Rick and Morty season 5 finally answers the show's biggest mystery

Rick and Morty will never be the same again. The season 5 finale "Rickmurai Jack" has not only confirmed the tragic backstory of Rick, but it’s also revealed two master plans that blow the show wide open.

But first, let’s head back to Rick’s past. The series drops a heavy helping of lore into our laps this week. We discover what we all suspected: an alternate, evil version of Rick dropped into ‘our’ Rick’s universe and killed his wife Diane and daughter Beth.

That sent the younger Rick on a spiral of drinking and destruction, culminating in him finding the killer and putting a permanent end to that Rick. As hinted at earlier in the season, Rick hopped to another universe and found another Beth to live with.

But wait, there’s more. The season 5 finale brought back the eyepatch-wearing Evil Morty. Last seen in a major role during season 3’s "Tales From the Citadel", the now-President Morty reveals that Rick – and countless other Ricks – have conspired across an infinite amount of universes to make sure Beth and Jerry meet and, thus, a Morty is born.

That all leads to Evil Morty’s plan. The product of all of these Mortys, the Finite Curve Barrier (Marvel fans, think of this as the Sacred Timeline but as a way for all Ricks to make sure they’re the top dog in their own respective universes), is destroyed by Evil Morty, along with the Citadel.

The end goal? For Evil Morty to travel to a multiverse where Rick isn’t the smartest, most brilliant man in the universe. He succeeds and, thanks to his use of portal technology, may have even changed Rick and Morty forever by putting a serious limit on which universes they can now jump to – i.e. none.

The series’ volte-face towards canon is a surprising one, but certainly welcome. It remains to be seen how permanent these changes are going forward but, if nothing else, the tragic backstory of Rick has been rubber-stamped – and fans have finally got the answers to some of their biggest questions.

Relive some of the show's finest moments with our ranking of the best Rick and Morty episodes.