Best Rick and Morty episodes
In 2013, the creative brains of Justin Roiland and Dan Harmon released their first episode of "Rick and Morty" on Adult Swim. The animated show full of crass jokes and wild adventures across an infinite number of realities was a hit right from the start. This show was just what people needed to watch after a long day to allow them to relax and unwind. With three and a half seasons out, fans are patiently waiting for more episodes to be released.
"Rick and Morty" follows the titular characters, scientist Rick Sanchez and his grandson Morty Smith. Though Rick is an alcoholic and narcissist, fans are charmed by him and his relationship with his anxious, self-doubting grandson Morty. There is just something about Rick and his relationship with the rest of his family that makes viewers want to come back for more.
"Rick and Morty" has some of the most loyal fans out there of any TV show—ones that can even rally together to get a company to bring back what was once a temporary lunch item from over ten years ago—for example, the McDonald's Szechuan Sauce. Fans wait years for the next season, cosplay as their favorite characters, and even get tattoos. They constantly rewatch their favorite episodes over and over again, whether it be the one where Rick turns himself into a pickle or the one with Birdman's wedding. Rick and Morty always make viewers laugh whether it's the first time they view an episode or their twentieth time watching it.
Now with the second half of season four of "Rick and Morty" is coming out this year, it is a perfect time to look back at their past episodes. Here at Stacker, we have compiled the best episodes of "Rick and Morty" using IMDb data. These episodes are ranked by IMDb user ratings, as of March 16, 2020, with #1 being the highest-rated among viewers.
Keep reading to discover the best "Rick and Morty" episodes to see where your favorite episode ranks.
#36. Season 4, Episode 4 - Claw and Hoarder: Special Ricktim's Morty
- IMDb user rating: 7.6
- Votes: 5,262
- Air date: Dec. 8, 2019
The dragon Morty gets from Rick is not what he expected it to be. When Rick goes to banish the dragon, Rick finds out that he and the dragon have a lot in common and become close. But things can never be easy for Rick, and the wizard who gave him the dragon comes back to take it to be executed. Now Rick, Morty, and Beth need to save their friend.
#35. Season 2, Episode 8 - Interdimensional Cable 2: Tempting Fate
- IMDb user rating: 7.7
- Votes: 7,797
- Air date: Sept. 20, 2015
When Jerry is rushed to an alien hospital his family waits for updates on him and distracts themselves by watching some interdimensional cable. There they are able to watch classic shows like “Man vs Car,” which is a competition pitting men against cars in a gladiatorial ring.
#34. Season 3, Episode 9 - The ABC's of Beth
- IMDb user rating: 8.0
- Votes: 6,414
- Air date: Sept. 24, 2017
The news prompts Beth to remember an old childhood friend, Tommy. He disappeared when they were kids—because he was eaten by his father, a now-famous killer—and Beth coped with the loss by imagining he was stuck in an imaginary world called Froopyland. Rick reveals that Froopyland was actually real, and brings her there in hopes of finding Tommy.
#33. Season 1, Episode 7 - Raising Gazorpazorp
- IMDb user rating: 8.0
- Votes: 8,044
- Air date: March 10, 2014
At an intergalactic pawn shop, Morty asks Rick to get him a souvenir—a robot sex doll. Morty ends up getting the doll pregnant and it gives birth to a half-human, half-Gazorpazorp baby. But raising a baby that goes faster than a normal human is not easy, especially when it wants to murder people. While Morty is dealing with his child, Rick and Summer travel to explore Gazorpazorp together and get into their own mess.
#32. Season 1, Episode 1 - Pilot
- IMDb user rating: 8.0
- Votes: 9,563
- Air date: Dec. 2, 2013
In the pilot episode, Rick takes Morty to another dimension to get the seeds from Mega Trees. Throughout the episode, Rick loses his portal gun, making him and Morty go through intergalactic customs. But the Mega Trees seeds are not allowed through customs, so Rick and Morty need to defend themselves and escape back to their own dimension.
#31. Season 3, Episode 10 - The Rickchurian Mortydate
- IMDb user rating: 8.2
- Votes: 6,518
- Air date: Oct. 1, 2017
Rick is called to help the president of the United States when a janitor in the White House is attacked by an alien. But protecting the White House is not as exciting as it seems, so Rick and Morty blow off the president to go home and play Minecraft. After the Secret Service finds out, things get rocky for the Smiths.
#30. Season 3, Episode 4 - Vindicators 3: The Return of Worldender
- IMDb user rating: 8.2
- Votes: 8,068
- Air date: August 13, 2017
With Morty being able to pick every tenth adventure, he decides that he and Rick will help out the Vindicators. The Vindicators are a group of superheroes made up of unique characters like Million Arts and Supernova. Rick is not happy to be helping out the Vindicators, and in his drunken state demolishes the superhero team using their own insecurities.
