| “ | My intact consciousness is too atheistic to get channeled to any afterlife worth robbing. |
| — Rick |
"Mort: Ragnarick" is the ninth episode of the seventh season of Rick and Morty. It is the 70th episode of the series overall. It premiered on December 10, 2023.[2] It was written by Jeremy Gilfor and Scott Marder and directed by Kyounghee Lim. This episode is rated TV-14-DLSV.
Synopsis[]
In an attempt to answer the age old question if there is an afterlife, Rick has Bigfoot kill him in order to enter Valhalla for a robbery. Things get pretty hectic when the pope gets involved in the situation.
Plot[]
Jerry is in a white void, only for a golden light to appear in front of him as his Nana comes to greet him. However, Jerry's Pop Pop is not around, apparently getting annoyed by something that is going on. It turns out to be another of Rick's experiments, which involved Jerry momentarily dying and entering the afterlife so he can find a way to find a source of infinite energy. Of course, this proves to be a problem as Rick is so against religion, he cannot enter a traditional heaven like Jerry could. Fortunately, Rick manages to find an alternate way to enter the afterlife.
Rick and Morty head to Norway and set up a bunker for the former's plan. Rick plans to enter Valhalla and set up an energy relay there so he can tap into the infinite energy for himself. And to make sure he dies a warrior's death, Rick has captured Bigfoot in a Pokeball, knowing that the latter will be enraged enough to kill him on sight. Sure enough, Bigfoot murders Rick in a brutal fashion, sending Rick's soul to Valhalla. Once there, Rick is killed again by a group of Vikings, only to be reborn in a tavern. Once Rick gets a layout of how the system works, he goes to a blacksmith's warehouse and knocks out the worker so he can get the materials he needs.
Back on Earth, Morty sees Bigfoot bury Rick's body and prays for forgiveness. Believing that Bigfoot isn't a brute like Rick presumed he was, Morty tries to comfort the former, only to get killed himself and enter Valhalla unwillingly. The Vikings and Morty see what Rick did to the blacksmith, and the group confronts Rick. Rick tries to pass himself as Odin, but Morty's presence ruins the charade. After Rick kills the Vikings, he scolds Morty for letting Bigfoot fool him and has his grandson get to work getting the energy relay set up as they are pressed for time.
With neither Rick or Morty around, Bigfoot attacks Rick's spare body that was supposed to be used after the energy relay network was built. However, a failsafe in the Operation Phoenix protocol activates, causing the spare body to jump out and act on survival instincts by running away. Bigfoot chases the Rick Clone into the city, only for him to get tranquilized by the police. Afterwards. two men in black suits come to take Bigfoot away, claiming that they work for the "man from upstairs".
Bigfoot is taken to the Vatican as the Pope express interest in using the former to kill all of his enemies. To make sure Bigfoot follows his commands, the Pope reveals that they captured the Rick Clone and offers the latter to the former as his prize.
In Valhalla, Rick and Morty try to work on building the relay while fighting against the Vikings simultaneously, as the former refuses to leave without getting his infinite energy. For the rest of the day, Morty uses every gadget Rick has to keep the Vikings away from the relay long enough for Rick to finish the relay. When Morty express concern about leaving the relay alone, Rick reveals he thought ahead. Rick and Morty destroy the tavern and trap the Vikings in a pit from the wreckage, telling them to stay away from the relay unless they want to be trapped in the pit forever.
Meanwhile, the Pope has Bigfoot kill several members of the Pope's enemies, using the Rick Clone as the makeshift "carrot and stick" to do so. After Bigfoot receives a wrist device to communicate properly, he asks the Pope to give him what he wants.
Rick and Morty leave Valhalla and go into new bodies, only to see that someone has hacked into the Earth side of the energy relay. Suddenly, Bigfoot storms into the garage and attacks Rick and Morty. Through Morty's urging, Rick apologizes to Bigfoot for bullying him for thinking he was stupid, but he brings up that while he used Bigfoot to kill him to enter Valhalla, the Pope has been using the latter to kill all of his enemies. Bigfoot realizes that the Pope was using him as a pawn and agrees to help Rick and Morty stop the Pope, with Rick upgrading his wrist device so he can speak without typing.
Bigfoot takes Rick and Morty to the Vatican, managing to storm their way to the Pope. However, the Pope reveals that he has tapped into Rick's infinite energy and kills the trio, sending them back to Valhalla due to bein connected to the relay. The trio return to the relay and manage to get back to Earth, though Bigfoot ends up in a Summer Clone due to Rick's assessment of her being the third most likely to die in the family. Then, Rick sets up Operation Phoenix to be a vending machine like rotation as he feels they will die countless times.
Sure enough, the trio die again, though when they return to Earth, Bigfoot gets his own human body thanks to Rick. They try again multiple times and go through multiple deaths, all getting themselves nowhere in stopping the Pope. In one attempt, they have Bigfoot's monster friends come to help them, but they all get killed. Realizing that this will go on forever, Rick tells Bigfoot to bring his friends to the relay as he and Morty go back to the Vikings. Rick admits he isn't Odin and gets the Vikings riled up by insulting their mothers, and he, Morty, and Bigfoot leave for Earth while the monsters handle the Vikings. When the trio return to the Vatican, the Pope tries to kill them again, but something happens to cause him to lose his infinite energy. This was Rick's plan all along, have the Vikings destroy the energy relay from Valhalla and cut the Pope off from the infinite energy. With the Pope powerless, Rick captures the latter in a Poke Ball.
