This article is about Rick Sanchez (C-137). You may be looking for other versions of Rick.

“ Wubba lubba dub-dub! ” —Rick's Season 1 catchphrase[src]

Richard "Rick" Sanchez, also known as Rick C-137, is the titular main protagonist of Rick and Morty. He is a genius scientist whose alcoholism and reckless, nihilistic behavior are a source of concern for his daughter's family, as well as the safety of their son, Morty. He is voiced by Justin Roiland.

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Biography

Not much is known about Rick's life before his current state seen in the show except for a few things that have been vaguely mentioned in the series. It has been mentioned multiple times that Rick has been absent from the family for 20 years, and it wasn't until one year before the events of "Something Ricked This Way Comes" when Rick finally returned to the Smith house on January 15th.[4] The reason for his absence is unknown to the rest of the family.

In the Pilot episode, Rick told Beth that he loved the eggs that she made him and that her mother would have loved them too if she was still there. In the episode Rick Potion #9, it is revealed that Rick has a very pessimistic worldview, informing Morty that love is "just a chemical reaction that compels animals to breed", advising him not to continue the cycle of love, marriage, and heartbreak that he had to go through and that his parents would likely go through, and instead encourages him to direct his interests towards science. This could imply that the woman he married before is either divorced and/or deceased as of now. In "The Wedding Squanchers", Rick mentions that he "couldn't make a [marriage] work" which might imply that he is a divorcee. Whether or not his wife is dead, divorced, or both remains a mystery, but nevertheless, she is absent from his life.

Rick used to be a rock star/bassist. In the episode Get Schwifty, it was revealed that when Rick was somewhere in his college years or in his 20's, he, Birdperson, and Squanchy were in a rock band called "The Flesh Curtains". He played as the bassist in said band. However the comics contradict this in issue seven, showing him playing electric guitar. So in conclusion, he might have played both the bass and the electric guitar.

Rick is also shown to be a terrorist on an inter-galactic level. In the episode "The Wedding Squanchers", Rick willingly turned himself over to the Galactic Federation and was sent to one of their maximum security prisons - he was apparently in prison for "everything". He would later orchestrate a massive escape attempt, leading to the elimination of the Council of Ricks, significant damage to the Citadel, and the destabilization of the entire Galactic Federation's economy. In "The Wedding Squanchers," he alludes to the fact that he participated in an inter-galactic war called Battle of Blood Ridge against the Gromflomites with Birdperson. This shows that Rick is a notorious inter-galactic terrorist.

As of now, Rick is about 70 years old and currently resides in his room in the Smith house. He also uses the garage as partial living quarters. In the garage, he works on his inventions and science - for example, traveling to other dimensions, building various robots and devices, and causing general mayhem in different parts of the universe, be it dimensions, planets, or alternate realities.

Appearance

Rick is a tall, lanky old man. He has long legs and arms, and is very skinny. He has a dimly tanned ashy complexion and grey-blue hair with a bald spot on the back of his head. He has spiky blue hair on his head and a unibrow. His face is wrinkly as he has bags under his eyelids and a pressure fold above his unibrow that follows its position and laugh lines on both sides of his mouth. He wears a white lab coat with a light blue undershirt underneath it. He also wears brown pants, a dark brown belt with a yellow buckle, and black shoes. He is occasionally seen with some green spill on his mouth, showing up mainly when he is drunk, or during a rare chance where he throws up. Rick speaks in a rambling, stammering manner that is often interrupted by belching and gagging, usually from being drunk.

Personality

Rick is a genius scientist, capable of creating complex scientific inventions, including brain-enhancing helmets, dream-invading devices, portals to several different dimensions, various energy weapons and force fields, and the world's first amusement park inside the body of a living human. His brilliance can be muddled by his jaded personal views and his alcoholic tendencies. Rick is easily bored and does not do well with routine. When his curse removing store in the episode Something Ricked This Way Comes started requiring real work, Rick simply lit the whole store on fire and abandoned it. He regularly goes to other dimensions to harvest resources and will often willingly kill aliens to get them. He is willing to be extremely brutal such as when people betray him or his life or those close to him are in danger. He is usually portrayed as homicidal and having a large disregard for life, enough that he came close to bombing the world with neutrinos while drunk. He was shown to find killing fun during the Purge and was even willing to kill Morty's half-Gazorpian son due to the child's danger to everyone and unstable nature.

