and Rick even wishes Birdperson and Tammy well … something he likely wouldn’t have done had he known that Tammy was a deep-cover agent or that they were, in a sense, surrounded. For a man who has spent an unknown amount of time and energy avoiding the detection of the Galactic Federation, he was totally wrong about her – just one of Summer’s friends, right? He's even had Tammy in his house, where she and Birdperson met.

Morty’s crush on his classmate Jessica is an ongoing thing. In one episode, he asks Rick to make him a love potion (totally creep move there, Morty). Distracted, Rick doesn’t warn him about what happens if the subject has the flu. When the potion gets out of control, Rick throws together a cure, cocksure as ever. Except he gets it wrong. He tries again, and REALLY gets it wrong. The entire planet’s population (except those related to Morty) are horribly mutated – aka Cronenberged, named after body-horror auteur David Cronenberg. Things are so desperately bad that Rick’s plan is to bail and start fresh. You don’t get much more wrong than carelessly destroying the world.