#29. Season 3, Episode 2 - Rickmancing the Stone
- IMDb user rating: 8.2
- Votes: 8,438
- Air date: July 30, 2017
Rick, Morty, and Summer go on an adventure to find Isotope-322. There, Summer meets a boy named Hemorrhage and starts a relationship instantly. While Summer is off with her new boyfriend, Rick injects a serum into Morty’s arm, making it grow and have enormous strength. With his newfound strength, Morty feels a lot of rage, killing and beating up people.
#28. Season 2, Episode 5 - Get Schwifty
- IMDb user rating: 8.3
- Votes: 8,079
- Air date: August 23, 2015
When giant alien heads appear, they put Earth in a musical competition against other planets for their entertainment. It is up to Rick and Morty to create a song to save Earth and to let the aliens get schwifty!
#27. Season 4, Episode 2 - The Old Man and the Seat
- IMDb user rating: 8.4
- Votes: 6,066
- Air date: Nov. 17, 2019
"Do Not Develop My App" is tattooed on Glootie, an alien intern at the Smith's house. Not heeding the tattoo's warning, Jerry helps Glootie develop his app, which aims to help people find their true love. Because of this, Jerry and Morty head to Glootie's mothership to have them take down the app. Meanwhile, Rick is having problems with an unwanted visitor using his private toilet.
#26. Season 1, Episode 3 - Anatomy Park
- IMDb user rating: 8.4
- Votes: 8,732
- Air date: Dec. 16, 2013
Rick send Morty to a bizarre theme park of infectious diseases inside a homeless man, called Anatomy Park, to see how his business partner is doing. At the park, many infectious diseases get released and end up killing the homeless man. Now Morty and the rest of the crew need to escape the park before the body collapses.
#25. Season 4, Episode 3 - One Crew Over the Crewcoo's Morty
- IMDb user rating: 8.5
- Votes: 5,952
- Air date: Nov. 24, 2019
Rick does not like being denied, so when he and Morty cannot get into HeistCon as professionals, Rick gathers a team to challenge one of the most well-known professional cons to prove his worth. Morty, who’s been working on a heist movie, loves the idea until his passion for his idea seems overdone. One of the best parts of this episode is a special appearance by "Elon Tusk."
#24. Season 2, Episode 7 - Big Trouble in Little Sanchez
- IMDb user rating: 8.5
- Votes: 7,427
- Air date: Sept. 13, 2015
After a cafeteria lady is found dead in the school with two bite marks in her neck, Summer asks Rick to help them catch the vampire. To help, Rick transfers his brain to Tiny Rick to be able to fit in and get the job done. But Tiny Rick becomes very popular at school, making it hard for him to go back to his regular self. Meanwhile, Jerry and Beth go to off-planet marriage counseling to see if this could help with their problems.
#23. Season 3, Episode 5 - The Whirly Dirly Conspiracy
- IMDb user rating: 8.5
- Votes: 7,611
- Air date: August 20, 2017
Rick takes Jerry to an intergalactic resort on a planet where no one can die. But people will only come back to life if they were killed inside the resort, giving assassins a chance to kill Rick when he gets out of the safe zone on different rides. While Rick and Jerry are gone, Summer is dealing with a breakup, which ends with her wanting to have bigger breasts. To make them bigger, Summer uses Rick's Morphizer-XE, but ends up turning into a giant instead.
#22. Season 1, Episode 11 - Ricksy Business
- IMDb user rating: 8.5
- Votes: 7,702
- Air date: April 14, 2014
Beth and Jerry leave Rick in charge to go on vacation to Titanic 2, which is a perfect recreation of the Titanic and the experience. At the house, Summer suggests throwing a party so she can get in with the cool kids. Morty tries his best to keep the house clean and under control, but it's not just humans at the party since Rick invites his intergalactic friends as well.
#21. Season 1, Episode 9 - Something Ricked This Way Comes
- IMDb user rating: 8.5
- Votes: 7,990
- Air date: March 24, 2014
For Jerry to prove himself to his kids, he decides that he will help Morty on his science project. But when they disagree over whether Pluto is a planet or not, they end up going on a trip where aliens from Pluto abduct Jerry and Morty, since Jerry says they are a planet. When Rick drops off Summer at her job, the shop owner, Mr. Needful, admits he is the devil and he is giving cursed objects to people. So Rick sets up shop across the street to get rid of the curses.
