The Rickshank Rickdemption

"The Rickshank Rickdemption" is the first episode in the third season of the American animated television sitcom Rick and Morty, and the twenty-second episode overall in the series. It was written by Mike McMahan and directed by Juan Meza-Leon. The season three premiere first aired unannounced on Adult Swim in the United States on April 1, 2017 when it was watched by 676,000 American households in its initial airing. On the first day of its original broadcast, "The Rickshank Rickdemption" was replayed every half hour from 8pm to 12am ET with improved ratings, as a part of Adult Swim's annual April Fools' Day joke. The episode follows the events surrounding Rick Sanchez's incarceration at the Galactic Federation's prison and high-stakes bid to escape, with revelations that both reveal his true motives and character. Following its initial airing, "The Rickshank Rickdemption" received positive reviews, which generally favored the episode's character development and its surprise turn of events. Plot During Rick Sanchez's incarceration, the Galactic Federation has colonized Earth and the Smith family attempts to cope with his absence. Summer exhumes the remains of alternate Rick in their backyard, intending to use his portal gun and rescue him. Morty, however, attempts to reveal Rick's shortcomings to Summer by taking her to his original dimension — now a universe where Earth has been transformed into a wasteland by a virus turning all humans to hideous monsters as a consequence of Rick's carelessness (referred to as "the Cronenberg World"). All the while, Galactic Federation scientists attempt to discover the secret to Rick's portal gun by sending alien Cornvelious Daniel into his mind to interrogate him by having Rick show them his memories. In his memories, Rick has trouble inventing teleportation, but after an alternate version of himself shows him multiversal travel, Rick declines and decides to give up science. After leaving to pick up ice cream then returning home, the alternate Rick drops a bomb that kills Rick's wife and a young Beth, driving Rick to invent the multiversal portal gun.