Mort Dinner Rick Andre

Plot

In a near-fatal spaceship crash, Morty calls Jessica to confess his love. Unaware of the danger, Jessica asks to come over for a movie. Motivated, Morty steers the ship into a palm tree, landing safely in the ocean. Rick, furious, reveals his long war with Mr. Nimbus, who controls the sea.

Nimbus appears and demands a dinner meeting at Rick's house to negotiate a treaty. Rick agrees, using it as a distraction while Summer dives into the Mariana Trench to steal Nimbus's magic conch shell, the source of his power. To prepare, Rick has Morty throw wine bottles into a portal where time moves faster to age them. When Jessica arrives and asks for wine, Morty enters the portal.

It leads to a farm where a bovine man named Hoovy helps carry a crate back. Returning through the portal, Hoovy finds his wife long dead, and his furious young adult son mortally wounds him. Hoovy blames Morty. Over generations, Hoovy's son, grandson, and descendants prepare for each of Morty's returns to kill him.

They eventually capture Jessica, so Morty goes after her. They trick and trap him, but Morty escapes with Jessica, aided by Rick and Nimbus, who forgives his enemy, acknowledging they are nothing without each other. Back home, Jessica, in a trance, shares a new understanding of time and leaves, disappointing Morty. As Rick and Nimbus reconcile, Summer enters with the conch shell, enraging Nimbus again.

He beats Rick savagely and summons police to arrest him. In a post-credits scene, Beth and Jerry debate whether to accept Mr. Nimbus's threesome offer before doing so, assured by Nimbus that Rick will understand.

Production

The season five premiere, "Mort Dinner Rick Andre," was written by Jeff Loveness and directed by Jacob Hair, the same duo behind season four's "The Vat of Acid Episode." This marked Loveness's fifth script for the series. An animatic of the cold open was released by Adult Swim in July 2020. Although the episode aired as the planned season opener, the writers briefly considered swapping it with the next episode, "Mortyplicity."

The voice cast includes Jim Gaffigan as Hoovy, Dan Harmon as Mr. Nimbus, and Kari Wahlgren as Jessica. Adult Swim also made the episode available on YouTube. Mr. Nimbus was originally created for an earlier episode but never used. Loveness described him as either Rick's "antithesis" or his "purest form."

Justin Roiland noted that Mr. Nimbus is not unique as Rick's "nemesis" and does not match Rick's power level. However, in this episode, Rick is more restrained than usual, forced to "play by the rules and not do any crazy shit." Roiland considered Morty's plot more significant, which came from a discarded idea where Morty left a copy of Beverly Hills Cop III in a pocket dimension and returned days later to find 4,000 years had passed and a society had formed around the film. He explained that using a pocket dimension to age wine quickly made sense.

Analysis

The episode's name is a reference to the 1981 film My Dinner with Andre, a talk-heavy comedy-drama about two friends dining together. Dan Harmon, who previously worked on the Community episode "Critical Film Studies" that also paid homage to that film, was involved here. Kevin Perry of The Independent argued the title is a misdirection, making viewers expect a long conversation between Rick and Mr. Nimbus instead of Morty's quest for wine. According to Joe Matar of Den of Geek, the episode mirrors the season four premiere by ignoring the previous season's cliffhanger and focusing on time, the character Jessica, and Morty experiencing romantic failure.

Mr. Nimbus mentions Diane to Rick, a character previously hinted to be Beth's mother and Rick's ex-wife. Harmon stated that Rick's past would be explored more later. Morty shows frustration with following Rick's orders, signaling his growth from the more timid version seen in season one. Harmon explained that Morty's change comes from being on the show so long, not from simply getting older.

Reception

Critics had mixed reactions to the episode. Joe Matar of Den of Geek gave it 3.5 out of five stars, calling it "smart and well-written" but noting the familiar trope of accelerated time in a pocket dimension. He found the Jessica storyline's conclusion "funny and insane," while his opinion on Mr. Nimbus was neutral—neither particularly funny nor hateful. David Opie of Digital Spy praised the premiere for its inventiveness and for not resetting the status quo, which he said allows for deeper character growth. Kevin Perry of The Independent highlighted the focus on Morty as the episode's strongest element, calling it a promising direction for the series that rekindles fans' original love for the show.