This does not make him completely heartless, however, as he has been shown to be shocked, startled or annoyed by the loss of life that he deems unnecessary, foolish, or unreasonable. He was annoyed at Morty for letting Fart live, resulting in a chase with local police that cost many bystanders their lives. In addition to that, he was panicked when Unity destroyed an entire city that Rick thought still had people in it since he was unsure if Summer and Morty were there or not. He also was shocked and upset by people he was close to dying or nearly dying, such as when Mr. Poopybutthole was shot and he ran to his side in fear for the latter's life. When Bird Person was killed by Tammy, Rick expresses his concern by shrieking "No, Birdperson!" and flies into a rage, mowing down multiple Federation troops. In "Interdimensional Cable 2: Tempting Fate", Rick gasps when seeing Jerry being shot several times, and left mutilated. During the time of the Festival, he only watched the killing for a few short seconds before becoming overwhelmed by the violence and vomiting. Later, when helping Arthricia get revenge against the upper class, he felt he had done enough killing and began to find it gratuitous. In the past, Rick was a "hero" like Clone Beth but eventually stopped.

Contrary to popular belief, Rick is not a nihilist. Although his commonly-stated viewpoint on life may be the typical nihilistic idealism that "nothing has meaning", he doesn't always put his money where his mouth is. Rick expresses love and emotion for his family and lovers on an almost episodic basis. Plot relevant instances include "The ABC's of Beth", which proves his fatherly love for Beth and "Auto Erotic Assimilation", where he's being dumped by Unity made him depressed enough to cry. Rick frequently reminds people that he's above everything that could hold meaning or value to him and made "I don't give a fuck!" his new catchphrase in "Ricksy Business", but this is all a mask. Rick is shown to care about maintaining relationships with others and holds a sentimental value of his family.

Rick has the tendency to be possessive and dominating of Morty, believing the boy to be his own personal helper. This doesn't prevent Rick from genuinely caring about Morty. He occasionally uses his own inventions to improve his grandson's life, such as invading the dreams of Mr. Goldenfold to help raise his math grades, though this could have been a tactic for Morty to skip more school to go on adventures with Rick [5]. Rick also demonstrates being fairly protective of Morty, as shown in the episode "Meeseeks and Destroy", where he eventually sets aside his cynicism to allow Morty to have a positive adventure, and abruptly kills Mr. Jellybean as the two are leaving the fantasy world because of the previous attempted rape on Morty.[6] He even tried to sacrifice himself for Morty in A Rickle in Time and accepted death, that is until he saw a way out of dying. He cried when seeing pictures of Morty and remembering Morty as a newborn reaching out to him, when he was held captive by Evil Rick, causing Evil Rick to mock him for his irrational attachment for Morty.

Rick and Morty have a strong bond, even though their relationship is strained due to Rick's cynicism, alcoholism, lack of conventional morality, and his tendency to push aside other members of the Smith family. Rick's carelessness is prevalent around Jerry, as he clearly doesn't respect him in any sense, and his relationship with Beth can be tumultuous at times. In "Raising Gazorpazorp" and "Something Ricked This Way Comes", Summer tags along on some of Rick's adventures. Rick initially had very little interest in her, but over time as the two spent time together, they have begun to develop a closer bond.

Rick is shown to have trouble taking orders from others. He is anti-totalitarian. As a result, Rick tends to dislike people with authority and government officials. He refuses to join the Council of Ricks, because he views them as a government. He also calls the guards at Intergalactic Customs "robots" and claims that he doesn't respect them, as he deems them bureaucrats and doesn't like "being told where to go and what to do". Rick also has a great dislike of standardized education, claiming that school "isn't a place for smart people" and a "waste of time", and insists that things such as studying and homework are pointless and stupid.

