Adult Swim
WOW. I really am having a tough time containing my excitement about Rick and Morty Season 3 Episode 7. This very well may have been the best episode of the entire series, don’t you think? Here’s a recap and review of the episode, which was called “The Ricklantis Mixup” or “Tales from the Citadel,” depending on which source you believe.
Warning. This article has MAJOR spoilers for the newest episode, so only read on if you’ve already seen it!
I don’t always write reviews of the episodes, but I can’t contain myself for this one. Even though the episode was so dense and packed with amazing scenes that there’s no way I can capture everything that happened, I still have to write about it.
And you know why!
EVIL MORTY IS BACK!
#RickandMorty The Ricklantis Mixup has to be the most intense and wackiest episode of this season hands down #EvilMorty
And not only is he back, but he’s the PRESIDENT OF THE CITADEL OF RICKS.
Seriously, that deserves all caps if anything ever did.
HOLY EVIL MORTY @RickandMorty
This entire episode was great from start to finish. A few of us (including me) suspected that this episode wasn’t going to be about Atlantis at all. The preview showed the portal opening without Rick using his portal gun in the opening scene, so that was a big hint. And then just the fact that two episode titles were floated around for this one. “Ricklantis Mixup” was the official title we were given. But up until a couple weeks ago, everyone thought it was going to be called “Tales from the Citadel.” Now we know why.
The episode started off great, with that hilarious exchange between Rick and Morty and the Rick and Morty who were trying to raise funds for the rebuilding of the Citadel. I agreed with Rick, that was not a good idea.
Citadel of ricks redevelopment fund. Okayyyy now i know why promos for this was so short
I never thought I could like an episode that barely featured our Rick and Morty so much, but I really did love this one.
From the beginning, with the opening Tales from the Citadel song that showed us how the Ricks were rebuilding the Citadel, I knew it was going to be good. (And I guess they figured out how to move the Citadel back to the right dimension.)
I need a feature length film on the citadel of Ricks, like, yesterday. #RickAndMorty
We had Simple Rick, who absolutely loved his daughter Beth and found completion in her, but who’s now being used to create the Simple Rick’s candy. This is the only Rick who isn’t bitter and is truly happy. So I guess we now know what it would take for Rick to be truly happy.
i am emo tHANKYOUVERYMUCH #SimpleRick
But how twisted is that candy?
come home to Simple Rick’s
Then we saw the three D716 Rick Reporters, and how they got progressively more mutilated with each letter.
There was the Morty Cop, who was an absolutely perfect crooked cop. I loved the “buddy cop” feel between him and the Sensitive Rick, and that very cautious way that Rick and Morty addressed the issue of police brutality.
It was also quite intriguing to see that other Mortys besides Evil Morty have some ethics issues. When he said, “Just Mortys killing Mortys,” it reminded me of how many Mortys our Evil Morty has killed or hurt. And then the good Rick said, “Just Ricks killing Mortys,” and that brought the storyline full circle.
Another interesting tidbit we learned: Ricks and Mortys are stuck in the Citadel world. They’re not allowed to have portal guns — it’s illegal! We saw some Mortys using a Rick to try to create a bootlegged portal fluid, but he failed and it just killed whoever tried to use it.
Bootleg portal fluid? I love how they’re adding small elements like that to this universe. #RickandMorty
So this makes me wonder: what did these Ricks and Mortys do to deserve being stuck here? Did they destroy their universes and no longer have anywhere to go?
We also saw the Hogwarts like school for Mortys, which was absolute genius. (Some of these Mortys have been through a lot of Ricks!)
Professor Snape Rick is top notch #RickandMorty
And the emo Morty who was implanted with an experimental drama chip… He took his other Morty pals (including the poor guy who was morphed into a reptile by his Rick) to the Wishing Portal, which ended up just being a garbage dump. How sad and yet, how appropriate for this particular reality.
Other things I liked about this episode, in no particular order:
- The Morty Town and the Morty Town Locos. This entire Citadel world had so much depth and backstory to it.
- The Big Morty drug lord who was paying the cops.
- The Rick who rebelled, only to push the Simple Rick into a portal that actually was rigged to go to the Blender Dimension. I wasn’t expecting that one! But I wasn’t surprised that they didn’t let the rebel Rick go free.
- Rick D. Sanchez III, who ran the entire facility where the rebel Rick worked.
- Evil Morty’s new flags.
If you want to go a little deeper, this episode also hit a chord with a lot of fans because it touched on many very topical points right now. The show explored police brutality, discrimination, government corruption… If you’ve had any struggles with the way our world is recently, Rick and Morty likely talked about it tonight.
And that was amazing. It was cathartic. It was perfect.
In the end, I loved how Evil Morty tricked everyone. He came across as a great presidential candidate who was daring to fight the establishment (dare I say Bernie-esque?) But he was actually very different than he appeared.
Bernie Sanders Morty!!! #RickandMorty
He was really just saying those things so he could gain power. And just like Rick destroyed the Council of Ricks, he destroyed this establishment Rick group who believed the President had no power and nothing would ever truly change. Oh, Evil Morty is going to change things, that’s for sure.
I don’t know about you, but I think our Morty is going to give Evil Morty a run for his money. Our Morty is growing into himself and becoming smarter and smarter (as we saw when he outsmarted Rick in the last episode.) He’s also developing a dark side, which we saw when he mutated Ethan, Summer’s ex-boyfriend. As long as he doesn’t go full evil, he could very well be the one thing that brings down the Evil Morty. The Mortiest of Mortys could be Evil Morty’s downfall.
We still don’t know Evil Morty’s back story or what his plan is (and whether his plan is truly evil or not.) I like the theory that he is our Rick’s original Morty, since our Rick has memories of a baby Morty and we’re about 99.9% sure that isn’t our Morty (since Rick just returned to the family.) Our Rick is going to have to face Evil Morty now that he’s in power, and that’s going to be fascinating to watch.
What did you think of the episode? Let us know in the comments below.