#20. Season 2, Episode 9 - Look Who's Purging Now
- IMDb user rating: 8.6
- Votes: 7,708
- Air date: Sept. 27, 2015
Flying through space is not always easy, and when an interstellar insect gets smeared on their windshield, Rick and Morty need to land on a nearby planet to buy wiper fluid to clear it off. The planet they choose has a night where all crimes, including murder, are legal, and it’s the night when Rick and Morty arrive. Of course, Rick doesn’t want to leave right away and instead wants to see how things play out.
#19. Season 2, Episode 3 - Auto Erotic Assimilation
- IMDb user rating: 8.6
- Votes: 8,171
- Air date: August 9, 2015
While flying through space Rick, Morty, and Summer hear a distress call from a spaceship whose planet has been taken over. Rick and his grandkids head over to assess the situation and find out that Rick’s ex-girlfriend, Unity, has taken over the planet. Unity is an alien that has the ability to control people’s minds. As Rick and Unity rekindle their romance, Morty and Summer learn that Unity might not be so bad after all.
#18. Season 1, Episode 4 - M. Night Shaym-Aliens!
- IMDb user rating: 8.7
- Votes: 8,818
- Air date: Jan. 13, 2014
When you have a brilliant mind like Rick, aliens are always trying to get information out of you. In the Zigerions' latest attempt to do just that, they kidnap Rick and place him in a virtual-reality chamber to play through a day to see if they can get the recipe for dark matter out of him. But since Rick is a genius, he knows when things seem off. Unfortunately, the Zigerions did not just capture Rick; they also accidentally captured Jerry, who thinks he is having the best day ever in his virtual-reality chamber.
#17. Season 1, Episode 8 - Rixty Minutes
- IMDb user rating: 8.8
- Votes: 9,123
- Air date: March 17, 2014
After growing bored with modern TV shows, Rick destroys the cable box and replaces it with Interdimensional cable, where you can flip through channels from different dimensions. There are shows that feature corn that can walk and talk like humans, elderly people physically fighting over antiques, and even Jerry getting interviewed on late-night TV.
#16. Season 1, Episode 2 - Lawnmower Dog
- IMDb user rating: 8.8
- Votes: 9,604
- Air date: Dec. 9, 2013
After Jerry complains about their dog Snuffles not being smart enough, Rick creates a device that makes Snuffles smarter. The only problem is that Snuffles has become too smart, and he is now trying to take over the human race. While all of this is happening, Rick and Morty are trying to get Morty’s math teacher to give him an A in class by invading the teacher’s dreams.
#15. Season 3, Episode 8 - Morty's Mind Blowers
- IMDb user rating: 8.9
- Votes: 7,673
- Air date: Sept. 17, 2017
In the third season, there is no “Interdimensional Cable” episode but there’s “Morty’s Mind Blowers” instead. In this episode, Rick and Morty go through memories that Rick has removed from Morty’s brain. Many of the episodes are ones where Rick put Morty into a bad situation. But things get ugly when Morty learns what Rick has been hiding from him.
#14. Season 2, Episode 2 - Mortynight Run
- IMDb user rating: 8.9
- Votes: 8,402
- Air date: August 2, 2015
When Rick finds out that Jerry stowed away in his spaceship, he sends him to Jerryboree, a daycare for all Jerrys in different dimensions. While Jerry is at Jerryboree, Rick sells guns to an alien assassin, but Morty feels like it is up to him to save the assassin’s target.
#13. Season 2, Episode 1 - A Rickle in Time
- IMDb user rating: 8.9
- Votes: 8,777
- Air date: July 26, 2015
In an attempt to fix the house without Beth and Jerry noticing, Rick freezes time so he, Morty, and Summer can clean. But Rick ends up freezing time for six months and any uncertainties can make their timeline fracture. While Rick is dealing with a fractured timeline, Beth is trying to save a deer that she and Jerry hit when they went out to get ice cream.
#12. Season 4, Episode 5 - Rattlestar Ricklactica
- IMDb user rating: 9.0
- Votes: 4,556
- Air date: Dec. 15, 2019
When Rick is fixing a flat on his spaceship, Morty gets bitten by a snake and instantly kills it. But what Morty doesn't know is that he killed a snake from a planet that is on the brink of global war and he killed their last hope. While Rick and Morty have to deal with the snake issue, Jerry is trying to be more independent as he sets up the Christmas lights.
#11. Season 3, Episode 6 - Rest and Ricklaxation
- IMDb user rating: 9.0
- Votes: 8,192
- Air date: August 27, 2017
After so many adventures, Rick decides that he and Morty need to relax and head to an alien spa. There they go into a machine that removes all of the toxicity out of a person. This leaves Rick and Morty feeling unlike themselves and they become complete opposites. Now, it is up to the toxic versions of Rick and Morty to put them back together.