With the adventure over, Rick and Morty send Bigfoot into the woods to live his life, even though the latter argues he can live a normal life due to having a normal body.
In the Post-Credit Scene, Rick is seen taking part in an illegal Pokemon battle using the Pope to battle another trainer when the FBI arrives and shuts the place down while Rick escapes via portal. After freeing him, the Pope asks who's running the Vatican to which the FBI shows a video of the Rick Clone as the new pope much to his horror.
Characters[]
Major characters[]
- Rick Sanchez
- Morty Smith
- Bigfoot
- The Pope
- Valhalla Vikings
Minor characters[]
- Rick's clone/Pope Rick
- Jerry Smith
- Summer Smith (clone body)
- Nana
- Pop-Pop
- Frankenstein
- Dracula
- Gillman
- The Mummy
- The Wolfman
- Trainer
- Pocket monster
- Spider-Man (mentioned)
- Thor (mentioned)
Deaths[]
- Jerry (8 times, temporarily)
- Rick (8 times, cloned back)
- Morty (8 times, cloned back)
- Bigfoot (7 times, cloned back)
- Devil worshippers
- Vatican guards
- Frankenstein's Monster
- Dracula
- Gill-man
- The Mummy
- The Wolfman
Locations[]
- Parmesan dimension
- Earth
- Norway
- Pokemon arena
- Woods
- Vatican Palace
- Smith Residence
- Heaven
- Valhalla
- Earth
Episode notes[]
Trivia[]
- Rick is shown to have several variations of the Portal Gun.
- In celebration of Season 7, Pocket Mortys' weekly updates coincided with new episodes, including new avatars for players to collect. With the release of this episode came Bigfoot as an avatar, plus Pocket Morty and Valhalla Morty to catch.
- This is the lowest viewed episode of the series so far, with 0.29 million viewers.[3]
- Beth does not appear in this episode.
Series continuity[]
- Bigfoot kills Rick, meaning Fleeflak's prediction came true in "Air Force Wong".
- Operation Phoenix once again makes a return. While in "Edge of Tomorty: Rick Die Rickpeat", Rick mentions that he axed his version of the protocol, it has seemingly been restarted and now seems to include backups of others besides Rick and Morty.
- During the montage where Rick, Morty, and Bigfoot are killed by the Pope, one instance has Rick wearing his armor suit from "Promortyus" and Bigfoot wearing an armor suit identical to the suits Rick, Morty, and The President wore in "Rick & Morty's Thanksploitation Spectacular". The armor Morty is identical to the power suit he wore in "Look Who's Purging Now" except its color palette has been changed from gray to amber.
- Morty's facial expression model when he's squeezed to death by Bigfoot is the exact same one he makes in the moment of brief depressurization of Rick's ship in "Rattlestar Ricklactica".
- The wristband translator device used by Gul'Karna from "How Poopy Got His Poop Back" appears again, as The Pope mentions how traded three muskets to another Predator to receive a wristband translator for Bigfoot so he can speak to him.
Cultural references[]
- The episode's title is a reference to the film Thor: Ragnarok.
- Rick has a Poké Ball from the Pokémon franchise that he uses to contain Bigfoot and the Pope as if they were Pokémon. He is seen using the Pope in battle like a Pokémon in the post credits scene.
- The Pokémon Arena where Rick battles in the post credit scene resembles the Golden Daggers Club arena from Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, and could also be a reference to the Pokémon battle arena from the film Pokémon Detective Pikachu.
- One of the Valhalla warriors mentions Dragon Balls when talking about Morty entering Valhalla, referencing the Dragon Ball manga series.
- Rick pretending to be Odin and referring to himself as Spider-Man's uncle references the Marvel Comics What If? story, "What If Odin were Peter Parker's Uncle?".
- When Rick upgrades a new voice into Bigfoot's Predator wrist gauntlet, Bigfoot starts to narrate the movie trailer for In Time. Furthermore, Bigfoot's narrator voice is an impression of late voice actor Don LaFontaine, known for voicing movie trailers.
- Rick mentions magician Criss Angel and compares him to the Pope using his powers to levitate.
- During the montage where Rick, Morty, and Bigfoot are killed by the Pope, one instance has them wearing armor made of pillows, referencing "Pillows and Blankets", a episode from Dan Harmon's other series, Community.
- The monsters that assist Rick, Morty, and Bigfoot reference the same lineup of monsters (Count Dracula, Frankenstein's Monster, The Wolf Man, The Gill-Man, and The Mummy) from the film The Monster Squad.
- The scene where Rick and Morty get emotional over returning Bigfoot to the woods is a reference to Harry and the Hendersons.
Transcript[]
View a full transcript of this episode here.
Gallery
Click here to view this page's gallery.