Warning: This article contains SPOILERS for Rick and Morty season 7, episode 9.

Summary

• Rick's search for the afterlife reveals his self-centered belief that he knows how every story ends, leading him to mistreat Bigfoot.
• Rick's hubris comes back to bite him when Bigfoot becomes an assassin for the Pope, forcing Rick to acknowledge his fallibility.
• Despite his occasional realizations, Rick's character change is unlikely to last as it would alter the dynamic between the show's title characters and hinder their future misadventures.

While the show’s antihero gets away with a lot due to his super-intelligence, Rick and Morty’s main character is cynical, amoral, lazy, and prone to placing his own desires ahead of everything else, including the safety of others. However, Rick can also be surprisingly selfless at times, and he is nowhere near as bad as his longtime nemesis, Rick Prime. Since Rick and Morty season 7, episode 5, "Unmortricken," killed off this recurring villain, the show’s protagonist has been interrogating his own faults.

Although Rick and Morty season 7’s story could have gone in several different directions after Rick Prime’s abrupt demise, season 7, episode 9, “Mort: Ragnarick,” was the first outing that centered Rick’s existential malaise. In the aftermath of his enemy’s defeat, Rick was left without a purpose, so he decided to go searching for the afterlife. This being Rick and Morty, Rick attempted to confirm the existence of Heaven by repeatedly killing his son-in-law Jerry and then reviving him as soon as he reached the afterlife. Rick claimed that the endless energy fueling the afterlife drove this search, but this wasn’t entirely honest. When later bringing Bigfoot into the situation to enter Valhalla, Rick's flaws came back to bite him in a surprisingly karmic outing.

Rick’s Smugness Cost Him Dearly In Season 7 Episode 9

Rick was clearly hoping to find a heaven that would someday house him so that he didn’t have to contend with his morality. Seeing the invulnerable Rick Prime killed by himself and Evil Morty shook him, leading Rick to season 7, episode 9’s quest. However, it was an accidental subplot that revealed more about Rick than his search for Heaven/Valhalla. Rick captured Bigfoot in a Pokeball and tortured the cryptid so that Bigfoot would attack him when the time was right, thus allowing Rick to enter Valhalla. When Morty asked what would then happen to Bigfoot, Rick onished him by saying that Bigfoot’s fate was an irrelevant B-story.

This self-centered belief that Rick knows how every story ends came back to bite him later in the episode. After Rick claimed Bigfoot’s story was unimportant compared to his own adventure, Bigfoot became an assassin for the Pope and tracked Rick down. Even Rick had to it that he shouldn’t have mistreated Bigfoot because he considered himself more intelligent than the creature, a line that proved the antihero was aware of his hubris. Rick and Morty season 7, episode 9’s post-credits scene proved that the Pope still hated Rick, but Bigfoot came to befriend him after Rick dropped his smug aloofness and accepted Bigfoot as his equal.

Rick's Past Proves His New Character Change Won't Last

While Rick did apologize to Bigfoot and acknowledged that he shouldn’t have used him as a pawn, viewers have seen him undergo similar realizations about his fallibility in episodes like season 5, episode 10, “Rickmurai Jack,” and season 4, episode 7, “Promortyus.” While he can see his flaws and learn from them, Rick can’t change too much without altering the dynamic between the show’s two title characters. As such, Rick’s revelation from “Mort: Ragnarick” is unlikely to stand in the way of his next self-centered plan. Otherwise, Rick and Morty’s hero would be unable to embark on the misguided adventures that define the series.