Rick And Morty Season 5 Episode Titles Are Very Revealing
The last time new episodes of "Rick and Morty" aired was in May of 2020. The batch of five episodes released, at that time, merely rounded out the series' fourth season. Back in 2018, "Rick and Morty" was renewed for a grand total of 70 episodes, so the 10 episodes of Season 4, in total, merely marked the beginning of that sizable renewal order.
As has been a trend with "Rick and Morty" since its first season, many of the episode titles in Season 4 were names of popular media properties modified to include the names of Rick, Morty, and other central characters. Season finale "Star Mort Rickturn of the Jerri," for example, is a pun on "Star Wars: Return of the Jedi," the final entry in the original trilogy of "Star Wars" films. While much of the episode tells an entirely new story, the characters not only reference "Star Wars" a couple of times but even reenact the iconic "Star Wars" scene where Luke Skywalker blows up the Death Star in his X-Wing near the episode's end.
"Rick and Morty" Season 5 is imminent. A trailer for the upcoming season, released in March, revealed that new episodes of "Rick and Morty" will begin airing on June 20. While the contents of the upcoming season not yet showcased in trailers will remain a mystery until the season premiere, a recent press release revealed the title of each episode in Season 5 (via GameSpot), providing fans with at least a hint of what to expect when "Rick and Morty" returns.
Rick and Morty Season 5 will offer movie references galore
The full list of episode titles for "Rick and Morty" Season 5 are as follows: "Mort Dinner Rick Andre," "Mortiplicity," "Rickdependence Spray," "Amortycan Grickfitti," "Rick & Morty's Thanksploitation Spectacular," "A Rickconvenient Mort," "Gotron Jerrysis Rickvangelion," "Rickternal Friendshine of the Spotless Mort," "Forgetting Sarick Mortshall," and "Rickmurai Jack."
Following the precedent set by prior episodes of "Rick and Morty," the puns in these episode titles could be as simple as references to thematically similar works, or they could hint at a specific stories that will be parodied, as is the case with "Star Mort Rickturn of the Jerri."
For example, the title of the season premiere, "Mort Dinner Rick Andre," is a reference to the 1981 film "My Dinner With Andre," which is famously comprised almost entirely of a single conversation. The "Rick and Morty" episode referencing it in its title, then, could be an episode-length conversation between Rick and Morty, or it could simply feature a prominent dinner scene.
Other movies and TV shows referenced include spy romance "Duplicity," alien invasion film "Independence Day," George Lucas' ode to the fifties "American Graffiti," the climate change documentary "An Inconvenient Truth," influential anime "Neon Genesis Evangelion," surrealist drama "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind," raunchy comedy "Forgetting Sarah Marshall," and the American animated series "Samurai Jack."
Fans of "Rick and Morty" will be able to find out exactly how the show references each of these works when Season 5 premieres on June 20.