Morty's Mind Blowers

After Morty requests to have a traumatic memory erased, Rick reveals a room where he has been storing numerous memories removed from Morty's mind.

"Morty's Mind Blowers" is the eighth episode of the third season of the American science fiction television series Rick and Morty. It follows the two titular characters, both voiced by Justin Roiland, as they experiment with Morty's lost memories. The episode was directed by Bryan Newton and written by various screenwriters, including Mike McMahan, who would later serve as a producer on the fourth season, and both series creators Roiland and Dan Harmon. "Morty's Mind Blowers" originally aired on Adult Swim on September 17, 2017, and was watched by 2.51 million viewers.

Quick Facts

Series

Rick and Morty

Director

Bryan Newton

Writer

Mike McMahan
James Siciliano
Ryan Ridley
Dan Guterman
Justin Roiland
Dan Harmon

Air date

17 September 2017

Length

22 minutes

Lore & Background

The episode's vignettes include Morty inadvertently driving an innocent man to suicide, tricking a pair of scientists into taking their place in an alien menagerie, and mistakenly dooming an alien's afterlife. He is also shown memories Beth and Summer had removed, where Beth chose to save Summer over Morty without hesitation and one where Morty is choking on a space worm and the family mocks him instead of helping him. Eventually it is revealed that the room also contains memories free of any trauma, where Rick was simply left appearing foolish, so he selfishly removed them from Morty's mind.

This revelation prompts a fight, resulting in Rick and Morty both having their memories accidentally erased. Morty scours the memories around him to replace the ones he lost, but he is displeased with the truth he finds and convinces Rick that they should kill themselves. Summer enters the room moments before they commit suicide. At this point, it is revealed that Rick has a contingency plan in place for an occasion such as this.

Following written instructions, Summer tranquilizes Rick and Morty, restores their memories, and drags them to the living room, placing them on the couch. Then Summer administers smelling salts to revive Rick and Morty. As they wake up, they're both angry at Summer, believing she allowed them to sleep through several shows on "Interdimensional Cable." In the post-credits scene, Jerry discovers a box labeled "Jerry's Mind Blowers", which contains a memory reminiscent of E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial where Jerry is accidentally responsible for the death of an alien.

Reader's Guide

The episode stars Roiland as Rick Sanchez and Morty Smith, Chris Parnell as Jerry Smith, Sarah Chalke as Beth Smith, and Spencer Grammer as Summer Smith. Jonas Briedis voices Zick Zack, an alien a member of the Floop Floopian race who believes that there is an afterlife. In one of Morty's memories, it is shown that Morty leads Zack to believe that there is no afterlife. While proclaiming that he wants to live, he is killed and dragged to hell by demons.

Gordon Lunas, a man Morty drives to kill himself before realizing that Lunas was actually a good person, is voiced by Maurice LaMarche. Phil Hendrie and Kari Wahlgren reprise their roles in the episode as series recurring characters Principal Gene Vagina and Jessica. A comic sequel of the same name, written by Kyle Starks, Tini Howard, Sarah Graley, Benjamin Dewey, and Josh Trujillo, with designs by Angie Knowles and Roiland's personal approval, was published by Oni Press in Rick and Morty #50 on May 29, 2019.

Did You Know?

The episode's writing credits include Mike McMahan, James Siciliano, Ryan Ridley, Dan Guterman, Justin Roiland, and Dan Harmon.
The series' writers posted on Twitter on September 18, 2017, that they had initially come up with 'about a hundred mind blowers, then had to narrow it down and vote, then still wrote more.'
The episode's title was announced on August 28, 2017.