Since the beginning of Rick and Morty, C-137 Rick Sanchez has been a man with a purpose. Throughout the seasons, he’s hunted Rick Prime, but that path has seemingly come to a close in season 7.
There are many universes containing Rick Sanchez and Morty Smith, but the Rick we follow in the series hails from universe C-137. This Rick lives with a version of the Smith family that isn’t technically his own. Yet, over the years, he has grown close with his grandchildren, Morty and Summer, and his daughters, Beth/Space Beth. In between his adventures, Rick’s main purpose has been trying to find one particular version of himself: Rick Prime.
Who is Rick Prime?
Throughout Rick and Morty, we slowly get the entire story of Rick Prime. He’s the most “Rick” out of all the versions. He’s also several steps ahead in his planning and technology. As a paranoid failsafe, he’s also got many decoy versions of himself planted all over the multiverse. Rick Prime is the first version of Rick to achieve inter-dimensional travel. When it comes to his own universe, Rick Prime left and possibly never came back.
Rick Prime traveled to the other dimensions, granting the technology to other versions of himself. This is what began the Rick multiverse and eventually led to the creation of the Citadel of Ricks. When he traveled to reality C-137, he met the Rick we all know. This Rick, however, rejected the technology. He didn’t want to travel through space and time. C-137 Rick wanted to stay home with his wife and daughter, living his quiet life. Rick Prime couldn’t deal with that and killed C-137’s family.
This began C-137’s journey to kill Rick Prime. He developed the necessary technology and traveled to another dimension where his family lived. It surprised this version of the Smith family to see Rick after a twenty-year absence, but they let him live in their garage. However, Rick and Morty accidentally turned everyone in that reality into Cronenbergs. The pair fled into a different reality, where that version of Rick and Morty had died, and set up their new lives. We find out later in the series that the Cronenberg reality is the dimension that Rick Prime is originally from. This also means the main Morty of the show is Rick Prime’s actual grandson.
Did Rick kill Rick Prime?
In the new season of Rick and Morty, we’ve seen some shifts in Rick’s personality. He’s trying to change, even if that change is very slow and even more subtle. This is mostly pointed out when our favorite hive mind Unity comes to Earth to check on Rick. So far, season 7 has had nothing but solid episodes. The team delivered a masterful half-hour of Rick and Morty in episode 5, “Unmortricken.” Rick finally went up against Rick Prime in a showdown to end their epic game of cat and mouse. (Big kudos to the new voice actors for Rick and Morty’s new voice actors, Ian Cardoni Harry Belden respectively, who did a fantastic job stepping in as Rick/Rick Prime and Morty/Evil Morty.)
With some help from Evil Morty, Rick wins the fight against Rick Prime. In a brutal and emotionally hollow scene, Rick beats Rick Prime to death. Evil Morty also erases all the decoys of Rick Prime, ensuring his line is completely decimated. At the end of the episode, it looks like Rick Prime is dead. Of course, there is a possibility Rick Prime may show up again in some capacity, but it does seem like his story is done. The buildup had been going almost since the show began. As Rick finally achieves his goal, however, he feels emptiness rather than victory. Now he must figure out how to live the rest of his life without being consumed by revenge.
(featured image: Adult Swim)
