Rick And Morty's Season 5 Premiere Confirmed What We Knew All Along

Fans have high expectations any time a new episode of "Rick and Morty" airs. From the presence of Evil Morty to Rick's continual conflict with the Intergalactic Federation, there are many directions the show can take if it wants to pursue a serialized route fans crave. However, it's abundantly clear those behind the scenes want the ability to simply have wacky, sci-fi adventures where aspects of one episode don't necessarily impact what happens in another. 

This conflict materialized in the Season 4 episode, "Never Ricking Morty," where the titular duo ends up on a Story Train. They see an array of serialized possibilities, including a confrontation with Evil Morty's army. Of course, as Rick succinctly points out, "Nothing out there is canon." From that quote and others like it, it's clear the writers want the creative freedom to do whatever they want with these characters without it going against some pre-established backstory. 

With that in mind, the Season 5 premiere, "Mort Dinner Rick Andre" does something interesting that may have surprised fans initially. It establishes a critical component of Rick's backstory as canon.

Most fans may remember Season 3's "The Rickshank Redemption" for its Szechuan sauce bit, but it also presented a backstory for Rick about how he ended up the way he did. The flashback shows his wife, Diane, getting blown up by the Citadel of Ricks, forcing him to invent interdimensional travel. Naturally, it's not long until Rick reveals he made up everything we just saw, which is in line with his character, but there's one detail of the sequence he didn't change. 

For the Season 5 premiere, Mr. Nimbus starts talking about his history with Rick, and he mentions that Rick's wife's name is Diane. Rick cuts him off before he can go into any more backstory, but it does call into question how much Rick truly lied during the Season 3 vision. This fact wasn't lost on viewers as they quickly took to Reddit to discuss their revelation. For example, u/thickwonga elaborates, "That was a really interesting surprise, and caught me off guard. I love this show's lore and depth. It's excellent."

Granted, a name doesn't amount to much. We still don't know what precisely happened to her and if she's still alive, perhaps out exploring the galaxy somewhere. Still, this confirmation is intriguing and suggests the writers may give us some more morsels related to Rick's backstory in future episodes. Even if they don't, we hope this isn't the last we've seen of Mr. Nimbus.