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 her reality's 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 own 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. The alternate Rick drops a bomb that kills Rick's wife Diane and a young
Beth, driving Rick to invent his own multiversal portal gun. Morty and Summer are captured by the Smith family of the Cronenberg World, but are saved by the Citadel Militia, who send the two to the Council of Ricks. Upon learning that Rick was captured, Seal Team Ricks announce their plan to dispatch a team to assassinate him. At the prison, Rick deceives the Galactic Federation into believing he divulged the secrets of his portal gun, claiming he fabricated his backstory. With their guard lowered, Rick hacks into Federation technology to switch bodies with Cornvelious, who is shot by SEAL Team Ricks. Rick transfers his consciousness into one of the SEAL Team Ricks and kills the others. He infiltrates the Citadel of Ricks, and manages to teleport the station into the same space as the Federation prison. This propels both sides into a massive battle; Rick then uses the ensuing chaos to rescue Morty and Summer and kill the Council of Ricks. In the confusion, Rick enters the Federation mainframe — revealed to be his reason for turning himself in. He uses this access to make the Galactic Federation's single currency worthless, thereby destroying the Federation's economy. The Federation falls into chaos and collapses as a result, with the aliens leaving Earth. from 1998. Heralded a hero by Summer and Beth, Rick returns to the Smith household where
Jerry issues Beth to choose him or Rick; Beth chooses Rick. As Morty copes with his parents' divorce, Rick reveals to Morty that his ulterior motive was to make both the Galactic Federation and Jerry "go away", punishing Jerry for his betrayal by threatening to turn him in to the government in the
second-season finale and ensuring his role as Morty's
de facto male influence. This devolves into Rick going on a monologue, in homage to his rant at the conclusion of the
pilot episode, about how their adventures are bound to be darker than before. Rick also professes his passion for the
Szechuan Sauce once available at
McDonald's as a promotional item for the 1998 film
Mulan, much to Morty's confusion. In the post-credits scene, Tammy observes Birdperson's resurrection as a cyborg dubbed "Phoenix Person". == Production ==