Rick claims to be atheistic, but holds seemingly contradictory beliefs on religion. At one point, he tells Summer at the breakfast table in the pilot, "There is no God" - yet in the "Anatomy Park" episode, he tells the family "Do you realize that Christ was born today? Jesus Christ our savior was born today-are you people even human? What kind of Christmas is this?" This comment was most likely sarcastic. He also quickly recognizes Mr. Needful as "the devil", and when he's under the impression that he is going to die while one of the other sixty-three Ricks is chasing after Morty's lost collar, actually kneels and prays, "Please God, if there's a Hell, please be merciful to me" (significantly, when no one is around). However, when the 1/64th Rick succeeds, he retracts his statement yells "Fuck you God, not today, bitch!" So, this allusion to religion may have just been a sarcastic comment. When the Ricks recombine in the presence of Summer and Morty, he once again says "I did it! There is no God! In your face!" It's possible this is just due to Rick's ego and his complete confidence in his own abilities.

Rick is most likely just atheistic making religious jokes and references, as in Never Ricking Morty, it is revealed that the most uncharacteristic act Rick would do is resort and pray to Jesus Christ, as it crashes the entire "story train".

Despite his general disregard for others, he is shown to harbor deep emotional pain and sorrow, especially when it comes to his romantic relationships, such as with his ex-wife and Unity. Not much is known about his marriage, but the absence of his wife is possibly a contributing factor to his current personality. However, much more is known about his relationship with Unity. After Rick freshest up during a long day with Unity's hive mind avatars, he returned to find Unity and all the planet's inhabitants gone, leaving behind a farewell note for Rick explaining that while Unity enjoyed its time with him, they could not be together. Unity calls out the fact that Rick mentally controls people, whereas Unity physically controls people, and that when they are together they bring out the worst in each other. They are too alike in the sense that they both turn others into mirror images of themselves (in Rick's case, he does so through bad influence rather than assimilation).

Rick And Morty Season 2 Episode 3 Ending

Substance Abuse

Dejected, heartbroken, and alone, Rick returned home, where he was confronted by Beth over the alien hidden in the basement lair, and asked him to keep no more alien pets. To Beth's (and the whole family's) shock, Rick simply conceded and retreated to the garage, where he clumsily attempted suicide with a makeshift death ray. He first killed a small, Cronenberg-like creature he kept, as it suffered from space AIDS and was living in agony. After Beth and Jerry let Blim Blam escape, Rick decides to euthanize the small alien. He thawed it out with a serum, comfortingly petting it as it cried out and screamed. He turned it to ash with the death ray before he sat down under it as it was about to fire again, only to pass out at the last moment while the death ray overloaded and fried. He remained slumped over his workbench, passed out, for the majority of the day and night. Rick and Morty then visited Beta 7's world, where Unity is staying. Rick lashed out at Beta 7, insisting to see Unity again, but Beta 7 informs Rick that he's considered a "hostile entity" and threatened to attack the two unless they left. Rick reluctantly does, at Morty's urging to go to the movies.

Originally, Rick's consumption of alcohol is presented more from a comedic viewpoint throughout the series' run, but in the Season 1 finale "Ricksy Business", Bird Person claims that Rick is in "great pain" (citing his catchphrase "wubba lubba dub dub" as meaning "I am in great pain. Please help me." in Bird Person's language), and that he uses drugs and alcohol to numb himself. This is most likely due to his genius intelligence, nihilism, and the traumatizing effect that his continuous adventures may have on him, in the past and present (in "Rick Potion No. 9", Rick explains that the best method on how to deal with horrible events and outcomes is to "not think about it").

Criminal Record

Throughout his numerous adventures with Morty, Rick has been shown to be ready and willing to disregard rules, laws and social norms if it is necessary to complete a task or escape a dangerous situation. Season one has Rick resorting to assault, battery, vandalism, smuggling, corruption of a minor, home invasion, reckless endangerment, terrorist threats, indecent exposure a nd even murder and arson in order to get the job done. The most common crimes committed are driving (or flying, in Rick's case) under the influence, drug abuse, and public intoxication.

