Content warning: The following contains discussions of suicide.

The writers of Rick and Morty really know how to hit their viewers in the feels. It has made its name as 1 of the most emotionally torturous shows on the air. It's also actually funny and plays around with sci-fi concepts uniquely and interestingly, similar in Rick and Morty's Morty's Listen-Blowers.

Fans come up for the jokes and the sci-fi concepts and stay for the emotional ruin. With an alcoholic nihilist for a lead character, Rick and Morty has delivered more than than a few moments that brought fans to the brink of tears.

Updated on April fifth, 2022 by Alex Gentile: Rick Sanchez and Morty Smith have embarked on dozens of adventures over the years. Flavour 5 brought some of the show's virtually intriguing plotlines in 2021, revealing new details into the Rick and Morty universe. Furthermore, some of the saddest moments from the series come in its later seasons. This list has been updated with some of Rick and Morty's more recent tales of woe.

Rick Sacrifices Himself To Save Morty

In the season 2 premiere, "A Rickle in Fourth dimension," Rick and Morty find themselves tumbling through an empty void between the many timelines they created. Rick has designed collars to get them dorsum into their own time, but Morty's is broken, so Rick makes the difficult decision to sacrifice himself to save Morty virtually instantly.

He gives Morty his collar and then prepares himself for expiry. But then he finds Morty's neckband and manages to fix it in fourth dimension. The moment earlier Rick realizes he's going to be okay is deplorable, but it too proves once and for all that Rick does care about Morty.

Morty Buries His Own Corpse

Season 1's "Rick Potion No. 9" might have been the first truly neat episode of Rick and Morty. At the end of the story, Rick realizes that the mess he and Morty accept made is irreparable.

They've filled the world with "Cronenbergs" and they take to leave their reality behind, find ane where they died, and take their place in that reality. It's a funny twist at commencement, but it leads to a harrowing and heartbreaking moment as Morty has to coffin his ain corpse in the backyard and then go on living with the knowledge that his life is a lie.

Morty Breaks Upwardly With Planetina

In Season 5's "A Rickconvenient Mort," Morty finally has some romantic luck. He falls in dear with a superhero, Planetina, and the two hit it off. Planetina is a hero driven past ecological pursuits. When she comes across some coal miners, she ignores their fifty-fifty-handed defence for harming the environment, flips her chapeau, and massacres them all.

Morty is turned off by the incident, and despite his feeling for her, tin can't continue his human relationship with Planetina. The moment is so sad because it unpacks the complicated nature of relationships. Morty understands Planetina's point of view and feels close to her, but can't move forward having seen what he did.

Rick Turns Himself Into The Intergalactic Feds

The season 2 finale of Rick and Morty, "The Wedding Squanchers," ended with a tremendous cliffhanger that fans perchance weren't expecting. Although Rick and the family unit had gone on the run and establish a new little planet to alive on, they had no quality of life, and so Rick decided to turn himself in to protect them.

As Rick is taken to an intergalactic prison and locked up with hundreds of other inmates, the sounds of "Injure" past Ix Inch Nails assist the gravity of the state of affairs prepare in. Of grade, Rick would be back out with the family inside ane episode in season three, only information technology felt like a huge, momentous, irrevocable crunch when the episode aired. Many might say information technology is one of the best moments of Season 2 ofRick and Morty.

Summertime Berates Jerry

In Season iv'due south "Childrick of Mort," the Smith family goes camping on a foreign planet. The chief plotline follows Rick afterward he learns a planet is pregnant with his intergalactic offspring. As the events of the episode begin to unfold, Jerry brings Summer and Morty to set up upwardly a military camp spot.

As they get started, Summer and Morty lay into Jerry. Morty whines nigh wanting to hang out with Rick, but Summer takes things upward a notch. She character assassinates Jerry and accuses him of only taking them camping to brand him seem similar he's "worth a f***." The sequence is sad, partly considering viewers can tell Jerry believes her.

Birdperson Reveals The Tragic Meaning Backside "Wubba-lubba-dub-dub!"

Catchphrases are considered to be lazy and tacky, but Rick and Morty has revolutionized the idea of a catchphrase, firstly by satirizing it with the wacky, random, ostensibly meaningless Rick and Mortyquote, "Wubba-lubba-dub-dub!" and secondly by giving information technology an entirely new context.

At their big party during the season one finale "Ricksy Concern," Birdperson tells Morty that, in his linguistic communication, the seemingly nonsensical phrase translates as: "I am in bang-up pain. Delight aid me." Rick isn't very open most his emotions, considering he doesn't believe in therapy and deals with his hurting by bottling information technology up, merely information technology sometimes comes out in interesting ways like this.

Morty Loses His Girlfriend

Perhaps one of the almost touching and heartbreaking sequences inRick and Morty comes in "The Vat of Acid Episode" in Season 4. In the episode, Rick begrudgingly brings i of Morty's ideas to life. He wants a device that tin make him restart from any point in life like he is in a living videogame without consequences. Nevertheless, amid the adventure, Morty meets a girl, falls in love, and develops a life with her.

In the sequence void of dialogue, the couple meets a tragic event and takes a harrowing journey to rescue. All the same, Jerry accidentally resets Morty'south remote, and the entire relationship is lost. The moment hits difficult because the sequence in which Morty and the girl develop a relationship is and then sugariness. Viewers mayhap want to cry along with Morty when the rug is pulled out from nether them.

The Final Room In The Vindicators' Trap Was Designed For Noob-Noob

For the nearly role, season 3's "Vindicators 3: The Return of Worldender" is a spot-on parody of MCU movies. While heavily intoxicated, Rick sets up an elaborate Saw-style trap for the superhero team that ends with a final room in which the one person Rick cares almost is supposed to sit in a fiddling carriage and go through an entertainment park ride.

Morty thinks it's him and he'due south the right size and weight to activate the ride. However, as he goes through the ride, he realizes that information technology was actually designed for Noob-Noob, the janitor who always laughed at Rick'due south jokes.

Rick And Morty Take A Break

Rick and Mortydeveloped quite a stir with their virtually contempo flavour. Perhaps the most buzzworthy rumor came around the airing of "Forgetting Sarick Mortshall," that the titular duo would part means in the episode.

They don't exactly say goodbye for good, only the episode unpacks the toxic nature of Rick and Morty'south human relationship. Sadness carries throughout the story, equally Rick berates Morty while he tries to grapple with his feelings about his unfriendly granddad.

Rick About Kills Himself

In flavor two'south "Auto Erotic Absorption," Rick falls for a hive mind, has a not bad time with her, and so gets dumped. Like most sitcom episodes, everything seems to be dorsum to normal by the cease of the show as Rick and Morty return home and Rick retreats to his garage.

However, unlike most sitcom episodes, Rick is shown to be deeply affected by losing his beloved. He sets up a device that tin can impale him, but he passes out right before it activates. This is easily one of the most shocking and gut-wrenching moments in the show'south history.

NEXT: x Best Rick And Morty Invitee Stars, Ranked

How Powerful Are Moon Knight'due south Egyptian Gods Compared To Thor & Odin?

About The Author

Ben Sherlock (3451 Articles Published)

Ben Sherlock is a author, comedian, contained filmmaker, and Burt Reynolds enthusiast. He writes lists for Screen Rant and features and reviews for Game Rant. He'southward currently in pre-production on his first feature (and has been for a while, considering filmmaking is expensive). You can catch him performing standup at odd pubs around the Britain that will give him phase time. Previously, he wrote for Taste of Movie theatre, Comic Volume Resource, and BabbleTop.

More From Ben Sherlock