#10. Season 1, Episode 5 - Meeseeks and Destroy
- IMDb user rating: 9.0
- Votes: 9,903
- Air date: Jan. 20, 2014
Tired of all of Rick’s decision-making, Morty convinces Rick that he should be able to lead an adventure for once. But Morty’s adventure is not as safe as he thought. While Rick and Morty are away, Summer, Beth, and Jerry get a Mr. Meeseeks box from Rick. A Mr. Meeseeks box allows a user to press a bottom to create a Mr. Meeseek whose only goal in life is to help the task at hand.
#9. Season 4, Episode 1 - Edge of Tomorty: Rick Die Rickpeat
- IMDb user rating: 9.1
- Votes: 7,819
- Air date: Nov. 10, 2019
After Rick and Morty go on an adventure to find a death crystal—small crystals that allow a person to see how they will die—Morty becomes obsessed with following the path of the crystal that will make him die with Jessica. Meanwhile, Rick is struggling to get back to his own reality after he dies and reappears in different dimensions.
#8. Season 1, Episode 6 - Rick Potion #9
- IMDb user rating: 9.1
- Votes: 9,704
- Air date: Jan. 27, 2014
After Rick insists that love is a chemical reaction, Morty begs Rick to create a potion that will make Jessica fall in love with him. But the potion that Rick creates goes viral and ends up affecting the entire Earth, making everyone go crazy for Morty
#7. Season 2, Episode 6 - The Ricks Must Be Crazy
- IMDb user rating: 9.3
- Votes: 9,601
- Air date: August 30, 2015
When Rick's car battery breaks down, Rick and Morty go inside the battery to see what is going on. There Morty is shocked to find out that there is a miniature universe that uses the lifeforms to create power. It is while visiting the miniature universe that Rick and Morty discover there is more than one universe in their battery. Meanwhile, Summer is still in the car, which was ordered to do anything to protect Summer.
#6. Season 3, Episode 3 - Pickle Rick
- IMDb user rating: 9.3
- Votes: 12,691
- Air date: August 6, 2017
To get out of family therapy with Summer, Morty, and Beth, Rick turns himself into a pickle. But Beth is not happy that Rick is trying to blow off therapy and takes the reverse serum in her purse to the appointment. After a series of unfortunate events, Rick, in his pickle form, has to adapt and evolve to get out of the sewers and away from predators.
#5. Season 2, Episode 10 - The Wedding Squanchers
- IMDb user rating: 9.4
- Votes: 9,734
- Air date: Oct. 4, 2015
Wedding bells are ringing for Tammy and Birdperson, but after the Courier Flap accidentally ships Jerry to Planet Squanch, the family has to meet up with him at the wedding to bring him home. But at the reception it is revealed that Tammy is a deep undercover Galactic Federation agent there to arrest Rick and the other criminals.
#4. Season 1, Episode 10 - Close Rick-counters of the Rick Kind
- IMDb user rating: 9.4
- Votes: 10,132
- Air date: April 7, 2014
When 27 Ricks are killed and their Mortys are taken in their own dimensions, Rick Rick C-137, the show’s Rick, is arrested and brought to the Trans-Dimensional Council of Ricks. It’s there that Rick and Morty must escape and find the real murderer to prove his innocence.
#3. Season 2, Episode 4 - Total Rickall
- IMDb user rating: 9.6
- Votes: 12,074
- Air date: August 16, 2015
After Rick and the family fall prey to a parasite that implants fake memories into people’s heads, they need to find out who is real. But things get tough when they start to doubt themselves. Now the family must figure out if Mr. Poopybutthole, Sleepy Gary, and more characters are actually a part of their everyday lives.
#2. Season 3, Episode 1 - The Rickshank Rickdemption
- IMDb user rating: 9.6
- Votes: 15,392
- Air date: April 1, 2017
Agent Cornvelious Daniel of the Galactic Federation has arrested Rick and is trying to find out how he created his portal gun. The agent brain-links to Rick to go through his memories and find out Rick's secret. Back on Earth, the Galactic Federation has taken over, making life there miserable for everyone except Jerry. Summer now takes it upon herself to go save Rick and get her life back.
#1. Season 3, Episode 7 - The Ricklantis Mixup
- IMDb user rating: 9.8
- Votes: 22,728
- Air date: Sept. 10, 2017
This episode, also known as “Tales From the Citadel,” shows Rick and Morty getting interrupted before their trip to Atlantis by other dimensional Rick and Morty, as they try to raise money for the Citadel Redevelopment fund. The episode then goes on to focus on life at the Citadel, where we see hundreds of different types of Ricks and Mortys all living together.