In "The Wedding Squanchers," Rick is arrested by the Galactic Federation. His full criminal record is displayed on a monitor. Although in an alien language and unreadable, it is shown to be quite long. After he is placed under maximum security, another prisoner asks him "What are you in for?", to which Rick responds simply with "Everything"

Relationships

Family

Though exploitative and demanding, Rick genuinely cares about his grandson and values their adventures together, making him one of the few Ricks to do so. He hesitates to outwardly show any love or appreciation however, making sure Morty doesn't get cocky. In "M. Night Shaym-Aliens!", Rick seems genuinely surprised to find that the Morty he traveled with turned out to be a simulation, calling the Zigerions "diabolical sons of bitches", angry that they simulated his genitalia. He later becomes very drunk and threatens the real Morty with a knife, demanding to know whether or not he is another simulation before passing out. Morty is possibly the stabilizing influence in Ricks life that keep Rick from doing things that could end up doing a lot of harm though this does not work on many occasions. When Rick messes up, Morty is the one who convinces him to fix things.

Though Morty often frustrates him, Rick seems to get very upset at the idea of not being able to have adventures with Morty. He repeatedly attempts to help Morty escape from his other obligations to free up more time, in order to have him continue to be his assistant, such as pulling him out of school, manipulating Mr. Goldenfold's dreams to give Morty A-grades in math, allowing Morty to lead an adventure of his own and creating a serum of vole oxytocin to force Jessica into loving Morty. Rick even goes through an elaborate heist setup that causes an unknowing Morty, who expressed interested in pitching a series idea for Netflix, to lose interest in the endeavour and continue agreeing to go on adventures with him.

Rick's (and all Ricks in other realities) reason for bringing Morty along with him is that all Ricks give off a very distinct brainwave pattern due to their genius, making them easy to track by their various enemies. The only way to camouflage the brainwave is to stand near someone with "complementary" brainwaves, which Rick calls "Morty Waves". Despite this, Rick seems to do things with Morty for reasons beyond needing camouflage, such as watching TV with him in "Rixty Minutes", taking him to an alien pawn shop in "Raising Gazorpazorp", and infiltrating Mr. Goldenfold's dreams in "Lawnmower Dog". It can also be pointed out that Rick can be spiteful to those that have genuinely upset Morty, such as in "Meeseeks and Destroy" when King Jellybean assaulted Morty, which not only caused Rick to attempt to cheer Morty up but also murder King Jellybean once he figured out what happened.

Rick believes that Morty is "as dumb as he (Rick) is smart", but still insists that Morty focus on science in "Rick Potion No. 9". He claims that Morty will "be like [Rick] someday", and that he has a "special mind". He also takes offense when Jerry insinuates that Morty has some kind of disability.

Rick initially cared very little for and paid scarce attention to his granddaughter, saying her opinion meant "very little" to him. As time went on, however, the two began to bond and go on their own adventures, making her - in a sense - Rick's second sidekick. In "Something Ricked This Way Comes", Rick and Summer train themselves together to buff up and assault Mr. Needful for revenge. He has abandoned at least one Summer to die after he was forced to switch dimensions. However, he seems to care for his current version. He tends to acknowledge her input, stating he was almost proud her suggestion to destroy the federation.

Rick is also disgusted by the sight of a dream version of Summer dressed in sexual clothing in "Lawnmower Dog", and having her ask Rick and Morty to "make an inter-generational sandwich" makes him visibly disgusted.

It appears that Rick loves his daughter, and for the most part is kind to her. However, his treatment of her may just be a ploy to stay on her good side so he can continue to stay at her home and continue his adventures with Morty, although during "Close Rick-Counters of the Rick Kind" many Ricks from different dimensions seem to like C-137 Rick's daughter, proving that he might have true feelings for his daughter.

