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Throughout Rick and Morty season 8, the creators keep innovating with fresh directions in terms of storytelling that go outside the primary Smith family, and Episode 3, "The Rick, The Mort & The Ugly," is a prime example of this. It was broadcast on June 8, 2025, at 11 p.m. The show focuses away from the core Rick and Morty team towards the remains of the Citadel and a band of clones who are grappling with their identity following its destruction.
This episode was referred to as a "spiritual sequel" to Season 3's The Ricklantis Mixup. As with "Rick and Morty Season 8," it maintains the series' signature mix of philosophical overtones, dark satire, and surreal humor. But rather than featuring the Smith family, it goes for world-building, seeing what ensues when abandoned copies of Rick and Morty attempt to construct a new civilization in a post-Citadel wasteland.
Rick and Morty Season 8 Episode 3 plot summary
A westerner out of the wreckage
The story begins in the ruins of the Citadel, where a group of clone Ricks and Mortys have made home. Rather than anarchy, they've established a ranch-style town, complete with saloons and gunfights. The location is significant—these alternates have adopted a brutish, anarchic frontier as they seek to forge new roles for themselves now that no single authority exists.
This town is overrun with quirky clone variants such as Hillbilly Rick, Arcade Morty, and others who were introduced as excluded outcasts in earlier episodes. Although they all possess similar personality traits to the originals, their variations highlight how unique the clone experience has become under the lack of control by the Citadel.
Power struggles & community tensions in Rick and Morty Season 8 Episode 3
As the clone society attempts to reconstitute, tensions increase. One side in the town advocates for reviving the old Citadel building, convinced that it provides security and meaning. Others, as yet battered by their past, are anxious about going back to regimes that cheapened their lives. This ideological divide results in an escalating struggle over identity, control, and survival.
The episode has no main antagonist per se. Rather, the main conflict is the philosophy: Should clones hang on to the legacy of the Citadel or go their own way? That question is fleshed out in terms of infighting, poor leadership, and spontaneous justice in classic Western style.
The main character appearances in Rick and Morty Season 8, Episode 3
Even though it is a flagship episode concerning Rick and Morty, this one is virtually free of the main counterparts (Rick C-137 and his Morty). They have very little screen time and are unnecessary to the main plot of the episode. This is similar to The Ricklantis Mixup's strategy, where viewers initially assumed the episode would revolve around Rick and Morty but were actually presented with the immense expansiveness of the Citadel.
Beth, Summer, or Space Beth do not appear as well. The Smith family does not appear, and no emotional or story development concerning them transpires in this episode.
Themes in Rick and Morty Season 8
While subtle and integrated into dark humor, the episode is grappling with several thematic concepts:
Post-authority: The clones have to find out what their individual and group identities are outside of the Citadel's control.
Reconstruction vs. reinvention
One of the central story conflicts is whether to restore the Citadel or leave it behind for something new.
Isolation & belonging
The Western town is used as a metaphor for how outsiders create new ways of community.
Clone agency
The episode delves into how clones, typically utilized as instruments, assert independence in a broken system.
Significantly, these are explored through alternate characters' experiences rather than the original. This decision transfers emotional significance from recognized arcs to speculative, world-building ones.
Tone, structure, and reception in Rick and Morty season 8
The episode stylistically combines satirical absurdity and subdued emotional touches, enabling episodes of silliness to rub up against profound introspection. The Western aesthetic provides a cinematic bite, pitting high-tech anarchy normally found with Rick and Morty's multiverse adventures.
Early critical reception defines the episode as:
An impeccably done narrative turn that foregrounds side characters.
A "smart follow-up" to The Ricklantis Mixup formula.
A robust character piece for clone iterations instead of the original cast.
Audiences familiar with the show's occasional forays into world-expanding appreciated the format, while others were surprised to see the utter lack of the main cast.
Continuity and canon placement in Rick and Morty season 8
This episode follows up on plot threads left unresolved since the destruction of The Citadel in Season 7. Although Rick Prime's storyline is complete, the structural gap that his storyline left in its wake can become the setting of The Rick, The Mort & The Ugly. There's no progression regarding the main narrative revolving around Rick C-137's or Morty's personal grudges.
Rather, it broadens the Rick and Morty multiverse canon by lending voice and depth to its "minor characters," raising new questions about centralized power's fallout and the psychology of clones' independence.
The Rick, The Mort & The Ugly is a thought-provoking, format-defying episode of Rick and Morty Season 8 that favors world-building over character development. By focusing on the shattered lives of clone Ricks and Mortys living in a post-Citadel world, the episode diverges from the primary cast and probes into speculative morality, social roles, and the specters of oppressive systems.
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Although it won't please audiences expecting main-character arcs, it's an important fragment in the ever-expanding puzzle of the Rick and Morty universe, particularly for those viewers who enjoy risk-taking narratives and wide-reaching storytelling outside of the core family.
Also read: Rick and Morty Season 8 release schedule: When do new episodes of the animated series drop?
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