Warning! The following contains spoilers for the Rick and Morty Season 5 premiere "Mort Dinner Rick Andre." Read at your own risk!
Rick and Morty returned to Adult Swim for Season 5, and once again, viewers were sucked into the insanity that is the Sanchez/Smith family dynamic. In many ways, the premiere was the standard one-off affair, with plenty of moments that will likely never be addressed again in the series, though Dan Harmon and Justin Roiland's creative team also introduced several seemingly important moments that fans should commit to memory as the season goes on.
Despite co-creators Dan Harmon and Justin Roiland previously saying that Rick and Morty would be less serialized going forward, the Season 5 premiere laid some potential groundwork for plots and character beats that could mean big things down the road. Here's what we picked up on, and yes, Mr. Nimbus does get a mention or two, sans the dancing.
Beth And Jerry Are Actually Getting Along
Perhaps the biggest surprise of Rick and Morty Season 5's opening episode was that Beth and Jerry got along the better than we've seen at any point since the start of the series. The episode revealed that they're in couples' therapy..,and are also now a sex-positive married couple now...I guess? The pair actually got excited (to the point of desperation) by Mr. Nimbus' threesome proposal, and they effectively disgusted the rest of the family by the proclamation that they watch porn together. It's good to see their marriage is doing well now, even if the trade-off is more haunting moments with other family members.
Jessica Is A "Time God" Now
Morty's longtime crush Jessica had a movie night at his house, though it didn't at all turn out the way either of them wanted. Jessica was abducted by the anthropomorphic dogs that Morty scorned and traumatized in his efforts to retrieve wine from their dimension, and she was ultimately held in stasis within a crystal. Morty rescued her, but learned that Jessica's consciousness had survived for centuries off-world, developing a level of thinking and that put her on completely different intellectual plane. She ultimately decided she and Morty should be friends and shouted she was a "time god" as she vacated the premises. Rick and Morty didn't really show whether or not she received any time-god-ish powers from that experience, but I'm sure we'll see Jessica again in time...god.
Mr. Nimbus Controls The Police
Voiced by Dan Harmon, Mr. Nimbus is a being of unexplainable powers, to the point it is not entirely clear exactly what all he's capable of. He seems to have some command of the ocean, as well as some sick dance moves, but the main power we saw in Rick and Morty's Season 5 premiere is his hold over cops' behavior. Mr. Nimbus can do literally anything he wants with the local PD, and presumably others, which is a pretty awesome power to have for a villain. It's also guaranteed I'll be thinking of him any time a cop appears in Rick and Morty going forward, and I hope this isn't the last we've seen of him.
Nimbus Knew Rick's Wife Diane
One of the biggest reveals of the episode is that Rick Sanchez's wife Diane is apparently completely real, as seemingly proven by Nimbus' reference. There was some doubt from Rick and Morty fans about that after Rick declared a previous scene that included her was "completely fabricated." After she was name-checked in the Season 5 premiere, Rick quickly chastised Nimbus for attempting to create a "canonical backstory' of his life. But if Nimbus knew she was a real person, then it would appear that Beth's mother actually was Diane Sanchez. Unless it wasn't.
Rick and Morty Season 5 likely has many more surprises on the way, so fans should tune in to watch Sunday nights on Adult Swim at 11:00 p.m. ET. If the trailers are any indication of what to expect, there should be a lot more hilarious but potentially important moments on the way!