Jerry claims that Beth was "raised like a reptile by a mentally ill scientist" in "Raising Gazorpazorp", suggesting that Rick's method of raising Beth was unorthodox.

Rick also treats Beth with more respect than he does the rest of the family. He often will curse at the other members or mock them but he is never seen doing this to Beth. He also has called her "Sweetie" a few times.

While the exact details have yet to be revealed, it can be assumed that Rick was absent from a majority of Beth's life due to his adventures and terrorist acts against the Galactic Federations, most notably with Birdperson and Squanchy. Rick only came back into Beth's life a short while before "Pilot", though he visited at least once during Morty's very early childhood. It is likely that she was unaware of this visit. During the events of Total Rickall, Rick comforts Beth when she shoots Mr. Poopybutthole after thinking he was a parasite.

In "The Whirly Dirly Conspiracy", Morty lashes out on Beth for her distance towards him and Summer. He blames this on her relationship with Rick, telling her that she doesn't need to prove herself to be worthy of Rick's love by acting essentially just like him, as it is making her appear just as narcissistic and irresponsible. And that while she's trying to gain Rick's approval, she's hurting him and Summer.

Beth believed she needed to prove herself to Rick because of how rarely he ever tells her he loves her. He admits this to Jaguar in, "Pickle Rick." Rick also admitted in the same episode to Jerry that he believes Jerry impregnating Beth ruined her chances of being successful, and detests him for his detachment to his daughter. Beth's awareness of her mistreatment of her children may drive her farther away from Rick, as she may stop trying to get him to love her, and instead find solace in her relationship with her kids.

In The ABC's of Beth, Rick behaves with Beth similarly to how he behaves with Morty and Summer, deriding her and her actions. However, he sympathized with her when she admitted she was similar to him and suggested she go off into the universe to explore it just as he did.

In Star Mort Rickturn of the Jerri, it's also revealed that Beth gave Rick the responsibility of choosing for her, something that caused Rick visible stress for having to make such a large decision. Unsure of what the right decision is, Rick decides to forgo responsibility and switch the two Beths around so he doesn't know which Beth is the clone because he erased his memory. Rick later goes out of way to save his daughter, successfully freeing both. At the end, neither Beth want to know who is the original an both share a dislike of Rick. Also, Rick finally acknowledges his terrible parenting after seeing his own actions in a recording.

Rick has no respect for Jerry and uses any chance he gets to demean or humiliate him, whether it's constantly reminding him of his failing marriage to Beth or mocking his low intelligence. Rick seems to somewhat resent the fact that Jerry had sex with Beth, and got her pregnant (with Summer) at seventeen.

Despite the fact that Rick sees Jerry as an idiot, he still helps him with his requests (providing him with an intelligence enhancer for Snuffles, the Meeseeks Box, and the parallel timeline goggles), and asks that the Rick Officers from the Council of Ricks "unfreeze his daughter's idiot" in "Close Rick-Counters of the Rick Kind". However, it may simply be a way of him getting Jerry to stop bothering him or not bother him in the first place.

In "Close Rick-Counters of the Rick Kind" while the alternate Ricks are waiting at Rick C-137's house, Rick accurately predicts that the others Ricks "won't be able to resist" messing with Jerry, meaning that Rick hating Jerry is evident for almost all Ricks in every reality.

Also, in "Mortynight Run", a daycare was set up by a Rick to allow other Ricks to deposit their respective Jerrys. At first glance, it would seem the Jerrys enjoyed their time there but the more grim reality is revealed when a couple of Jerrys claimed they are abandoned as "their Ricks never returned". It's also revealed though that they are free to leave whenever they want as holding them against their will would be illegal. They just choose not to because they can't handle it out there because they're Jerrys and they don't know how to survive space. This can be seen as Rick at least not wanting Jerry to be killed since a version of him set up a daycare filled with stuff Jerry enjoys.

