The first episode of "Rick and Morty" season 3 made it seem as if both the council of Ricks and the citadel were destroyed, along with most of the galactic federation. However, this episode revealed that while the council was gone, the government and Citadel are being rebuilt.
Rather than focusing on the Rick and Morty from C-137, this episode focuses on the rest of the Morty's and Rick's living in a post-Rickshank Redemption era. With the council gone, the government of the Citadel is looking for a president to lead the people. Although the majority of the candidates are Ricks, one Morty is running for the position.
This Morty is clearly the underdog but manages to appeal to everyone in a heartfelt speech where he addresses the issues that most Ricks and Morty's face in the Citadel. He believes that the Citadel doesn't need to be divided and create more homeless Morty's and outraged Ricks.
Outside of this presidential election, the episode also explores other places in the citadel. There is a hilarious subplot about a Rick who got fed up with his dead end job and went on a rampage in his factory; there is another subplot about a group of student Morty's that feel like outsiders, and of course, there is another subplot about two cops working in the ghetto.
Now, these subplots are interesting, except for maybe the student subplot, but they were nowhere near as important as the central plot on the election.
The reason is that of what happens at the end of the episode.
Evil Morty returns
After winning the election and surviving an assassination attempt, the Morty running for president takes over the entire citadel. He kills all the Ricks and Mortys opposing him and establishes brand new systems. There is a new education system, a new justice system, a new everything.
Then in the last scene of the episode, a file of papers floating in deep space along with hundreds of bodies reveals that the president is none other than evil Morty.
This twist completely changes the game for season 3. With evil Morty in charge, there is no telling how the universe will change. Episode one stated that this would be the darkest year for the series, and it has only gotten darker in this episode.
There are only three episodes left this season
With only three episodes left the writers have a big challenge ahead. They need to wrap up the evil Morty storyline within these next few episodes and make it memorable. I'm not saying it's not possible but it certainly will not be easy. I just hope that the season doesn't end on another dramatic cliffhanger like in season two because then I will have to wait a year and a half, or longer, to find out how the arc unravels.
Regardless, this is by far one of the best episodes this season. With an ingenious world, hilarious dialogue, a shocking twist, and a complete change in the storyline this episode will go down in history.
