Rick & Morty Season 7 Breaks 1 Shocking Record After 69 Episodes That We Never Thought Would Happen

Warning: This article contains SPOILERS for Rick and Morty season 7, episode 8.

Rick and Morty season 7, episode 8 might seem like a standard episode of the long-running animated sitcom, the outing breaks one major show record that the series had held for 69 consecutive episodes. Rick and Morty is not consistent. The Adult Swim hit began as an anarchic Back to the Future parody, and its first two seasons consisted of zany standalone adventures that spoofed sci-fi, fantasy, and horror tropes. However, from Rick and Morty season 3 onward, the show began to take its characters more seriously. Rick and Morty’s season 5 finale was its darkest episode ever, while season 6 veered back into lighter comedy.

After season 6 lightened the show’s tone, season 7 bounced between lore-heavy, dramatic outings and sillier installments. And once Rick and Morty season 7 killed off Rick Prime out of nowhere, the show followed this massive canon-shaking event with a pair of its goofiest episodes yet. As such, it should come as no surprise that Rick and Morty season 7, episode 8, “Rise of the Numbericons: The Movie,” kept the show’s unpredictable nature alive by pulling off something that no earlier outing managed. However, this episode’s twist was so big that it managed to shock even seasoned viewers, as the outing broke with the show’s only consistent tradition.

Rick & Morty Season 7, Episode 8 Is The Show’s First Episode Without Rick

Rick Doesn’t Appear In This Rick And Morty Episode

“Rise of the Numbericons: The Movie” is the first Rick and Morty episode with no role for Rick himself. The episode sees Morty and Ice-T going on an intergalactic adventure with Morty’s math teacher, Mr. Goldenfold, but Rick doesn’t appear at any point. Only a few weeks after Rick and Morty changed R C-137’s entire arc by killing off his nemesis in a surprisingly abrupt fashion, the show gave him a week off. Even Morty didn’t appear until after the episode’s cold open, with the beginning of the outing focusing entirely on a battle between sentient numbers and letters that took place on an alien planet.

It was only when Ice-T’s character, Water-T, returned to earth to enlist Mr. Goldenfold’s help that Morty became involved in the adventure, and even then, Rick was nowhere to be seen. As the episode continued, it seemed increasingly likely that Rick would eventually appear to bail out the heroes when they got too far out of their depth. After all, some of Rick and Morty season 7 episode 7’s funniest moments came from Rick trying to find Summer and clean up her mess. However, this moment never arrived, and even the episode’s post-credits stinger didn’t feature Rick.

Rick & Morty Season 7’s Premiere Teased The Possibility Of Rick’s Absence

Season 7’s First Episode Barely Included Morty

Rick and Morty season 7 is the first outing to feature new voice actors for both title characters, who were previously portrayed by co-creator Justin Roiland. When Roiland was fired due to a domestic battery case in January 2023, it became clear that the show was likely to change its formula in response to this. However, only the first episode without Roiland took advantage of Rick and Morty’s new actors by sending the pair on separate adventures. In season 7, episode 1, “How Poopy Got His Poop Back,” Morty showed up briefly at the beginning of the episode but didn’t have a role outside this cameo.

This seemed to imply that Rick and Morty would set up more stories wherein the heroes were apart for episodes at a time. However, although season 7, episode 7 saw Morty separated from Rick when he became a Kuato, this didn’t diminish the role that either character played in the episode. Despite what the premiere promised, season 7 mostly continued to split its screen time pretty consistently between Rick and Morty. This is what made “Rise of the Numbericons: The Movie” so striking and surprising. The goofy plot and sci-fi parodies made it a classic Rick and Morty episode, but this made Rick’s absence even stranger.

Episode 8 Aided Rick & Morty Season 7’s Justin Roiland Replacement

Solo Episodes Allow Rick And Morty’s New Actors To Shine

Spending an entire episode with only one of Rick and Morty’s title characters gives viewers a better chance to get acquainted with their new, slightly different voices. As a result, outings like Rick and Morty season 7, episode 8 can aid the series in replacing Roiland. The fact that Rick, Morty, the villainous Rick Prime, and Evil Morty were all major characters voiced by Roiland can’t have been easy for the show’s creators. As such, it made sense for episodes like the premiere to focus on getting viewers used to Rick’s new voice, while “Rise of the Numbericons: The Movie” highlighted Morty’s replacement.

Season 7. episode 3, “Air Force Wong,” featured minimal appearances from Morty and allowed viewers to get used to Rick’s new voice actor. However, Rick has always been the unspoken protagonist of the series, and as Rick and Morty’s most complex and morally ambiguous character, he was always likely to be the first one to get an episode of his own. Even before Roiland’s exit, episodes like season 4, episode 2, “The Old Man and the Seat,” fleshed out Rick’s character in Morty’s absence. As such, season 7, episode 8 dropping Rick was a stellar opportunity for Morty’s new voice actor, Harry Belden, to impress.

Season 7, Episode 8 Proves Rick & Morty Is Still Experimenting (Which Is Great)

New Innovations Are Necessary To Keep Rick And Morty Fresh

Between “Rise of the Numbericons: The Movie,” the premiere’s lack of screen time for Morty, and the decision to put the show-shaking episode 5 in the middle of the season and not at the end, Rick and Morty season 7 is clearly committed to toying with the show’s usual formula. This is great news, since the series could easily have become tired and stale in its seventh outing. Even the most critically acclaimed shows struggle to maintain their popularity after a decade on the air.

Despite this, Rick and Morty co-creator Dan Harmon’s new show Krapopolis is struggling to outdo The Simpsons in terms of critical write-ups, which shows that longevity alone isn’t necessarily enough to kill an animated comedy show’s prospects. However, The Simpsons outdoing Harmon’s new show also proves the value of an aging series playing with its formula. Like The Simpsons, Rick and Morty could continue forever if the show is willing to keep its setup fresh and unpredictable. Episodes like “Rise of the Numbericons: The Movie,” which saw Rick and Morty meaningfully subverting its formula, go a long way in this regard.