Despite his apparent hatred of Jerry, in "Interdimensional Cable 2: Tempting Fate," he was just as horrified as the rest of the family at seeing him shot dead by the guards, though was right back to his usual demeanor towards his son-in-law when he was revived by advanced alien technology. In the episode "M. Night Shaym-Aliens!" he actually comforts Jerry after Jerry finds out the best day of his life was a simulation.

In "The Whirly Dirly Conspiracy", Morty convinces Rick to take Jerry on a "pity adventure" to keep him from committing suicide. Rick later admits to Jerry that he believes when he impregnated Beth, it ruined her chances of being successful, and he detests him for his detachment to his daughter. Dan Harmon has stated that Rick only hates Jerry by circumstance, and throughout the episode, they seemed to have been spending a good time together. Towards the end of the episode, Rick and Jerry's souls spend what feels like decades together when they are detached from reality, flying into a wormhole. At the end of the episode, they both learn to respect each other more.

In the post credits scene of The ABC's of Beth, Rick gives Jerry a message on his answering machine, telling him he took care of Jerry's problem (his ex-girlfriends Kiara's ex-boyfriend Trandor, who also messaged him threatening his life), and telling Jerry he's looking out for him. This implies that Rick did this of his own accord, or was simply asked by Morty or Summer to look out for him. During The Rickchurian Mortydate, Rick was dismayed to hear that Jerry and Beth have reconciled. When confronting them, he admits he was planning to kill Jerry but gave up because of the latter's importance to his family. Although Jerry was shocked, he was happy Rick acknowledged that. Rick was later annoyed that Beth is now more defensive of her husband.

In Star Mort Rickturn of the Jerri, Rick saves Jerry and Beth from Tammy Guetermann. He forbade their therapist from entering the ship, since she wasn't in his family, meaning he sees Jerry as such.

Friends

Like the rest of his family, Rick has a good relationship with Mr. Poopybutthole; during the events of Total Rickall, their relationship takes a blow when Beth shoots Mr. Poopybutthole after thinking he was a parasite. Rick tended to him after he was shot, telling him to hang on. Although Mr. Poopybutthole survived, he didn't want to speak with Rick or the family. By the time of "One Crew Over the Crewcoo's Morty", they are at least back on speaking terms as seen when they agree to a heist together.

Rick considers Birdperson to be his best friend, having done lots of things together - like being apart of the same band, committing terrorism against the Galactic Federation together. Birdperson attended Rick's party in the episode Ricksy Business. He showed concern for Rick's well being, telling Morty that "Wubba Lubba Dub Dub" means "I am in great pain, please help me". He invited Rick to his wedding in the episode The Wedding Squanchers. In the same episode, Rick was shown to be very torn apart when he saw Birdperson die. Birdperson also has a picture of Rick holding a baby Morty, alluding to an unknown history with an alternate Morty.

In "Star Mort Rickturn of the Jerri", he kills Tammy for killing his best friend. When Rick learned of Birdperson's fate as a cyborg, Rick was upset and tried to cheer him up by revealing his killing of Tammy but this caused him to be attacked. Prior to this, Rick called Birdperson his best friend but did mention he wondered who would win in a fight between them, as Birdperson called him a terrible friend. Birdperson would have killed Rick if he hadn't been saved by his family and Birdperson was shut off. In the end, Rick salvaged his incapacitated friend and keeps him in the garage lab, presumably to help him but he is wise to keep the latter shut off until he is calmed.

Episode appearances

Trivia

Rick's appearance is meant to parody Doc Brown from Back to the Future.

Rick and Morty were originally from The Real Animated Adventures of Doc and Mharti, Justin Roiland's original Back to the Future parody. Also the names of the characters sound similar to the names "Doc and Marty," the main characters of the trilogy.

Rick has a fear of pirates.

Rick appears to have a fetish with red-heads as in Auto Erotic Assimilation, he insists that he would like a stadium of red-heads to cheer him on as he has sex with Unity.

Jerry speculates that Rick may have more children, due to his promiscuous lifestyle but this is unknown.

Rick's real name is Richard according to the season 5 sneak peak.

References